California Earthquake

Legal Ethics Forum has posted a link to David Cameron Carr’s Kafkaesq blog concerning (in part) the ongoing drama in the California bar disciplinary system.

The staff of the Office of Chief Trial Counsel last month voted  “no confidence” in the Chief Trial Counsel and representatives of the office have publicly spoken out against reappointment of their leader to a second four-year term.

The Recorder had a story on the controversy

Employees in the California State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel on Wednesday cast an overwhelming vote of “no confidence” in department leader Jayne Kim, signaling opposition to bar leaders’ plans to appoint the top prosecutor to another four-year term.

Seventy-six percent of those who cast ballots in the two-hour election period indicated no support for Kim, according to an employee who was familiar with the vote tally. Approximately 200 attorneys, investigators, secretaries and other OCTC workers in the bar’s Los Angeles and San Francisco offices were eligible to participate in the election, said Lita Abella, president of the workers’ union, the State Bar of California Association.

Abella said that union leaders expected to meet Thursday to consider what to do next. She declined to comment further.

The vote is the latest blow for an organization that has been searching for stability since the ouster of its executive director and general counsel almost one year ago. Kim, who filed an internal complaint against then-top executive Joe Dunn that contributed to his firing by the bar board of trustees, survived the turnover and has generally received strong public support from bar leaders.

A critical state audit issued in June found that the bar has not been transparent in reporting its disciplinary caseload numbers and that at one point, the agency was so focused on clearing cases that it offered lenient settlements to lawyers under investigation to clear the books quickly. But bar leaders placed the blame squarely on Dunn and praised Kim for changes she made after she took office in late 2011.

Kim did not respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday. But chief operating officer Leah Wilson said in an email that the bar “values its employees, and respects employee rights to express their opinions in all legally permissible and appropriate formats.”

But, Wilson added, “significant improvements have been made in the discipline system in particular in recent years,” including a reduction in the bar’s ongoing case backlog, additional training for staff and creation of a vertical prosecution system.

OCTC employees who spoke with The Recorder, often on the condition of anonymity, described a department with enormous discipline caseloads and pressure from managers to pursue charges against lawyers under investigation. A document provided to The Recorder outlining unnamed employees’ complaints cites chronic understaffing and an overreliance on temporary workers. The seven-page “whistleblower complaint” describes Kim as “a bully, petty, thin skinned, and vindictive” and says employees have voiced their concerns to trustees and bar executives to no avail.

“There’s a lot of acrimony in this office,” said Adriana Burger, an attorney who has worked at the bar for more than 20 years. “People are very disappointed that this has been going on for so long and nothing has really happened to change it.”

The state Senate Rules Committee must confirm Kim’s nomination if bar trustees recommend her for another term as chief trial counsel, a fact that could prove troublesome if bar employees decide to actively oppose her. The bar union is affiliated with Service Employees International Union Local 1000, a powerful lobbying force in the state Capitol.

(Mike Frisch)