Ending a long-running proceeding involving allegations that the State Bar’s disciplinary system discriminates against Black males, the Supreme Court today ordered that attorney Gregory Harper be disbarred. Justice Martin Jenkins was recused.
Harper has claimed that the Bar “has an unconstitutional blind spot for the plight of Black Male Attorneys” and was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article entitled, “As Tom Girardi skated, California State Bar went after Black attorneys.” He relied on a 2019 study — commissioned by the Bar itself — about racial and gender disciplinary discrepancies and on a follow-up Bar report.
The court twice rejected disbarment recommendations based on findings of misconduct relating to Harper’s handling of client funds. The court first remanded, in 2020, “for consideration of Harper’s unaddressed claim that his discipline is based on a theory of disparate impact.” Three years ago it directed further proceedings “to determine whether the . . . facially neutral disciplinary practices at issue . . . had the effect of discriminating . . . on the basis of race.”
This past August, the Bar’s hearing department concluded there was “insufficient evidence to support Harper’s claim that specified State Bar policies or practices caused him to suffer harsher discipline because of his race.” That decision recognized that the 2019 study “found a statistically significant disparity in the probation and disbarment/resignation rates of Black male attorneys as compared to White male attorneys, showing that Black male attorneys were more than three times more likely to be placed on probation (3.2% vs. 0.9%) or be disbarred/resign with charges pending (3.9% vs. 1.0%).” But, the hearing department said, Harper failed to “identify a specific State Bar disciplinary policy or practice that caused such disparity.”
Harper’s petition for review, denied today, claimed the Bar had improperly denied him adequate discovery to prove his allegations.
The Bar’s answer to the petition for review is here, and Harper’s reply to the answer is here.
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