A total of 11 California attorneys were expelled from their profession in the third quarter of this year, while another 15 were either suspended, put on probation or both, according to new data released by the California State Bar.
A review of disbarment statistics recorded by the State Bar since 2022 showed that the total number of attorneys disciplined on a year-over-year basis has declined somewhat over the past several years, going from 262 in the 2022 fiscal year to 243 a year later and down to 229 during the period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, according to the State Bar’s annual discipline reports.
Disbarments, which are formalized by the state Supreme Court, have also been on the decline, going from 84 in 2022 to 76 in the 2023 fiscal year and to 68 in the 2024 fiscal year. Probation terms for attorneys went down slightly between FY 2023 and FY 2024, dipping from 91 to 85, according to the State Bar’s numbers.
At the same time, the number of potential attorney discipline cases arising from complaints has been on the increase, going from 16,000 during FY 2022 to 18,000 in the latest statistics.
In the third quarter, some of the most egregious cases included that of Montebello attorney Edgar Sargsyan, who was disbarred in September after being convicted of felony crimes that included conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bribing federal officials and giving false statements. Sargsyan bribed a Homeland Security Investigations special agent with $77,000 to manipulate law enforcement proceedings, and he gave an FBI agent up to $10,000 per month as well as luxury hotel stays to obtain confidential information from law enforcement databases, according to the State Bar.
Another disbarred attorney, Kirk Callan Endres, of Jackson, failed to complete probation requirements handed down for a previous disciplinary action. Endres agreed to represent prison inmates in their parole hearings but fell short of his legal duties and kept unearned funds from clients, the State Bar reported.
Scott David Hughes, of Newport Beach, was removed from the legal profession in July after being convicted of a felony in New York for his part in an $18 million Ponzi scheme/ money-laundering operation. And Lenore LuAnn Albert of the same city was disbarred in the same month for several ethics violations, including the unauthorized practice of law while being suspended by the State Bar.
A State Bar spokesman stressed that no overall trends can be deduced from a single quarter of statistics on attorney discipline cases, which are investigated by the State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel (OCTC).
“(This is) specifically because (a) what the Office of Chief Trial Counsel charges depends in part on what complaints are submitted in any given time period; (b) how long it takes to investigate varies from case to case; (c) how long it takes to move from charge to trial varies from case to case; and (d) the actual discipline reported depends on the issuance by the Supreme Court of the final orders, the timing of which is outside our control,” the spokesman said in an email to the Southern California Record.
One development that may have affected the fiscal-year statistics was that the State Bar initiated a pilot diversion program for attorneys during the most recent fiscal year, resulting in 388 conditional case closures. During the 2024 fiscal year, the State Bar closed or resolved more attorney-discipline cases than it opened – something that has not happened since fiscal year 2019.