Fitness Established For Disbarred Attorney
The Georgia Supreme Court has approved the readmission of a disbarred attorney subject to passing the bar examination
Upon consideration of the entire record, we defer to the Fitness Board’s determination that Myers has shown that he is entitled to be certified as fit to practice law in Georgia. Accordingly, as it appears that Myers has satisfied all of the requirements for approval of his application for certification of fitness, see Bar Admission Rules, Part A, Section 10, this Court hereby grants Myers’s application for certification of fitness and orders that, upon satisfaction of all the requirements of Part B of the Rules, including taking and passing the Georgia Bar Examination, Myers may be readmitted as an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Georgia.
He was admitted in 1998 and defaulted on bar charges, leading to a 2015 disbarment.
In connection with his application for readmission, Myers filed a statement of rehabilitation in accordance with In re Cason, 249 Ga. 806 (294 SE2d 520) (1982). He explained that, beginning in 2009, he experienced several major upheavals in his life that led to an “undiagnosed severe depression” for five to six years. He admitted that, as his depression and life worsened, he engaged in the behavior which led to his disbarment, and that he “was not mentally capable of providing a thorough response” to the 2013 and 2014 grievances filed against him. Myers expressed that he “feel[s] horrible about [his] behavior that hurt so many and led to [his] disbarment,” and he “take[s] full responsibility for [his] actions.” According to Myers, he started to overcome his depression in 2015 by focusing on raising his son and rebuilding his life. After working various jobs to regain financial stability, Myers reached out to one of the clients involved in the case that led to his disbarment, offering to pay the former client full restitution, but the client declined that offer.
Myers has also submitted letters of recommendation from his current boss (and former law partner) and others who know him through his volunteer work, all of whom attest to Myers’s professionalism, high moral character, and his ongoing commitment to his work at their organizations. Notably, Myers’s former partner describes Myers as a “prompt, diligent, respectful, and skillful” worker and states his support for Myers’s readmission, noting that “[p]rior to [the] issues [that led to Myers’s disbarment], he was an excellent, diligent, and caring attorney and law partner” and that Myers “is capable of regaining that status.”
(Mike Frisch)