California bar restores city attorney candidate Faisal Gill’s eligibility to practice law

Faisal Gill, a leading candidate in the race to succeed Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer, is once again eligible to practice law in California after briefly being placed on inactive status by the state bar — the result of what Gill called “a small administrative oversight on my part.”

Gill’s license was placed on involuntary inactive status by the State Bar of California on July 1 and restored to active status Wednesday, according to the state bar’s website.

“It’s largely a matter of Mr. Gill missing an initial reporting deadline and late payment of the resulting penalty fee. Mr. Gill can remedy this by paying a $200 re-entry fee, which will allow him to return to active status,” Rick Coca, a spokesperson for the State Bar of California, said Wednesday evening, prior to Gill’s reinstatement.

Gill paid the reinstatement fee Wednesday afternoon, according to a receipt shown to The Times. The state bar updated its website to show Gill’s status as active on Thursday, with the change in status dated to Wednesday.

Gill, a civil rights attorney and former Homeland Security official, finished first in the June primary, more than four points ahead of finance attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto. His brief period of ineligibility stemmed from late paperwork and an unpaid fine.

Gill said he completed the state bar’s triennial Minimum Continuing Legal Education requirements by the Jan. 31 deadline but hadn’t uploaded a corresponding statement before the February reporting deadline, which landed him a $75 late fee. Gill said he thought he had paid that fine while paying state bar dues in February, but had accidentally neglected to do so.

The late fee was due June 30, Gill said, but he hadn’t seen an email about it and was under the impression that he had already paid all necessary fees.

“It’s absolutely 100% my responsibility,” he said. “But with three little babies and a law practice and also running for office, I just missed that email.”

Gill said that he was alerted by the state bar of his pending inactive status on July 1 — the Friday before a holiday weekend — and that because that fee couldn’t be paid online, he had overnighted a check to the state bar on July 5.

California

Guide to the 2022 Los Angeles city attorney’s primary election

Seven people are running to be Los Angeles city attorney, a race with a wide field and no incumbent.

June 7, 2022

“I don’t think this raises any issues for voters,” Gill said when asked whether he thought the matter might give some voters pause, saying he had never missed any case deadlines.

Gill will face off against Feldstein Soto in a November runoff election. Gill raised far more money than his opponents in the crowded seven-person primary and finished with 24.2% of the vote to Feldstein Soto’s 19.9%.

Gill, a former Republican who did a stint as a senior policy advisor in the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, has said the discrimination he faced as a Muslim in the Republican Party sparked his political transformation. He is seen as the more progressive candidate in the race.

Gill has argued that the city attorney’s office has been “unacceptably broad in its prosecution of misdemeanor charges” and has promised to impose a 100-day moratorium on misdemeanor criminal filings, a move Feldstein Soto opposes.

Gill’s endorsements include mayoral candidate Rep. Karen Bass and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, as well as Reps. Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove), Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

Four of the other five primary candidates — Marina Torres, Richard Kim, Kevin James and Teddy Kapur — have endorsed Feldstein Soto in the runoff, as has the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.