Mitchelson, State Bar Negotiating Settlement
The State Bar of California and lawyers for Marvin Mitchelson are quietly negotiating a settlement that would dispose of the bar’s 1988 charges that the well-known divorce lawyer violated professional standards by mishandling clients’ funds.
A source close to the case said a tentative settlement had been reached but not yet formalized in an attempt to avoid a trial.
Mitchelson and lawyers for the bar--the licensing agency for California attorneys--declined comment, saying that State Bar Court Judge Eugene C. Langhauser had ordered them to be silent. Langhauser could not be reached.
Mitchelson, who could face discipline ranging from a simple warning to disbarment, said, “We’re trying to work something out . . . We’ll probably have something to say sometime next month.” The Century City lawyer, who earned fame in the 1970s by successfully arguing for the creation of palimony for unwed couples who separate, has denied any wrongdoing.
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