A former Los Angeles chief deputy city attorney has been charged with dishonesty and collusion in the State Bar of California’s investigation of legal skullduggery related to a failed Department of Water and Power billing system upgrade in 2013.
In a Sept. 12 Notice of Disciplinary Charges (NDC), the State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel accused Los Angeles attorney James Patrick Clark of two counts of misconduct related to his role in concealing conflicts of interest in a city attempt to settle ratepayer class-action lawsuits. Four such class actions were filed as a result of ratepayer complaints about the rollout of a new DWP billing system, which critics called a disaster.
Clark also faces discipline over his alleged acceptance of tickets to a rock concert in 2016 headlined by The Who from an attorney involved in the collusion and subsequently not reporting the gift on a financial disclosure form.
“As chief deputy city attorney for the city of Los Angeles, Mr. Clark occupied a position of public trust and had an obligation to act honestly and in compliance with all ethical requirements,” George Cardona, the State Bar’s chief trial counsel, said in a prepared statement. “Instead, the NDC alleges that he directed and authorized a scheme of collusion and deceit that was a blatant betrayal of his duties as an attorney and public official.”
Clark is accused of being involved in a plot with other city officials and their outside counsel to manipulate the settlement of ratepayer lawsuits against the DWP on terms favorable to the city. The officials used a single class action that had been filed by attorneys who also performed work for the city – including an attorney now serving time in prison, Paul Paradis – as a vehicle to resolve the cases on terms dictated by the city, according to the State Bar.
The attorney representing Clark in the State Bar proceedings said the charges were based on bogus information.
“It is difficult to understand, given the State Bar of California’s well-documented history of ignoring legitimate complaints of stolen client settlement funds, that the State Bar has now brought charges and initiated a disciplinary proceeding against James Clark based solely on a complaint by disbarred former New York lawyer, convicted felon and federal prison inmate Paul Paradis,” attorney Erin Joyce said in an email to the Southern California Record.
Joyce described Clark as a highly respected lawyer who had a distinguished 49-year career and no blemishes on his record until the complaint the State Bar filed this month.
“Paradis’ self-serving allegations, which rely largely upon a falsely claimed conversation at an alleged meeting over nine years ago (in 2015), of which meeting there is no written record whatsoever, were made in an unsuccessful effort to obtain a more favorable sentence in his federal criminal case,” she said. “In fact, Paradis’ sentence ended up being almost twice as long as even the government had recommended.”
Paradis is currently serving a three-year sentence in federal prison for his involvement in the fallout from the DWP billing failure. He cooperated with federal prosecutors prior to the sentence.
“Notably, Mr. Clark is one of 18 attorneys against whom Paradis has complained to the State Bar arising from the same series of transactions,” Joyce said.
The State Bar alleges that Clark lied in a declaration to the Los Angeles County Superior Court when Clark denied ever attending a February 2015 meeting with Paradis and others directing the filing of the allegedly ghost-written class-action lawsuit Antwon Jones v. City of Los Angeles.
To date in the DWP billing controversies, the State Bar disbarred one attorney (Thomas Harry Peters, the former head of civil litigation for the City Attorney’s Office), recommended suspension for a second and is now pursuing disciplinary charges against two other attorneys.