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Summary: After being placed on interim suspension because of an underage sex scandal, an Orange County-based lawyer accrued over a thousand bar complaints.
If you’re going down, you may as well fall in a big way, right? That was maybe what California lawyer James Mazi Parsa, 50, was thinking when he epically accrued over 1,100 bar complaints before his suspension in 2009.
Orange County-based Parsa was placed on interim suspension in 2009 because he was convicted in 2001 for unlawful sexual intercourse with a teenage employee. ABA Journal reported that he received a two-year suspension in 2014 because of the misdemeanor crime.
Leading up to the suspension, he accepted new clients and took fees even though he knew his license was about to be suspended. He worked at a loan modification practice which had about 4,500 clients and 100 employees.
“He failed to notify his clients that he intended to withdraw and would not be pursuing their loan modification applications,” bar officials said.
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The California Supreme Court will determine whether or not to disbar him. After the ruling, clients can file reimbursement claims through the state bar’s Client Security Fund, according to the O.C. Register.
Read about more attorneys that faced suspension or disbarment:
- Los Angeles Attorney Faces Suspension Due to Photoshopped Pictures
- U.S. Prosecutors Face Suspension over Misconduct in Ted Stevens’ Case
- Violent Cravath Associate Hit with Three Year Suspension
- Michael Farren Disbarred From District of Columbia
- Attorney Permanently Disbarred for Grievous Behavior
State Bar Court Hearing Judge Pat McElroy found that Parsa had abandoned forty-three clients but kept their $120,000 in fees. Later, another 1,130 people filed state bar complaints against the attorney.
In a December 2014 response to the ethics charges, Parsa said that the bar took jurisdiction over his bank accounts and law practice, and that any problems with client refunds were caused by the state bar. He contended that the state bar failed to explain the circumstances to the clients and that they should have determined the money owed.
Parsa is a graduate of UC Irvine and Southwestern University School of Law. According to the bar, he was admitted into practice in 1991 and he had no discipline records prior to his 2001 sex conviction.
