"Is City Council Candidate Ysabel Jurado Violating These California Laws?" by Daniel Guss
"Is City Council Candidate Ysabel Jurado Violating These California Laws?" by Daniel Guss
Neither she, her campaign nor her (apparently) former employer will say.
Los Angeles City Hall has for a long time been a lightning rod for controversy, with some of its politicians going to prison; others on appeal to avoid prison; facing trial (or going to rehab) with the risk of prison; and even serving their sentence before winning on appeal.
ROLL CALL! Englander. Huizar. Ridley-Thomas. Price. Alarcon. Alatorre. Ludlow. Hernandez. Am I forgetting anyone? And don’t get me started on former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who — while in office — somehow escaped being charged with insurance fraud in the early 2000s.
Gotta love those who got Los Angeles Times endorsements…
On the eastside, City Council District 14 has had more than its share of the embarrassment, including being used by politicians with fake names as a springboard to run for mayor without even serving their first full term. Antonio Villar(aigosa) won. Kevin (de León) Leon did not.
Now it appears that even Ysabel Jurado, a first-time candidate who is challenging incumbent Councilmember de León for that City Hall office on Election Day next week, isn’t following the rules.
According to her State Bar of California, LinkedIn and city Ethics pages, Jurado is presently employed by Gundzik Gundzik Heeger LLP, a boutique law firm in Sherman Oaks.
The problem is that neither the law firm’s telephone directory nor its website presently lists her as one of its attorneys.
It is unclear whether Jurado has an active email account with the law firm. A test email was sent to it, which neither bounced back nor had an out-of-office / leave of absence auto-reply in the event a former client needed to reach her.
Okay, not a big deal, you say.
Just sloppiness, perhaps.
Except that in allegedly failing to maintain current records, Jurado may be in violation of various California rules, codes and laws.
According to the State Bar of California rule 2.2 (c), attorneys are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of the information in their State Bar record. Any changes must be reported within 30 days.
The California Business and Professions Code section 6002.1 requires all licensees, regardless of their status, to maintain a current publicly available mailing address on the official records of the State Bar of California (which is often a work address) and provide address updates within 30 days.
California Rules of Court, rule 9.9 requires licensees to use the State Bar’s online system to report changes to contact information and provide a private email address for State Bar communications.
I repeatedly reached out to Jurado via social media, via her campaign representatives and treasurer as well as to the law firm, Gundzik Gundzik Heeger, none of whom replied.
If complaints were to be filed against Jurado, she could face fees, penalties and a change in the status of her law license to Involuntarily Inactive, since she claims to currently practice law… somewhere.
And we wonder why Los Angeles is such a mess…
Speaking of Election Day, stay tuned for my story about how LA elections aren’t even close to being secure and how your personal information may presently be at-risk.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards in June ‘23. In June ‘24, he won its “Best Commentary, Non-Political” award. He has contributed to CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)