High court disbars Baton Rouge lawyer
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The state’s top court rejected a Baton Rouge lawyer’s attention deficit disorder defense in disbarring him for keeping $50,000 that should have been shared with his former law partners.
An attorney for John M. Sharp had argued before the Louisiana Supreme Court last month that Sharp’s judgment was impaired by a lack of medication for his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
“The record simply does not support (Sharp’s) contention that there is any causal nexus between his misconduct and his ADHD,” the justices said Friday in their disbarment order.
The high court also rejected Sharp’s suggestion that his ADHD may be considered as a personal or emotional problem.
“This court has noted that it would be an exercise in absurdity if we were to hold that a medical condition which does not satisfy the requirements to be considered in mitigation as a mental disability could be entitled to the same weight if simply relabeled as a personal and emotional problem,” the justices said in the unanimous decision.
The high court said it did consider Sharp’s remorse and absence of a prior disciplinary record but also took “particular note” of his “dishonesty when first confronted with his misconduct.”
“The record supports a finding that (Sharp) intended to permanently deprive the firm of the funds,” the justices said.
Sharp was a partner with the Baton Rouge law firm of Sharp, Henry, Cerniglia, Colvin, Weaver and Hymel LLC at the time of his misconduct.
He was accused of converting $50,000 in settlement funds owed to the firm to his personal use.
Sharp repaid the debt after his then-partners confronted him, case records show.
Neither Sharp nor Opelousas lawyer Leslie Schiff, who argued Sharp’s case at the Supreme Court, returned telephone messages from The Advocate left at their offices Monday.
Charles Plattsmier, chief disciplinary counsel for the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, said disbarment is the appropriate sanction.
The 47-year-old Sharp, of Walker, had been the town attorney for Walker since 1997.
Sharp specialized in electric utility law and had represented several electric cooperatives in recent years.
He earned some $400,000 last year as general counsel for Dixie Electric Membership Corp., or DEMCO, which serves about 100,000 customers in Baton Rouge and surrounding areas.
Stephen M. Irving, a Baton Rouge lawyer and member of DEMCO’s board of directors, said disbarment ends Sharp’s work as general counsel for the company.
DEMCO officials hired backup counsel several months ago to guard against the possibility that Sharp would lose his license, Irving said.
A disbarred lawyer can apply for readmission to the Louisiana bar five years after his disbarment. It is up to the Supreme Court to decide whether a disbarred lawyer can be reinstated.
Sharp has 14 days to ask the high court to rehear his case.
He was admitted to the state bar in 1988.
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