practicing law

Alex Jones lawyer suspended 6 months over records release

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A lawyer for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been suspended from practicing law in Connecticut for six months for improperly giving Jones’ other attorneys in Texas confidential documents, including the medical records of relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

The ruling by Judge Barbara Bellis on Thursday afternoon came in the families’ lawsuit against Jones for repeatedly calling the shooting a hoax on his Infowars show, which resulted in Jones being ordered to pay more than $1.4 billion in damages after a jury trial in Connecticut last year.

Bellis said New Haven-based lawyer Norm Pattis failed to safeguard the families’ sensitive records in violation of her order that limited access to the documents to attorneys in the Connecticut case. She called his actions an “abject failure” and “inexcusable.”

“We cannot expect our system of justice or our attorneys to be perfect, but we can expect fundamental fairness and decency,” the judge wrote. “There was no fairness or decency in the treatment of the plaintiffs’ most sensitive and personal information, and no excuse for the respondent’s (Pattis’) misconduct.”

Pattis said Friday in a text message that he plans to appeal the discipline and

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Lawyer is disbarred after trying to run his law practice from jail

Lawyer is disbarred after trying to run his law practice from jail

Ethics

Lawyer is disbarred after trying to run his law practice from jail

Lawyer is disbarred after trying to run his law practice from jail

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The Oklahoma Supreme Court has disbarred a lawyer who continued practicing law from jail after his conviction for shooting and injuring a man outside an Oklahoma City nightclub.

The state supreme court disbarred lawyer Jay Silvernail after rejecting a recommendation for a suspension of two years and one day.

The silvernail-shot-ryan-dejesus-outsi.html”Legal Profession Blog has highlights from the June 28 opinion.

Silvernail had tried to continue his law practice while he was in the county jail awaiting sentencing for the May 2016 shooting of Ryan Dejesus, who lost most of his right leg as a result of the gunshot wound.

Silvernail “was more interested in cash flow than client care,” the state supreme court said. And his decision to bring a loaded gun into a verbal dispute with Dejesus “gives us grave concerns about his fitness to practice law,” the Oklahoma Supreme Court added.

Silvernail was convicted of assault and battery with a deadly weapon in October 2019 for shooting Dejesus,

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