Alan Man, a La Jolla attorney, was disbarred last year after what the California State Bar described as a year-long campaign of harassment directed against his employer, who Man accused of engaging in human trafficking and tax and wire fraud.
Man directed his accusations against Michael Mandell, a high-profile attorney who markets himself as “Law by Mike.” Mandell is popular for breaking down legal issues in short social media videos promising “no legal jargon.”
Based in Los Angeles, Mandell has more than 17 million followers on YouTube and more than 11 million on TikTok. He was named last year as one of YouTube’s top 10 creators in the U.S., landing in seventh place, just behind the late Charlie Kirk.
Man was among 73 California attorneys disbarred last year, but he was one of just 12 highlighted by the Bar Association this month in its announcement of the year-end disbarment report.
According to the Bar Association, Man’s threats and harassment were directed not only at Mandell, but also against family members and court personnel, including a law clerk and three attorneys working for Mandel. The Bar says Man sent “individually and collectively, over 3,000 text messages, emails and voicemails” threatening to destroy their “personal and professional lives.” This included late night and early morning phone calls and sexually lewd emails.
In the notice of disciplinary charges against Man, the State Bar says Man sent Mandell’s father “743 depraved, profanity-laced emails and texts, many of which included threats to improperly abuse the legal process to take his home and cause him financial damage.” Other messages “contained graphic images of maggots and rotting skin next to photographs of Mandell’s father.”
All of this caused “Mandell to become fearful for his own safety and the safety of others,” according to filings included in the notice of disciplinary charges filed in State Bar Court in Los Angeles.
Efforts by the Times of San Diego to reach both Man and Mandel were unsuccessful.
The Bar said Man “intentionally ignored” two temporary and two permanent restraining orders by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michelle Kazadi. Among the orders as”100-yard stay-away order” in which Man was ordered not to “harass, intimidate, disturb, or threaten” Mandell and his father, nor contact them “either directly or indirectly, in any way.”
The restraining orders only served to “inflame respondent’s ire, and in the ensuing weeks, respondent escalated his harassment and threats of violence,” the court documents say.
The judge also became a target of Man’s harassment campaign during the restraining order proceedings. He sent emails, the state Bar said, “which addressed her as Justice Bitchelle Kazadi, repeatedly referencing her race,” including what he believed to be her home address and telephone numbers. He also claimed the judge’s ruling “was due to her ‘PMS’ and prejudice in favor of the “white slave owners.”
The State Bar Court of California then moved to discipline the attorney. Man did not appear at his disciplinary case, or hire someone to represent him. The State Bar Court considered that an admission of guilt, and determined disbarment was the appropriate disciplinary action.
In his attorney profile on the State Bar of California’s website, which lists his license status as “disbarred,” Gutenberg provided a website link as his contact information. It is a link to “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” an essay by Henry David Thoreau.
