NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) – Alabama attorney Evelyn Shahan Adams has been reinstated and indefinitely suspended on an interim basis following a May 1 Louisiana Supreme Court order.
The Supreme Court conditionally reinstated Adams to active status, requiring her to comply with all terms of her May 2018 recovery agreement with the state bar's judges and lawyers assistance program.
"The office of disciplinary counsel shall monitor (Adams') compliance with her recovery agreement and notify this court of any violation, which may be grounds for immediately returning respondent to disability inactive status," the court's single-page order said.
Adams' reinstatement followed joint petitions for transfer to active status and for interim suspension reached between the attorney and the office of disciplinary counsel.
The court then granted a motion to seal exhibits that were attached to the joint petition for transfer to active status and ordered Adams suspended on an interim basis "pending further orders of this court."
Adams, also known as Martha Evelyn Shahan Adams, was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on April 20, 2001, according to her profile on the Louisiana State Bar Association's website. No prior discipline was listed on her state bar profile or in a search of Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board's online database.
Adams' profile, which lists her primary address on Old Highway 5 South on Grove Hill, Alabama, also lists her as inactive beginning in October 2012 and then "inactive due to disability or hardship" the following October.
In that month, the Louisiana Supreme Court issued an order transferring Adams to disability inactive status with all disciplinary proceedings against her deferred until she resumes active status.
The court handed down its 2012 order, which was effective immediately, after considering the joint petition for transfer to disability inactive status.
Neither the court's 2012 order nor its order this month provides details about why the transfers or suspension were ordered.