NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) — A Metairie attorney has been returned ot active status and an Alexandria attorney has been suspended following recent Louisiana Supreme Court orders.
The state high court, in its April 27 order, approved the petition filed by Metairie attorney David James Motter to be returned to active status and placed Alexandria attorney Kevin Matthew Dantzler on interim suspension "for threat of harm" in another April 27 order.
Motter was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on April 10, 1992, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website. Dantzler was admitted to the Louisiana bar April 13, 2006, according to his profile at the state bar's website.
Motter had been placed on inactive status due to disability or hardship in May 2014, according to his profile at the website. That month, the Louisiana Supreme Court ordered Motter onto disability inactive status and directed the office of disciplinary counsel to consider appointing a trustee to protect the interests of his clients.
The previous January, the high court, with Motter's consent, placed him on a fully deferred suspension of one year and a day after Motter failed to communicate with a client, held funds in trust, commingled funds and engaged in a conflict of interest. Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas E. Johnston dissented, saying he would have remanded the matter to a hearing committee.
In its recent order, the state Supreme Court's decision to return Motter to active status was conditional to the attorney full and complete adherence "to all terms of his April 17, 2018, diagnostic monitoring agreement with the judges and lawyers assistance program and such other conditions as may be imposed." The office of disciplinary counsel also was directed to monitor Motter's compliance "and notify this court of any violation, which may be grounds for immediately returning [Motter] to disability inactive status," the order said.
The order was effective immediately.
Dantzler's interim suspension also was effective immediately and is pending further court order. The high court also said in its order in Dantzler's suspension that the office of disciplinary counsel can seek to appoint a trustee to protect his clients' interests.