NEW ORLEANS — Disbarred Monroe attorney and former city councilman Arthur Gilmore Jr. may be conditionally readmitted to practice law following a split recommendation issued Dec. 21 by the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB).
The LADB recommended Gilmore's readmission, subject to a three-year probationary period, according to the board's 25-page recommendation posted the first week of January to the LADB's website. Other conditions included entering a payment plan with a bank subject to 2017 consent judgments, providing the office of disciplinary counsel biannual copies of his monthly trust account statements, attending ethics school and paying all costs and other financial obligations in the matter.
Adjudicative committee member Danna E. Schwab signed the recommendation in which fellow members Pamela W. Carter, Sheila E. O'Leary, Dominick Scandurro Jr., Melissa L. Theriot and Charle H. Williamson Jr. concurred.
LADB members Brian D. Landry, Linda G. Bizzarro and Evans C. Spiceland Jr. dissented.
The LADB's recommendation follows a hearing committee's legal conclusions and its own recommendation filed in September.
Gilmore was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on April 15, 1983, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website. Gilmore was disbarred in October 2016 following his second conviction on racketeering charges.
Gilmore was indicted in June 2010 by a federal grand jury in Louisiana's Western District for allegedly accepting bribes while he was a Monroe city councilman in exchange for using his position to influence city council in zoning measures. In May 2011, Gilmore was found guilty on both charges and, after being granted a new trial, was found guilty again in May 2013.
The following September, Gilmore was sentenced to 24 months in prison and the judgment against him was affirmed on appeal in November 2014.
In her dissent, Bizzarro noted that when the LADB recommended in May 2016 Gilmore be disbarred, his "conviction for public corruption should be sufficient" to deny leave to apply for readmission.
"There is nothing in the record of these proceedings which would lead me to change that recommendation," Bizzarro wrote in her dissent. "Public corruption in any form is a misuse of public or government office for private gain. When Mr. Gilmore accepted bribes as a member of the city council, he violated this basic tenet of government."