Former senator Joe Dunn has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the State Bar of California, claiming that the organization fired him from his position as Executive Director after he reported various ethical breaches and illegal activities by some of the agency’s high-ranking officials. The lawsuit came just days after Dunn received notice of his dismissal. Dunn is seeking financial damages and the return of his job, but mostly an end to the alleged corruption he exposed within the agency.
Officials from the State Bar have given little insight into exactly what happened in this situation. However, Dunn’s complaint alleged that certain employees under the direction of State Bar Chief Trial Counsel Jayne Kim had been illegally altering backlog case reports that were being released to the general public and to the organization’s board of trustees. Dunn contends that these actions were done to make Kim look good in her upcoming evaluation, which will measure the productivity of the office under her supervision.
Dunn also claims that Kim did not properly crack down on fraud that was persistently exploiting immigrants in the state, even though there had been a significant degree of legislative pressure on her to take action.
The lawsuit says that after Kim learned that Dunn and other employees of the State Bar discovered this wrongdoing, she filed a complaint against them with the agency’s board of trustees. The State Bar decided to launch an internal investigation using an expensive team of outside attorneys, even though a retired justice for the State Supreme Court had offered to do the investigation for free. The lead investigator was discovered to have a close personal relationship with one of the trustees.
If you, like Dunn, believe you have been wrongfully terminated from your position after speaking up as a whistleblower, contact the respected Dallas attorneys at Whistleblower Law for Managers right away.
