Updated 1 p.m. PST

A state bar appellate panel took the unusual step Tuesday of overturning an order that recommended disbarment for a San Francisco attorney.

Drexel Bradshaw, who had been accused of defrauding an elderly client, was found guilty on three counts of misconduct last August after a trial before bar court Judge Yvette Roland. In November, the bar deemed him ineligible to practice law and placed a consumer alert on its website, warning visitors that he was accused of “a major misappropriation of client funds.”

Bradshaw appealed the trial court order, and on Tuesday a three-judge dismissed the case against the attorney with prejudice.

“Upon our independent review of the record, we do not find clear and convincing evidence to support culpability as to the charged misconduct,” State Bar Court Judge W. Kearse McGill wrote for the unanimous panel. “The evidence in the record fails to establish that Bradshaw engaged in any of the acts as alleged by” bar prosecutors.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Bradshaw's attorney, Jonathan Arons of San Francisco, said his client is “feeling vindicated.”

“This is the way it should have gone in the first place,” Arons said. “He didn't do anything improper.”

Arons said he could not remember the last time a review panel dismissed a case where the hearing judge recommended disbarment.

Melanie Lawrence, interim chief trial counsel, said in a statement:

“It is the Office of Chief Trial Counsel's highest priority to protect the public from misconduct perpetrated by attorneys. In this case, we vehemently disagree with the court's decision and are very disappointed in it. We agree with the Hearing Department Judge when she said that in this case, Mr. Bradshaw 'demonstrated a blatant disregard for his ethical duties…' We are now considering our options.”

McGill, joined by Presiding Judge Catherine Purcell and Judge Richard Honn, vacated the original order placing Bradshaw on inactive enrollment.

Bradshaw prepared San Francisco resident Ora Gosey's estate plan in 2006 and seven years later a court appointed him as conservator. Bar prosecutors accused Bradshaw of creating a construction company with a contractor he had worked with and later hiring that firm, which employed his son, to do $157,000 in repair work on Gosey's house.

Rowland found that Bradshaw effectively ran the construction company “from the shadows.” The panel disagreed.

“While Bradshaw did incorporate Bay Construction and provided money to it … clear and convincing evidence does not exist to show Bradshaw controlled or owned Bay Construction,” McGill wrote.

The panel found expert testimony that the repair work was done competently and at a fair cost to be credible.

“As conservator and trustee, Bradshaw was tasked with providing for Gosey's care and doing all that was possible to allow her to stay in her home,” McGill wrote. “By obtaining reverse mortgages, arranging for Gosey's care, and maintaining her home at a fair cost so she could stay there, he fulfilled his fiduciary duties under the trust.”

Gosey died in 2017 at the age of 90.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Drexel Bradshaw's status with the state bar. He is now active and able to practice law again.

This report was updated with comment from the interim chief trial counsel for the bar.