Stacey Annette Matranga was admitted to the California Bar 2nd December 1999, but has since been disbarred. Stacey graduated from Southwestern University SOL.

Lawyer Information

NameStacey Annette Matranga
First Admitted2 December 1999 (25 years, 6 months ago)
StatusDisbarred
Bar Number204308

Contact

Current Email[email protected]

Schools

Law SchoolSouthwestern University SOL (Los Angeles CA)
Undergraduate SchoolCalifornia St University Northridge (CA)

Address

Current Address118 Harvard Ave # 184
Claremont, CA 91711
Map

History

28 October 2010Disbarred (14 years, 7 months ago)
Disbarment 08-O-12729
24 May 2010Not eligible to practice law in CA (15 years ago)
Ordered inactive 06-O-15426
2 December 1999Admitted to the State Bar of California (25 years, 6 months ago)

Discipline Summaries

October 28, 2010

STACEY ANNETTE MATRANGA [#204308], 43, of Ontario was disbarred Oct. 28, 2010, and was ordered to comply with rule 9.20 of the California Rules of Court.

Matranga committed 17 acts of misconduct in seven matters. Among other things, Matranga misappropriated $21,000 of client funds without any explanation for five months. She also “flagrantly breached her fiduciary duties in seven client matters,” State Bar Court Judge Richard Honn found, and she abandoned clients, did not comply with a court order, and failed to perform legal services competently, return client files, communicate with clients, promptly return client funds and account for or maintain client funds. She also she commingled funds in her trust account and committed acts of moral turpitude.

In one matter, Matranga represented a couple in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy matter in which they agreed to pay $30,000 to the bankruptcy trustee. The clients provided a check for that amount payable to Matranga, who deposited it in her client trust account. At the time, it had a balance of $43.27. She was required to maintain $30,000 in her trust account but allowed the balance to fall below that amount on several occasions. She wrote 15 checks to her law office totaling $20,700; 12 checks indicated her bankruptcy clients’ names in the memo portion.

Matranga deposited $23,460 of her own funds into the trust account. She stipulated that $21,235 of those funds was needed to replenish the amounts taken from the trust account. The State Bar Court found that she misappropriated that amount, committing an act of moral turpitude.

In a dissolution in which she represented the wife, Matranga told the court she would reimburse the opposing party’s counsel for reasonable attorney’s fees. However, when the parties were unable to reach an agreement, the court ordered Matranga to pay opposing counsel $10,000. She did not do so.

Although Matranga asked only to be suspended, Honn recommended her disbarment. “The misappropriation of client funds is a grievous breach of an attorney’s ethical responsibilities, violates basic notions of honesty and endangers public confidence in the legal profession,” he wrote. “In all but the most exceptional cases, it requires the imposition of the harshest discipline — disbarment.”