Renowned Attorney Who Killed Himself Faced Issues Over Firm's Public Funding
When Gary Proctor committed suicide earlier this year, the renowned California criminal defense attorney did so as court officials were seeking more information. They wanted to know how his publicly funded law firm had been spending money it received to represented low-income Santa Clara County parents in child neglect and abuse cases.
“Now, the state court system is supervising a first-of-its-kind audit to try to answer just how Santa Clara Juvenile Defenders spent its money the past three years and whether it complied with its contract terms. The scrutiny was undertaken amid growing questions about how well children and parents were being represented in dependency court, highlighted in February in the Mercury News series ‘Broken Families, Broken Courts,’ ” recounts the Mercury News, a San Jose newspaper.
Although the newspaper has been critical in its coverage of the legal work done by Proctor’s firm, and now indicates that money may have been used by the firm for purposes not directly related to representing Santa Clara County parents, court officials apparently were pleased with the work done by Proctor’s firm until the newspaper began asking questions and previously had not sought detailed financial information about its operations for more than a decade.
Many judges applauded the firm’s focus on helping parents address issues such as addictions and become better parents. However, it didn’t do enough to provide an aggressive—and expensive—defense to parents who were innocent of child neglect and abuse, according to the newspaper.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Renowned Criminal Defense Lawyer Gary Proctor Commits Suicide”
ABAJournal.com: “‘Totally Driven’ Lawyer’s Suicide a Wake-Up Call for Others”
