NEW ORLEANS – Suspended New Orleans attorney Hilliard Charles Fazande III faces disbarment after a recent recommendation by a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) hearing committee following his sentencing last fall for bank theft.
In its 12-page recommendation.issued Jan. 29, LADB Hearing Committee No. 37 also recommended Fazande be ordered to pay restitution and all costs in the matter, in addition to returning unearned fees and all client files.
It was the second time in less than two years that LADB Hearing Committee No. 37 recommended Fazande be disciplined.
The recommendation was signed Jan. 27 by committee Chair Robert M. Johnston and was issued the following day. Attorney member Wade P. Webster and public member Linda S. Ellis concurred in the recommendation.
Allegations against Fazande include professional conduct rules violations regarding diligence, competence, criminal acts, keeping a client informed and cooperation in a office of disciplinary counsel investigation. One of the counts against Fazande involved his guilty plea to bank theft in May in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Fazande was suspended the same month, according to his state bar profile.
In September, U.S. District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown sentenced Fazande to 18 months probation and ordered him to pay $5,000 in restitution to a bank, according to a U.S. Justice Department release.
Fazande was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on April 20, 2000, according to his profile on the Louisiana State Bar Association's website. Fazande has been ineligible since September 2017 over noncompliance with trust account registration and continuing legal education requirements and unpaid bar and disciplinary dues, according to his state bar profile.
In an unrelated matter, the same hearing committee recommended in July 2017 that Fazande be suspended for two years for allegedly mishandling funds and failing to discharge a judgment against him after he was found to have retained an unearned fee. Last summer, the LADB also recommended Fazande be suspended for two years.