Attorney Who Advised Clients To Break Into Their Foreclosed Homes Targeted By State Bar For Immediate Removal From Active Practice

The ABA Journal reports:

• A California lawyer who advised clients to break into their foreclosed homes while he argued in state court that the foreclosures were illegal faces from the State Bar of California discipline for his remarks, the attorney regulatory agency announced [].

• The complaint against Michael T. Pines, filed in the State Bar Court, seeks to lift his law license. According to a press release the state bar issued, Pines in February was arrested for threatening the occupants of a house that used to belong to his clients, and the following day was cited for trespassing on the property. Four days later, according to the release, he was cited for violating a temporary restraining order at the site. According to the state bar, Pines told his clients that he may break into the property again. And in October, according to the release, Pines notified Newport Beach, Calif., police that he and a client were going to take possession of a house that the client lost in foreclosure.

• “To remove a lawyer from active practice on an interim basis before formal charges are filed is a drastic remedy,” James Towery, the state bar’s chief trial counsel, stated in today’s release. “That remedy is justified by the established misconduct of Michael T. Pines. He has shown complete disrespect for the law, the courts and especially the best interests of his clients. Removing Mr. Pines from active practice is an important step in our mission of public protection.”

For more, see Discipline Case Filed Against Lawyer Who Advised Clients to Break Into Their Foreclosed Homes.

For The State Bar of California press release, see State Bar Seeks To Stop Practice Of Carlsbad Foreclosure Attorney Michael T. Pines:

• For five hours, Pines “kept approximately seven police officers and an assistant city attorney wrapped up in his media circus” until Pines and his client were arrested, [Deputy Trial Counsel Brooke] Schafer wrote in the petition.