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Disbarment recommended for lawyer who called disciplinary counsel a 'pimp' and 'Oreo'

A hearing committee of the Louisiana Disciplinary Board has recommended permanent disbarment for a lawyer accused of calling the disciplinary counsel a “pimp” and an “Oreo.”

The committee recommended disbarment of lawyer Ashton O’Dwyer Jr., saying his “anger bordering at times on rage” is a serious concern. As an example, the hearing board noted that during a June 2012 hearing by the committee, O’Dwyer “had to be admonished for brandishing about his shillelagh, his action clearly inappropriate for a disciplinary proceeding.”

“Time and time again,” the hearing board said, O’Dwyer “has returned to his old ways with claims of great conspiracies, kangaroo courts, scorched earth pleadings and reckless use of insulting terms and derogatory language. …

“The zeal with which he respected clients for more than 40 years in his practice has now morphed into an anger that impairs his ability to act rationally and professionally as an attorney.”

O’Dwyer has been suspended from practice in Louisiana on an interim basis since March 2009. The Legal Profession Blog has highlights of the Jan. 7 hearing board report.

His disciplinary problems began in federal court in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina litigation, according to the report. He was suspended by that court in 2008 for his litigation conduct, and then disbarred in that court in 2009 as a result of conduct that followed.

O’Dwyer had battled with a federal judge in the Katrina litigation who said O’Dwyer had filed a complaint full of “irrelevant rhetoric” and his legal theories were unsupported by the facts. O’Dwyer sought the judge’s recusal and claimed he had been “disingenuous,” according to the allegations.

O’Dwyer also accused some Katrina lawyers of “sleeping with the devil” and made retaliatory attempts to sanction lawyers, the federal court found.

After the federal court suspended O’Dwyer, he filed a “Declaration of His Intentionally Contemptuous Non-Compliance with the Court’s Order.” The federal court then disbarred him from practice there for at least two years.

O’Dwyer’s improper conduct continued in his disciplinary proceedings, according to the Louisiana hearing board’s findings of fact.

After receiving the interim suspension order, he called the Louisiana Supreme Court a “bunch of kids” and referred to the chief justice with a “sexual and offensive nickname,” the hearing board found.

About a week later, he sent an email to the disciplinary counsel denying the use of racially disparaging terms. Yet he sent another email the same day calling the disciplinary counsel a “pimp,” a “puppet,” an “Uncle Tom” and an “Oreo,” the hearing board found.

In January 2010, the hearing board found, O’Dwyer sent an email to the federal bankruptcy court that read: “Maybe my creditors would benefit from my suicide but suppose I become ‘homicidal’? Given the recent ‘security breach’ at 500 Poydras Street, a number of scoundrels might be at risk if I do become homicidal.” The FBI arrested him the same day, but his indictment on a charge of threatening communications was dismissed, according to the hearing board.

The hearing committee noted O’Dwyer had asserted he was a changed man, but the committee was not persuaded of his sincerity.

“Respondent may be compared to the child who is sorry he got caught but not sorry for the infraction,” the committee said. “In conclusion, this committee finds that respondent’s actions show his egregious lack of respect for the authority of the federal courts, the Louisiana Supreme Court, and the disciplinary authorities of this state.”