A unanimous Hawaii Supreme Court voted yesterday to issue an “Order of Disbarment,” effectively ending the long legal career of Honolulu attorney Gary Victor Dubin. Dubin, 81, has been practicing law in Hawaii since 1982. The disbarment order is effective 30 days after its September 9, 2020 issuance. In addition, Dubin has been ordered to pay $19,885.00 in restitution to clients in one of the cases cited by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel in its disbarment recommendation.
It is an abrupt end to a disbarment process that has stretched over more than four years as the case went through several rounds of hearings before the Disciplinary Board on charges of misconduct dating back prior to 2016, and then came before the Supreme Court, where Dubin and the Office of Disciplinary Counsel traded barbs and accusations as well as legal arguments. Dubin prevailed on technical points when ODC’s disbarment recommendation was first considered by the high court, but ODC’s recommendation was adopted the second time around.
In its disbarment order, the Supreme Court found Dubin had violated rules of professional conduct by “by knowingly misrepresenting the truth on a government form on which he certified the information thereon was true,” and then “signing the names of his clients, without their permission, in the endorsement section of a $132,000.00 settlement check made out to them alone and depositing it in his client trust account, thereby gaining control over those funds,” and then “overcharged the clients a minimum of $19,885.00.”
The court found, in another client’s case, Dubin “withdrew $3,500.00 of the client’s funds at a time when, based upon Respondent Dubin’s own accounting, Respondent Dubin had not yet earned those funds.”
The court ruled that in these cases, Dubin “inflicted actual, serious, injury upon the clients and upon the profession and…inflicted injury on the public at large and the integrity of the profession.”
In addition, the court noted it had considered several aggravating factors, including that Dubin “has two prior disciplines, evinced a dishonest or selfish motive, demonstrated a pattern of misconduct, committed multiple offenses, refused to acknowledge the wrongful nature of his conduct, and has substantial experience in the practice of law.”
At the same time, the court found “the record contains many positive comments from clients, and Dubin has contributed positively to the development of the law.”
From an earlier post:
Dubin, now 81, is well known for his defense of homeowners facing foreclosure, which he promotes through a weekly “Foreclosure Hour” radio show co-hosted by former Gov. John Waihee, who is serving as co-counsel defending against the ODC recommendation.
Dubin has vigorously denied the ODC allegations, and has sought to seal the court record to keep the allegations secret until a final Supreme Court ruling is made. Dubin has also disputed the fairness of the disciplinary counsel, and is seeking to disqualify the ODC board, the entire ODC staff, the hearing officer in the proceedings in his case, and the attorney representing ODC before the Supreme Court.
In a November 3, 2019 email, Dubin dismissed the ODC case against him. “The entire thing was a set up,” he wrote.
Dubin also touted his “nearly 90 appellate wins mostly in the last 20 years protecting consumers, including in the United States Supreme Court.”
“What other attorney even comes close to this record?”, he asked, then provided his own answer. “None.”
In another email, he predicted he would “totally prevail” at the Supreme Court.
In his legal filings, Dubin repeatedly attacked the Office of Disciplinary Counsel as unethical, biased against him, and riddled with conflicts. He argued that a series of lawyers handling the case for the Office of Disciplinary Counsel had conflicts of interest, and the court eventually responded by order ODC to retain outside counsel without conflicts.
Maui attorney Matthew S. Kohm was eventually appointed Special Assistant Disciplinary Counsel to bring the case to a conclusion.
Dubin also argued that he had been repeatedly denied due process during the disciplinary process, but the court’s Order of Disbarment dismissed these claims to be “without merit.”
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Gary Dubin has a long history of scams on the mainland before he came to Hawaii — Google him. Having moved here, Dubin became Attorney General for Keanu Sai’s “Kingdom of Hawaii” before Dexter Ka’iama became AG, during the period in the late 1990s and early 2000’s when the “World Court” at The Hague (actually an arbitration board) was considering the “case” of Lance Larsen vs. Hawaiian Kingdom wherein Larsen was suing the Kingdom and Sai for failure of the Kingdom to protect its “subject” Larsen from being arrested and imprisoned for repeated refusal to have (fake”) State of Hawaii driver license and car registration. I attended a panel discussion at the UH Center for Hawaiian Studies featuring Sai and Dubin along with Larsen’s newly minted flaky lawyer.
Will Dublin’s disbarment, expand to Investigation of former Governor and His Associate Governor John Waihee? Dublin’s lure for victims included a radio program with Dubin and Governor Waihee!
Very dubious!
I don’t know of any complaints about Waihee that ODC would be pursuing.
