Opinion ID: 1309329
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Actual suspension

Text: (16) Petitioner argues he should not be actually suspended from practice for any period of time. He contends, without elaboration, that his conduct was less serious than that of attorneys in prior cases in which we did not order actual suspension. (E.g., Palomo, supra, 36 Cal.3d 785.) We are not convinced. As detailed above, petitioner participated in a client's scheme to defraud. In Palomo, by contrast, the attorney received a check payable to a client, indorsed the client's name without his consent, and failed to notify the client of his receipt of the check. The check was deposited in his firm's payroll account. When the client inquired about the money, the attorney forwarded him the funds plus interest within three weeks. We cautioned in Palomo that the recommended discipline of one year probation, with no actual suspension, was lenient, and that the attorney's conduct warrants at least  the discipline recommended. (36 Cal.3d at p. 797, italics added.) We adopted the recommendation, in part because of the attorney's payment of restitution before any State Bar involvement in the matter. ( Id., at p. 798.) Although the facts of the present case are unusual, we find that a 90-day term of actual suspension is not excessive, nor is it disproportionate compared with the discipline imposed in previous cases. (See, e.g., Brody v. State Bar (1974) 11 Cal.3d 347, 350 [113 Cal. Rptr. 371, 521 P.2d 107] [single incident of failure to maintain client trust account properly, commingling and misappropriation, with failure to make restitution despite inquiries from client; we ordered one year actual suspension]; Walter, supra, 2 Cal.3d at p. 891 [attorney who misappropriated client funds made voluntary restitution of the entire amount in question, but we nevertheless ordered two years probation with six months actual suspension]; Hallinan, supra, 33 Cal.2d 246 [approving three months actual suspension for attorney who had simulated client's signature, despite the fact that client did not object and no money was lost].)