in fourteen days eight zero zero eight three in order to show cause why respondent hochberg should not be sanctioned in an amount not more than five thousand dollars suspended or disbarred hochberg just want to let you know that this hearing is being recorded so in the event that there's any need for a record that can be produced or made available and i also want you to know that you're entitle to be represented by counsel you understand and you're choosing to represent yourself all right  right although this is a relatively small courtroom the acoustics are not great so it would be helpful to me if you would come up to the podium and in order to get a recording speak into the microphone that's there and because i'm going to be asking you a number of questions about the assertions in the order to show cause and i may have questions prompted by your presentation i'd like to begin by having my courtroom deputy swear you  tried to review the history of your performance since that time so prepared to hear about that and ask you questions but i do want to relieve you of the burden of having to well to speak about myself and then also my performance since then i did wish to work it out i would like to begin by asking you to give me a little bit of your background beginning with your was sworn in to this particular courts i believe it was in april i know it says here april eighteenth it was by judge preggers and of th i went in think it was made with may seventeenth one thousand nine hundred ninety four i started work for the united states small business administration as i guess you would see as an  that last it was supposed to be a temporary job because of the need for the earthquake that job ended not because i was fired or terminated it was just as i said that there was no need anymore because they started out with five attorneys and by the time they hired everyone it was one hundred eighty attorneys it was they said the largest law firm pretty much in california and that was based in sacramento i basically just about volunteered for another tourney for almost an entire year of not being paid but doing up wears of seven hundred appearances in court sometimes is average of fifteen sometimes as high as even twenty but i was young at the time i was thirty two so i had a lot more energy and a lot more desire now this was in the the low income community of the east side of los angeles a very hispanic community which is my family's roots are from the east side of los angeles although i did not grow up there and by the time i came there in ninety five the neighborhood has certainly changed there was nobody left from that would have been you know that was not paid by him or paid at most two hundred dollars a week by him but as he put it this minute way he said i can't i may not be able to pay you much but that i can feed you and  got lunch so he said but i was happy because i was appearing in court i was arguing cases i was learning the law from the ground and i i learned to like being a litigator on the i don't want to say i'm not ashamed of being a litigator on the lowest level but one has to i guess go with what they love and where their strengths li and my love and strains lie on being a litigator on the lowest level i may not be make myself into the newspapers i may not make new law but i enjoy and i i enjoy what i love so about one year later i would say january of ninety seven i open my own office in the same area of east los angeles where i have still in the same office that i have been in since then i didn't know whether i would last or not so as my father had said sign because they wanted me to sign a year lease my father said well sign a six month lease you don't know if you're going to be there all these years later i'm still there again my practice has been criminal family and then as the needs of my clients in the area because it is a almost hundred percent hispanic area i tend to cater to their needs which was criminal family some landlord tenant law and then of course with that community there is a need for immigration lawyers and so as the went on i started taking on some immigration cases but on the lower level and it's in the lowest level of immigration court not necessarily appeals in fact even with  family and criminal i've done very few state appellate cases i have not admittedly done a whole lot because as i said my strengths and my knowledge and my love is more on the net not to say to argue in the trenches but that is where not to say that there is nothing for being in the ninth circuit but i feel that my strengths lie with the people on the lowest level but what happened is on these cases is that some of these clients came to me because again they can't afford they can't a lot of my clients whether even on the lowest level family criminal a lot of home they would qualify for a public defender in that it's criminal or in family they can't afford an attorney so what happens is they come to me because i've been in the area so long and they come to me they ask me for my help i have trouble turning these people down so as a result my family i don't want to say i'm going we're going hungry by no means but as a result i can't afford some of the things from my family that i would light i drive a honda civic i don't drive a mercedes benz or a nice car although i wish i would sometimes i think that by this age of fifty one years old and being an attorney for as long as i have i sometimes wonder what do i have to show for it but i do have a lot of grateful clients now cases would entail because certainly it's very easy to file admittedly it's very easy to file a petition for review and as first day it takes very little time but one doesn't think what entails after that which is the full appellate process bestially on the ninth circuit which require brave now since this order to show cause although i have mi deadlines i have filed for greece since i have filed for brief since that i believe are competent that's one thing about this process i will say is i'm not go glibly like oh i'm happy it happened because obviously i don't wish this kind of stress on anyone the lack of sleep the over eating the high blood pressure but what it did do for me is it made me realize that that where my strengths and where my weaknesses lie and yes it did make me learn the law as i stated i filed for briefs that i believe have a chance at working out but what it taught me was that in my limited because i guess going back to my practices i am a solo practitioner i do not have even money to have a receptionist i answer my own phone bailable as long as my phone as long as i'm not asleep i'm there for my clients to pick up the phone on weekends wherever at night so i don't have a secretary so a lot of it i have to do myself my own paperwork but on the lowest level i know how to do that and i'm good at it but on the appellate level i didn't realize the extent that it took so as i was saying was although it taught me appellate law with these four briefs that i submitted the problem is that even doing these briefs the amount of time and energy that goes into them would make it so that the rest of my clients on the lower levels of the court system would i would not be able to served them so