SAN FRANCISCO (Northern California Record) — Los Angeles attorney Edward William Pacheco faces disbarment following a California State Bar Court recommendation after he was charged with four counts of misconduct in two consolidated matters.
Pacheco was alleged to have failed to comply with court rules, made a false representation, practiced while suspended and made a misrepresentation to a judge, according to the 15-page decision and order of involuntary inactive enrollment issued June 5 by the state bar court. The court found Pacheco culpable on all our counts.
"Based on the nature and extent of culpability, as well as the serious aggravating circumstances that far outweigh the mitigating factors, the court recommends that Pacheco be disbarred from the practice of law," the decision and order said.
The state bar's recommendation is pending final action by the California Supreme Court, an appeal before the state the bar's review department or expiration of time in which parties can 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 June.
Pacheco was admitted to the bar in California on May 30, 1980, according to his profile at the state bar website.
In November 2016 Pacheco, then 79, was suspended for 90 days and placed on two years' probation, ordered to take the multistate professional responsibility examination and pay $1,700 plus interest in restitution over alleged misconduct in at least two client matters, according to information on his state bar profile.
In one matter, Pacheco allegedly filed an incomplete bankruptcy petition for a client, didn't appear at a creditors meeting on his client's behalf and and caused her petition to be dismissed when he failed to provide necessary documents.
"In filing the bankruptcy petition, he also failed to include a form in which he should have disclosed he received $1,700 to prepare the petition," his state bar profile said. "He also failed to return six phone calls from the client or render an appropriate accounting or refund the client any of the $1,700 he didn’t earn."
Pacheco also allegedly appeared in court on a client's behalf while suspended and failed to cooperate in a disciplinary investigation.