SAN FRANCISCO (Northern California Record) — Thousand Oaks attorney Paul Nathan Taylor has been disbarred following a California Supreme Court decision and nine counts of professional conduct rules violations, according to a notification recently issued by the State Bar of California.
The high court issued its disbarment order Jan. 4, and Taylor's effective disbarment date was Feb. 3, according to a notification provided to the Northern California Record earlier this week.
The high court also ordered Taylor to pay costs.
Taylor was admitted to the bar in California on Dec. 10, 1998, according to his profile at the state bar website.
In one of four matters, Taylor allegedly issued electronic debits drawn on a trust account in which there were insufficient funds, according to the eight-page decision and order of involuntary inactive enrollment issued Sept. 5 by the California State Bar Court. Other allegations against Taylor included failure to perform legal services with competence, failure to maintain client funds, writing fraudulent checks and issuing a check from a nonexistent account.
The decision and order included the state bar court's recommendation that Taylor be disbarred by default and the default was entered in March 2018.
The decision and order also included an involuntary inactive enrollment order that rendered Taylor involuntarily enrolled as an inactive member of the State Bar of California. That order was effective three calendar days after service, according to the recommendation.
Taylor failed to participate in person or via counsel and state bar's decision and an order for disbarment was entered by default. In such cases, in which an attorney fails to participate in a State Bar of California 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.
In a previous discipline handed down in August 2011, Taylor, then 44 and of Beverly Hills, received a stayed two-year suspension and was placed on two years' probation with 90 days of actual suspension, according to information on his state bar profile. That discipline was handed down after Taylor stipulated to misconduct in two matters involving failure to maintain client funds and failure to perform services competently, according to his state bar profile.