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Questionable Conduct Ascribed to Ex-State Bar Executive
Report Says Robert Hawley, as Assistant Executive Director, Then Interim Executive Director, Probably Ghost-Wrote Seven Disciplinary Recommendations Where Conflicts Required Appointing Outside Counsel
By a MetNews Staff Writer
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ROBERT HAWLEY former State Bar executive |
The State Bar of California yesterday publicly released a report saying that its former interim executive director Robert Hawley probably ghost-wrote seven reports in disciplinary investigations that were ostensibly put in the hands of outside “special deputy trial counsel” where the Office of Chief Trial Counsel had conflicts.
But, according to the March 15 report by the downtown Los Angeles law firm of Adams, Duerk & Kamenstein LLP (“ADK”), while this violated the “spirit” of State Bar Rule 2201, requiring independent investigations where a conflict exists, it can’t be said that it ran afoul of the “letter” of the rule because, as it then read, the chief trial counsel “or designee” could provide “assistance” to outside counsel.
ADK did not, however, set forth facts showing that the chief trial counsel had, in fact, designated Hawley to provide such assistance during the relevant period, from 2010 to 2015 when Hawley retired from his State Bar post.
The ADK report was far gentler on Hawley than a Feb. 4, 2023 report released by the State Bar on March 13, 2023. That assessment, by the downtown law firm of Los Angeles, Halpern May Ybarra Gelberg LLP, accuses Hawley and former Executive Director Joe Dunn of acting to shield then-attorney Thomas V. Girardi (now disbarred and facing federal felony charges) from discipline.
Halpern May Report
The Halpern May report says Hawley committed a “clear breach” of ethics when, as assistant executive director, he selected a special deputy because of a conflict—State Bar President Howard Miller was an attorney in Girardi’s firm—but then prepared a memorandum in the attorney’s name clearing Girardi of the charges of misleading a judge and lying in a deposition. It says:
“In May 2015, and without telling the Board that he ghostwrote it, Hawley sent the memorandum to the Board, along with a memorandum in his own name recommending the Board approve the closure of the case and the Board accepted the recommendation.”
That report dealt with the State Bar’s dereliction through the years in failing to probe the myriad of allegations against the once influential Girardi. In response to the revelation of Hawley’s chicanery in connection with the investigation of Girardi, the State Bar Board of Trustees commissioned ADK to look into the extent of Hawley’s ghost-writing.
ADK Report
The ADK report says:
“In the course of this investigation, ADK interviewed nineteen witnesses—including eleven [special counsel] from the relevant period—and exchanged written communications with four additional witnesses, including Hawley. Investigators also reviewed approximately 4,000 emails and documents pulled from Hawley’s email archives and over seventy Rule 2201 case files from the relevant period. This review allowed investigators to isolate eleven Rule 2201 reports from cases Hawley administered in the relevant period.
“Of these eleven Rule 2201 reports, investigators find that seven were, more likely than not, ghostwritten by Hawley. Of the remaining four reports, Hawley appeared to have no involvement in three and limited involvement in editing the fourth. Investigators note that no evidence of ghostwriting was found in the Rule 2201(a) cases administered by OCTC attorneys, which constituted the majority of cases handled through the Rule 2201 program.”
Ambiguity in Rule
ADK concluded that Rule 2201, as it then read, “did not explicitly define or specify the limits of the investigative and/or legal assistance that was allowed to be provided,” precluding a finding that Hawley’s ghostwriting “constituted a direct violation of the letter of Rule 2201. But the report comments that “it remains clear that the degree to which Hawley ‘assisted’ ” outside counsel “undercut the independence that appointing…a non-State Bar employee, was intended to create” and that the conduct “if it did not violate the letter of Rule 2201, violated its spirit and undermined its purpose.”
Board of Trustees Chair Brandon Stallings, a Kern County deputy district attorney, commented:
“While it is troubling that the ADK report confirmed Hawley ghostwrote Rule 2201 reports, the Rule 2201 Program is completely transformed from the one that existed during Hawley’s time at the State Bar. With an amended rule, dedicated Rule 2201 Program administrator, and a panel of paid Special Deputy Trial Counsel, ghostwriting of Rule 2201 reports by State Bar staff could not and would not happen today.”
Hawley became interim executive director in 2014 after Dunn, a former state senator, was fired by the Board of Trustees as executive director. Disciplinary charges against Dunn, which have been pared by State Bar Court Judge Yvette D, Roland, are pending, with hearings slated for April 17 and 18.
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