A State Bar judge has recommended disbarment of a Bay Area attorney after a jury found he had cheated an elderly client out of $3.5 million.

Wade Robertson, 45, of Stanford obtained the money in 2004 and 2005 by telling William Cartinhour Jr., a 77-year-old Maryland physician, that it would finance a class-action lawsuit that was likely to yield substantial returns, Judge Lucy Armendariz of the State Bar Court said in a ruling made public Friday.

The class-action suit was dismissed in April 2005, but Robertson reassured Cartinhour that the case was going well, while he transferred the money to his own accounts and lost much of it in securities trading, Armendariz said.

When Cartinhour became suspicious and contacted other lawyers, Robertson claimed he had violated their agreement and sued him, Armendariz said. Cartinhour countersued, and a jury in Washington, D.C., found in February 2011 that Robertson had breached his duties as a lawyer and a business partner. Jurors awarded Cartinhour $3.5 million in compensation and another $3.5 million in punitive damages.

An appeals court upheld the verdict, but Robertson has continued to fight the damages, and engaged in "corrupt and dishonest" maneuvers in a Bankruptcy Court, Armendariz said. She said Robertson, who has practiced law since 2001 and represented himself in the State Bar disciplinary proceedings, "has shown no remorse" and has claimed he acted reasonably.

Robertson engaged in "a well-implemented, well-thought-out and deviously orchestrated plan to defraud Cartinhour and misappropriate large sums of money," Armendariz said.

She suspended Robertson from law practice as of Saturday while he appeals her recommendation to a State Bar Court review panel and then to the state Supreme Court, which decides whether a lawyer should be disbarred.

Robertson said Armendariz's account of his actions was contradicted by records showing that he had acted solely as Cartinhour's business partner and had notified him of all developments in the class-action suit, and that the jury never found he had defrauded Cartinhour. He also said Armendariz disregarded testimony from a psychiatric witness that Cartinhour was mentally ill.

"I strenuously disagree with her findings," he said. "I don't believe that (the disbarment) will be upheld on review."