I was an original speaker, a pro se litigant looking for any help I could get when he started his radio program. He cut me off not liking what I had to say. I could not afford his representation. He told me I would never make it on my own. That was cruel advise to an economically disadvantaged victim of banking sector crime and mortgage fraud. I am still standing in what began 13 years ago. Still pending. I could lose this case for free I don’t like the thought of paying someone to lose it for me. With or without counsel there are no guarantees and no one has more at stake then the homeowner faced with loosing their family home. I have been ripped off by many servicers, firms, organizations, mediators, forensic auditors all in the name of law and justice to the victim revictimized over and over they take my money claiming to help me and never do. Its a crap shoot when it should not be. The courts, the attorneys, the banks all need to be held accountable for their conduct in a criminal enterprise of greed and dishonest financial gain by manipulating the governing systems. Its not just the banks who get caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Until an honest process conducted by honest people exists justice will not prevail. The percentage of powerful, greedy parties with hidden agendas far exceeds the ones who are genuinely being harmed and damaged. It is a sad reality to accept. Impossible to change. This is a perspective from a speaker of first hand, personal knowledge who is forced to live the lie in full HD and vivid living color sickening to witness the amount of wolves, sharks and vultures who prey on the weakness of the financially disadvantaged. This is a true reality they must live and die with.
I’m in the same boat. Hired Dubin @ the end. Even though he won the case for me because he lost his license I now got a referred attorney who hasn’t done anything do far. ?
I too have the same problem, although you got yours pretty quickly and I am hanging over because I can’t find the lawyers name and phone. If you have it can you. Please let me know? Mahalo
The word on the street is that “there is substantial clean-up” to follow. Lawyer enabling Dubin should be quaking in their boots right now.
they found some spurious “trust fund irregularities”. The law allows mistakes and the fact that they were in trust account and were accounted for allowed the mistake to be accurately corrected. ALL FUNDS IN A TRUST ACCOUNT ARE IN THE ACCOUNT HOLDERS CONTROL…IT’S AXIOMATIC. he overcharged a client? SLOW NEWS DAY? hey chief, it’s me Scoop the cub reporter…stop the presses, attorneys charge high fees.
He steals money from clients – this is not a normal case – this is not a situation where he just accounted for the funds the wrong way. He takes the money and never does the work.
No matter what he did he had a target on his back. When he started to hold banks, mortgage loan servicer’s and lender’s feet to the carpet it was there that he lost. No attorney can assist the homeowner’s and have an unblemished record. The opposition will destroy them just like they have done to other foreclosure defense attorney’s.
The State Bar could have suspended him. I believe they went to far with a disbarment and I hope he prevails. No attorney is without fault, they are all human and make mistakes. If this same type of disciplinary action was imputed on the opposition maybe I would feel differently but it is no-so I don’t feel different. They found a chink in Gary’s armour and exploited it. hey had to shut him up because he was winning and they were losing. It is as simple as that.
This guy is a real POS. My friend on the Big Island is facing foreclosure. She gave him the requested retainer (over $10,000) back in May 2020 and he never filed any papers, never responded to any messages, then when she found out he was disbarred he refused to refund her money going on and on about the lies being told about him bla bla bla. AND REFUSING to refund her retainer despite not doing any work for her and being a jerk the whole time. I have never in my life heard of an attorney acting this way. He needs to go to jail right now. You should not be able to steal money from people like that and hide behind your law license. Total LOSER! Stealing money while complaining about the Government accusing him of stealing money. It?s nuts!
I’m asking for a friend, really, she was a Dubin client fighting Foreclosure. She just found out about this and now needs to find new lawyer with a 2/20/21 trial date. Her funds are limited because she already had Dubin on a retainer any suggestions what her options might be?
And here we all are two years later. And where have we gotten in the foreclosure world?
The attorneys for the banks out-procedure pro se litigants. If we are not schooled in law and at least understand the rules of civil procedure and rules of evidence in the state courts, we cannot be expected to win.
We flounder like fish out of water. We chastise those who try to help.
I have been on Gary Dubin’s foreclosure hour. I have heard so many horror stories … and it’s not just about Dubin.
I have been partially responsible for getting a Dallas attorney disbarred. Worked with investigators for the Texas State Bar. It’s the good ol boy club. They beat up the winners and screw the losers. The bar associations have their own set of problems and they all revolve around the Article I administrative agenda … contract law.
And sadly, no one but the researchers get it.
For all of this, as a researcher and author of multiple books on the subject, I am truly sorry for your losses.
Collectively (and I speak for all of the homeowners out there with mortgages and deeds of trust) … no one held a gun to your head and forced you to sign these securitized contracts. Your loan information was already securitized before you even went to the closing table. You could have walked away, but you didn’t because you bought into the lie and now you’re living in it. The banks are the guilty parties and the courts protect them BY LAW. It is a no-win situation for homeowners without knowledge. Do not hold the messengers responsible. It is up to the homeowner to research and understand the way the system works and to prevent things like this from happening again.