Canatella v. California

• Decision Date: 11 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. 03-15306.,03-15306.
• Citation: 404 F.3d 1106
• Parties: Richard A. CANATELLA, Plaintiff, and Randy E. Bendel, Intervenor-Appellant, v. State of CALIFORNIA; Board of Governors of the State Bar of California; President of the State Bar Association; The Judges of the State Bar Court; and The Office of the Chief Counsel of the State Bar of California, Defendants, and Ronald W. Stovitz; Judith A. Epstein; Madge S. Watai; Richard A. Honn; Patrice E. McElroy; Alban I. Niles; Joann M. Remke; Robert M. Talcott; James E. Herman; and Michael Nisperos, Jr., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

404 F.3d 1106

Richard A. CANATELLA, Plaintiff, and Randy E. Bendel, Intervenor-Appellant, v. State of CALIFORNIA; Board of Governors of the State Bar of California; President of the State Bar Association; The Judges of the State Bar Court; and The Office of the Chief Counsel of the State Bar of California, Defendants, and Ronald W. Stovitz; Judith A. Epstein; Madge S. Watai; Richard A. Honn; Patrice E. McElroy; Alban I. Niles; Joann M. Remke; Robert M. Talcott; James E. Herman; and Michael Nisperos, Jr., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 03-15306.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Submitted October 6, 2004.^*

Filed April 11, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Randy E. Bendel, Esq., Woodland Hills, CA, intervenor-appellant, Pro Se.

Jay M. Goldman, Office of the General Counsel, The State Bar of California, San Francisco, CA, for the defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California; Martin J. Jenkins, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-00-01105-MJJ.

Before HALL, BRUNETTI, and GRABER, Circuit Judges.

BRUNETTI, Circuit Judge.

California attorney Randy E. Bendel appeals the denial of his motion to intervene as a plaintiff in a federal action bringing constitutional challenges to California's state bar statutes and disciplinary proceedings. The district court determined that it was required to abstain from exercising jurisdiction as to Bendel under Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), and denied Bendel's motion to intervene on that basis alone, without reaching the merits of either intervention as of right or permissive intervention under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a)(2) and (b)(2). We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

In March 2000, California attorney Richard A. Canatella brought the underlying federal action. See generally Canatella v. California, 304 F.3d 843, 848 (9th Cir.2002) ("Canatella") (factual and procedural history). Having been subject to disciplinary action before the State Bar of California, Canatella seeks an injunction against further disciplinary action and challenges several state bar statutes and one professional rule on the grounds that they are unconstitutional on their face and as applied. Id. In our Canatella opinion, we held that Canatella has standing, that his claims are ripe, and that Younger abstention is inappropriate as to Canatella because the state disciplinary proceedings against him are no longer ongoing. Id. at 855.

In April 2002, the State Bar of California issued a notice of disciplinary charges against Bendel. In November 2002, after learning of Canatella's action through our Canatella opinion and wishing to join his cause, Bendel filed a motion for intervention as of right or, alternatively, for permissive intervention. Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(a) & (b). Like Canatella's complaint, Bendel's proposed complaint-in-intervention seeks a declaration that the state bar statutes are unconstitutional facially, as applied and as administered, and seeks an injunction barring disciplinary proceedings against him.

The district court denied Bendel's motion to intervene. Although both parties thoroughly briefed the merits, the district court made no findings regarding the elements of either intervention as of right or permissive intervention. Instead, the district court solely addressed and found Bendel's proposed claims barred by the doctrine of Younger abstention. Bendel timely appealed.¹

DISCUSSION

I. Younger Abstention

We review de novo whether abstaining from exercising federal jurisdiction is required under Younger. Green v. City of Tucson, 255 F.3d 1086, 1093 (9th Cir.2001) (en banc), overruled, in part, on other grounds by Gilbertson v. Albright, 381 F.3d 965, 976-78 (9th Cir.2004) (en banc).

A. The Middlesex Factors

"Absent `extraordinary circumstances', abstention in favor of state judicial proceedings is required if the state proceedings (1) are ongoing, (2) implicate important state interests, and (3) provide the plaintiff an adequate opportunity to litigate federal claims." Hirsh v. Justices of Supreme Court of Cal., 67 F.3d 708, 712 (9th Cir.1995) (per curiam) (citing Middlesex County Ethics Comm. v. Garden State Bar Ass'n, 457 U.S. 423, 432, 437, 102 S.Ct. 2515, 73 L.Ed.2d 116 (1982)).

1. Ongoing State Judicial Proceedings

Bendel raises no dispute as to the first Middlesex prong. California's attorney discipline proceedings are "judicial in character" for purposes of Younger abstention. Hirsh, 67 F.3d at 712. Such proceedings "commenced" when the State Bar of California issued the notice of disciplinary charges against Bendel. See Canatella, 304 F.3d at 851. They were still ongoing at the time Bendel filed his motion to intervene and when the district court denied the motion.

