May 2019 MCLE Luncheon with David Cameron Carr

Our next MCLE lunchtime program will be on Thursday, May 9, 2019, at 12:00 pm at the Manhattan of La Jolla restaurant (7766 Fay Avenue –  within the Empress Hotel). 

We are very pleased to have ethics attorney DAVID CAMERON CARR as our speaker for the May lunch meeting.  Mr. Carr will present “NEW RULES ON COMPETENCE AND COMMUNICATION,” addressing how the rules governing  attorney competence, diligence and communication have changed with adoption of the new Rules of Professional Conduct;  how the Rules are different from the ABA Model Rules;  and how the State Bar analyzes competence issues from a discipline standpoint, including application of the “moral turpitude” doctrine to grossly negligent breaches of duty.

Mr. Carr’s prior presentation to our group during 2017 was very informative and well-received.  This upcoming presentation is certain to be worthwhile and of benefit to our members.

Note: The program on May 9th will provide 1.0 hr CLE credit or the required category of “competence issues.”

Information about our Speaker, David C. Carr:

David Cameron Carr, an attorney in private practice in San Diego, California, specializes in discipline defense, bar admissions, attorney professional responsibility and ethics advice.

Mr. Carr is a 1986 graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Following several years of practice in commercial law and business litigation, Mr. Carr joined the State Bar of California as a staff attorney in 1989. He served as counsel to the State Bar’s audit and review panel from 1989 to 1992. Mr. Carr served on the National Organization of Bar Counsel’s advisory committee to the American Bar Association’s McKay Commission on discipline enforcement in 1991.

He moved from oversight of the discipline system in 1992 to prosecuting cases as a deputy trial counsel in the discipline prosecutor’s office of the State Bar. After five years trying discipline, admissions and reinstatement cases before the State Bar Court Hearing Department, Mr. Carr began to specialize in appellate advocacy before the State Bar Court’s Review Department, resulting in 10 published decisions between 1997 and 2000.

During the shutdown of the State Bar in 1998 after former Gov. Pete Wilson’s veto of the State Bar dues bill, Mr. Carr worked as an unpaid volunteer in the discipline system. He argued as amicus counsel to the California Supreme Court that a special master be appointed to oversee discipline system spending, an idea adopted by the Supreme Court in its decision reviving the discipline system (In re Attorney Discipline System (1998) 19 Cal.4th 582.)

After the Supreme Court ordered a special dues assessment, Mr. Carr became an assistant chief trial counsel and manager of the general trials unit in Los Angeles in 1999. He also worked on discipline policy issues as the chief trial counsel’s liaison with the State Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (COPRAC) and the State Bar Court Executive Committee.

Mr. Carr returned to private practice in 2001 and his hometown of San Diego in 2002. He is a member of the San Diego County Bar Association, where he is active on the Legal Ethics Committee. Mr. Carr is also a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL), the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, the Association of Discipline Defense Counsel, where he served as president from 2008 through 2011, and the State Bar’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibiity and Conduct (2018-2021).

Mr. Carr grew up in South Bay suburbs of San Diego and attended high school in the small desert community of Borrego Springs. After high school, he attended UCLA, where he graduated with a degree in history in 1978.

Handout for David C. Carr’s Presentation

LJBA New Rules on Competence and Communication.pdf

Experience

Private Practice Representing Attorneys and Bar Applicants Since 2001

Adjunct Faculty, Thomas Jefferson School of Law

State Bar of California, 1989-2001

Assistant Chief Trial Counsel, Manager, 1999-2001

Deputy Trial Counsel, Discipline Prosecutor, 1992-1999

Staff Attorney, Audit and Review, 1989-1992

Business Litigation, Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Practice, 1986-1989

Bar Admission

Admitted to State Bar of California, December 1986

Admitted in the Southern, Central and Northern Federal District Courts, California

Education

Loyola Law School, Los Angeles J.D., 1986

UCLA, B.A. History, 1977

Borrego Springs High School, 1973

Professional Associations

Association of Discipline Defense Counsel

Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers

Legal Ethics Committee, San Diego County Bar Association

Center for Professional Responsibility, American Bar Association