Immigration Lawyer's Clients Left in Legal Limbo

Redwood City resident Griselda Lopez is afraid her husband could be deported back to Mexico as part of a tangled legal mess left behind by disbarred immigration attorney Martin Resendez Guajardo.

While waiting in line Wednesday night for a free clinic for victims of Guajardo's law practice, Lopez said she and her husband Carlos Juarez hired the embattled attorney in 2003 to clear up his immigration status. 

"He seemed like he was real," Lopez said. "I never thought we could be coming up to this."

The San Francisco City Attorney's Office and the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP organized the clinic after for fraud, illegal business practices and misrepresentation, among other allegations.

About 200 clients of Guajardo came to UC Hastings College of the Law looking for answers.

After receiving complaints to the California State Bar for defrauding clients by charging exorbitant fees and doing minimal to no work on their cases, Guajardo resigned from the Bar in April 2008. But Lopez said he never informed them and instead told her he changed his business name to the Immigration Practice Group because he took on more attorneys.

Lopez said they have paid Guajardo $45,000 over the years, but Juarez's immigration status remains dubious because he crossed into the United States illegally after being deported.

She said they haven't been able to make an appointment with Guajardo's staff to retrieve all her husband's records.

"All his paperwork is there," Lopez said. "We want to get it so we can continue with someone else."

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit against Guajardo on Nov. 17 alleging that he illegally represented immigrants, defrauding them of their life savings while failing to advance their case.

Guajardo and his business partner Christopher Stender represented immigrants across the Bay Area but never informed their clients that Guajardo is not licensed to practice law, the lawsuit says.

Guajardo's law office is located at 555 Clay St. in San Francisco's Financial District, but a sign on the office's door says the office is closed this week until Dec. 10 due to the holidays.

An advertisement on Craigslist indicated that the Immigration Practice Group was hiring paralegals for an office in Sunnyvale, said Joshua White, deputy city attorney.

In a Dec. 21 hearing the city attorney's office will request that the court issue a preliminary injunction, ordering Guajardo to stop practicing law and to inform his clients that he is an unlicensed attorney.

"We want people who go into Mr. Guajardo's office to have a clear understanding that he does not have a law license and that he cannot serve as their lawyer," White said.

The clinic was part of an effort by the city to educate the immigrant community about what steps to take before choosing an attorney, White said. 

"They should go to the California State Bar website and make sure that the person has a license to practice law and that license is in good standing," he said.

A sampling of clinic attendees said Guajardo never informed them that he was unlicensed, that they paid him between $10,000 and $70,000 for services but he never delivered on his legal promises.

Cecilia Martinez, of Stockton, said she is desperately trying to reunite her family after husband was deported to Mexico in August. She said she hired Guajardo in December 2007 but he only strung her family along on false hopes.

"I would have paid for him to say, 'there's no hope,'" Martinez said, "instead of taking and taking and taking."

Richmond resident Mario Gomez said he is also in a precarious legal situation, after being arrested by immigration authorities for having an expired visa and missing passport.

Gomez said he's been a client of Guajardo for about four years, and now he needs to find new counsel after his attorney left him high and dry.

"You have to start all over again," he said.

His family has paid Guajardo's firm about $27,000, he said, but with little to show for it.

"The money is not so much the issue," said Mayela Ortiz, Gomez's wife. "The moral of the story is [Guajardo] needs to be behind bars."