- - Section 1. Scope
- - Section 2. Definitions
- - Section 3. Committee on Professional Conduct
- - Section 4. Committee Panels
- - Section 5. Office of Professional Conduct
- - Section 6. Confidentiality, Records
- - Section 7. Procedure
- - Section 8. Discovery
- - Section 9. Service of Complaint, Response, Failure to Respond, Reconsideration
- - Section 10. Vote by Ballot
- - Section 11. Public Hearing
- - Section 12. Appeal
- - Section 13. Disbarment Proceedings
- - Section 14. Reciprocal Disbarment or Suspension
- - Section 15. Criminal Activity
- - Section 16. Interim Suspension Procedure
- - Section 17. Sanctions
- - Section 18. Fines, Costs and Restitution
- - Section 19. Factors to be Considered in Imposing Sanction
- - Section 20. Surrender of License, Discipline by Consent
- - Section 21. Duties of Sanctioned Attorney
- - Section 22. Restrictions on Former Attorneys
- - Section 23. Reinstatement
- - Section 24. Readmission to the Bar
- - Section 25. Inactive Status
- - Section 26. Expungement of Dismissals
- - Section 27. Contempt
- - SECTION 28. Attorney trust account and automatic "overdraft" notification procedure
- - See Current/Former Procedures Parallel-References Table
PROCEDURES OF THE ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT
REGULATING PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
OF
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
SECTION 20. SURRENDER OF LICENSE, DISCIPLINE BY CONSENT.
A. Surrender of License. An attorney may surrender his or her license upon the conditions agreed to by the attorney, the Executive Director, and a panel of the Committee. An attorney may offer or consent to the voluntary surrender of his or her license at any time. No petition to the Supreme Court for voluntary surrender of license by an attorney shall be granted until referred to a panel of the Committee and the recommendations of the panel are received by the Supreme Court. (See Section 20(E)(2), for the procedure where there is a disciplinary proceeding pending, if Supreme Court does not accept the voluntary offer of surrender.)
B. Discipline by Consent.
(1) An attorney against whom a formal complaint has been served may, at any stage of the proceedings not less than ten (10) business days prior to the commencement of a public hearing before a panel of the Committee, tender a conditional acknowledgment and admission of violation of the Model Rules alleged, or to particular provisions of Model Rules so alleged, in exchange for a stated disciplinary sanction in accordance with the following:
(2) With service of a complaint, the respondent attorney will be advised that if a negotiated disposition by consent is contemplated that the respondent attorney should contact the Executive Director to undertake good faith discussion of a proposed disposition. All discipline by consent proposals must be approved in writing by the Executive Director, before they can be submitted to any other body.
(3) Upon a proposed disposition acceptable to the respondent attorney and the Executive Director, the respondent shall execute and submit a discipline by consent on a document prepared by the Executive Director setting out the necessary factual circumstances, admission of violation of the Model Rules, and the proposed sanction.
(4) The consent proposal, along with copies of the formal complaint, and the recommendations of the Executive Director, shall be presented to a panel of seven members for their votes by written ballot to accept or reject the proposed disposition. The respondent will be notified immediately in writing of the panel decision. Rejection will result in the continuation of the formal complaint process, using a different panel, by a ballot vote pursuant to Section 10 or a public hearing pursuant to Section 11, as the case may be.
C. No appeal can be taken from a disciplinary sanction entered by consent.
D. The panel shall file written evidence of the terms of the discipline by consent with the Clerk.
E. Serious Misconduct. If the discipline by consent involves allegations of Serious Misconduct, the Supreme Court shall approve any agreed proposal and any sanction.
(1) The Executive Director shall present to the Supreme Court, under such procedures as the Supreme Court may direct, any discipline by consent proposal involving Serious Misconduct which the Executive Director has reached with a respondent attorney.
(2) If the Supreme Court does not approve of the proposed discipline by consent or the voluntary surrender of license, the matter shall be referred to a panel that has not rendered a decision in the case by ballot vote, which new panel shall resume, as practical, the proceedings at the stage at which they were suspended when the proposal was made and submitted to the Supreme Court. If both regular panels have been used in prior proceedings involving a case, the Committee Chair may form a third panel with seven of the reserve members (five attorneys and two non-attorneys) to hear the case.
(3) The fact that an offer and proposed sanction was agreed to by the Executive Director, the terms of the proposed discipline by consent, and the fact that the Supreme Court rejected the proposal shall not be disclosed to the new panel, except in those instances where disclosure of compromises is permitted under Rule 408 of the Arkansas Rules of Evidence.
History. Amended Dec. 20, 2001, effective January 1, 2002