Discipline
Jul. 30, 2002
Attorney Moves Toward Bar Readmittance
LOS ANGELES - One-time civil rights attorney A. Thomas Hunt, who resigned from the State Bar in 1993 with charges pending, has cleared a major hurdle in his bid to be readmitted to the Bar and may be practicing law again soon.
State Bar Court Judge Paul A. Bacigalupo, who ruled last week to readmit Hunt, said the lawyer has turned his life around.
"The evidence shows that [Hunt] has taken responsibility for his life and past misconduct and has demonstrated an acceptable appreciation for his professional responsibilities and a proper attitude toward his misconduct," Bacigalupo said in his ruling.
Hunt's four-day hearing took place in March, and Bacigalupo took Hunt's appeal under consideration in April. Hunt, 62, submitted letters of recommendation to the judge from 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen S. Trott, Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker employment attorney Paul Grossman and others.
The State Bar Court decision can be appealed to the bar's appellate court. State Bar attorney Margaret Warren declined to comment.
Hunt won landmark employment discrimination cases in the 1970s and 1980s, including Blake v. City of Los Angeles Police Department 595 F.2d 1367 (9th Cir. 1979), which helped integrate the Los Angeles Police Department. But Hunt ran into problems with clients in the 1990s, when he accepted their cases but failed to do the work.
"Unfortunately, he suffered the disease of alcoholism and went through a bleak period that he's now fully rehabilitated from," Hunt's attorney, Mark Werksman, said.
One of Hunt's former clients, Howard Bennett, formed a club that organized former disgruntled clients of Hunt and that at one point listed 37 members. Hunt took on Bennett's employment discrimination suit in 1991.
Bennett also filed a malpractice suit against Hunt in 1993, resulting in a $1.5 million default judgment.
Bennett pressed for criminal prosecution of Hunt, and the Los Angeles district attorney's office eventually filed two sets of grand-theft charges against the attorney, in 1995 and 1996.
The 1995 charges were dismissed because the statute of limitations had elapsed, and the 1996 charges were dismissed because there was no proof of an intention to defraud his clients since Hunt had done at least some work for them.
In 1997, Hunt turned the lawsuit tables and filed a malicious prosecution suit against Bennett, saying that Bennett incited the district attorney to file the charges against him. At the same time, Hunt's wife, Eleanor Hunt, sued Bennett for slander for comments about her to the media.
In 1998, Hunt filed for bankruptcy. Hunt's malicious prosecution suit, which had gone back and forth from the trial court to the appellate courts, was thrown out on July 15 by the 2nd District Court of Appeal.
"The State Bar has given him a new lease on life and a great opportunity to do great work once again. Society will benefit from Tom Hunt's readmission to the bar," Werksman said.
Bennett, 73, is founder of the environmental organization Heal the Bay. He testified at Hunt's hearing.
"The State Bar Court judge, by his decision, has proven that justice is truly blindfolded. To give Hunt his law license back is to make a joke of the many clients whom he hurt by his actions," Bennett said.
Hunt said he hoped state bar counsel would not appeal the decision.
"I would hope that if someone were to take an objective look at the record in this case...it would become apparent that an appeal would not result in anything other than an affirmance of Judge Bacigalupo's decision," Hunt said.
Katherine Gaidos
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