Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: criminal lawyer

He will be allowed to continue practicing unless and until his is officially suspended or disbarred. This will happen automatically (though not immediately) when and if the lawyer is convicted, but a mere accusation won't trigger such a move.

By the way, an "accusation" can be made by anyone. If merely being accused of a serious crime could force a lawyer to stop practicing then a lot of lawyers would be falsely accused of serious crimes. I presume you were referring to the actual filing of charges. My answer is the same either way.

Keep in mind that the lawyer won't be immune from bar discipline while his case is pending. Someone could file a complaint with the State Bar -- perhaps even about the same allegations which led to the criminal charge -- and the Bar would begin its own adjudication process. If the same facts are at issue in both cases, though, the Bar will likely defer to the court system before making any factual findings of its own.

Re: criminal lawyer

Lawyers, like screenwriters, are innocent until proven guilty. (Although in films and on TV they would play the Guilty piano music.) The State Bar of Calif. would likely place the attorney on Involuntary Inactive Enrollment until the criminal case was resolved. Also his or her bail would be high, and it's hard to practice law from the county jail.