Mepham

This is a proceeding to review the recommendation of the Review Department of the State Bar Court that petitioner Charles Henry Mepham be suspended from the practice of law for five years, that the order of suspension be stayed, and that he be placed on probation for five years on specified conditions including three years’ actual suspension.

Petitioner was admitted to the practice of law in 1953. In 1977 he was privately reproved for failing to communicate with and abandoning a client and refusing to return unearned fees. In 1978 he was publicly reproved for similar conduct. In 1983 he was suspended from practice for three years, with execution of suspension stayed on certain conditions, after he failed to prepare an interlocutory divorce decree and failed to communicate with his client, who remarried. This discipline was also imposed because petitioner had failed to file a lawsuit within the period of the statute of limitations and failed to inform his client that the case had been dismissed.

The present disciplinary proceedings arise out of petitioner’s representation of Maria Arroyo. The hearing panel of the State Bar Court found that she had retained him on July…