Ex-Calif. Bar director should be suspended over ethics violations, court finds

By Karen Sloan

July 3 (Reuters) - A former executive director of the State Bar of California should be suspended from practicing law for 30 days and placed on probation for a year for wrongfully using state bar money to fund a 2014 trip to Mongolia and misleading bar leaders about it, an appeals panel for California’s State Bar Court said on Wednesday.

The panel's recommended punishment for Joseph Dunn, who led the state bar from 2010 to 2014, requires approval by the California Supreme Court. Dunn’s attorney, Alan Greenberg, said on Thursday that Dunn will appeal the "baseless decision." Greenberg said the ethics charges against Dunn were retaliation for his efforts to "rid the bar of its entrenched and dysfunctional bureaucrats."

Stacia Laguna, the state bar’s special deputy trial counsel, said in a prepared statement that the recommended suspension “reinforces the idea that accountability and integrity are essential to the practice of law.”

The ruling is the latest in a long-running legal conflict between Dunn, a former state senator, and the state bar. The bar fired Dunn in 2014 after an investigation found he overspent on international trips and misled bar leaders on policy issues during his four years as executive director. Dunn later filed a whistleblower suit against the bar, claiming he was fired because he had uncovered malfeasance within the organization. An arbitrator sided with bar officials in 2017.

In 2022, the state bar filed disciplinary charges against Dunn tied to his spending on the Mongolia trip. A California Bar Court hearing judge in July 2024 recommended a one-year stayed suspension. Both sides appealed to the State Bar Court Review Department, with Dunn seeking the dismissal of all charges and the state bar requesting a 60-day suspension.

The three-judge appellate panel found that Dunn had violated ethics rules barring involvement in “any act involving moral turpitude, dishonesty” and that he breached his fiduciary duty to the bar.

“One of the most fundamental rules for attorneys is honesty,” the panel said.

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