The lawsuit filed against the California State Bar and its current president Craig Holden by former Executive Director Joseph Dunn alleging that his firing was retaliatory has been ordered into mediation. The State Bar has maintained that Dunn’s contract requires mediation to be attempted in good faith before any litigation can be pursued. If mediation fails, arbitration is stipulated by the contract.

The judge in the case, however, indicated that an arbitration order would be premature, and that mediation should be attempted first before any other modes of resolution are considered. He described his order as a ‘timeout to get something accomplished.’

Dunn served as Executive Director for the State Bar from 2010 until 2014; he was re-appointed in 2013. However, he contends he was fired after noting that Jayne Kim, the State Bar’s Chief Trial Counsel, had internal reports altered illegally to make the case backlog look better. Kim filed a formal complaint with the State Bar after his allegations, asserting her innocence. The lawsuit also recently added former State Bar Principal Counsel Beth Jay as a co-defendant, alleging that she actively agitated for Dunn’s termination after his revelations and even spread false information about him in order to secure his firing.

Dunn went on to allege that Kim’s actions in falsifying records was not an isolated incident, but was in fact rampant throughout the State Bar. He has not indicated how it is he was not aware of the records tampering during his prior three year term.