Educational and Professional Background:
B.A. Cal. State University Northridge, 1970
J.D. Whittier Law School, 1975
Professor Virgo has worked at the State Bar of California for 25 years in discipline enforcement. He has also worked as defense lawyer in State Bar and Committee of Bar Examiners matters for past 6 years. Currently, he assists in preparing for the MPRE and CalBar Exam. His mission is to give students a practical and intellectual background to attorney and judicial ethics. “UWLA is a small school environment with community attachments”. Professor Virgo has served as a faculty member since 2002.
Paul J. Virgo specializes in the defense of attorneys in regulatory and licensure proceedings and civil actions. Mr. Virgo also counsels and advises attorneys and law firms on preventative measures to avoid ethical problems and complaints, as well as providing expert witness and consulting services for any underlying transaction or litigation.
From 1976 to 2001, Mr. Virgo served as a prosecutor and attorney-manager in the Office of the Chief Trial Counsel of the State Bar of California. During this span of nearly 25 years, he handled hundreds of preliminary investigation and formal hearings and thousands of investigations of California attorneys. From 1989 to 2001, Mr. Virgo served as a supervising attorney-manager in the Chief Trial Counsel’s Intake Unit. In that capacity, he supervised, trained and counseled the Intake staff (30-35 employees). Supervisory duties included decisions on all complaints against attorneys as to whether the complaint would be closed without investigation, resolved, or investigated for possible prosecution in the State Bar Court.
Mr. Virgo has been a frequent lecturer on legal ethics and professional responsibility. He has lectured extensively before the American Bar Association’s National Organization of Bar Counsel from 1989-2000.
Additionally, from 1989-2001, Mr. Virgo was the State Bar’s liaison to the California judiciary and local bar associations. As such, he made scores of presentations to various courts and local bar associations throughout the State. He sat as an ex officio member of the Client Relations Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
Mr. Virgo is an Adjunct Professor of professional responsibility at Whittier Law School and the University of West Los Angeles School of Law.
Professional Memberships and Activities:
- Member, American Bar Association.
- Member, Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers.
- Member, Association of Discipline Defense Lawyers.
- Member, State Bar of California.
- Member, Past Officer, Director, National Organization of Bar Counsel.
- Member, State Bar’s Pilot Program Interaction Advisory Committee (diversion).
- Contributing Writer, L.A. Daily Journal.
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