Home Celebrity Michael Jackson Lawyer Brian Oxman Recommended For Suspension by State Bar

For the the third time in his career, Brian Oxman is getting suspended from practicing law. Oxman, a constant presence on TV who identifies himself as the “Jackson family lawyer,” isn’t the only one in trouble this time. So is his wife, Maureen Jaroscak, who is also a lawyer in California. In a decision filed by the State Bar of California on March 3, 2011, the agency has recommended that Oxman be suspended for two years, with a third year of suspension stayed based on Oxman proving that he’s mended his ways.

In addition to reporting to the Bar Association four times a year during the three years, Oxman must also “must attend and satisfactorily complete the State Bar’s Ethics School and State Bar’s Client Trust Accounting School and provide satisfactory proof of such completion to the State Bar’s Office of Probation.” Jaroscak has been similarly recommended for punishment. And the couple must take and pass the Multi State Professional Responsibility Examination during their suspensions.

What happened? Oxman’s problems stem from 2004, when he represented a woman named Raquel Axelrod in her divorce from husband John Larson. It’s a complicated tale, but ended with Oxman being ordered by a bankruptcy court to pay Larson–the ex husband of Oxman’s client–a little over $5,000 in sanctions. Oxman simply failed to do so, even though he entered into several settlement agreements. Oxman also never reported the sanction to the Bar Association, and never paid it.

At the same time, Oxman and Jaroscak were involved in an eight year long scheme, according to the Star Bar of California’s filing, to hijack another client’s estate worth more than $500,000. This story, separate from the Axelrod/Larson one, shows Jaroscak completely ignoring rulings from the State Supreme Court and the California Bar as she willfully kept money from brother and sister Gerald and Sarah Quattrrochi after their parents died.

In both cases, the Star Bar decision found that the Oxmans “lacked candor”–which is a nice way of saying they lied about everything.

Interestingly, all of this was going on as Oxman grandstanded in Michael Jackson’s child molestation and conspiracy case, slept in court and snored loudly, and was eventually fired from the case by Jackson chief legal counsel, Thomas Mesereau. Mesereau, busy with keeping Jackson out of jail–which he did–had no idea all this was going on simultaneously.

And that’s not all: the State Bar also found that Oxman and Jaroscak co-mingled their funds with those of their clients, used their Client Trust Account to hide money from their own many creditors, and basically lied about everything else in their professional lives including fees they received for teaching at UC Irvine. Oxman was found guilty of four counts of misconduct, his wife five counts. Why they weren’t barred from ever practicing law again is a mystery considering this is Oxman’s third suspension. The State Bar also accused Jaroscak of “moral turpitude.” (That is very ugly; you rarely hear that expression anymore. It’s severe.)

But the court said in its decision that since Oxman and Jaroscak had admitted to some of their wrong doing and helped with the investigation, they would receive leniency. Oxman should also receive credit, the court said, for donating his time to the Plotkin Bail Bond school in Norwalk, California. I wish the court had done a little homework: back in 2005, when Michael Jackson was on trial, Oxman was in business with Dorry Plotkin regarding Michael Jackson’s bail and loans against his parents’ home in Encino, California. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156897,00.html. Oxman was busy making money, not donating it, at the time. He and Plotkin are childhood buddies.

Maybe now media bookers will finally understand who Oxman is. Maybe the Jackson family will finally get it, too. Recently, Oxman represented Joseph Jackson in his futile attempts to sue AEG Live and others for Michael’s death. Their lawsuits were thrown out in the end.

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Author
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
8 replies to this post
  1. Brian Oxman was also the first person to call MJ a drug addict on 25/06/09. No doubt he saw an opportunity to paint MJ as a drug-addled mental incompetent who could not possibly have the capacity to dispose of his assets equitably. The scumbag Jackson family – yes, Janet and Katherine, you too! – aided him in sending this myth around the world. So that they could challenge the Will – in court and on TV. As if Michael Jackson would ever leave a penny of his hard-earned to his money-grubbing family. All he did was take care of his Mom – who IMO has behaved abominably since his death.

  2. LMAO….COULDN’T HAPPEN TO A BETTER PERSON….FINALLY GOT HIS!! HE LIED AND USE ME TOO, WHEN I REACHED OUT TO HIM, FOR ASSISTANTS AND USED ME FOR INFO, AND THEN ACTED AS TO WHO WAS I. GREAT IM SO HAPPY, CAUSE WHAT GOES AROUND ALSO COMES AROUND. I HOPE THEY PUT A HUGE BOOT TO HIS ASS OF LAW PRACTICE. FOREVER JUSTICE FOR MICHAEL!!! :)

  3. If only they would do the same with Scientology lawyer Kendrick Moxon. Does on. Do a quick google search on that guy and you’ll see what I mean.

  4. It’s about time Brian Oxman has been exposed. He’s been a poor and dishonest attorney for nearly his entire career. And he deserves not only to be suspended, but stripped of his law license as well.

  5. brian oxman since the death of michael jackson has talked about all the people around michael who used him,and,wanted to make money off of him all the while representing joe jackson who was trying to make money off his dead son.

  6. Brian Oxman hasn’t been
    MJ’s lawyer since 2005….4 years before he passed. So that title is VERY misleading. The Jacksons keep him around because he worms for free and expect to share the windfall …which has yet to come by. They are parasites feeding off each other…

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