I had a breach of contract and collection case in California that took 2 years to get to trial, the friday before trial was to begin I was notified that the atty I had hired and worked with for 2 years was unable to try the case because his trial in LA needed him to be there instead, so he was substituting his parter who knew very little of the case. It was a very detailed case and they "reviewed" it over the weekend but on Monday it was clear he had very little detail or understanding of the case. Needless to say as the trial went on I continually had to correct errors he had made and re-state facts. In the closing statements he made a significant error and when I tried to correct him he waved off my note and subsequently lost the case. I notified his partner (the guy I hired) of his error and told him I would not be paying the balance of my bill (I had already paid approx $30k in atty fees, a balance of $15k was left).
I owned another company which the law office was a customer of, selling office supplies. A month or so later, this atty placed several large orders with us for consumer electronics totalling about $11k and never paid for those products.
The loss of the lawsuit actually caused the one business to fail and then shortly thereafter the other failed as well.
I am wondering what kind of recourse I have against him? Do I contact the Bar?

