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RETURN to Arkansas Section / Saturday, April 7, 2001

Clinton fine ends disbarment case, LR lawyer says

TRACI SHURLEY ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

The attorney chosen to pursue the disbarment of former President Bill Clinton said Friday that she considers the case "completed" with Clinton's recent payment of a $25,000 fine.

Marie-Bernarde Miller, the Little Rock lawyer who represented the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct in the Clinton disbarment case, said her office received a personal check from Clinton for $25,000 on March 21. The fine and a five-year suspension of Clinton's law license resulted from an agreement between the committee and Clinton. The money was intended to cover the committee's cost to hire outside counsel in the case. Professional conduct committee attorney Lynn Williams also represented the committee.

"The case is completed," Miller said. "I think the outcome was a very good resolution of this case. The penalty that the President received -- a five-year suspension to take effect while he was a sitting president and a $25,000 fine -- was, I think, an acceptable penalty."

Clinton reached nearly simultaneous agreements with the Arkansas Supreme Court's conduct committee and independent counsel Robert Ray on Jan. 19, his last full day as president. Those agreements kept him from being disbarred or from being prosecuted regarding his testimony in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment case.

The Committee on Professional Conduct filed the lawsuit seeking Clinton's disbarment June 30 in Pulaski County Circuit Court. The case was originally assigned to Circuit Judge Leon Johnson and later to Circuit Judge Willard Proctor Jr. after Johnson's appointed term ran out Jan. 1.

The basis of the complaint was an April 12, 1999, opinion by Chief U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright that found Clinton gave misleading and evasive answers to Jones' attorneys during a Jan. 17, 1998, deposition. Clinton settled the case with Jones for $850,000 in 1998 after Jones appealed a dismissal of her case by Wright.

Clinton, who was accused of "serious misconduct" by the conduct committee, admitted as part of the consent agreement with the committee that he violated rule 8.4 (d) of the Arkansas Model Rules of Professional Conduct. That rule, according to the consent order signed by Proctor, states that it is professional misconduct for any lawyer to "engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice."

Clinton admitted in the order that he "knowingly gave evasive and misleading answers ... in an attempt to conceal from plaintiff Jones' lawyers the true facts about his improper relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, which had ended almost a year earlier."

Lawyers in the Jones case questioned Clinton about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton later admitted having "inappropriate intimate contact" with her.

Williams, who was unavailable Friday afternoon, said that after the deal with Clinton was struck in January, the committee had allowed Clinton "some time" to pay the $25,000 fine. Neither Williams nor Stephen Engstrom, Clinton's Little Rock attorney, would elaborate on the reason for the delay.

Engstrom was unavailable for comment late Friday afternoon. Miller said she has submitted a bill to the conduct committee for her work in the Clinton case. Though she could not recall the exact amount of her fees, she said the fine paid by Clinton to offset those costs is adequate.

"I can't remember [the amount]. It's something that is done by our office personnel," she said.

Clinton was admitted to the Arkansas bar on Sept. 7, 1973. In June 1990, he requested that his law license be placed on inactive status for continuing legal education purposes.

-- Ain't Gonna's Cousin (Buncha Family@and.friends), April 07, 2001

Answers

Cousin? Hmmm...Momma & daddy never told me about no 'cousin' before.

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), April 07, 2001.