My question is occasioned by this delightful little news item: Jack Thompson faces hearing, possible disbarment . Now, I don’t know exactly how things work in the US, but it is my understanding that you go to law school and after graduation obtain a license to practice law in a particular state. (Mr Thompson went to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and is currently a member of the Florida bar.)
After this long preamble: If Mr Thompson does indeed get debarred, can he legally obtain a license in another state of the union? And if he can, how much of a chance is there that this would actually happen?
Yes, and not much (or if you prefer, about that of the proverbial snowball in hell). So far as I know, all states run background checks on lawyers who ask to become licensed attorneys in that state. Among the things you have to provide in your application for licensure is a list of other states in which you have been licensed, and the status of the license in those states. So Mr. Thompson would have to pony up that he was licensed in Florida, and had been disbarred there.
Now, no state that I know of categorically disqualifies someone on the basis of disbarment elsewhere (watch, someone will now manage to find one that does! ). But the chances are very, very small that another state would grant a license to someone disbarred elsewhere, unless either substantial time has passed, or there is sufficient reason to believe that the person applying has undergone some reformation of character such that similar actions are highly unlikely.
In Nicholas von Hoffman’s bio, Cohn applied to the Ct bar for licensing-when he learned that he (Cohn) was facing disbarment in NYC. According to von Hoffman, Cohn learned that the CT bar required applicants to take an ethics examination as part of the application. Cohn breezed through it-according to him, he passed by “putting down the opposite of what I would have done”.
I’ve forgotten-but i think Cohn continued to practice law 9through his firm) after being disbarred-I don’t know how successfully. anybody know? by the way, the book is “CITIZEN COHN”-its a good read.
Okay, actually it’s not exactly the same thing, but the Texas Rules of Disciplinary Conduct does have rules regarding disbarment for conduct occurring in other jurisdictions if you’re already licensed here and elsewhere. If you’re licensed to practice in Florida and Texas and are subject to discipline in Florida that leads to your disbarment, you’ll also be subject to “reciprocal discipline” in Texas for your Florida conduct and be disbarred here, too. I’m not sure if that’s a per se rule against getting licensed here following disbarment elsewhere, but I’d say it’s close.
). But the chances are very, very small that another state would grant a license to someone disbarred elsewhere, unless either substantial time has passed, or there is sufficient reason to believe that the person applying has undergone some reformation of character such that similar actions are highly unlikely.
