Conditionally Admitted

Over two impassioned dissents, the Louisiana Supreme Court has conditionally admitted a  bar applicant subject to monitoring for two years. 

The majority order is far less revealing than the dissents.

This dissent from Justice Clark

This Court denied petitioner’s admission to the bar nearly two years ago. Then, the Court found that petitioner had “engaged in a pattern of conduct which is fundamentally inconsistent with a lawyer’s duties of truth and honesty.” This pattern of conduct included petitioner’s omitting a civil lawsuit from bankruptcy pleadings that she signed under penalty of perjury; giving false testimony under oath that all of her assets were listed in the bankruptcy petition; and, after having been granted a discharge in bankruptcy, agreeing to a settlement of the civil suit and then retaining the settlement funds for herself. This conduct constituted bankruptcy fraud and caused significant harm to petitioner’s creditors, as by the time the bankruptcy trustee learned of the settlement, petitioner had spent the money she received and the trustee had to abandon any claim on behalf of her creditors. These circumstances, the Court agreed, supported our conclusion that petitioner lacked the moral fitness for admission to the bar.

The burden of proving reform rests on the petitioner, and merely showing that she is now living and doing those things that she should have done throughout life does not prove rehabilitation. Neither is the passage of time alone sufficient to demonstrate a change in circumstances. Based on the information contained in her present filing, petitioner has made no showing of changed circumstances since this Court’s March 2012 action denying her admission. Her explanation of the bankruptcy matter was considered in the earlier proceeding and thus cannot possibly represent “changed circumstances.” She contends that she obtained religious and financial counseling, but she provides no evidence of such. She also claims to have sought counsel with a bankruptcy attorney to “discover” if restitution was an “option,” but she failed to take this important step until eight years had passed from her discharge in bankruptcy and restitution through the bankruptcy court was no longer available. Finally, petitioner’s attendance at a seven-hour CLE course in 2013 contributes nothing to the consideration of her good moral character…

By admitting petitioner to the Louisiana Bar, the Court is lowering the standards demanded of members of the Bar.

And this from Justice Crichton

Petitioner’s long record of deceitful and dishonest conduct was the basis for the denial of her application for admission to the bar in 2012. She now reapplies for admission – but in my view, she has made a woefully inadequate showing of any circumstances relevant to her good moral character having changed since the prior application was denied. Therefore, I would not consider her application. See In re: Jordan, 00-3006 (La. 12/15/00), 775 So. 2d 1065. Even if I were inclined to consider this new application, the burden of proving rehabilitation rests squarely on petitioner, and she has utterly failed to meet her burden…

On what basis are we to conclude that petitioner is worthy of the trust and confidence clients should expect of their attorneys – or what the public should expect of this noble profession? On the meager showing made by petitioner, I would deny admission…

In Louisiana, the identity of a conditionally admitted attorney apparently is not a matter of public record.

The order does not even give the newly-admitted member’s initials. (Mike Frisch)