SAN FRANCISCO – Riverbank attorney Angela Denise Green faces suspension and probation following an April 26 California Supreme Court order after she allegedly forged her client's name on a court document, according to a recent report issued by the State Bar of California and court documents.
The Supreme Court handed down a stayed one-year suspension and a year of conditional probation with the first 30 days spent on suspension. Conditions of Green's probation include passing the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination as previously recommended by the California State Bar Court's Hearing Department.
Green also was ordered to pay costs.
Green's discipline will be effective Sunday, May 26, according to an announcement recently posted on the state bar's website.
Green was admitted to the bar in California on June 9, 2003, according to her profile at the state bar website. Green had no prior discipline before the state bar, according to her profile.
Allegations against Green stem from her attempt in March 2017 to file a request for dismissal in her client's marriage dissolution case in Alameda County Superior Court, Hayward Division, according to the stipulation filed with the State Bar Court in January. It states Green signed her own name to the dismissal form, though she had not substituted into the case and was not her client's attorney of record.
Green allegedly was informed by the court clerk that her client would need to sign and file a substitution of attorney form signed or the client would have to sign the dismissal form pro se. Green's client was not present at the time.
Green left the clerk's window, "concealed her own signature on the dismissal form, and simulated the signature of her client on the form," before she left the form in the clerk's drop box, the stipulation said.
The judge in the case issued a show cause order that required Green to explain how the form had been completed. In June 2017, the stipulation states Green admitted to the judge that she signed her client's name to the form and the judge subsequently referred the matter to the state bar.
The state bar considered Green's alleged simulation of her client's signature to be an act involving moral turpitude, dishonesty or corruption, in violation of business and professions conduct rules.