Funding and program reforms coupled with an $88 hike in the annual dues for California attorneys will allow the State Bar of California to better protect clients’ trust funds and mete out appropriate discipline to lawyers who defy ethics rules.
That’s the perspective of officials involved in the passage of Assembly Bill 3279 by Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose). The measure aims to improve the agency’s ability to regulate legal professionals in the state.
"AB 3279 codifies a dynamic new partnership between California’s financial institutions and the State Bar of California that will enable the State Bar to verify the accuracy of attorneys’ reporting on the status of their client trust accounts and eliminate opportunities for attorneys to embezzle funds from clients,” Kalra said in a statement emailed to the Southern California Record.
The bill, which increases dues of attorneys with active licenses from $510 to $598 per year, was recently signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. It will provide about $1.2 million to fund a pilot disciplinary program allowing lawyers who commit minor violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct to avoid the traditional, stricter discipline proceedings.
The diversion program will allow the State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel to reduce its caseload, concentrate on more serious attorney offenses and better protect the public, according to the State Bar.
An analysis of AB 3279 by the state Legislature indicates that the agency which oversees the nearly 197,000 attorneys working in California needed more resources to plug a deficit and a change of direction to carry out its responsibilities.
“Unfortunately, in recent years, the State Bar has been plagued by scandals and budgetary shortfalls,” the Legislature’s analysis states. “Despite some operational improvements, the State Bar's budget remains a significant impediment to the success of the agency.”
Brandon Stallings, the chairman of the State Bar of California’s Board of Trustees, said the legislation demonstrated the commitment of the three branches of state government to the State Bar’s role in protecting the public.
“This bill not only ensures that we have the necessary resources to continue our journey toward greater effectiveness, efficiency, self-sustainability and accountability, but (it) also challenges us to achieve those goals with a leaner team,” Stallings said in a prepared statement.
The fee hike marks only the second time in 25 years that the State Bar has raised the yearly dues attorneys in the state pay. The newly signed bill protects those currently employed by the State Bar, but it also requires the agency to achieve greater efficiencies through employee attrition through 2027, according to the bill’s provisions.
AB 3279 will allow the State Bar to access about $2 million in its Client Security Fund reserves, which are used to reimburse legal clients who are victims of attorney embezzlement. This money and funds made available through the fee hike will put in place proactive measures to improve the policing of client trust accounts to guard against fraud or malfeasance, according to the Legislature’s analysis of the bill.
Making it easier to fire Board of Trustees members due to neglect of duties or unprofessional conduct is another aim of AB 3279. The bill will also raise the pay of State Bar Court judges to what Superior Court judges make, so long as this doesn’t exceed the level of annual dues revenues going to current judicial salaries.