Local News in Brief : Countywide : State Bar Suspends Two County Lawyers

The State Bar of California has suspended two county lawyers from practicing in the state.

Raymond E. Hane Jr., 48, of Fullerton was placed on interim suspension, pending final review of his case by the state Supreme Court, according to Barbara Heller, a spokeswoman for the State Bar in San Francisco.

On May 6, Hane pleaded guilty in Los Angeles County Municipal Court to one count of committing a lewd act upon a child less than 14 years old, Heller said. The state Supreme Court, which disciplines lawyers, has not made a final judgment on how the conviction will affect Hane’s standing in the State Bar.

“Sometimes the criminal charges are not related to the practice of law,” Tod Martin, director of communications and public affairs at the Bar, said in regard to the need for a separate review of criminal convictions against lawyers by the state Supreme Court.

The other lawyer, William A. Woodyard, 56, of Costa Mesa, has been suspended from practicing law in the state for three months and will be on probation for 21 months thereafter, Heller said.

The suspension, which began May 27, and the court’s conditional probation resulted from financial improprieties, she said. Woodyard reportedly wrote bad checks on his clients’ trust account and his personal account when, as the court judged, he knew or should have known that the accounts did not contain enough money to cover the checks.