ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : The Bar: Part of the Solution

The Orange County Bar Assn. is right to step aggressively into the controversy over unethical lawyers who make themselves beneficiaries of their clients’ estates.

As a public service, the county bar is setting up a volunteer panel of probate attorneys to review, upon request, wills and other probate documents. The purpose, said bar association president Michelle A. Reinglass, is to help clients determine whether they have cause to worry that their estates may have been mishandled. Clearly, there are clients who need this screening, and it’s in the interest of the lawyers, too, to weed out the bad apples.

Fears of possible malfeasance have been fanned primarily by publicity over a case involving Laguna Hills lawyer James D. Gunderson. Gunderson is under investigation by the county bar, the State Bar of California and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department regarding allegations that he made millions of dollars by writing himself in as a beneficiary while preparing wills and trusts for elderly clients, many of whom were residents of Leisure World. Gunderson vigorously denies any wrongdoing.

Since the Gunderson allegations surfaced in November, two other attorneys have come under investigation by the State Bar for allegedly mishandling estates: Donald Bruce Black of Laguna Beach, who has been accused of using a client’s trust fund to finance real estate ventures, and Lloyd G. Copenbarger of Irvine, who allegedly took unfair advantage of a now-deceased Anaheim widow to gain exclusive control of her $24-million estate. Both attorneys have denied wrongdoing.

But, sadly, these cases may be only the tip of the iceberg. Former county bar president Thomas Malcolm--testifying recently at a legislative committee hearing on a bill that would toughen probate laws to better protect the elderly--said that “many, many attorneys engage in predatory practices around our elderly communities.” That’s quite a statement coming from a leading member of the bar.

But the good news is that the Orange County Bar Assn. seems determined to identify and root out unethical lawyers.

In addition to looking into probate fraud, the county bar also has been investigating whether poor defendants were systematically denied their constitutional right to a defense in Municipal Judge Claude E. Whitney’s courtroom in Santa Ana during a six-month period in 1992. And, on another front, the association has set up a gender bias committee to explore the issue of sexism in the legal process.

These are all welcome actions that show that the county bar intends to be part of the solution when it comes to serious problems within Orange County’s legal community.