2. Important State Interests

We have clearly stated that "California's attorney disciplinary proceedings implicate important state interests." Hirsh, 67 F.3d at 712. We decline to depart from this general pronouncement based on Bendel's unsupported contention that states have no interest in regulating attorney misconduct occurring in federal court. "States traditionally have exercised extensive control over the professional conduct of attorneys," as each state has "an extremely important interest in maintaining and assuring the professional conduct of the attorneys it licenses." Middlesex, 457 U.S. at 434, 102 S.Ct. 2515. This extensive control has traditionally included the power to discipline attorneys for misconduct regardless of the jurisdiction in which it occurs. See LEGAL ETHICS, LAWYER'S DESKBOOK ON PROF'L RESPONSIBILITY § 56-1.

The States' long-arm regulatory authority over the attorneys they license derives in part from the nature of disciplinary proceedings. They are "neither civil nor criminal, but an investigation in to the conduct of the lawyer-respondent." Standing Comm. on Discipline v. Ross, 735 F.2d 1168, 1170 (9th Cir.1984). "[T]he question before the court is whether an attorney may continue to practice a profession imbued with the public interest and trust. The court must consider both the fitness of one of its officers and the need to protect the public from an unqualified or unscrupulous practitioner." Id. (citations omitted). Because the relevant state interest is an attorney's integrity and continuing fitness to practice, rather than the integrity of the particular courtroom in which misconduct occurs, the venue is irrelevant to the reach of the state disciplinary authority.

Accordingly, we have specifically held that the Supreme Court of California has jurisdiction to discipline members of the State Bar of California who practice even exclusively in federal court or before federal agencies. Gadda v. Ashcroft, 377 F.3d 934, 944-46 (9th Cir.2004) ("Gadda"); accord Geibel v. State Bar of Cal., 11 Cal.2d 412, 79 P.2d 1073, 1074 (1938) (per curiam); In re Gadda, 2002 WL 31012596, at *1-4, 4 Cal. State Bar Ct. Rptr. 416 (Cal.Bar Ct.2002), cited with approval in Gadda, 377 F.3d at 944 n. 6 (construing the California Supreme Court's summary affirmance of In re Gadda on de novo review as an implicit adoption of its holding). In rejecting the argument that California's regulatory authority is preempted by federal law, we noted that the applicable federal regulations condition federal bar membership on an attorney's good standing as a member of a state bar and thereby invite or at least accommodate overlapping state regulation. Gadda, 377 F.3d at 944-46.

Similar federal regulations are applicable here and have the same effect. Each of the four federal district courts in California specifically requires its bar members to be active members in good standing and comply with the standards of professional conduct of the State Bar of California; three of the four expressly adopt California's standards as their own; and all four refer to the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct as providing additional guidance. C.D. Cal. L.R. 83-2.2.1 & 83-3.1.2; E.D. Cal. L.R. 83-180(a) (e); N.D. Cal. Civ. L.R. 11-1(b) & 11-4(a)(1); S.D. Cal. Civ. L.R. 83.3(c)(1)(a) & 83.4(b). Moreover, the California rules expansively provide that they "govern the activities of members in and outside this state." CALIFORNIA RULES OF PROF'L CONDUCT R. 1-100(D)(1). The ABA rules similarly provide: "A lawyer admitted to practice in this jurisdiction is subject to the disciplinary authority of this jurisdiction, regardless of where the lawyer's conduct occurs." MODEL RULES OF PROF'L CONDUCT R. 8.5 (2004). None of these standards contains any jurisdictional limitation of the kind advocated by Bendel, and for good reason. Barring the States from disciplining their bar members based on misconduct occurring in federal court would lead to the unacceptable consequence that an attorney could engage in misconduct at will in one federal district without jeopardizing the state-issued license that facilitates the attorney's ability to practice in other federal and state venues.

3. Opportunity to Litigate Federal Claims

California's attorney disciplinary proceedings provide Bendel with an adequate opportunity to litigate his federal constitutional claims. Hirsh, 67 F.3d at 711-12, 713. It is inconsequential that California's State Bar Court has no jurisdiction to declare a statute unenforceable or unconstitutional or refuse to enforce it on such a basis absent clear precedent. Id. at 713. Federal constitutional rights may be asserted in disciplinary proceedings, Cal. Bus. & Prof.Code § 6085(e), and on judicial review of such proceedings. Hirsh, 67 F.3d at 713. Although judicial review is wholly discretionary, its mere availability provides the requisite opportunity to litigate. Id.

Bendel contends that abstention in this case would impermissibly allow a state tribunal to determine federal statutory claims. Facing a similar issue with regard to a claim for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, ...