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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Irvine attorney faces disbarment following child abduction conviction

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SAN FRANCISCO — Irvine attorney Shahrzad Talieh faces disbarment following a State Bar of California recommendation after she was convicted of abducting her 8-year-old twins in 2015.

The state bar court recommended Talieh be disbarred, according to the seven-page decision and order of involuntary inactive enrollment issued by the court Jan. 25.

The state bar's decision is pending final action by the California Supreme Court, an appeal before the state bar's review department or expiration of time in which parties may request further review within the state bar court.

Talieh's recommended discipline was among the dispositions filed earlier this month by the state bar court's hearing department for January.  

Talieh was admitted to the bar in California on July 30, 1997, according to her profile at the state bar website. Talieh had no prior discipline before the state bar, according to her profile and the decision and order.

Talieh failed to participate in person or via counsel, and the state bar's decision and order for disbarment was entered by default. In such cases, in which an attorney fails to participate in a California State Bar disciplinary proceeding despite adequate notice and opportunity, the bar invokes Rule 5.85, which provides the procedure for the state bar to recommend an attorney’s disbarment.

Talieh was arrested in December 2015 at the home of a friend in Canoga Park and charged with abduction of the children, a boy and a girl, from their father's custody in an alleged attempt to spirit them out of the country, according to news reports of the time. The children were unharmed, according to those reports. Talieh and the children's father were going through a divorce at the time, and she was suspected of having removed the twin's passports from their father's home, according to the news reports.

Talieh was subsequently convicted of two felony counts of child abduction, according to the decision and order.

"The court finds that the facts and circumstances surrounding Respondent’s conviction involve moral turpitude," the decision and order said.

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