Discipline Stats Slip in Split California Bar’s First Year

The nation’s largest bar had some stumbles in the first year after its forced divorce, with fewer attorneys disciplined in 2017 amid policy changes, an April 30 report to the Legislature said.

The report details the first year that the California bar’s functions were split, with voluntary sections spun off in 2016 into a separate nonprofit entity for continuing education and lobbying. The state bar now focuses on discipline and admissions of the state’s more than 250,000 attorneys.

“The separation completed the State Bar’s conversion from a hybrid regulatory and trade association to a sole-purpose regulatory agency, sharpening the organization’s ...