By Jeff McDonald, THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
SAN DIEGO — John Gomez, the firebrand San Diego litigator known locally through several high-profile lawsuits and frequent television commercials, has dismissed an eye-popping legal complaint he filed late last year against a local attorneys trade group.
The former federal prosecutor and founder of the Gomez Trial Attorneys law firm said the withdrawal was a strategic maneuver and he would be refiling the case in the future.
“We are in the process of amending the complaint to add new claims and/or parties,” Gomez said by email.
“Because we are well within the statute of limitations to file, because we are extremely busy with the work we do for clients and because we continue our evaluation, we decided to dismiss the current complaint and re-file the amended complaint at a later time,” he said.
Gomez had sued the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, a nonprofit trade group that promotes local trial lawyers and hosts networking, seminars and other events for legal professionals.
In the lawsuit filed in December, Gomez accused the association and several of its leaders of undermining his law practice and spreading false claims about him. He said the association wrongly accused him of serial sexual harassment of women.
“This lawsuit tells the story of how a jealous husband, a delusional and ungrateful lawyer embracing an imaginary ‘victim’ narrative and a collection of white males with financial motives joined together with CASD to invent a collection of ‘fantastic lies’ and to fraudulently and maliciously attack, bully and harm the largest Latino-founded and one of the most gender-diverse and feminist-forward law firms in California,” the complaint said.
The San Diego Superior Court case alleged a years-long grudge between Gomez and other members of the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, where Gomez once served as president.
Among other things, the complaint accused the association of wrongly banning Gomez from the organization more than two years ago. It also claims members of the group planted a 2021 story in The San Diego Union-Tribune outlining sexual harassment claims against Gomez.
Gomez acknowledged in this initial lawsuit that he had twice been sued for sexual harassment.
He denied the accusations, but records show one of the cases was settled when he agreed to make a charitable donation. The other was dismissed after being sent to arbitration, and terms of its resolution were not part of the public record.
The Gomez lawsuit also referenced a State Bar investigation into his law practice — a probe Gomez said was contrived by his adversaries in another attempt to discredit him.
“The filing of a State Bar complaint is ordinarily a private matter,” the now-withdrawn lawsuit said. “In this case, however, those conspiring to harm Gomez and GTA flouted the fact that they had made complaints and conveyed their inside knowledge of that practice.”
The substance of the State Bar investigation referenced in the 2023 lawsuit is not explained.
But records obtained by the Union-Tribune show the regulatory agency opened another, separate investigation into Gomez Trial Attorneys earlier this year.
The new case involves an allegation that Gomez may have offered financial incentives to non-attorneys for bringing business to his firm, a practice that is not permitted under State Bar guidelines, the records show.
“As the former president of CASD, it is difficult to imagine that Mr. Gomez was ignorant of the ethical obligations he appears to have so cavalierly violated,” says the complaint filed in January by Jamie Court, president of a Los Angeles advocacy group called Consumer Watchdog.
Court provided the State Bar a copy of a 2016 email Gomez sent to his staff announcing a new incentive program for attracting new business to the company.
“If you are not an attorney, the (information) below does not constitute ‘fee sharing’ but rather is a bonus and compensation structure,” the email says.
Gomez said the latest complaint to State Bar officials was driven by jealousy over a previous girlfriend.
State Bar officials said the complaint filed by Consumer Watchdog had been forwarded to the enforcement unit for “further investigation and prosecution, if warranted.”
It is not immediately clear how long the enforcement unit might take to reach a determination or potential penalty.
The regulatory agency metes out multiple levels of discipline, from minor penalties to permanent disbarment, although some findings are not entered into the public record.