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State Bar Court Judge:
Former State Bar Executive Director Dunn Lied to Board of Trustees About Funding
One Year Suspension, Stayed, Is Recommended
By a MetNews Staff Writer
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JOE DUNN Former State Bar executive director |
A State Bar Court judge has found that then-State Bar Executive Director Joe Dunn in 2013 intentionally assured the Board of Trustees, falsely, that no money of the agency would be used in connection with his upcoming trip to Mongolia—proceeding to spend $6,041.72 of its finds—but the judge recommended that he be spared an actual suspension of his law license.
“The sole issue here is whether Respondent lied to the Board about using State Bar funds for the Mongolia trip,” Judge Yvette D. Roland said in a decision filed Wednesday.
Her conclusion was that “the evidence unequivocally demonstrates that Respondent’s false and misleading statement to the Board was made knowingly.”
Minutes of the Nov. 15, 2013 board meeting show that Dunn “explained that the Mongolian officials were working to reform Mongolia’s judicial system and as a result had established close cooperation with the Supreme Courts of the United States and were seeking technical assistance to develop the regulatory system from the State Bar of California.”
He was in Mongolia from Jan. 24-29, 2014, accompanied by then-State Bar investigator Tom Layton, who on frequent occasions ran errands for Tom Girardi, then an influential attorney, now disbarred and facing federal felony charges here and in Illinois.
“The evidence shows that the State Bar was charged and paid for some of Respondent’s and Layton’s travel expenses,” Roland said.
Contradictory Statements
The State Bar Court judge recited that Dunn has made conflicting statements at various times as to what was discussed at the 2013 board meeting..
“Given these significant contradictions and lack of corroboration, the court finds Respondent’s testimony on this matter to be unreliable,” she wrote.
“Conversely,” Roland said, there was “credible and consistent testimony of several Board members.” She also pointed to a report by the law firm of Munger Tolles & Olson which investigated the expenditures on the trip to Mongolia and recommended termination of Dunn’s employment, and findings adverse to Dunn by Edward A. Infante, a former chief magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California who arbitrated Dunn’s suit against the State Bar for wrongful termination.
He was fired on Nov. 13, 2014.
$5,000 Donation
Dunn contended in the disciplinary proceedings that Girardi’s law firm, Girardi|Keese (now disbanded), had covered $5,000 of the expenses of his trip with a contribution it made to the State Bar, apparently handed over by lawyer employed by that firm, Howard B. Miller (the State Bar’s 2009-2010 president). Roland found the contention “fundamentally flawed and unpersuasive,” saying:
“This claim directly contradicts Respondent’s own testimony during arbitration, where he explicitly acknowledged that the State Bar would be responsible for airfare costs. Moreover, the timing of the check—received by the State Bar two months after the January trip and long after travel costs had been incurred—strongly suggests that the funds were never intended to reimburse past expenditures. Given that Miller did not participate in the January 2014 trip, it is far more plausible that this contribution was intended, if at all, for the subsequent April trip undertaken by Miller and Layton.”
She added that in any event, the check did not cover the entirety of the expenses and was not made out to the State Bar but to a non-profit foundation, “clearly demonstrating that the funds were neither intended nor used to reimburse the State Bar for the expenses incurred for Respondent’s January trip to Mongolia.”
Lenient Disposition
Explaining why she was recommending a one-year suspension, stayed, and one year of probation, Roland said:
“Respondent’s misrepresentation to the Board amounts to a significant ethical violation. The gravity of his transgression is amplified by the fact that it occurred dining his tenure as Executive Director of the State Bar. a position of significant responsibility and public trust within the legal community. Although his actions were not directly related to the practice of law. they were made in his crucial role as a leader of the organization that governs the practice of law in California, thereby undermining the integrity of the legal profession.
“However, although his misconduct is serious, the overall record supports a downward departure from the presumed sanction. His misconduct is confined to a single violation that occurred over a decade ago. The absence of further misconduct since 2014 demonstrates his willingness and ability to conform to ethical responsibilities. This, coupled with his considerable mitigating circumstances—including the absence of any prior record of discipline over many years, good character, community service, and cooperation—and the absence of any aggravating factors, indicates that a lesser sanction is sufficient to fulfill the primary purposes of discipline.”
In particular, Roland found that Dunn violated Business & Professions Code §6006—“commission of any act involving moral turpitude, dishonesty or corruption”—by lying to the board and also breached that section by violating his fiduciary duties to the board.
Dunn was admitted to practice on June 10, 1986. He was a state senator from 1998 to 2006.
At present, he’s assistant dean for external relations as well as a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.
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