13/9/2012 James Beirne Scam

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Balita Illegally Owns and Manages ‘Beirne’ Law Office — A Danger to the Community

Submitted by PinoyWatchDog.com 

By Rene Villaroman and PWD Investigative Team

3/9/2012

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GLENDALE – Although the rumor that the Beirne Law Office is owned by the Allens had been swirling around like the sands of Kalahari for many years, the reclusive owners – Anthony Allen and his Filipino wife Luchie Mendoza have not owned up to that fact.

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The Allens are not licensed attorneys, and in California, it is illegal for non-lawyers to own and operate a law office. The Beirne Law Office ownership issue surfaced before the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2009 when the Asian Journal, the largest Filipino-American English newspaper in Southern California, petitioned for a protective order because Balita was attempting to obtain distribution information from them. Despite the seriousness of the charge, neither Allen nor Beirne came forward to dispute this allegation in their opposition to the Asian Journal court motions.

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Anthony Allen, court records show, is openly the general manager of the Beirne Law Office and principal owner of Balita Media, Inc. Luchie Mendoza Allen, who has admitted under oath using five different names for various reasons, stands in as the ‘public’ publisher of the newspaper, but PinoyWatchDog.com has reliable information that Anthony Allen calls the shots.

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LexisNexis investigation shows Anthony Allen owns James Beirne Law Office.

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During 1990s up to early 2000s, Luchie Mendoza-Allen, who has no college degree, was a member of ‘Beirne’s law firm.  ‘Beirne’s law firm usually had about half a dozen ads in the Balita newspaper, including ads featuring Mendoza-Allen  as ‘consultant’ for consumer credit, debt relief, foreclosure bankruptcy, and divorce.  Mendoza-Allen even had a full-page column in Balita providing general legal advice on consumer matters.

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It is on public record that the State Bar of California suspended Attorney James Beirne in February 1998.  Based on the summary of disciplinary record of Beirne from the State Bar website, Beirne’s suspension stemmed from his partnership with Anthony Allen and Luchie Mendoza-Allen in a credit repair business.  One of the reasons cited was allowing his non-lawyer partners to consult with clients and prepare documents in bankruptcy cases without his supervision and allowing a partner to dispense general legal advice through the column in Balita.

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Undeterred, even after Beirne’s suspension, Ms. Mendoza-Allen continued to write articles on consumer matters.  She continued to appear in many ads of Beirne’s law firm in Balita, some of which featured her exclusively or side by side with Beirne.  The ads indicated Ms. Mendoza- Allen was still providing advice regarding consumer credit and debt relief despite Beirne being suspended for this illegal activity.

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Through these years, Balita and the ‘Bierne’ law office always have shared the same office  locations in Glendale, Cerritos and  West Covina. Currently, Beirne and Balita’s main offices are still located at the same Glendale office on Wilson St. The operations of the two companies are intermingled and under the control and direction of Anthony Allen and Luchie Mendoza-Allen.  Many staff members could be working for either Balita or ‘the law office’ on any given day.

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PinoyWatchDog.com has unearthed an August 2009 correspondence from James Beirne  that Balita Media and ‘his’ law office indeed had the same accountant and bookkeepers. One ex-Balita staffer told the PinoyWatchDog.com investigative team that it was understood at the newspaper that the common of financial record keeping is used to cover up that the Allens are making all the money and that Beirne is merely an employee of the Allens.

Indeed, hiring for the staff for the ‘law firm’ is handled through Balita, with the newspaper acting as an employment agency for the law firm.

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The authoritative information service LexisNexis lists Anthony Allen as the #1 owner of the Law Offices of James G. Beirne, as well as the ‘only’ owner of the ‘Asian American Legal Center’, a moniker often used by the ‘law office’ to lure unsuspecting Filipinos there. “Shouldn’t the lawyer own and be in charge of the law office?” some Filipinos are asking.

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Since September 2011, Anthony and Luchie Mendoza-Allen’s son, Paul ‘Boy’ Mendoza, has appeared as an attorney alongside James Beirne. ‘Boy’ Mendoza now appears in Balita advertisements as having his same firm, at the same addresses and locations as Balita and Bierne. ‘Boy’ Allen admits having absolutely no prior legal experience, and no prior bankruptcy experience. He was just admitted as an attorney in the summer of 2011. However, he has now been designated as the new fronting attorney for his parents’ long standing law firm business, particularly now that Atty Beirne’s future practice is in question as he faces hundreds of contempt charges and a gathering public outcry regarding rampant false and misleading advertising. One source inside the Balita/’Bierne’ operation stated “business is way down because everyone now knows no attorney is really in charge over here.”

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Balita Media has devoted its pages to attacking Attorney Joel Bander recently because PinoyWatchDog.com has exposed Attorney James Beirne. Bander is representing a Filipino family who lost their home because the ‘Bierne’s law office failed to file an already completed bankruptcy petition. “These sustained attacks on me by Balita Media substantiate that the Allens own these law firm entities. Otherwise, why would a newspaper devote so much space to protect a mere advertiser?” Bander asked.

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Leading trial attorney Dennis Wilson, retained by Atty Bander to prosecute James Beirne for hundreds of counts of contempt of court, stated “We will be using the Balita campaign against Attorney Bander as evidence that the Beirne law office is owned by Balita. The campaign only proves how dependent the Allens are on the income from the Beirne law office.”

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When asked about Beirne’s repeated violations of the Superior Court’s order in the face of hundreds of contempt charges, Wilson stated “no attorney actually in charge of their own business would ever persist with this ongoing illegal and unethical advertising even after admitting under oath that the advertising was not totally truthful.”

When this writer asked Atty Bander about Balita’s campaign against him for exposing the illegal ownership and false advertising of the ‘Beirne’ law office, he stated “I am willing to take their heat if in the long run it helps the entire Filipino community to eradicate this disreputable entity.”

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