NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) — Baton Rouge attorney Stephen J. Holliday, suspended over a domestic abuse conviction, has been conditionally reinstated following a May 20 Louisiana Supreme Court order.
"After considering the record in its entirety, we find [Holliday] has met his burden of proving that he is entitled to be reinstated to the practice of law on a conditional basis," the Supreme Court said in its three-page order. "Accordingly, we will order that [Holliday] be reinstated to the practice of law, subject to a one-year period of probation governed by all of the conditions recommended by the hearing committee."
Holliday's probationary period will begin the date he and the office of disciplinary counsel execute a formal probation plan, according to the court's order.
The court also ordered Holliday to pay all costs and expenses, plus interest in the matter.
Holliday was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on April 28, 1995, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association’s website.
Holliday had been suspended since June 2016 when the state Supreme Court accepted a joint petition for consent discipline reached between Holliday and the office of disciplinary counsel. Holliday's suspension followed his conviction for domestic abuse battery in June 2015.
Since his suspension, Holliday has worked as a paralegal for another Baton Rouge attorney and he taught construction law for about 10 semesters, in addition to teaching immigration law, according to court documents.
Holliday filed his petition for reinstatement in August.
In March 2019, a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board hearing committee recommended Holliday be conditionally reinstated. In its recommendation, the committee included conditions such as Holliday continuing his judges and lawyers assistance program diagnostic monitoring for a year after his reinstatement.
In a previous discipline, Holliday was suspended in June 2009 for three years over four counts of misconduct, including his September 2001 arrest for simple criminal damage to property and violating a restraining order, according to the state Supreme Court's attorney disciplinary proceeding at the time.
That count involved Holliday's arrest after he allegedly fled from his then estranged wife's home, with his 2-year old daughter in the car, after he'd used a shovel to break the windows of his wife's boyfriend's truck. Police later arrested Holliday after a chase through a residential neighborhood, according to the 2009 state Supreme Court disciplinary proceeding.