Legal News

San Diego city attorney hires his brother

By Jason Siegel

San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre hired his big brother as a volunteer intern handling criminal cases, including DUIs, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Gary Aguirre, 68, was a public defender and trial lawyer in San Diego. He went back to school in 2001, getting a degree in security regulation.

He worked at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2004-2005 but was fired over his unauthorized attempt to interview a Wall Street executive in an investigation, the Union-Tribune reported. Gary told Now, a PBS program, that he was fired due to political pressure -- the executive was a fund-raiser, well-connected with the Republican Party and the Bush Administration.

"Morgan Stanley hired a very, very high profile attorney who bypassed all levels of enforcement, my level and four or five levels above me, and went directly to the Director of Enforcement," told Now in April 2007. "I was told to go on vacation. Almost on my last day of vacation, I got a call, and was unceremoniously fired." (Watch, See Transcript)

A U.S. Senate report sided mostly with Aguirre, according to the Union-Tribune. (NY Times story on Senate report)

Gary moved back to San Diego last year and expressed an interest in getting back into law to his brother, who suggested interning at the city attorney office, the Union-Tribune reported.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 22, 2008 (boomark / email).