Former Orange County state Sen. Joe Dunn lied as chief of the California State Bar about using the organization’s funds to pay for a $6,000 trip to Mongolia in 2014, a judge has ruled.
State Bar Court Judge Yvette D. Roland recommended that Dunn, a lawyer since 1986 and onetime CEO of the California Medical Association, be placed on one-year probation for his “significant ethical violation.”
“The gravity of his transgression is amplified by the fact that it occurred during his tenure as Executive Director of the State Bar, a position of significant responsibility and public trust within the legal community,” Roland wrote, adding that Dunn’s actions undermined the integrity of the legal profession.
Dunn served in the state Senate from 1998 to 2006 before taking the helm of the State Bar in 2010. He was fired in 2014 amid allegations of being dishonest to the Board of Trustees. Dunn countered with a whistleblower suit against the bar, but lost in arbitration.
Roland’s ruling said Dunn told the board that officials from Mongolia had approached the bar, seeking advice in forming an organization to regulate attorneys in that country. Trustees testified that Dunn told them no bar money would be used to visit Mongolia.
The trustees were concerned that helping Mongolia was not part of the bar’s mission and that the group was limited in how it spent its resources.
At his bar trial, Dunn initially testified that he had no recollection of speaking about Mongolia at a board meeting. He denied making any presentation to trustees about not using bar money to pay for the trip.
But Dunn later contradicted himself by saying he told the board that bar money had to be used for airfare. An investigation showed Dunn intended from the outset to use the bar’s money for the trip.
The bar ended up spending $6,041 for Dunn and assistant Tom Layton’s airfare as well as for cellphone charges.
Roland noted that bar discipline is not to punish the attorney but to protect the public and the legal profession. She said Dunn’s misconduct amounted to a single violation more than a decade ago.
“The absence of further misconduct since 2014 demonstrates his willingness and ability to conform to ethical responsibilities,” the judge wrote.
Each side has 30 days to seek a review before the State Bar, otherwise the case goes to the California Supreme Court to determine discipline.
Stacia Laguna, the bar’s special deputy trial counsel, said she will look over the court’s ruling to determine whether to seek review on the recommended penalty.
“Every California attorney has the responsibility to uphold the rules of the profession at all times. Those engaged in public service and charged with protecting the public must uphold the highest standards — to do otherwise damages the public’s trust,” Laguna said.
Dunn’s attorney did not return a request for comment.