much time went into these that i have to decide where my strengths lie and where my weaknesses lie and there is no shame in being a lawyer on the lower level now as for being asked for all of the  rules that i broke yes i did break many a number of rules i am not denying that i am not denying but i will deny all the way i did not do file these cases with an evil intent or an intent to lay processes as my response says that i honestly believe that these people had a chance and they were in some cases were very desperate and i want to be able to go on serving the community but i do realize that my strength just don't do not lie in the appellate level however and i don't wish to resign from the ninth circuit but i it's my idea i want to see these cases through the ones that i file briefs on because they're the only ones left and i want to be able to see them through but i do not play it's not my idea to take on any further cas because as i stated i just i don't have the time and the compact are the the time in the the energy or whatever to do the because it would just basically bankrupt my my course in my twenty odd years of being an attorney so you know i don't again i don't wish to be suspended whatever was done was done because as i said that i got involved in these cases if i had left these cases and told the client that they had to find another attorney i'm just someone who generally c z since tries to see these things through no i don't because they cannot afford another attorney but i have since not taken any further ninth circuit cases not because of necessarily of of messing up but as i stated i realize where my strengths and my weaknesses and where my love life and i don't want you to get mad that i don't want to be an appellate attorney but it's just not my where my strengths and where my love lies that the court wish to hear anything else well i have an observation and i appreciate your candor and i fully believe that kills to be a good crocker litigator  separate set of skills from those required to be a good appellate court litigator one standing on your feet arguing you have to balance all kinds of things  in terms of deal rolling with punches and being able to make oral presentation set so i i think it is understandable and i think laudable for you to come here and say that your skill wise where your passion as and that that's where you want to focus your practice and i'm being very truthful to the i'm not nobody prepped me with this to say i'll say this i mean i'm being very i'm being very truthful and i hope the court understands well i haven't seen you in trial court but having taken a look at the work that you've done here and even your response to the order to show cause suggest to me that your strength is not with using good expressive strategy good grammar proofreading all those kinds of things i don't see that in your written work here and i think what i'm hearing from you if if i was going to recommend that you be allowed to continue to practice i would do so only on the condition that you spend an enormous amount of time in taking continue with education programs on a public practice on all that kind of stuff but what i'm hearing you saying is you know really want to be an appellate practitioner i don't i mean i don't want to it's i stated i don't wish to be in bad standing with this court as i stated i'm not resigning i but it's not my intention to be an appellate lawyer but certainly taking continuing education classes would certainly help my skills even on the lower level because i mean i'm not saying that that some of what you learn on the appellate level you can certainly apply on the lower level the idea of writing a good because there are times when i do have to write i mean it's not just all arguing off the cuff i have to write even for my family law firm for immigration  have to write or criminal i have to write i mean it's something that i do and it's certainly something that i could learn from whether i choose to continue i don't want to make a pellet law at least maybe i will after taking these classes maybe i will develop a love of it because i'll see that it's easier all i know is it's been very tough and without these classes that you were your trial court practice i do not wish to do appellate levies or i was just merely stating if the court wanted to order me to take classes i would have no problem taking classes and that they would probably be helpful for me on the lower level well i'm not going to do that because i'm going to let you decide what you need to do i think you're right that taking classes in appellate practice and brief writing  analytic thinking kinds of exercises practical exercises would be helpful at any level but my concern in making a recommendation here is what i could recommend to rehabilitate you to the point where i could recommend the court allows you to can continue practicing in the ninth circuit so if i  when i'm looking for is a solution here that will accommodate your needs and interests and also accommodate what i see as the interests of the ninth circuit now you know up to now what the ninth circuit has had is a lot of resources being devoted to monitoring bradley hochberg yes i understand that i don't want that to happen you know if you're just coming here and telling me i'm not going to come to this court any more that leads me in one direction about how i want my recommendation is if you if you say to the court that i'm not going to file any more petitions for review in this quelle period but you know what happens when you get that call at two am from your client at the airport that is not going to i have not taking any more ninth circuit cases however i don't waste as i stated i don't wish be suspended so that if i have to take whatever courses the court would like i would do that but it is not my intention at all to take any more ninth circuit cases i hope that doesn't anger you that i don't want that i don't want to take ninth circuit it relieves me but i do not and i reiterate that all right so let me ask you this question what if  suggest to you that one remedy here would be for you to voluntarily withdraw from the ninth circuit if the court if the court wanted me to do that i would do that it's not my idea to do that but i would i would do that if that's what the court would like but i would also like to see the the four cases i have going with police there is nothing further to do on those cases but to await decisions  let me ask you some specific questions about the cases before we turn to this question of the appropriate remedy here so i believe you were mentioning the you said right at the beginning of the discussion that court you realize that it shouldn't have been filed in the ninth circuit babies petition this year who are so fine but in that defines for some reason i thought that also involved the flight that was going to portugal maybe it wasn't at the time but anyway let me ask you this question in those speeches shin's i was i was a little bit i don't last understand from your response of the order to show cause why you my parents and the situations that they were under and my father alternately dying and my mother who's eighty eight but i've had to be the sole not caretaker as