Senator Joseph Dunn, Executive Director of the California State Bar, had this to say about the Discipline Standards Task Force in the ABA Journal:

The task force’s efforts could be the first step toward a significant revamping of the attorney misconduct sanctions, says the bar’s executive director, Joseph L. Dunn. “This could lead to a substantial rewrite, a minor rewrite, or even a change in basic philosophical approach,” Dunn says. “For example, many disciplinary rules are based on a rehabilitation model. Some believe that attorney disciplinary standards should move to more of a punishment model. The mission of the task force is to determine whether the disciplinary standards in force adequately protect the public and ensure attorney compliance with the ethical rules.”

No one I know who is knowledgeable about the discipline advocates punishment as a goal of the discipline system. Who is Joe Dunn talking about?

Senator Joseph Dunn

Not the Discipline Standards Task Force.
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The State Bar is moving forward with random audits of attorney client trust accounts.  A presentation to the Regulation Admissions and Discipline Oversight Committee (RAD) Thursday April 17 detailed preliminary steps taken to institute such audits, including determination of the sample population and necessary changes in statutes or rules to authorize such audits and create an enforcement mechanism.  A consultant has been engaged to work on the sample issue and the State Bar Office of General Counsel has been tasked with reviewing the existing law and recommending changes.  It is hoped that the costs of such audits can be reduced by relying on attorney self-reporting through a detailed questionnaire, rather than relying on teams of full-fledged auditors to examine records.
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Bus. & Prof. Code section 6067 requires that every new attorney “take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, and faithfully to discharge the duties of any attorney at law to the best of his knowledge and ability.” (sic) Beginning May 23, new California lawyers will be sworn in with an additional section added to their oath: Continue reading →

The Board Operations Committee of the State Bar Board of Trustees voted the following resolution today at its meeting in San Francisco. Continue reading →