An Artesia man allegedly used his standing in the Filipino community to engage in a long-standing, unauthorized practice of law as an immigration attorney, officials said.
John Pamintuan Alamarez Jr. did business as Immigration Law Services and Immigration Services Law Office despite never having been licensed to practice law in California, according to the State Bar of California.
The bar’s Chief Trial Counsel’s Office said it recently seized the illegal business.
Alamarez was once employed by a licensed attorney, but after the lawyer’s death, he persuaded the attorney’s daughter — a lawyer herself — to return from out of state to take over her father’s practice.
She and other licensed attorneys severed ties with Alamarez and later filed a complaint with the State Bar, the bar said.
The bar executed the seizure of the business after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge granted an interim order. At the man’s Artesia office, seized were 21 boxes containing client files, a laptop, and vital client records, including a client’s passport, the State Bar said on Monday, July 20.
For years, the bar said, Alamarez presented himself as an attorney and encouraged clients to refer to him as such. Some of his clients knew him as the pastor at their church, where Alamarez recruited them as clients, the State Bar said.
The State Bar said several Filipino clients reported significant financial losses after paying large sums for immigration and other legal services that were never completed.
“This matter reflects a complex and troubling series of events involving (an) unauthorized practice of law,” State Bar Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said in a statement.
“Clients, including members of a church where Alamarez served as a pastor, believed they were receiving legitimate legal assistance, but instead their matters were mishandled, exorbitant fees were taken, and their cases were placed at serious risk,” Cardona said.
Alamarez could not be immediately reached for comment.