Experts say it’s unlikely that a petition seeking disbarment of Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, for allegedly lying about election fraud and inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection would spur bar prosecutors to launch discipline cases. But one of the seven Yale Law School students who organized the petition, which has garnered nearly 11,000 signatures in …
Tag: Attorney Discipline
State’s Disciplinary Rules Now Allow for Subpoena of Lawyers Under Investigation
The Texas Supreme Court has changed the state’s disciplinary procedural rules to give attorney disciplinary counsel the power to subpoena lawyers who are under investigation, and create new guidelines for imposing sanctions. The Texas Legislature called upon those changes to the Texas Rules of Disciplinary Procedure last year when it passed the State Bar of Texas’ …
Here’s What an Attorney Discipline Case Against Texas Sen. Carlos Uresti Might Look Like
Disbarment might be on the horizon for Texas state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, because of his criminal conviction on 11 felony fraud-related charges. Uresti, a personal injury attorney, fraudulently steered his clients to invest in FourWinds Logistics, a hydraulic fracking business that turned out as a Ponzi scheme. He pleaded not guilty, claiming he …
Lawyer Convicted of Forging Millionaire’s Will Faces Disbarment
A West Texas lawyer who was convicted of forging a will to steal the estate of a multimillionaire now faces disbarment, while also seeking a new trial in his criminal case. John Stacy Young of Sweetwater, currently incarcerated in the Tom Green County Jail in San Angelo, is arguing in a motion for new trial …
New Disciplinary Committee Members Appointed by SCOTX and State Bar
The new year has brought a new procedure for changing attorney disciplinary rules and the referendum process that gives lawyers the vote on rule changes. The Texas Supreme Court and State Bar of Texas have appointed members to the new Committee on Disciplinary Rules and Referenda, which the Texas Legislature created last year in Senate …
Assistant U.S. Attorney’s Affair with FBI Agent Results in Bar Suspension
A federal prosecutor who had a secret romance with a married FBI agent has been barred from practicing law for six months after the Louisiana Supreme Court found she committed professional misconduct. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mignonne Griffing of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana in Shreveport failed to tell her bosses …
Austin Solo’s License in Jeopardy After Pleading Guilty to Heroin Possession
The Commission for Lawyer Discipline is seeking to take the law license of an Austin solo practitioner who was indicted in a murder-for-hire plot, but instead received deferred adjudication for possessing and intending to deal heroin. In a petition for compulsory discipline, the commission noted that James N. Walker was indicted in Travis County on …
Disciplinary Suit Filed Against Lawyer for Filing Frivolous Legal Mal Case
Mark Womack, a Houston solo practitioner who beat back a legal malpractice case after eight years of litigation, said he’s gratified that the State Bar of Texas filed a disciplinary lawsuit against the lawyer who represented the plaintiff who sued him. The Commission for Lawyer Discipline sued Houston solo practitioner Armando Lopez in Harris County …