Workers’ Comp Judge Defends Seminar Fees : Legal affairs: The top jurist in system acknowledges that judges have made money by conducting programs for lawyers. But he insists there is no pressure to attend and there is nothing wrong with the practice.

In a potential violation of a written ethics policy, the top judge of California’s workers’ compensation system acknowledges that he and other jurists have collected thousands of dollars in fees by conducting seminars for lawyers who appear in their courts.

The practice, although approved by the head of the state’s workers’ compensation division, might run afoul of a departmental policy that prohibits “using the prestige or influence of (an) employee’s position for the employee’s private gain or advantage.”

The disclosure by the Van Nuys-based chief judge, Mark L. Kahn, comes amid a state investigation into possible misconduct by workers’ compensation jurists. It is unclear whether Kahn is a target of the inquiry, which was prompted by allegations that Southern California judges have accepted expensive gifts from lawyers and doctors whose cases regularly appear before them.

The practice of judges arranging seminars has come under fire from lawyers, who contend that judges might snub attorneys who refuse to buy tickets to their seminars. “If the judge stands to gain financially, then there’s an element of coercion,” said Donald B. Jarvis, chairman of the American Bar Assn.’s National Conference of Administrative Law Judges.

If a lawyer is invited to a seminar by a judge and does not show up, Jarvis said, “you’re not contributing money and the judge is likely to resent the fact. It’s like legislators hitting up lobbyists.”

“There is an inherent conflict,” said Larry Feldman, former president of the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. and chairman of its task force on workers’ compensation fraud. “It could be very coercive.”

But Kahn, 44, strongly defended the practice and said it benefits lawyers involved in the system. Moreover, he said he has never pressured any lawyers to attend his seminars.

“I’m scared to death that anyone would think that. My reputation is worth more than any money I could make,” Kahn said.

“They come because they know I give a good speech,” he added.

In a financial disclosure statement, Kahn indicated that he earned more than $10,000 and perhaps as much as $70,000 last year from a seminar firm he owns with another workers’ compensation judge in Van Nuys, Abel M. Shapiro. That is on top of the $83,274 he earned last year as the chief judge of the workers’ compensation division, part of the Department of Industrial Relations.

Kahn said in an interview that he also receives up to $500 for giving 90-minute lectures for a separate seminar firm owned by a third judge at the Van Nuys court, Sheldon C. St. Clair.

He estimated that more than half of the system’s 140 judges receive fees for similar speaking engagements. “We provide a service to the public,” Kahn said. “It’s educational. If I can make a tiny bit of profit, what’s wrong with that?

“I don’t see, if I’m able to have a business on the side that doesn’t hurt anybody, why I shouldn’t be able to do that.

“I could make twice what I’m making right now if I was a private attorney, but I don’t want to,” he added. “I want to serve the people of California.”

Kahn, who became a workers’ compensation administrative judge in 1981 and was promoted to his current job last year, said he would not have continued to run his own seminar firm for the last four years if his superiors had objected.

He noted that it is a common practice for Superior and Municipal Court judges in California to accept fees for speeches. But some lawyers said there is an important distinction: Superior and Municipal Court judges usually speak publicly at the invitation of professional groups or organizations providing continuing education programs, and do not arrange their own seminars to earn extra money.

“There is a great big black line between those things,” Feldman said, referring to the distinction between arranging for-profit seminars and appearing at the invitation of another group.

Casey L. Young, administrative director of the state’s workers’ compensation division and Kahn’s boss, said Kahn and other judges have made no secret of their outside speaking engagements.

“Before I hired him (Kahn) he told me about it,” Young said. “He asked if it would be a problem, and I said no.”

Young said that although there is “a fuzzy line” between what is proper and improper regarding judges’ outside income, he wanted to let Kahn share his expertise with people who work in the workers’ compensation system. “Teaching is something he loves to do. . . . He’s a student and scholar of the law,” Young said.

In addition, Young said, allowing judges to receive outside income may keep some talented jurists from retiring from the workers’ compensation division to earn far more money in private practice.

Yet when a reporter read him the first section of the departmental ethics policy regarding the improper use of influence for private gain, Young conceded that the speaking fees “could be a problem” for some judges.

“There’s a potential problem depending on what you’re doing,” Young said. If judges suggest to lawyers that “ ‘You better come,’ that’s bad. I’m confident Mark (Kahn) isn’t doing that, so it’s not a problem with Mark.”

Yet Young said there “needs to be clearer rules” regarding speaking fees for workers’ compensation judges, and he promised that his division will draft new requirements when its investigation of the system’s judges concludes.

He declined to give details of the investigation, which was revealed in The Times on Thursday. Young conceded that he is looking into “serious charges of misconduct,” but said some of the reported allegations were unfounded.

Kahn said he “would not be surprised” if some other judges accepted tickets to baseball games or accepted lunches from lawyers who appear before them. By doing so, he said, “we may have been guilty of giving the appearance of impropriety. But as for taking bribes, kickbacks or giving favors, I would absolutely be flabbergasted if anyone was found to have done that.”