Disciplining Attorneys

I commend you on the excellent review of the current state of attorney discipline set forth in Edwin Chen’s article (Sept. 29). Regrettably, I believe that you have missed a very important point.

The abysmal disciplinary record of the State Bar is primarily the fault of the system--a system that curtails funds to the Bar’s disciplinary department so that the boards of governors of the Bar can use those funds for projects that enhance their own personal aggrandizement.

It must be remembered that the vast majority of attorneys care little or nothing for the Bar’s board, most cannot even name the president of the Bar. Their only contact with the Bar is the once-a-year check to cover their dues. Most of these same attorneys are in the courts on a daily basis and see what the state of our profession has been reduced to. No matter how hard the individual attorney tries to aid in the cleaning of our house we get no help from the board, which refuses to admit that the many bad apples are the cause of our current difficulties.

If the board of the Bar wanted to speed along discipline it would be an easy matter to budget for that purpose. Instead they use the funds of the members of the Bar to foster their personal political reputations by advocating and sponsoring supposed acts that will improve the opinion of lawyers in the eyes of the general public.

The general public will look with a jaundiced eyes on the Bar until we can stand up and show that we are prepared to clean our own house with immediate steps, not with a slow-moving bureaucracy that takes years to bring a recalcitrant lawyer to the bar of justice.

The board of governors of the Bar has refused to implement these steps. Their refusal stems from a continual effort by the board to hide the failings of attorneys behind a plethora of statements as to the board’s care in protecting the public.

Simply stated, the board does not care a wit for the public or for the hard-working, honest practitioner in California; all the board cares about is its own reputation. That chase after political rewards has finally brought the Bar to the foot of the Legislature who may finally demand and force the Bar’s board to clean its house with the funds of the Bar, which should be used for that purpose.

I and many other attorneys practicing in California want the legislation that has been proposed to divest the Bar of its disciplinary authority.

ROBERT M. ROSENTHAL

Los Angeles