SAN FRANCISCO (Northern California Record) — Mission Hills attorney Lauro Nick Pacheco Jr., who has dozens of disciplinary matters pending against him, faces disbarment by default following a State Bar of California recommendation.
Allegations against Pacheco include those arising from an immigration matter in which he allegedly failed to perform work on his client's case, to provide a federal agency with request information and to obtain court permission to withdraw, according to the seven-page decision and order of involuntary inactive enrollment issued April 4 by the state bar court.
A footnote in the decision listed 32 disciplinary matters pending against Pacheco and another footnote said "that there are at least 20 claims pending with the Client Security Fund as a result of [Pacheco]'s conduct".
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.
Pacheco's recommended discipline was among the dispositions filed earlier this month by the state bar court's hearing department for April.
Pacheco failed to participate in person or via counsel and 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.
Pacheco was admitted to the bar in California on Dec. 8, 1994, according to his profile at the state bar website.
In a prior discipline last summer, the state bar court issued a decision announcing it had found Pacheco culpable in 18 counts of misconduct and last December recommended that he receive a fully stayed suspension of two years followed by two years of conditional probation with six months of actual suspension. The state bar court also recommended that he be ordered to pay restitution.