NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) – New Orleans attorney Jennifer Elaine Gaubert faces suspension following a recent Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) recommendation to the state Supreme Court regarding her criminal conviction stemming from a 2012 sexual encounter with a cab driver.
The LADB recommended Gaubert be suspended for a year and a day and that she be ordered to pay all costs and expenses for violating rules of professional conduct, according to the board's 17-page recommendation issued Dec. 4.
The LADB's recommendation follows a hearing committee's conclusions and its own recommendation filed in July that Gaubert be suspended for six months and required to pay all costs.
Gaubert was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on Oct. 13, 2006, according to her profile on the Louisiana State Bar Association’s website.
Disciplinary charges against Gaubert followed her conviction in April 2014 in Orleans Municipal Court on a charge of simple battery stemming from her alleged sexual encounter with the New Orleans cab driver who later filed a civil suit against her, according to the background portion of the LADB's recommendation. Her motion for a new trial in the battery case was denied, and Gaubert received a suspended sentence of a one day in parish prison and a day of inactive conditional probation.
The Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal later confirmed Gaubert's conviction.
In her two-page pleading filed with the LADB in August, Gaubert claims she has been "diagnosed with and treated for (post-traumatic stress disorder) PTSD and that she has returned to school to study music," the LADB recommendation said. "In the remainder of the document, (Gaubert) attempts to question and/or rehash some of the facts, witnesses, legal issues and civil and criminal proceedings related to the underlying criminal incidents in question."
Gabert has not practiced law in Louisiana for about six years, according to the LADB recommendation. She has been ineligible to practice law in Louisiana since June 2017 over noncompliance with continuing legal education requirements and unpaid bar and disciplinary dues, according to information on her state bar profile. In September, Gaubert was listed as ineligible for noncompliance with trust account registration requirements, according to her profile.
Gaubert otherwise had no prior record of discipline in Louisiana, according to the hearing committee and LADB recommendations.