New Orleans attorney Kenneth Todd Wallace has been suspended following a Sept. 22 Louisiana Supreme Court disciplinary proceeding over allegations he created false and/or inflated time entries and created receivables for his pay over about three years.
The state court suspended Wallace for 30 months with all but 12 months deferred, retroactive to Jan. 8, 2016, which was the date of his interim suspension, according to the high court's 10-page disciplinary proceeding. Wallace also was ordered to pay all costs and expenses in the matter, according to the disciplinary proceeding.
Wallace was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on Oct. 9, 1998, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar's website. Wallace had no prior discipline before the state bar, according to the disciplinary proceeding.
Wallace joined the law firm Liskow & Lewis as an associate attorney in 1998 and was promoted to shareholder in 2005, serving as the firm's hiring partner and head of recruiting, according to the disciplinary proceeding. In 2012 Wallace was elected to the firm’s board of directors and served as the board’s junior director through April 2015, according to the disciplinary proceeding.
Beginning sometime in 2012 through Nov. 7, 2015, Wallace allegedly recorded false and/or inflated time entries and created receivables for his pay as a member of the firm, according to the disciplinary proceeding and the 16-page report issued by hearing committee No. 10 in June 2016.
The law firm later reported to the office of disciplinary counsel the results of an internal investigation that alleged Wallace submitted 428 entries that were "certainly false" and an additional 220 entries that were "reasonably certain to be false or inflated", according to the report.
At a meeting Nov. 9, 2015, when the firm presented preliminary findings to Wallace, he "acknowledged and apologized for his misconduct and assured the firm that his actions had not impacted any of the firm’s clients," the disciplinary proceeding said.
Wallace self reported his misconduct to the office of disciplinary counsel via correspondence dated Nov. 25, 2015, according to the disciplinary proceeding. Wallace was placed on interim suspension the following January, and formal charges were filed March 7, 2016, and a hearing was conducted the following month, according to the disciplinary proceeding.