California Attorney in Hot Water for Sexist Insult of Judge
Update: Pavone & Fonner have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to invalidate B&P 6068(b) as in violation of fundamental First Amendment principles.
A California attorney is in professional trouble for calling the ruling of the female judge in his case “succubustic,” among a host of other insults, according to Bloomberg Law.
A state appellate court announced it would report Benjamin Pavone of Pavone & Fonner LLP to the state bar, writes Bloomberg’s Brian Flood.
The trial court had denied Pavone’s request for an award of $146,634 in attorneys’ fees in an employment law suit. In his notice of appeal, he said the ruling was “disgraceful,” “succubustic,” validated the defense’s “pseudohermaphroditic misconduct,” and “prompt[s] one to entertain reverse peristalsis unto its four corners.”
The use of a form of the word “succubus” drew a rebuke from the appellate court: “We publish this portion of the opinion to make the point that gender bias by an attorney appearing before us will not be tolerated, period.”
Read the Bloomberg Law article.
