The State Bar of California has historically trained its firepower on individuals without the money, firm backing or political connections to put up a fight — and those lawyers are disproportionately Black men.
In response to a petition from The Times, the State Bar revealed it had received more than 200 complaints against Tom Girardi yet long kept quiet.deciding whether to pass the fee bill each year, legislators historically have evaluated the Bar with a focus on what is known as “the backlog” — the number of complaints from the public, judges and others against lawyers that have yet to be fully investigated and resolved.
Former San Diego corporate executive and attorney Luke Zouvas was the subject of 87 complaints over 20 years, all of which were closed by the agency without public discipline. Only after Zouvas was indicted on money laundering charges in 2018 in what federal prosecutors described as a global stock manipulation scheme did the Bar take public action against his law license. He was disbarred in 2020.
Rickey Ivie, one of the state’s most respected Black attorneys and a member of the state commission that evaluates and disciplines sitting judges, has been practicing law since 1977.“A stat is a stat,” said Rickey Ivie, an L.A.-based attorney who serves on the state’s Commission on Judicial Performance. “When they look for people to prosecute — and that’s what the State Bar does, it looks for people to prosecute — they take the path of least resistance.
“Often we get calls from people who started out representing themselves and they realize they are in over their heads and need some help,” said Arthur Margolis, who specializes in defending attorneys in State Bar court. “They don’t understand it’s a whole byzantine set of rules,” with a “whole psychology and culture” unfamiliar to most lawyers, Margolis said.
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