More Litigation Against California Bar
More grist for the mill of the California bar disciplinary system controversy from Law 360
The State Bar of California has been hit with a $15 million wrongful termination suit in California state court echoing allegations by the bar’s fired executive director that ethical violations at the bar were rampant.
Sonja Oehler, whose LinkedIn profile identifies her as a former administrative specialist at the bar, said she wasn’t fired because of a lack of ability or dedication or because the bar needed to reduce staffing. Instead, Oehler alleges in her complaint, she “was fired due to the fact that she knew of the deceit, deception, incompetence and falsification of issues by the defendants.”
In one instance, Oehler said, a director had to go to San Francisco for a three-hour hearing and insisted that the bar foot the bill for four days in the city at the Palace Hotel, which the bar agreed to pay.
Oehler said she also denied a board member’s claim for reimbursement that totaled nearly $30,000, but that it was later paid out of state bar funds. “There were several individuals who were terminated from the bar. None were terminated because of any problem with their work or dedication of service,” Oehler alleged. “They were terminated since they were thought to be friends of the prior leader of the bar.”
Oehler is likely referring to former executive director Joseph Dunn, who sued the bar in November 2014 alleging he was fired for exposing the bar’s “massive cover-up” of ethics breaches. He alleged that the bar’s chief trial counsel, Jayne Kim, purged the public backlog to inflate her productivity and failed to actively prosecute unlicensed lawyers preying on immigrants after the legislature passed a bill against the practice.
The state bar said in December that a California state judge agreed to appoint an arbitrator to resolve Dunn’s suit. Kim is named as a defendant in Oehler’s suit, which says she let the backlog of discipline cases grow out of control and then moved 181 cases into a deferred state, reported the backlog without those cases, and then moved them back to active status. “It was a total scam,” Oehler said.
Oehler also accused Kim of simply dismissing ethics complaints against herself rather than sending them to an impartial outsider and said the bar failed to open hundreds of complaints about the unauthorized practice of law arising from fraud against Mexican nationals seeking U.S. citizenship.
In the wake of the change in leadership, Oehler alleged that Robert Hawley, who was named acting executive director until the appointment of Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker in July, retaliated against lawyers who helped the bar’s wrongfully terminated employees. “Defendant Robert Hawley … ordered that any complaint that were filed in the past 30 years be re-opened despite the fact all of the complaints had been closed for decades,” Oehler said. Her suit demands $10 million due to financial losses as a result of her wrongful firing as well as $5 million for the intentional infliction of emotional distress. “For the fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation by the state bar and the other defendants, plaintiff Sonja Oehler is entitled to punitive damages not to exceed ten times the damages she’s entitled to for wrongful termination and emotional distress,” Oehler added.
Moez Kaba, an attorney for the bar, told Law360 Friday that the bar “denies the allegations and believes the suit is without legal merit and will address the claims in an appropriate forum.”
A representative for Oehler didn’t immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.
Oehler is represented by Thomas V. Girardi of Girardi Keese. The bar is represented by Moez Kaba of Hueston Hennigan LLP. The case is Oehler v. The State Bar of California et al., case number BC610699, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles. — Editing by Ben Guilfoy.
(Mike Frisch)