and she does live on her own but i'm the sole person that's responsible for keeping an eye on her that was a lot of what went on here also but to go back to i just want to review my response for a second i guess the only thing i can say is and again whether it's falling on my sword it's that i guess at the time i did not have his entire file with me as it as it basically state that i didn't handle his case on the lower court level and i guess that you know having learned now what one can do in one can do when i guess i must  even talk about that on the lower level sadly well on the lower level i don't usually lose contact with clients but i do have conflicts with clients and i'd have been generally filed motions to withdraw on cases even on the lower court level but it's something that that i now obviously realize that if i can't get a hold of my client i can't sit there and hurt myself to protect these clients you know i cannot do that so that if i can't dismiss it because i haven't gotten a hold of them but to let the case sit there and and make extra work for the ninth circuit is not good either so i realized that i should have attempted in those cases to properly file a motion to withdraw can you fill me in on what happened in the removal you can't in the extension of time to file the opening brief and yet it's now eight months later it has been filed but albeit it was filed within the last day or two it had it's one of those four briefs that were filed three of which were filed within the last couple days i know that your clerk is aware of it because i spoke with him about it before so what happen it would appear it would appear as the court has stated that it does not appear to be in there so the best that i can say regarding that again it's i guess that it was one of those ones between my practice solo practice between caring for my parents and their needs it did slip through the cracks i'm not going to i'm not going to try to come up with some response as to why that happened but i have rectify the situation and the brief has been filed along with the proper motions in that case and that i wish to see i would like to see that thro victim of that crime and you see some kind of statement from them certifying that in fact that he's a victim of the crime a victim of a crime  and they recommend you know they make a recommendation on whether they feel that he should be grand the u v so then the government then you then you petition the got the u s government so in his case he had been the victim of a crime but sometimes that when the problem that we are all encounter is is that when the client has a criminal record himself  the local police department they don't feel they don't always feel so inclined to help this one time they come out when they have a criminal record and then then the next level being the immigration again someone the way the positives and the negatives and say well it really should go to someone who has more of a clean record  because i think that's one of the one of that's not i don't want to say one of the charges against me but i believe that was one of the concerns the court had was that the petition was just missed for failure to thirteen and again on october seventh twenty thirteen and november thirteenth twenty thirteen the court ordered petitioner to file a motion to proceed to form or preserve pay the filing fees for this petition for review on january thirteenth twenty removed by the immigration and he reentered and he was put into custody i believe it was and in a criminal proceedings which i was not representing him and that i did him the form of the form for which was at where he was being held and that he did not return it back to this case still pending court ok then then i would have to do a motion to the law but i believe will will will well actually i hope and result in my client prevailing in castro you know i'm before this court it's gone to a point where i don't know i would like to i think there's you seek and i think i did and i believe that time has passed right so i was busy with the four other ones that i had to deal with but yes so what is your intention no reply brief it would be to ask for an extension to prepare a reply please brief on that one but if the court didn't wish to do that i would be fine you know if the court wishes not to that's fine too the court wishes that justice be done in the cases before it and if it's appropriate to follow the reply brief the court like to see reply brief i believe in this matter probably would be the right thing to  you think it's understandable that you want to continue in these cases and i yeah i think there's a basis for allowing that i also think it's a good idea for you not to practice in one second after that and that would and that would be so what would i get a need to do is figure out a way to make a recommendation that well allow you to continue representing but also require you to withdraw after that because it's unclear when these cases are going to be heard why i contemplating right now is issuing in order to you who file status reports with the court updating i sporadically on the status of those cases and then when reminding you of your obligation to voluntarily withdraw from the court now if we do it this way i don't see that there will be any collateral i don't see that there will be any collateral consequences to you so you'll be able to continue practicing it at the you called the lowest level i consider it the first level  if we do it this way when i'm any collateral consequences as opposed to your resigning with charges pending if i were to do it that way with charges pending that order would be served on along those lines and then ultimately at the point at which you resign i will recommend that the matter be close that would be fun prepare a reply brief then do a motion to have that submitted or to ask for the extension first i would the court like  i don't want to get myself in any further  to withdraw right ok how much kind do you request to comply with those two matters i would ask for i believe ninety days but thirty days again i know i'm not in the used car business here about splitting it but i at least have sixty days sixty days just  brief and to resolve your representation yes of the garcias either by a motion to withdraw or by voluntarily phone terry dismissed all right and i'm going to set up a schedule that requiring you to issue a status report on the status of each of the cases that are currently pending you know report back and then you will i do want to also tell you that were my role in this matter is is to prepare a report and recommendation to the court  what i will do at the end of this time and after your submit your resignation i will explain the steps that occurred in the us based upon your representation that you were going to file no further petitions for review which is also going to be in my order and that allowed you to complete the representation of those cases with the understanding that you would no longer practice in the court thereafter yes i will then recommend to the court that no further action is necessary in this case yes so i i think there's a good likelihood that the court will adopt that recommendation and won't do