LOS ANGELES—As the sunlight creeps in the windows of a downtown hotel lobby just blocks away from a courtroom in California, constitutional scholar John Eastman is unfazed, even jovial, in spite of having just spent 10 weeks on trial defending his license to practice law—and in spite of a ruling from a State Bar of California judge recommending that his law license be revoked.

Last summer, the State Bar charged Mr. Eastman, the former dean of Chapman University Law School, with 11 counts of misconduct related to his role in representing former President Donald Trump after the 2020 presidential election.