The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has annulled an attorney’s license and imposed other sanctions.

One matter involved the representation of landowners.

Another was a complaint from the attorney’s former secretary

Ms. Lawson submitted a complaint to the ODC dated May 16, 2014. In that complaint, Ms. Lawson alleged that Mr. Kohout had failed to repay a loan given to him by Ms. Beal, that he “[b]ounced four paychecks owed to me,” that he “routinely avoids creditors and has bounced checks to (1) WV Supreme Ct.; (2) Mon Co. Circuit Court; (3) Malpractice Insurance Company (Wells Fargo),” that he “has also bounced checks to former employee, Kristen Taylor,” and that he “has also submitted fraudulent Attorney’s Charging Lien against client.”  Finally, Ms. Lawson claimed that Mr. Kohout called her a disparaging term (i.e., “c**t”). It is not disputed that Mr. Kohout’s former law clerk, Ronald Kramer, drafted Ms. Lawson’s complaint and that she assented to its contents, adopting it as her own.