When You Have a Problem with Your Lawyer, Who Ya Gonna Call?

The California State Bar

Dan Passamaneck, Mike Maacks, and Scott Williams (l-r)

April 2003
Photos and text by Richard Bermack

State Bar workers are problem solvers. They attempt to prevent attorneys from getting into trouble, and to maintain and “successfully re-establish a positive attorney/client relationship.” They function as social workers for the legal profession. The State Bar provides everything from member education to sponsoring legislation regulating the legal profession. They have the ability to take away or suspend lawyer’s licenses for misconduct and provide the lawyers help in getting their careers back on track.

The California State Bar Association is the largest in the nation with 190,000 members, of which 140,000 actively practice law. The State Bar is a public corporation within the judicial branch of government, and serves as an arm of the California Supreme Court. Attorneys are officers of the court, and cannot practice law without active membership in the State Bar. The State Bar is financed by the dues of its members, and establishes professional standards of conduct to assure the public is well served.

Solving Failures of Communication
Many of the complaints that State Bar investigator Barbara Field investigates involve a breakdown in communication, where the clients feel their lawyers are not adequately informing them about what is going on in their cases. “Attorneys have a duty to communicate with their clients. They don’t have to call back every day but they need to return calls within a reasonable time and inform the client about anything important to a case, including judgments and settlement offers. Sometimes cases get pretty bad,” Field explains. In one of her cases a client hadn’t heard from her attorney for over a year and the client couldn’t finalize her divorce. It turned out the attorney had quit practicing and left town without informing the client.

“When lawyers go bad, they can get stuck in a downward spiral. A lot of times it involves mental illness and substance abuse. They get overloaded with work. They know they haven’t done what they were supposed to do, and they get overwhelmed. Cases get dismissed and they are too embarrassed to face their clients. They are afraid to hear the clients’ complaints which can even be accusations of malpractice,” she explains.

In many instances a call from the State Bar is enough to get the lawyer back on track, but in more severe cases the lawyers may be subject to discipline. Terms of discipline may include suspension of their license and restitution to the clients. In situations like these the staff of the State Bar will attempt to assist the clients in retrieving their files, and advise them to get a new attorney if their case is still pending.

Southern California Bar chapter president attorney Rebecca Rosenberg works in the State Bar Court whose judges preside over attorney disciplinary and other attorney regulatory cases. She has a lot of empathy for the attorneys. “Sometimes we see the bad seeds and that is troubling, to see attorneys who are preying on the public, but others are not bad people. They just didn’t know how to say ‘no’ when a potential client walked into their office with a matter they were too busy or too inexperienced to handle. Law schools prepare people to think like lawyers but not how to manage a law practice.” At one time most lawyers coming out of law school would work for large established firms, but now many inexperienced lawyers are on their own without any back up, and there are perils waiting for them.

Rosenberg advises judges and one of the things she finds most gratifying is when they craft terms of discipline that assist lawyers in improving their methods of practice. For example, the terms of probation can include the attorneys taking classes in office management. The State Bar’s mission is not to discipline but rather to improve the profession and attorneys’ abilities to serve the public. State Bar investigations are confidential. The knowledge that a lawyer is under State Bar investigation can have serious repercussions for the lawyer’s practice.

“It is very stimulating intellectually, the cases can be very complicated and each one is different,” Rosenberg stated. She likes the intellectual challenge of assisting the judges and getting lawyers back on track, as opposed to the adversarial nature of private practice. “I was a good litigator,” she stated, but she didn’t like the combative atmosphere.

The State Bar offers programs for attorneys with substance abuse and mental health issues, including burnout and depression. The program provides confidential professional peer assistance. The programs are available on a voluntary basis as well as being mandated by disciplinary proceedings.

The State Bar is also very proactive. It offers continuing education classes that are required for its members to keep them abreast of changes in the law.

Members of the public wishing to file a complaint about an attorney can call the State Bar’s complaint line at 800 843-9053. Information about the State Bar is available at www.calbar.ca.gov.