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Disbarment recommendation unusually harsh, expert says

By Raju Chebium
CNN Interactive Correspondent

May 22, 2000
Web posted at: 7:54 p.m. EST (2354 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Arkansas Supreme Court panel may be seeking to make an example of President Clinton by recommending the unusually harsh penalty of disbarring him in his home state, an expert said Monday.

ALSO • Full Text: Letter recommending Clinton's disbarment (FindLaw)

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In the past, the state Supreme Court's Committee of Professional Conduct has sought to disbar only those attorneys who were convicted of serious offenses such as drug-related matters and fraud, said John DiPippa, who teaches at the University of Arkansas Law School in Little Rock.

The panel recommended that Clinton be barred from practicing law in his home state, saying the false testimony that Clinton gave regarding the Monica Lewinsky matter constituted "serious misconduct."

"It may simply be that the committee considered ... disbarment necessary to send a message," DiPippa said.

The recommendation authorizes the head of the panel to file a disbarment lawsuit against Clinton in the Pulaski County Circuit Court in Arkansas, DiPippa said. The court will hold a nonjury trial and the loser can appeal to the state Supreme Court. No dates have been set.

DiPippa said it was unlikely that the case would reach the U.S. Supreme Court because no federal law is involved.

It could reach the federal courts if Clinton argues that a sitting president cannot be disbarred, DiPippa said, adding that argument is unlikely because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Paula Jones' case against the president that a sitting president can be sued for personal misconduct in state or federal court.

DiPippa said that in Arkansas anyone can file a complaint with the Supreme Court panel. Most complaints are screened by the panel's executive director, who has "a lot of discretion to push complaints forward or even settle," DiPippa said. He said the punishment ranges from a private letter of caution to the lawyer to disbarment.

The conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation and U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright referred the Clinton case to the Arkansas Supreme Court's professional conduct panel, saying the president lied under oath in the Jones case by denying he had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, the former White House intern.

Clinton gave a sworn deposition in the Jones case in January 1998. That deposition, coupled with the public revelation of the Lewinsky affair just days later, ignited a fierce firestorm that culminated in the president's impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives in late 1998, and his subsequent acquittal in a Senate trial early in 1999.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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