SAN FRANCISCO (Northern California Record) — Longtime Bermuda Dunes attorney Keith B. Bardellini has been reinstated to practice law following a California Supreme Court decision and his suspension last year over alleged violation of a 2016 private reproval.
The effective date of Bardellini's reinstatement was Jan. 3, according to a notification provided to the Northern California Record by The State Bar of California earlier this week.
In November 2018, the high court placed Bardellini on a stayed one-year suspension and placed him on two years' conditional probation with 30 days of actual suspension. Bardellini was required to comply with conditions in the California State Bar Court's recommendation issued in July. The Supreme Court also ordered Bardellini to pay costs.
Bardellini was admitted to the bar in California on Dec. 21, 1977, according to his profile at the state bar website.
Bardellini was privately reproved in September 2016 after he stipulated to three acts of misconduct during his pro bono representation of an incarcerated client on a petition for writ of habeas corpus, according to the recommendation.
Bardellini was charged with two separate violations of the his reproval, according to the state bar court's recommendation issued July 10, 2018. Those violations involved his alleged failure to submit a quarterly report, provide proof that he attended ethics school and that he passed the multistate professional responsibility examination (MPRE).
Bardellini admitted to a hearing committee that he submitted his first quarterly report late and that he gave the incorrect date for his ethics school attendance, according to the recommendation.
The state bar court recommended that Bardellini received a stayed one year suspension and be placed on two years' conditional probation with 30 days of actual suspension, the decision said.
Portions of one count against him for failing to timely submit his final report and willfully failing to attend ethics school were dismissed with prejudice but the state bar court found Bardellini willfully failed to take and pass the MPRE within one year after the effective date of his private reproval. Bardellini said during his hearing that he had tried to schedule taking the MPRE.