Story highlights
Svitlana Sangary faked photos of herself with celebs and politician, state bar courtroom says
A six-month suspension advice should be OK’d by state supreme courtroom
“I will tell you much more later,” Sangary tells NCS
Sangary wrote “16-page soliloquy” in response to prices, courtroom says
NCS
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A California lawyer is facing license suspension for alleged misleading promoting by Photoshopping herself into cozy photos with politicians and celebrities on her official web site.
The California State Bar Court is recommending Svitlana Sangary be suspended from training regulation for six months, after an investigation confirmed her web site featured fake publicity photos of her subsequent to President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Kim Kardashian, Ellen DeGeneres and others.
The California Bar Association says Sangary’s suspension doesn’t go into impact till authorized by the California Supreme Court and is recommending two-and-a-half years of probation after the six-month suspension.
On Friday, NCS contacted Sangary for remark, and she or he mentioned she would name again shortly. “I will tell you much more later,” she mentioned. Later within the day, she declined further rapid remark.
She in the end responded in a prolonged electronic mail Monday that defended her place, however didn’t flatly deny doctoring the photos.
Misleading the general public
Sangary faked many or the entire photos by taking authentic movie star photos after which overlaying her personal picture, the state bar courtroom discovered.
The ruling mentioned as a result of the “photographs were part of an advertisement and solicitation for future work … they were false, deceptive, and intended to confuse, deceive and mislead the public.”
But high-profile authorized analyst and movie star lawyer Mark Geragos doesn’t suppose an attorney’s photoshop frenzy is troublesome or price suspension.
“If that kind of puffery is actionable by the state bar, you are going to put the entire membership of state bar out of business,” Geragos informed NCS. “There is no greater group of self-promoters than lawyers, and puffery goes with the territory.”
Court paperwork say Sangary answered her discover of disciplinary prices with a “16-page soliloquy with little to no rational connection to the charges.”
A “sweet sixteen” response
As an instance, court papers cited a portion of Sangary’s response, which she wrote referring to herself within the third individual: “There is a well-liked expression, ‘sweet sixteen’. The foregoing 16 pages could be characterised as bitter-sweet sixteen, in Sangary’s view. It goes with out saying as to why they’re bitter. Can one envision the acts within the civil area, extra unseemly than those described above?
“Svitlana Sangary came to this country in her twenties, with nothing, and married another immigrant, who also had nothing … Sangary’s American dream has come true, as she has been able to achieve a point wherein now, in her thirties, Sangary is a prominent donor and philanthropist, supporting important social causes, who had recently received the email from President Obama, with the subject line ‘I need your help today’, asking Svitlana Sangary for an additional donation.”
Sangary made related statements in her Monday response to NCS saying the images “represent the doors that an underdog, an immigrant woman can walk through, and the heights the first generation American can climb.”
“I put blood, sweat and tears to finally reach a point in my life when I became a major donor and devoted supporter of numerous charitable and political causes, and got invited to the events where I was blessed with the opportunity to socialize and have my pictures taken with the talented and successful people, who have been inspiring me for my whole life, whom I admire and look up to.”
Sangary added: “Please take a look at all my pictures, consult any computer guru if you like, and decide for yourself whether these pictures are real, authentic or Photoshopped.”
Culpable of 4 counts
Stan Goldman, a Loyola Law School of Los Angeles professor with a background in authorized ethics, argues legal professionals’ web sites and photoshopping must be managed by the state bar in order that purchasers could make rational decisions.
“You may not be misrepresenting law school, grades or experience, but this (attorney’s website) is untrue,” Goldman mentioned. “It’s suggesting you are more well-connected, more important, more successful and talented than you are.”
State Bar Court Judge Donald F. Miles discovered Sangary culpable of 4 complete counts: misleading promoting, two counts of failing to cooperate with a disciplinary investigation, and one depend of failing to promptly launch a consumer file.
Sangary’s web site says she’s a Pepperdine Law School graduate and her places of work “concentrate on trial practice and civil litigation, specializing in all types of litigation and dispute resolution in various forums.”