Opinion ID: 6350878
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: State and Federal Court Suspensions

Text: Following Yagman’s conviction, the State Bar of California placed Yagman on interim suspension, effective August 23, 2007, pending final disposition of the criminal proceedings. Order, No. 06-C-13000 (Cal. State Bar Rev. Dep’t., July 20, 2007). We were notified of Yagman’s California interim suspension on September 7, 2007. We then ordered Yagman to show cause why he should not be “disciplined, suspended, or disbarred” due to (1) “his interim suspension from practice by the California State Bar Court,” and (2) “for conduct unbecoming a member of this court’s bar as evidenced by his felony conviction in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.” 3 2 The district court later acquitted Yagman on six of the money laundering counts. See id. Dkt. No. 474. 3 Although our initial show-cause order only identified the California suspension as a basis for discipline, we soon amended the show-cause order to include Yagman’s felony conviction as an 6 IN RE YAGMAN Yagman requested a hearing in our court, and then asked for and received several extensions in order to permit him to substantively respond to the order to show cause. Yagman’s counsel later informed us that if Yagman was not released on bail in his criminal case that he would withdraw his opposition to the suspension and that no hearing would be required. Yagman was not released on bail, and his opposition to the suspension imposed was withdrawn. Yagman failed to respond to orders from our court requiring him to file certain status reports. He also failed to file any objection to the Appellate Commissioner’s recommendation that Yagman be suspended from practice before our court based on the State Bar of California’s suspension. Therefore, on June 12, 2008, we ordered Yagman suspended indefinitely from the practice of law before our circuit and permitted him to file a petition for reinstatement if he were reinstated to practice law in California. Although Yagman did not participate in our disciplinary procedures, he did actively fight his suspension in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. On September 18, 2007, the Central District of California also issued an order to show cause why Yagman should not be suspended based on the California suspension and his criminal convictions. In the Disciplinary Matter of Stephen Yagman, 07-mc-00119 (C.D. Cal. 2007), Dkt. Nos. 1, 3. Yagman responded to the Central District’s order to show case and attended a hearing on December 19, 2007. See Matter of Yagman, No. 11-mc-25, 2011 WL 13196273, at  (C.D. Cal. June 28, 2011). additional and independent reason for potential suspension or disbarment. IN RE YAGMAN 7 On December 27, 2007, Judge Stephen Wilson—who had presided over Yagman’s criminal jury trial—ordered that Yagman be suspended from the practice of law in the Central District of California, noting that Yagman’s criminal convictions “involved serious charges of fraud and deceit.” In the Disciplinary Matter of Stephen Yagman, 07-mc-00119 (C.D. Cal. 2007), Dkt. No. 4 at 4. Yagman was suspended based on his criminal conviction alone. Id. The district court explicitly noted that it did not reach the question of whether Yagman should be reciprocally suspended because of the California suspension. Id. Judge Wilson also found that the jury, in order to convict Yagman, “must have rejected his testimony at trial and therefore concluded that he lied under oath. The Court, having heard Mr. Yagman’s testimony, concurs in this determination. This act alone, independent of any conviction, has been regarded as sufficient for a district court to disbar, let alone suspend, an attorney.” Id. at 6.