NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) — A Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) hearing committee has recommended that suspended New Orleans attorney and former public defender Trisha Ann Ward be conditionally readmitted to practice law in the state.
"After discussion and review of the evidence, including testimony and exhibits presented by the parties, the committee finds that respondent Trisha Ann Ward has met her burden of proof and should be conditionally readmitted to the practice of law," said hearing committee No. 10's six-page recommendation issued June 5.
The committee recommended Ward be readmitted under certain conditions. Those included Ward continuing "to receive medical and emotional care and support from her providers for her physical and mental conditions" and that a practice monitor be assigned to her practice if needed.
The hearing committee's recommendation was signed June 4 by committee chair Scott A. Umberger. Attorney member Sandra D. Guidry and public member Chad M. Rachel concurred in the recommendation.
Ward was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on April 14, 2008, according to her profile at the Louisiana State Bar's website. Ward had no other discipline before the state bar prior to her suspension.
Ward was placed on interim suspension following a December 2016 Louisiana Supreme Court disciplinary proceeding and her guilty plea to misdemeanor stalking and violating a protective order. She was suspended by the state Supreme Court in September 2017.
In January, Ward filed a petition and application for reinstatement and the office of disciplinary counsel, in March, took no position on her petition, according to the hearing committee's recommendation. A hearing on her petition was conducted May 1 with Dane S. Ciolino, Louisiana legal ethics lawyer and professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, appearing on Ward's behalf. Chief disciplinary counsel Charles B. Plattsmier and deputy disciplinary counsel Christopher Kiesel appeared on behalf of the office of disciplinary counsel.