State Bar officials say the sign on the building was clear: “The Law Offices of Maria Leanos.”

Inside the El Cajon office, they said, a bar investigator saw business cards and signs promoting Leanos as an attorney. One sign, in Spanish, read “In the law office of Maria Leanos, first you pay and then services will be rendered.”

But, the Office of Chief Trial Council said, Leanos was not a licensed attorney. And on Tuesday, armed with an order from San Diego Superior Court, bar officials shut down Leanos’ office. They also seized several items, including seven boxes of client files.

The State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel said in a news release Wednesday that Leanos had been “operating a law office without a valid license and misrepresenting herself as an attorney to clients on immigration and family law matters.”

“From her law office business signs to firsthand accounts and inconsistent statements, Ms. Leanos’ actions provide ample evidence that she engaged in the unauthorized practice of law,” said Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona. “As reported to the State Bar, it appears that she misrepresented her status and qualifications to immigrants in need of legitimate legal representation.”

Leanos declined to comment when reached by phone Wednesday.

The Office of Chief Trial Counsel told the Union-Tribune it found evidence that Leanos “gave clients legal advice on immigration and family law legal matters even though she is not, nor has she ever been, a California licensed attorney.”

Officials said they found evidence that she had filed immigration documents regarding legal status, asylum, work permits and more.

In a court filing asking a judge to let them shut down the business, State Bar attorneys pointed to her Facebook ads, website and office signage as supporting the contention she was “openly and actively engaged in the unlawful practice of law.” They also cited her alleged “dishonesty” in claiming she was a “purported immigration consultant.”

When the State Bar investigator questioned Leanos, she told them she did not pretend to be an immigration lawyer and that she was bonded as an immigration consultant with the California Secretary of State’s office. The investigator found that Leanos was registered as an immigration consultant between May 2017 and June 2020 in the city of South Gate but could not find any record of current registration or bonding as an immigration consultant.

Officials said the business was also known as Latinos Unidos Immigration Mejia Income Tax. They alleged she provided tax services, an area outside the State Bar’s purview.

The investigation started with a December 2023 complaint to the State Bar from a family member in a dispute with Leanos.

According to the petition State Bar officials filed seeking to seize Leanos’ El Cajon business, many of her Facebook followers in her hometown in Zacatecas, Mexico, “are convinced that she is an attorney based on her own representations.”

Staff writer Alexandra Mendoza contributed to this report.