CPPC’s Executive Director, Professor Robert Fellmeth Quoted in Los Angeles Times on State Bar Discipline Practices
SAN DIEGO (October 3, 2022) – University of San Diego (USD) School of Law Consumer Protection Policy Center (CPPC) Executive Director Robert C. Fellmeth was quoted in the Los Angeles Times on the State Bar of California’s attorney discipline practices. [excerpt]
How often the State Bar looked the other way on high-profile attorneys is unclear. In the wake of the Girardi fiasco, the bar tapped University of San Diego School of Law professor Robert Fellmeth to review the files of other attorneys who had eluded discipline despite repeated complaints. The records of these lawyers, whose names have not been released, took up 28 boxes, Fellmeth recalled, and left him convinced bar employees “tend not to go after anyone, not just Girardi, who has a long-standing reputation, lots of friends, and resources to battle the crap out of them.”
“There is not just one Girardi,” Fellmeth said, adding, “They got 50 who worry the hell out of me.”
To read the full article by Harriet Ryan and Matt Hamilton click here.
About the Consumer Protection Policy Center
Founded in 1980, the University of San Diego School of Law’s Consumer Protection Policy Center (CPPC) at the Centers for Public Interest Law (CPIL) serves as an academic center of research and advocacy in regulatory and public interest law. CPIL focuses its efforts on the study of an extremely powerful, yet often overlooked, level of government: state regulatory agencies. Under the supervision of experienced public interest attorneys and advocates, CPPC law student interns study California agencies that regulate business, professions, and trades.
CPPC publishes the California Regulatory Law Reporter, a unique legal journal that covers the activities and decisions of over 12 major California regulatory agencies.
In addition to its academic program, CPPC has an advocacy component. Center faculty, professional staff, and interns represent the interests of the unorganized and underrepresented in California’s legislature, courts, and regulatory agencies. CPPC attempts to make the regulatory functions of California government more efficient and visible by serving as a public monitor of state regulatory activity. The Center has been particularly active in reforming the state’s professional discipline systems for attorneys and physicians, and in advocating public interest reforms to the state’s open meetings and public records statutes.
About the University of San Diego School of Law
Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world. The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.
USD School of Law is one of the 84 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates. The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 30th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 28th nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.