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Monday, March 18, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

State Bar Whistle-Blower Case Sent to Arbitration

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Whistle-blower claims from a former state bar director belong in arbitration, a judge ruled Friday, finalizing an earlier order.

Former state Sen. Joe Dunn brought his complaint against the State Bar of California and its president, Craig Holden, in November 2014, claiming he was ousted for blowing the whistle on ethical breaches he'd witnessed.

Judge Mitchell Beckloff tentatively ordered the case to arbitration at a hearing Tuesday, and that order is now final, Holden's attorney Moez Kaba said in an email Friday.

Dunn was chief executive of the state bar from 2010 until he was fired last year.

Before that he was a four-year CEO of the California Medical Association.

He was elected to California's 34th Senate District in central Orange County in 1998, won re-election but lost the 2006 Democratic primary for state controller.

Dunn claimed in his lawsuit that Holden fired him for blowing the whistle on Jayne Kim, the chief trial counsel who he said had removed 269 backlogged cases from internal reports to make it look like her office was more productive than it was.

He also claimed that the bar was failing to enforce state legislation designed to crack down on attorney fraud.

Dunn filed an amended complaint in April, claiming former principal counsel to the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Beth Jay was instrumental in the decision to fire him.

Kaba is with the law firm Hueston Hennigan.

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