Lofton

*630 In Lofton v. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (2014) 230 Cal.App.4th 1050 , 179 Cal.Rptr.3d 254 ( Lofton I ), we affirmed a temporary restraining order (TRO) that required appellant Initiative Legal Group, APC (ILG) to deposit into a court supervised escrow account over $5 million of settlement proceeds it claimed were attorneys' fees in cases it brought against Wells Fargo on behalf of some 600 former clients. The TRO was predicated on an allegation that ILG's clients were in fact members of a class compensated by a $19 million settlement of class action claims approved by the San Francisco Superior Court in this case, Lofton v. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage ( Lofton ), and that ILG was compensating itself out of its separate settlement without court approval for class claims resolved by the Lofton settlement.

The Factual and Procedural Background portion of our Lofton I opinion sets forth the unique factual context of this case. In part, those facts showed that ILG concealed from the Lofton court and its class member clients the $6 million settlement with Wells Fargo for payment of its attorney's fees in violation of California Rules of Court, Rule 3.769 (b). ( Lofton, supra , 230…