Opelousas attorney and former state Sen. Elbert Lee Guillory has been publicly reprimanded following a Sept. 6 Louisiana Supreme Court Order after acknowledging he neglected a client's legal matter.
Guillory, 73, along with the office of disciplinary counsel submitted a joint petition for consent discipline, which the state high court accepted, according to the one-page order. "Respondent acknowledges that he neglected his client's legal matter," the order said.
The public reprimand was the only discipline, however, Guillory was ordered to pay all costs and expenses in the matter, according to the order.
Opelousas attorney and former State Senator Elbert Lee Guillory
Guillory practices criminal law, family law and personal injury law in Opelousas, according to his website. He was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on Oct. 10, 1986, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar's website.
Guillory, born June 24, 1944 in Opelousas in Lafayette Parish, he grew up in the small farm community and his law office sits on land where his ancestors worked as slaves, according to his biography on another of his websites. An African American, he once was arrested for reading books at a "Whites Only" library and later joined the Navy. He completed undergraduate studies at Norfolk University in Virginia and received his juris doctorate at Rutgers Law School.
Guillory taught at Rutgers and worked in law and government, including service during the Nixon administration as a civil rights attorney and prosecuting civil rights cases under Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel.
Guillory represented Louisiana's District 24 in the state Senate from 2009 to 2016. He was a Republican until 2007 when he switched parties and ran for the state House as a Democrat. He switched back to the Republican Party in 2013, saying at the time the "left is only concerned with one thing: control" and urging other African Americans to "please join with me today in abandoning the government plantation and the party of disappointment."
In January, 2016, Guillory announced his decision to run for the U.S. Congress in Louisiana's Fourth District, after the incumbent in that seat, Republican John Fleming, announced his own unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate. Guillory ended up in fifth place for the seat ultimately won by Republican Mike Johnson.