AUSA Charged With Unauthorized Practice

The North Carolina State Bar has filed disciplinary charges alleging misconduct of an attorney while serving as an Assistant United States Attorney assigned to four federal districts. It is alleged that he practiced without an active law license from November 2003 to March 2009. The attorney had Florida and North Carolina licenses but was retired in Florida and suspended in North Carolina for non-compliance with CLE obligations. The charges allege that the accused was aware of the obligation to have an active license, concealed his status from his superiors and "falsely held himself out to the courts, his colleagues and the public as authorized and qualified to practice law."

And, one might add, to the people he was putting in jail.

In an unrelated matter, the State Bar has charged a court-appointed criminal lawyer with making "inappropriate comments of a sexual nature, both in person and by text messages" to his client. It is alleged that the lawyer made it known to the client that he wanted to have sex with her and "tried to touch[the client] in a sexual manner and tried to convince [her] to have sex with him."

(Mike Frisch)