NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) — Covington attorney Raymond Charles Burkart III faces possible disbarment following a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) recommendation to the state Supreme Court regarding multiple allegations in a consolidated matter.
The LADB also recommended Burkart be ordered to pay restitution and refund "any unearned fees" to his former clients and all costs and expenses in the disciplinary matter, according to the board's 22-page recommendation issued June 28.
The office of disciplinary counsel ODC alleges Burkart violated professional conduct rules, including failure to exercise due diligence, communicate, return an unearned fee, return a client file and respond to a lawful demand for information from disciplinary authority. Burkart also was alleged to have improperly used a client trust account.
Burkart has been ineligible to practice law in Louisiana since June 2016 for failure to comply with mandatory continuing legal education requirements, not paying state bar dues and a disciplinary assessment and not filing a trust account disclosure statement, according to the LADB recommendation.
The LADB's recommendation follows two separate hearing committees' legal conclusions and recommendations filed last year.
Burkart was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on April 13, 2006, according to the LADB's recommendation and his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website.
In February 2017, an LADB hearing committee recommended that Burkart be suspended for a year and a day following two separate charges by the office of disciplinary counsel. Burkart was alleged to have written a bad check to reimburse a client for unearned fees, commingled and converted client trust account funds and failed to communicate with the office of disciplinary counsel during its investigation.
The following December, a different LADB hearing committee recommended Burkart III be disbarred over allegations he failed to act with reasonable diligence and promptness on behalf of multiple clients and that he failed to cooperate in the office of disciplinary counsel's investigation.