Court Opinion

ID: 9548320
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:01:39.73537+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:48.333568
License: Public Domain

KAUFMAN, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur in the majority’s affirmance of the findings of the Review Department of the State Bar Court, and in the majority’s rejection of petitioner’s constitutional challenges to the State Bar Court’s procedures, but I respectfully dissent from the court’s imposition of the extreme sanction of disbarment.
I do not minimize the gravity of petitioner’s misconduct. Misappropriating client funds, even from a single client, is a serious offense fully warranting disbarment in the absence of a compelling showing of mitigating circumstances, but the showing made by this petitioner in mitigation is compelling.
The mitigating evidence is described in the majority opinion and need only be summarized here. Petitioner has no prior record of discipline and the misconduct in this case occurred during a period of aberrant behavior attributable to cocaine addiction. Petitioner made full restitution before disciplinary proceedings commenced, acknowledged wrongdoing at an early stage, demonstrated sincere remorse, and cooperated fully and candidly in the proceedings. Petitioner successfully completed a drug rehabilitation program and has used neither alcohol nor cocaine since July 1985. Petitioner is active in Alcoholics Anonymous, The Other Bar, and Cocaine Anonymous. After the misconduct but before his suspension, petitioner practiced law for 17 months with no further transgressions. Since his suspension, petitioner has been employed as a paralegal and enjoys the complete *299confidence of his employer. Finally, 67 letters have been written by judges, attorneys, former clients, and others attesting to petitioner’s competence, honesty, and outstanding character.
This case closely resembles In re Nadrich (1988) 44 Cal.3d 271 [243 Cal.Rptr. 218, 747 P.2d 1146],1 in which this court declined to follow the review department’s disbarment recommendation and instead imposed five years’ suspension, consisting of one year of actual suspension followed by four years’ probation. As noted in that case, “A probationary term enables the State Bar and this court to carefully monitor petitioner’s progress and ensure that his rehabilitation continues.” (Id., at p. 280 (conc. opn. of Eagleson, J.).)
Petitioner has indicated his willingness to accept and abide by any conditions of probation this court chooses to impose, including both periodic and random drug testing and severe restrictions on his access to client funds. As in Nadrich, supra, 44 Cal.3d 271, disbarment in this case is both unnecessary and inappropriate. The public, the profession, and the courts would be better served by imposing a five-year suspension, consisting of a substantial period of actual suspension, and the balance as strictly supervised probation.
Panelli, J., concurred.

As the majority opinion points out, Nadrich became addicted to prescribed medication and his offenses were not committed in the course of practicing law. But, on the other hand, Nadrich’s offenses were more serious: he was arrested while engaged in the interstate sale of $60,000 worth of LSD, for which he was convicted of federal offenses and sentenced to prison for seven years. In any event, the significance of Nadrich for this case is not that the misconduct was identical (clearly it was not) but that in both cases the misconduct was rooted in drug addiction and in both cases compelling evidence of rehabilitation was adduced.