Attorneys who were on the vanguard of the marijuana legalization
movement two decades ago are no longer on the fringes. As society and the
justice system has evolved, it’s spurred a green gold rush and many lawyers
have spotted opportunity.
A State Bar task force will continue discussions about dividing the bar into separate regulatory and trade associations, even as the state Assembly turned down a proposed fee bill that would have eliminated six attorney-elected seats on the bar’s Board of Trustees.
The latest scam aimed at attorneys involves “phishing” type
emails purportedly sent by a member of the State Bar to an unsuspecting third
party.
February’s bar exam pass rate slid again for the second
year, ending an upward swing that reached its peak in 2014. According to the
State Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners, the overall pass rate was 35.7 percent.
The State Bar received 15,796 new complaints against
California lawyers in 2015. Here’s a snapshot of some statistics in the State
Bar’s Annual
Discipline Report filed April 29.
The next State Bar president, chosen by the board in July,
will either be Trustee Michael G. Colantuono or Vice President James P. Fox.
Read more about the candidates.