Posted on 01/19/2005 3:58:05 PM PST by HAL9000
LITTLE ROCK — The suspension of Bill Clinton's law license entered its final year Wednesday with no word from the ex-president on whether he will seek to have it reinstated — now or ever.On his last full day as president, Clinton agreed to a five-year suspension of his license on the condition that Whitewater prosecutors wouldn't pursue criminal charges for "evasive and misleading answers" Clinton gave under oath about the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Under the deal with Special Prosecutor Robert Ray, Clinton had to accept discipline from the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct. The panel voted to disbar Clinton for five years and impose a $250,000 fine.
Any lawyer under suspension can ask for reinstatement at any time — but even after the suspension period a reinstatement is not automatic, said Stark Ligon, executive director of the professional conduct committee.
There was nothing in Clinton's deals that would require him to serve a full five-year suspension, said Marie-Bernarde Miller, a Little Rock lawyer who represented the committee.
"I would not want to speculate on what the former president would do, but he certainly would have the same rights to petition for reinstatement as any other attorney in Arkansas," Miller said Wednesday.
"It's the committee that settled this matter as far as Arkansas is concerned; if that was satisfactory for Mr. Ray, then that's a decision he made independently," she said.
Clinton spokesman Jim Kennedy declined to comment Wednesday on whether Clinton plans to seek reinstatement. Clinton makes millions of dollars on the lecture circuit and does not have an economic need to practice law.
According to financial disclosure reports filed by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., the ex-president made $9.5 million for speeches in 2002 and less than half that in 2003. In 2003, Clinton was working on his memoirs, "My Life."
The investigation of an obscure Arkansas land deal known as Whitewater morphed into a probe of Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky, then a White House intern.
yeah!...and still having fun
well another scumbag lawyer to watch out for
Is Clinton also barred from playing a lawyer on television, or will he be turning up on "Law and Order," "Boston Legal," and commercials for 1-800-Shyster and other ambulance chasers?
There was a site where all the disbarred Arkansas attorneys could be found, but I can't find it anymore.
If you do a search of Arkansas attorneys, Mr. Clinton is listed at his Chappaqua address. No mention of his disbarment.
Not sure about Arkansas but if this happened to him in Louisiana, he'd have to pass the bar exam again in order to be reinstated.
One wonders if his health will hold out until his re-instatement.
Why isn't this sleazeball along with his sleazeball wife in jail?
At least he was permanently disbarred from the Supreme Court of the US.
wasn't it exactly 7 years ago tonight that the Monics story broke ?
Thanks.
I found that page, but somehow missed the suspension part of it.
Robert Ray took a dive.
The (MF)ing (POS) got a slap on the wrist. The everyday average american would be serving time in a federal prison. NSNR
I think Ray did the best he could under the circumstances.
It was the U.S. Senate that took a dive.
Google is great. Here is the link to Judicial/Legal Misconduct
in State of Arkansas:
http://www.clr.org/ar.html
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