Las Vegas, NV 89118-2507
11 February 2025 | Active (2 months, 2 weeks ago) |
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31 December 2024 | Inactive (4 months ago) |
19 August 2022 | Active (2 years, 8 months ago) |
29 January 2022 | Inactive (3 years, 3 months ago) |
17 September 2009 | Active (15 years, 7 months ago) |
16 July 2009 | Not eligible to practice law in CA (15 years, 9 months ago) Discipline w/actual suspension 06-O-11685 |
18 June 2008 | Disciplinary charges filed in State Bar Court 06-O-11685 (16 years, 10 months ago) |
30 October 1996 | Active (28 years, 6 months ago) |
1 January 1996 | Inactive (29 years, 4 months ago) |
22 December 1988 | Admitted to the State Bar of California (36 years, 4 months ago) |
July 16, 2009 BRUCE A. THABIT [#138864], 47, of Encinitas was suspended for one year, stayed, placed on two years of probation with an actual 30-day suspension and was ordered to take the MPRE within one year. The order took effect July 16, 2009. Although Thabit is licensed to practice only in California, he was the principal attorney for Las Vegas-based DogBite, which advertised on the Internet and offered to provide legal representation to people who were victims of dog bites. The Web site advertised outside California, in both Nevada and Kentucky.A woman in Kentucky agreed to hire Thabit to represent her in a claim against a couple whose dog allegedly attacked and killed the woman’s dog and injured her child. Thabit wrote to the couple; the husband responded that they had a lawyer and asked Thabit to contact her.A nonlawyer who worked for Thabit sent a letter to the dog owners saying DogBite would continue to communicate directly with them rather than their lawyer because they needed a letter of representation from the lawyer. He wrote, “Your failure to cooperate in reporting the claim is now causing you to be sued. We are now coming for the family home.â€The dog owners’ lawyer asked Thabit to provide documents showing he was authorized to practice law in Kentucky. He responded that neither he nor DogBite represented the original client.The Nevada bar found that Thabit misled the public by holding himself out as a Nevada lawyer, engaged in the unlicensed practice of law and aided in the unlicensed practice by a nonlawyer.Thabit corrected his letterhead to show he is licensed only in California and he fired the nonlawyer who had worked for him.In the California case, he stipulated that he engaged in the unauthorized practice of law in both Nevada and Kentucky and that he helped a nonlawyer practice law in those states.In mitigation, Thabit had no prior discipline record and no clients were harmed by his misconduct. |