Skip to contentSkip to site index
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
California Bar Backs Nixon’s Second Bid to Resign
By Wallace Turner Special to The New York Times
- Sept. 18, 1974
Credit…The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
September 18, 1974, Page 24Buy Reprints
New York Times subscribers* enjoy full access to TimesMachine—view over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared.
*Does not include Crossword-only or Cooking-only subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17—Richard M. Nixon’s second attempt to resign from the practice of law in his home state was approved today by the Board of Governors of the California State Bar, who forwarded it to the State Supreme Court with the recommendation that it be accepted.
Mr. Nixon attempted to resign his law license a week ago but the bar governors refused to accept that resignation because it did not note that the former President was the subject of a disciplinary investigation by the California State Bar.
The investigation grows out of his conduct as President. Some members of the bar here have argued that Mr. Nixon behaved in a way that should have brought disbarment. The bar had begun an investigation, on which much of its investigatory budget has been spent.
The bar requires that any lawyer who resigns from the bar and thereby halts an investigation of his professional conduct must note that the re: signation came while he was facing disciplinary proceedings.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
“No inference was drawn and none was intended that he had been found guilty,” said Brent M. Abel, president of the state bar. “With the new form of resignation, we concluded that it should now be accepted and so recommend it to the Supreme Court.”
In his letter to the court, Mr. Abel said that members of the Board of. Governors had recommended accepting the resignation without prejudicing signation without prejudicing further proceedings in the disciplinary action should Mr. Nixon later attempt to regain his right to practice law in California.
- Dig deeper into the moment.
Special offer: Subscribe for $1 a week.
Mr. Nixon is a graduate of Duke University Law School. He returned to California, where he practiced law in Whittier, the community in which he grew up and attended college. From 1937 to 1942, when he took a position as a Government lawyer, he practiced in a small firm in Whittier. In 1942 he entered the Navy.
Soon after returning home in 1946, he ran and was elected to Congress. He resumed the full‐time practice of law in 1961 in Los Angeles after losing his first Presidential campaign. After his defeat in the California governorship election in 1962 he went to, New York, where he became a partner in the firm of Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander.
The statement by which Mr. Nixon seeks to end his law practice here and so terminate the investigation of his professional conduct read as follows:
“I, Richard M. Nixon, against whom an investigation is pending, hereby resign as a member of the State Bar of California and relinquish all right to practice law in the state of California and agree and understand that, in the event this resignation is accepted and I thereafter file a petition for reinstatement, the state bar will consider in connection therewith in addition to other appropriate matters all disciplinary proceedings and matters pending against me at the time said resignation is accepted.”
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
It was signed “Richard Nixon” and dated Sept. 16, 1974.
Mr. Abel said that the matter was now. in the. hands of the State Supreme Court, “which has complete discretion.”
Mr. Nixon has reportedly been seeking to resign from the New York State bar, too. The grievance committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York has been investigating Mr. Nixon’s conduct in the Watergate scandals for nearly a year to determine whether he violated any of the canons of ethics of a lawyer.
In usual New York procedures, a lawyer who is under disbarment investigation is not permitted to resign simply by filing a request. Approval by the Appellate ‘Division of the State Supreme Court, which oversees professional discipline, is required.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Special offer. Subscribe for
$4.25 $1 a week.
VIEW OFFER
Site Information Navigation
- NYTCo
- Contact Us
- Accessibility
- Work with us
- Advertise
- T Brand Studio
- Your Ad Choices
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service
- Terms of Sale
- Site Map
- Help
- Subscriptions
- Do Not Sell My Personal Information
- California Notices
JOHN RUBENS is no Mother Teresa. 