|
Federal Judge Orders Entire Firm to Take Ethics Class By Pamela A. MacLean A federal judge in Fresno, Calif., has ordered the entire 80-lawyer firm of Lozano Smith back to school for a refresher course in ethics as a sanction for repeated misrepresentation of facts and the law in a dispute over aid for a learning-disabled student. Fresno-based Lozano Smith represents 200 school districts in California on special-education issues and boasts on its Web site that it is "California's premier public agency law firm." U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger sanctioned the firm recently for "misguided advocacy" over four years of opposing services for a special-education student in the Bret Harte Union School District, southeast of Sacramento. In a scorching 83-page opinion, Wanger said Lozano Smith, its lead attorney in the case, Elaine Yama, and the district engaged in "repeated misstatements of the record, frivolous objections to plaintiff's statement of facts, and repeated mischaracterizations of the law." The public dressing down was the result of a tenacious solo practitioner, Maureen Graves, who works out of her garage in Irvine, Calif. Her client, Robert Moser, now a 23-year-old college student, was denied special-education help until his last year of high school. He will receive $23,000 worth of vocational counseling and other help - but it cost the district nearly $500,000 in legal fees and four years of litigation. |
|
A Feast
|
