State high court gives Brown law license back

• By ALLEN M. JOHNSON JR.
• Advocate New Orleans bureau
• Published: Sep 30, 2008 - Page: 8A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court has restored the law license of former state Insurance Commissioner James H. “Jim” Brown Jr., who served six months in prison for his federal conviction of lying to FBI agents.

Found guilty by a federal jury in Baton Rouge in 2000, Brown, 68, has maintained his innocence.

His conviction stemmed from one of several federal investigations of former Gov. Edwin Edwards and others. Brown finished his prison sentence in 2003.

Until his reinstatement by the high court Friday, Brown had been suspended from the practice of law since 2001.

The court’s reinstatement of Brown followed the favorable recommendation last month of the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, as well as a hearing committee of the Board.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which prosecutes lawyers accused of wrongdoing, did not oppose Brown’s reinstatement.

However, records show, Brown’s protestations of innocence gave the officials cause to pause. Under Louisiana’s criteria for reinstatement, disciplined lawyers must “demonstrate recognition of ‘the wrongfulness and seriousness of the misconduct for which the lawyer was suspended or disbarred.”

In his petition for reinstatement, however, Brown submitted into evidence a book he authored, titled: “Justice Denied: How the Federal Court System Failed Former Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown” (Lisburn Press, 2004).

The state Disciplinary Board stated it would not “re-litigate” Brown’s federal case. However, the panel cited a Supreme Court ruling which states that “a lawyer can express the belief that he was unjustly convicted, yet still fulfill the requirement to demonstrate remorse for the fact that his conduct had fallen short his obligations as a lawyer.”

Applying the ruling to Brown’s case the Board concluded:

“While maintaining that his conduct never reached the level of a criminal offense, Mr. Brown expressed regret for any failings in the duties required of him as a member of the bar that may have occurred during his dealings with federal investigators.”

A former state senator and secretary of state, Brown was elected state insurance commissioner on a reform platform in 1991. He won re-election in 1999, while under federal indictment.

On Oct. 11, 2000, a jury in the federal Middle District Court at Baton Rouge found him guilty of seven counts of lying to FBI agents investigating an insurance scheme involving former Edwards, former state Judge Foxy Sanders and others. The trial judge threw out two of the counts against Brown, but his appeals were denied.