In Re Urias

THE COURT.

Petitioner, a member of the State Bar admitted to practice in 1950, was convicted in November 1964 on four counts of grand theft. Motions for new trial and probation were denied, and he was given consecutive sentences of one year in the county jail on each count. He did not appeal.

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We suspended petitioner from the practice of law and referred the matter to the State Bar for hearing, report and recommendation as to the nature and extent of the discipline to be imposed. (Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 6101, 6102.) A local administrative committee conducted hearings and recommended that petitioner be placed on probation for a period of two years on the condition that he be suspended from practice for the first six months thereof. The Board of Governors first recommended that petitioner be disbarred; at petitioner’s request, however, the matter was reconsidered and the board

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now recommends that he be placed on probation for a period of three years on the condition that he be suspended from practice for the first two years thereof, retroactive to November 4,1965.

In this proceeding the record of petitioner’s conviction of grand theft is “conclusive evidence of guilt” (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6101). The transcript of that trial, however, was received in evidence by the State Bar (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6102, subd. (d)), and we may examine it to apprise ourselves of the facts surrounding the crimes.

In summary, it appears that on several occasions in the spring and summer of 1963 petitioner collected money owed to his clients, endorsed the clients’ names on the checks without their authorization, deposited them in his personal bank account, and failed either to inform the clients that the money had been collected or to remit to them their share of the proceeds after deduction of his fee. The practice came to light when one of his clients, a Mrs. Walters, insisted on payment and received a personal check from petitioner which was subsequently dishonored for insufficient funds. She complained to the local bar authorities, and thereafter signed an affidavit of forgery with respect to a check for $1,140 which had been made payable to her business by a debtor estate but had been endorsed by petitioner without her authorization.