Douglas Keith Hallen was admitted to the California Bar 13th December 1972, but has since been disbarred. Douglas graduated from Golden Gate University SOL.

Lawyer Information

NameDouglas Keith Hallen
First Admitted13 December 1972 (52 years, 6 months ago)
StatusDisbarred
Bar Number53685

Contact

Current Email[email protected]
Phone Number916-447-0440
Fax Number916-447-8636

Schools

Law SchoolGolden Gate University SOL (San Francisco CA)
Undergraduate SchoolUniversity of California Berkeley (Berkeley CA)

Address

Current AddressHallen & Associates, 1014 4th St
Sacramento, CA 95814
Map

History

29 January 2004Disbarred (21 years, 4 months ago)
Disbarment 99-O-13121
2 August 2003Not eligible to practice law in CA (21 years, 10 months ago)
Ordered inactive 99-O-13121
26 April 2003Not eligible to practice law in CA (22 years, 1 month ago)
Ordered inactive 99-O-13121
28 October 2002Disciplinary charges filed in State Bar Court 99-O-13121 (22 years, 7 months ago)
13 December 1972Admitted to the State Bar of California (52 years, 6 months ago)

Discipline Summaries

January 29, 2004

DOUGLAS KEITH HALLEN [#53685], 62, of Sacramento was disbarred Jan. 29, 2004, and was ordered to comply with rule 955 of the California Rules of Court.

In a default proceeding, the State Bar Court found that Hallen committed nine acts of misconduct, including unlawfully soliciting clients by capping, a “conspiracy . . . (that) involved corruption and gross negligence amounting to moral turpitude.”

According to the bar court, Hallen operated a law partnership with Johnny Formosa, a non-lawyer who was a capper; Hallen employed him as such. The court said Formosa leased an office intending to operate a fee-splitting capping scheme with an attorney who would handle personal injury cases. Formosa was responsible for the financial aspects of the office and received 70 percent of contingency fees.

Formosa or one of his staff worked on the cases and obtained Hallen’s involvement when needed. Hallen routinely signed checks transferring the contingency fee from the client trust account to the firm’s business account, and also signed checks Formosa wrote transferring money to one of his separate business entities.

Over a two-year period, Hallen and Formosa split at least $549,047, and at least 224 payments went to one of Formosa’s businesses.

Hallen and Formosa dissolved their partnership when Hallen refused to pay Formosa his usual 70 percent of a $300,000 contingency fee.

In a second matter, Hallen was retained to handle a client’s divorce, but abandoned the case and closed his office without notifying the client. He did no work other than filing a declaration regarding child custody.

The bar court found that Hallen failed to perform legal services competently, communicate with a client, return unearned fees or cooperate with the bar’s investigation and he improperly withdrew from representation.

Hallen essentially sold his law license to Formosa, said bar court Judge Patrice McElroy, a course of action she described as egregious. “For a two-year period, this experienced attorney engaged in an extensive, lucrative pattern of misconduct which resulted in a non-lawyer being responsible for operating respondent’s firm and making most of the decisions on how cases were handled and settled,” McElroy wrote. “He acted with complete disregard for his profession and his clients.”