By Susan Bassi and Fred Johnson
In the wake of a contentious two-year custody battle that left him without custody or contact with his young sons, a father found himself burdened with a staggering $200,000 in attorney fee bills. Seeking resolution, he opted to arbitrate an attorney fee dispute with divorce attorney Gina Policastri through the local Santa Clara County Bar Association (SCCBA). Simultaneously, he raised concerns about perceived unfairness within the family court system. However, State Bar of California’s records pertaining to his attorney fee arbitration dispute revealed a disturbing email from SCCBA attorney Sherry Diamond. In an October 2023 email sent to Elizabeth Lew at the state bar, Diamond not only 
belittled the complaining father, disparaged Vanguard’s reporting on “graft and corruption,” but openly admitted to “shredding” an unread complaint that was an official document.
The father’s complaint implicated family court Judges Roberta Hayashi and Cindy Hendrickson, along with attorneys Magdalena Chattopadhyam, Gina Policastri, and Tristan Aeschleman. Surprisingly, despite his efforts to follow the rules set forth in the grievance process, the local bar remained unresponsive. It wasn’t until he escalated the matter to the state bar that he uncovered the unsettling actions taken by Diamond regarding his grievance. Diamond’s email was sent days before the local bar hosted its annual Judge Night which included highly publicized awards for local attorneys and judges.
The father, known as Father in Exile, has taken to social media to explain his experiences dealing with the family court in connection with a custody case.
Local Bar: Attorney Fee Arbitration, Holiday Parties and MCLE Education
In 1981, facing outstanding fees owed by two clients, divorce attorney Robin Yeamans took legal action against the local bar, alleging a failure to include a public representative on the arbitration panel. Yeamans argued that she couldn’t pursue unpaid attorney’s fees from her clients until the local bar adhered to its arbitration panel rules by incorporating a member of the public into the three-person panel responsible for resolving attorney fee disputes.
Yeamans’ lawsuit was contested. The local bar hired Jim Towery to litigate the matter. Eventually SCCBA was required to add a member of the public to its arbitration panel. However, decades later, litigants lament that the arbitrators on fee panels are often the same attorneys accused of overbilling them.
By 1988, Jim Towery had risen to the position of president of the local bar and was identified as speaker #3 at the clandestine BBMP (Bench-Bar-Media-Police) meetings—an undercover assembly of local judges, law enforcement officers, attorneys, and journalists exposed by the Vanguard in 2023. Towery later co-chaired these meetings during his tenure as a family court judge before being compelled into retirement. Towery was recognized for appointing the highest number of attorneys as minors’ counsel in the county, but his legacy was tainted by allegations he concealed significant conflicts of interest during his decade-long service as a family court judge.
Shortly after Sherry Diamond admitted to shredding a complaint about local attorneys and judges, the local bar hosted its annual Judge Night, where long-standing BBMP attorney BJ Fadem, Robert Hoover, and Judge Kulkarni were given awards. James Towery was honored by local attorneys with a lifetime achievement award, months after his retirement from the bench in the wake of a disclosure scandal connected to the BBMP.
Meet Your Local Self-Proclaimed Justice Partners
The primary obligation of local bar associations is to support their attorney members. Nevertheless, bar associations can also engage with the courts to manage minors’ counsel appointments, oversee attorney fee arbitration, and address complaints about fairness in the courts based on local court rules. Local bar associations also frequently organize holiday events and educational forums for judges and attorneys.
In 2016, two photographers were commissioned by SCCBA staff to capture images of lawyers and judges at a holiday party where offensive songs about family law cases were sung by divorce attorneys. Despite the photographers’ demand for payment for the work the lawyers had asked to be done, the local bar refused compensation. Two years later, Vanguard reporters confronted the local bar about nonpayment to a journalist, capturing Sherry Diamond’s response, which was shared on social media. Diamond’s 2023 email to the state bar suggests conduct consistent with First Amendment retaliation. The Vanguard has requested records and is investigating the matter further.
In 2017, Vanguard reporters audited an attorney educational course (MCLE, Minimum Continuing Legal Education, class) at the local bar, where Judges Jim Towery and Mary Greenwood were part of the panel instructing local attorneys on maximizing attorney fee awards in family law cases. During his presentation, Towery indicated a predisposition to award more fees to attorneys he favored. Simultaneously, he oversaw the secret BBMP, determining which attorneys to invite and exclude, unbeknownst to the public and out-of-area, or disfavored attorneys. Judge Towery never included Robin Yeamans in his BBMP invites, despite the fact she was one of the most qualified and experienced family law attorneys in the state.
With 80% of litigants in family court representing themselves due to financial constraints, those who do enlist an attorney often find themselves confronting staggering bills lacking regulation, public oversight, or review. The only formal recourse for complaints lies with the court, the state bar, or the local bar, where the process is overseen by attorneys. However, now social media offers litigants frustrated with unethical attorneys and unfairness in the courts an ability to share their frustrations directly online in the court of public opinion.
History of Government Attorneys Altering Public Records
In 2016 while investigating complaints related to Thomas Girardi, Vanguard reporters made public records requests to the bar seeking Jim Towery’s preemployment records. In producing the records, the state bar provided reporters with Towery’s social security number and home address. When the mistake was pointed out to the state bar, government attorney Suzanne Grandt asked the journalists to sign an affidavit noting the records had not been provided to others. Grandt made the request despite knowing the records had been provided to journalists associated with a California Newspaper Publishers Association public records project.
When Elizabeth Lew received Sherry Diamond’s email, admitting Diamond had shredded a complaint, Lew appeared to take no action. Government Code 6200 states:
“ Every officer having the custody of any record, map, book or any paper or proceeding of any court, filed or deposited in any public office, of placed in his hands for any purpose, who is guilty of stealing, willfully destroying, mutilating, defacing or altering or falsifying, removing or secreting the whole or any part of such record, map , book, paper or proceeding, or who permits any other person to do so, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three or four years.”
Vanessa Holton was General Counsel at the state bar when a public records request sought emails she exchanged with Jim Towery in 2017. In producing the records in response to a formal public records request made in 2022, Holton, or her agent at the bar, not only redacted the records, but did so in a manner that denied the public the right to know about the communications Holton had with a sitting family court judge.
Robert J. Tennant, an attorney who has practiced law as a prosecutor, criminal defense and family law attorney in Santa Clara county for over 50 years, wrote to Vanessa Holton pointing out the improper redactions and demanding the records in their entirety, citing Government Code 6200. Holton then quickly announced her plans to retire from the state bar. There is no public record indicating Holton faced any investigation for altering public records related to her communications with Judge James Towery back in 2017 as she was an attorney employed at the state bar.
The public records Holton concealed in 2022 were related to communications about the state bar’s failure to properly redact Jim Towery’s private information from public records requested in 2017, and seemingly evidences a network of government attorney relationships that indicate graft and corruption at the state and local bar associations. Relationships worthy of further investigation.
