Senate leader threatens to freeze bar fee over long-vacant position

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Thomas J. Umberg is threatening to withhold fees from the State Bar unless it fills its long vacant chief trial counsel position.

Umberg’s annual bar fee bill passed his committee without debate on Tuesday. As drafted, SB 211 would cap the base bar fee at $395 for an active license for the second straight year. It would also complete the 2018 divorce between the bar and the California Lawyers Association. But the Santa Ana Democrat, who took over the committee in December, signaled he plans to get tough with the bar following a troubling report from the California State Auditor.

“In order to ensure that the State Bar actually follows through with the Senate confirmation process as required by statute, I am proposing that SB 211 be amended to prohibit the State Bar from charging active and inactive attorneys a licensing fee in 2022 unless and until the Senate confirms the appointment of the chief trial counsel,” Umberg said in the bill’s committee analysis.

“The State Bar has been in active recruitment for both the executive director and the chief trial counsel,” Interim Executive Director Donna S. Hershkowitz said in an email. “In fact, the board of trustees is meeting this Saturday to further discuss the finalists for executive director that they interviewed last month; and the board is meeting in less than two weeks to interview the top candidates for the chief trial counsel position.”

Hershkowitz also stated that the lack of debate at the hearing meant her office did not have an opportunity to comment.

Umberg is concerned about an April 29 report from State Auditor Elaine Howle. She found the bar’s backlog of attorney discipline cases grew 87% between 2015 and 2020. During roughly the same period, total reprovals, suspensions and disbarments dropped by 54%. The committee analysis also notes, “It has been over five years since the State Bar has had a Senate confirmed chief trial counsel working at the State Bar.”

The bar’s 2020 Annual Discipline Report, released April 27, notes the Office of Chief Trial Counsel “opened nearly 17,500 cases” and “recommended disbarment for 97 attorneys, suspension for another 114, and issued 50 reprovals.” It also stated the backlog of highest priority cases went down 17% during 2020.

SB 211 would remove controls on the California Lawyers Association, including provisions mandating certain representation on its governing board. These were put in place in 2017, when the Legislature passed SB 36, the bill that separated the bar and the association. The association’s board of representatives voted last year to request these rules be removed from their bylaws.