West Hollywood attorney Jay Mitchell Vogel faces a likely disbarment for failure to participate in a disciplinary proceeding with the California State Bar.
In a Nov. 27 ruling, first reported by the Northern California Record, a website that covers the legal system, the state bar court said Vogel was served on Nov. 1, 2016, with a notice that he faced charges of violating the State Bar’s code of professional conduct by failing to give an accounting to the mother of one of his clients about $4,000 he had been paid in advance.
The ruling said that Vogel was served with a second notice on Nov. 16, and that in December 2016 the state bar attempted to reach Vogel by telephone and left a voice mail message that he did not respond to. His failure to respond led to the state bar court in January putting Vogel on the “involuntary inactive enrollment” list, which means he was not allowed to practice law until the issue was resolved.
In its decision, the state bar said that Vogel had been in contact with representatives of the state bar on three occasions since inactive enrollment. He said he had been “working on a motion to vacate the entry of default,” but had been unable to finish it because of health issues.
According to the Northern California Record, “the state bar’s decision is pending final action by the California Supreme Court, an appeal before the state bar’s review department or expiration of time in which parties may request further review within the state bar court.”
Vogel graduated from law school at UCLA School of Law and has an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1988.
As of publication, WEHOville has been unable to reach Vogel for comment.
This lawyer tried to buy and sell me into sex trafficking. He houses young homeless men in a house located in WeHo and uses them for group sex when he is on various amount of drugs, like meth and liquid g. But he provides to them housing and groceries in exchange. I have never been more scared in my life being around this guy, but seeing that this evil man is being taken away from his lawyer responsibility, a way in which he formally takes advantage of people that need help, is just the nature of the spirit of justice.
Funny, once a member of the Bar, they are very lax in enforcing. But as we all said before our ethics exam .. “Just Don’t lie, cheat, steal OR TOUCH A PENNY FROM CLIENT TRUST ACCOUNTS – that is one big rule”
And to quote our surfer cool dude “oh! man! … AND DON’T SLEEP WITH ANY CLIENT!” He was bummed so much, he remembered that rule.
@Keep Calm, if he has a pattern of this type of behavior, then involving the State Bar is entirely appropriate. This isn’t just about the money.
@Randy: Small claims would have handled a $750.00 dispute in a simple procedure. No use suing him on other trust issues as it would be throwing good money after bad. Don’t know if Mr. Cleary had a retainer agreement….if not, so it goes.
Small claims? If these charges are true, shouldn’t he face disbarment? Shouldn’t attorneys be held to a higher ground of trust? The State Bar is not involved here to settle a personal dispute. They are there to protect others from being harmed by unethical practices.
Small claims court works wonders.
In 2007, Rick Leed recommended I hire the attorney, Jay Vogel and I paid him $750 and Jay Vogel never did any of the work and disappeared and never refunded my $750. I even ran into him at the post office when it was on San Vicente Blvd and I confronted him over the years and still to this day Jay Vogel has never paid me back the $750 I paid him and he never provided any services to me at all. This was over 10 years ago and I would like to get my $750 back.