NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) – Ineligible New Orleans attorney Jennifer Elaine Gaubert was suspended following a Feb. 11 Louisiana Supreme Court attorney disciplinary proceeding regarding her criminal conviction stemming from a 2012 sexual encounter with a cabdriver.
In its eight-page disciplinary proceeding, the state Supreme Court suspended Gaubert for a year and a day and ordered her to pay all costs and expenses in the matter.
The high court's disciplinary proceeding followed a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board recommendation in December that Gaubert be suspended. The board considered Gaubert's allegedly dishonest or selfish motive, multiple offenses, bad faith obstruction of the disciplinary proceeding and refusal to acknowledge the wrongful nature of the alleged misconduct to be aggravating factors in her case.
"Based on these cases, and the aggravating factors present in this case, we agree that the one year and one day suspension recommended by the board is appropriate," the disciplinary proceeding said.
An LADB hearing committee previously recommended 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.
Formal state bar charges against Gaubert followed her April 2014 conviction in New Orleans Municipal Court on a charge of simple battery over her alleged encounter with the New Orleans cabdriver who later filed a civil suit against her. 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 written response in August to the LADB hearing committee's report, Gaubert "concluded by characterizing her convictions as 'wrongful' and suggesting that she was not the perpetrator of a sexual assault upon" the cabdriver, the disciplinary proceeding said.
Gaubert stopped practicing law about six years ago, according to the disciplinary proceeding.