Michael Avenatti's disbarment proceeding started today...

[jberryhill]

https://apnews.com/29cbc1b8a04509eb9584295f81a66f81

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Attorney Michael Avenatti should be prevented from practicing law for pocketing a client’s settlement and covering his tracks through “deceit, dishonesty and lies,” a lawyer for the California State Bar said Wednesday.

Attorney Eli Morgenstern said Avenatti poses a threat to clients and the public if he continues to perform legal work. The bar is seeking to put Avenatti on involuntary inactive status, and Morgenstern said it is likely he will eventually be disbarred.

Avenatti, who separately faces federal criminal charges, denounced the hearing as a “dog and pony show” and a “complete joke.”

...

“Nothing Mr. Avenatti says changes the fact that he appears to have falsified the payment dates in Mr. Barela’s settlement agreement and stolen his settlement money,” attorney Steven Bledsoe said.

[rainin]

1. Is Bill Barr going to be disbarred? Avenatti is an annoyance. Barr is a threat.

Still reprehensible what he did to his client. His client will hopefully see justice.

[OliverQ]

3. Apparently nobody is going to bother disbarring Barr.

But he should be as should Brett Kavanaugh for committing perjury.

[jberryhill]

8. I don't know in what state Barr is licensed, but it would not be relevant

The Attorney General serves at the pleasure of the president. There is no requirement that the AG have an active law license anywhere.

So, it's not as if disbarring him would have any practical effect.

The upshot, though, if you believe it would have some effect on his position, is whether one believes that a committee of lawyers in some state should be in charge of who is the Attorney General of the United States.

Is that something you would want as a permanent rule, or only as applied to this AG?

For example, would you have wanted a committee of lawyers in Florida to have had the power to remove Janet Reno as AG, when she was in office?

[LeftInTX]

16. Dang...I didn't know that.....

In Texas, I think the AG must be an attorney.

[jberryhill]

17. Well, it would be hard to pass Senate approval for one who is not

But there is no mechanism under which state disbarment of an AG leads to his or her removal from federal office.

Congress could impeach him.

[Hekate]

2. I'm sorry for his clients, including Stormy. I remember the excitement here...

...when he appeared on our horizon, but as for me, I had read the in-depth research into his background published by the Los Angeles Times.

I am sorry he defrauded his clients. They didn't deserve that.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. I'm surprised it took this long.

In a similar though somewhat less spectacular case in my neck of the woods about 20 years ago, the lawyer's fraud was discovered in July and he was disbarred in September (and not long afterward became a guest of Club Fed, https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-8th-circuit/1419043.html). Eventually he committed suicide.

[jberryhill]

12. Oh my....

"During this period, Moskal stole about $2.4 million from clients, referring attorneys, and his own law firm."

His own firm? Impressive.

I always wonder with these types... How did they think it was going to end?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. I actually knew this guy.

We were both associates together for a couple of years at another firm in the early '80s, and even then he was as slippery as snot on a doorknob. He often reminded everybody that he was a "Christian" (that's a clue right there), but he was also an ambitious social climber who bragged about having the best stuff (and his wife was an enthusiastic shopper). One thing I remember about him was that he never had any money when a group of us would go out to lunch so someone would have to lend it to him, and he'd never pay it back. When he got busted years later I was shocked at the magnitude, but not that he'd finally broken bad. That was no surprise.

I also wondered how he thought he'd get away with it, but I suspect that he convinced himself that he was just "borrowing" the money from the firm and he'd pay it back before it was missed, and that the clients would never discover he'd stolen from them. He didn't anticipate the audit the firm did, or that they'd sack him and turn him in as soon as they discovered what he'd done. Oddly enough, he didn't fit the pattern of lawyers who steal from client accounts; he didn't have alcohol, drug or gambling problems. He was just a greedy bastard - not unlike Michael Avenatti.

[RockRaven]

5. A podcast I listen to often opines that the only thing which gets a lawyer disbarred is messing

with a client's money. Everything else, it says, is usually some variety of non-disbarment spanking.

If true, or even true-ish, then Barr and Ghouliani will never be formally disbarred.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. That's generally true, probably because when lawyers do something criminal

it's probably going to be stealing from clients or other financial crimes related to their law practice, or serious and repeated ethical violations. Most lawyers don't commit armed robbery or other violent felonies, though if they did, that would definitely get them disbarred. If Barr or Giuliani are ever convicted of a felony (and it looks like this could happen to Giuliani), they would almost certainly be disbarred. Bill Clinton was suspended, but not disbarred. On his last day in office in 2001, Clinton agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license in order to head off any criminal charges for lying under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky. He has been eligible to seek reinstatement of his license since 2006 but apparently hasn't done so.

[jberryhill]

9. DUI's and drug offenses are top contenders as well

Although I'm increasingly disturbed by, at least what it seem to me, the ones that end up having some kind of mental breakdown (which can cause problems with handling client funds). Other than the usual sorts of neuroses and addiction issues, I've seen quite a few lawyers seemingly just lose their minds.

Other than the ones who were removed from practice for their own good, there are still two full-on psychos I've encountered, of which I am astounded they continue to practice.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. There was a lawyer in Minneapolis some years ago who was taken to the psych ward

after he was seen running naked through downtown in February. He had previously been considered eccentric and difficult to deal with, but one day he obviously lost the plot altogether. I remember another one with whom I had some really unpleasant encounters, who was eventually disbarred for reasons I don't recall - but he was one of the meanest, most abusive characters I'd ever met. I don't know how some of these loons can get or keep clients.

[Bonx]

7. I remember when he was our champion.

[Codeine]

10. That depends on your definition of "our". nt

[jberryhill]

11. +1

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. "Our"? Not everybody bought what he was selling.

The sleaze factor became pretty obvious pretty quickly.