Erin Joyce

Erin Joyce, founder of Erin Joyce Law in Pasadena, was previously a State Bar prosecutor for 18 years. Before that, “I was drawn to the State Bar where I had the opportunity to handle cases on my own from start to finish and to gain valuable trial experience,” Joyce said. “I had several mentors at the State Bar along the way, who taught me how to exercise prosecutorial discretion to resolve matters and to ensure public protection.”

Joyce continued: “The State Bar loves to point out that it is sui generis — or if its own. The procedures are not quite civil or criminal in nature. It is not a venue where a highly experienced civil litigation attorney will be equipped to learn on the fly. I have significant experience with all types of proceedings before State Bar Court and how OCTC investigates complaints. This experience is invaluable to my clients.”

Her firm also comprises two additional former State Bar prosecutors and four other attorneys who focus on various aspects of professional responsibility, from ethics consultations, State Bar defense, moral character and fee disputes.

She has served as an expert witness in a case against an attorney who failed to properly prepare an expert for deposition, resulting in the exclusion of the expert’s most important opinions at trial.

Joyce has also counseled many attorney clients on the requirements of the Client Trust Accounting Protection Program (CTAPP) to ensure their compliance with the program.

“Since CTAPP is a new regulatory program of the State Bar necessitated by the Bar’s failure to take action against Tom Girardi, many of the requirements of the program have proven difficult for practitioners to adopt,” she said. “The requirements have imposed a significant increased administrative burden on attorneys. Educating the legal community as to the CTAPP requirements has been challenging, as the FAQs from the State Bar have shifted as the program is being implemented.”

Joyce added she believes that two significant areas that need to be addressed in the field are the decreasing civility in the profession and the impact of AI and technological advances on the profession.