Raymond Nicklaus Szu, Esquire | ADDED TO EEBA WATCHLIST

California. Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Citizens of the morally and finan­cially bank­rupt State of California have rec­om­mended Raymond Nicklaus Szu , Esquire [#102103] a/k/a “Shifty Szu” of Santa Clarita, California as a nom­i­nee for induc­tion into the Evil Esquire Bar Association.

According to doc­u­ments obtained by the EEBA, Mr. Szu’s legal spe­cialty appears to be under­min­ing the board can­di­da­cies of home­own­ers’ asso­ci­a­tion (“HOA’s”) members on behalf of his incum­bent board mem­ber client(s). During the course of one such engage­ment Szu ALLEGEDLY:

• rep­re­sented him­self as the “General Counsel” of a home­own­ers asso­ci­a­tion when, accord­ing to doc­u­ments we received, he was actu­ally rep­re­sent­ing a board mem­ber of the association;
• entered into evi­dence, dur­ing trial, HOA doc­u­ments altered “with intent to deceive the (sic) tribunal…”;
• per­suaded at least two board mem­bers to dis­obey a court issued subpoena;
• pre­pared a fraud­u­lent dec­la­ra­tion on behalf of an HOA Secretary and the board’s president;
• sub­se­quent to receiv­ing noti­fi­ca­tion of the judge’s deci­sion explain­ing why an HOA mem­ber should have been seated, as an HOA direc­tor, attempted to block that member’s access to the board by employ­ing “shifty [tac­tics] and trickery”;
• obtained restrain­ing orders against an HOA mem­ber, under false pre­tenses, in order to pre­vent him from par­tic­i­pat­ing in mat­ters before the board thereby deny­ing the mem­ber his legal right to par­tic­i­pate in board decisions ;
• mis­led oppos­ing par­ties regard­ing set­tle­ment terms;
• con­cocted “bogus” HOA “vio­la­tion” notices and fines against an HOA mem­ber, while attempt­ing to con­ceal his direct involve­ment, by effec­tu­at­ing such notices under the HOA manager’s name with the obvi­ous intent to dis­qual­ify the mem­ber from elec­tion to the board and force him to move; and
• attempted to deceive over five-hundred (500) HOA mem­bers into adopt­ing changes to the HOA’s bylaws in order to cir­cum­vent a law­ful, demo­c­ra­tic, vote by HOA mem­bers in order to ben­e­fit his HOA mem­ber client.

This pat­tern of alleged insid­i­ous behav­ior sounds eerily famil­iar. Szu appears to be copy­ing the approach to “prac­tic­ing” “law” of Adrian J. Adams, Esquire of the noto­ri­ous Adams-Kessler, PLC law firm that oper­ates the Davis-Stirling web­site:  (http://www.davis-stirling.com/). Named for the “Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act”, enacted in 1985 by the California State Legislature, Davis-Sterling alleges the firm is an employ­ment agency for HOA man­agers and pro­vides “dis­pute res­o­lu­tion” ser­vices to their clien­tele. According to numer­ous EEBA patron’s reports, Davis-Sterling’s claims are frad­u­lent the com­pany is really used to ignite con­flict among HOA res­i­dents and their boards caus­ing all par­ties to hire attor­neys and drain the asso­ci­a­tions cof­fers. As yet, we’ve not linked Mr. Szu to Adams-Kessler, Davis-Stirling or any other sim­i­lar HOA exploit­ing law firms how­ever, his appar­ent copy­ing of Adams-Kessler, PLC vio­la­tion let­ters and his “modus operandi” does raise suspicion.

Szu was admit­ted to the State Bar of California on December 4, 2000 after attend­ing the University of California at Los Angeles (B.A., Political Science, 1994) and the University of Texas School of Law at Austin (J.D., 1999). Subsequent to his join­ing the Cal Bar, Szu prac­ticed as a “civil rights,” pub­lic entity defense and employ­ment lit­i­ga­tion attor­ney at the Lynberg & Watkins and Franscell, Strickland, Roberts and Lawrence law firms in, Orange, California. Prior to enter­ing pri­vate prac­tice, Szu worked in the Office of the Ventura County District Attorney. He lists his pro­fes­sional affil­i­a­tions as the Supreme Court of the State of California, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, the American Bar Association and the Orange County Bar Association.

According to the EEBA’s Director of Investigations, Szu is an avid Texas Hold’em poker player who plays online and in tour­na­ments. His record of win­nings is mediocre at best which begs the ques­tion as to whether he “bends” the rules of pro­fes­sional respon­si­bil­ity and the law in order to fund his aspi­ra­tions of poker stardom?

According to the State Bar of California, Szu has no record of dis­ci­pline or even admin­is­tra­tive infrac­tion since becom­ing a mem­ber of their infe­rior esquir­ing asso­ci­a­tion. Of course, the Cal Bar’s records are mean­ing­less as they only pros­e­cute 3.5% of the for­mal com­plaints they receive– five year aver­age includ­ing sys­temic and con­sumer complaints.

Szu’s alleged vex­a­tious and ille­gal meth­ods could be per­fectly accept­able under California lawyer laws. Or per­haps he’s just too smart to allow them to cor­ner him or some­one “for­got” a bag of cash in the State Bar’s Trial Counsel’s office and so they haven’t got­ten around to look­ing at any com­plaints they may have received?  Who would know.

Anyone need­ing to reach Mr. Szu to stir up con­flict in their HOA neigh­bor­hood, or entice him into a poker game, may con­tact him at the fol­low­ing address:

Law Offices of Raymond Szu, Esquire
- Attorney–at-Law -

22604 Lamplight Pl
Santa Clarita, CA 91350
Office: +1 (661) 210‑9440
Fax: +1 (661) 296‑4797
Email: ray_szu@hotmail.com

If you are aware of any evil or uneth­i­cal activ­i­ties Raymond has been involved in, that are not known to the pub­lic, or would like to nom­i­nate Raymond for induc­tion to the EEBA, please com­ment on this arti­cle and rate his “evility.”

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Know a lawyer who’s wor­thy of induc­tion to the EEBA? Send a brief sum­mary of the lawyer’s “qual­i­fi­ca­tions” along with his or her full name, state(s) of licen­sure and other iden­ti­fy­ing infor­ma­tion to vic­tims @ evilesq.com and, depend­ing on their con­duct, we’ll add them to our Nominee roles or watch list.