Bankruptcy lawyer surrenders law license to avoid federal prosecution
Louisiana bar discipline officials are surprised that a New Orleans lawyer will avoid federal criminal prosecution by permanently surrendering his law license, the Times-Picayune reports.
Attorney Claude Lightfoot’s license had been suspended in 2011 in an unrelated matter in which he advised a disgraced federal judge to significantly misspell his name on a bankruptcy filing to avoid publicity. The judge, Thomas Porteous, was impeached in 2010 for accepting gifts from lawyers with cases before him, ABAJournal.com reported at the time.
In 2012, Lightfoot was indicted by a federal grand jury in the unrelated matter, in which he was charged with helped a bankruptcy client hide $24,000 from creditors.
As part of a plea bargain requiring Lightfoot to give up his law license, that case will go away, the Louisiana Supreme Court announced Friday.
“It was a new one for me, frankly,” says Charles Plattsmier, chief disciplinary counsel for the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board. Federal prosecutors, he explains, felt Lightfoot’s crimes stemmed from his bankruptcy practice and that ending his practice of law would protect the public. “It was a little unusual,” Plattsmier adds.
