Conflict Of Interest Hollywood Style
From the June 2015 California Bar Journal
[An attorney] was suspended from the practice of law for two years and was ordered to take the MPRE and comply with rule 9.20 of the California Rules of Court. She was also placed on four years’ probation and faces a four-year suspension if she does not comply with the terms of her disciplinary probation. The order took effect Jan. 7, 2015.
Tregrub stipulated that she committed an act involving moral turpitude and accepted or continued employment adverse to a client. From 2000 to 2010, Tregrub represented a man and several businesses in which he had an ownership stake, including a company called Thinkfilm LLC.
In November 2009, while still representing Thinkfilm, Tregrub accepted employment with Screen Capital International, a company that was planning to file multiple, involuntary bankruptcy petitions against Tregrub’s other client. Despite possessing confidential information about the client and his various business entities, Tregrub did not inform him of her employment with SCI.
While still representing Thinkfilm in February 2010, Tregrub told the plaintiff in a lawsuit she was representing the client in order to contact the bankruptcy law firm retained by SCI, as a potential co-petitioner in SCI’s planned filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition against Thinkfilm.
The following month, the creditor Tregrub referred to SCI’s law firm joined several other creditors in multiple involuntary bankruptcy petitions against the client and his businesses. The involuntary bankruptcy petitions resulted in significant harm to the client, who incurred significant legal costs defending himself in the various actions.
In mitigation, Tregrub had no prior record of discipline and entered into a pretrial stipulation with the State Bar. She received some mitigation for emotional/physical difficulties she was experiencing at the time of her misconduct.
Law360 had this report on related litigation. The Hollywood Reporter had this story. Mike Frisch)