NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) — Ineligible New Orleans attorney Ramsey Terry Marcello faces another possible failed attempt at readmission following a June 6 recommendation by a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) hearing committee.
In its seven-page recommendation, LADB hearing committee No. 12 recommended Marcello's petition for readmission be denied for not fully complying with a 2011 Louisiana Supreme Court order.
Marcello, who applied for readmission in December, has completed six weeks of residential substance abuse treatment but has not fully complied with a second Louisiana high court requirement that he complete a five-year attorney assistance program, according to the recommendation. Marcello has at times been late turning in his Alcoholics Anonymous and other self-reports and he had 143 late "check-ins" over the course of the program, according to the recommendation.
The recommendation was signed June 5 by committee chair Michael J. Sepanik and was issued the following day. Attorney member Lena D. Giangrosso and public member Patricia A. Caperino concurred in the recommendation.
Marcello has not been licensed to practice law in Louisiana for about eight years.
In April 2010, the Supreme Court granted Marcello conditional admission to practice law in Louisiana, despite previous DWI and public drunkenness charges, and he was admitted to the bar on June 17, 2010. In July 2011 Marcello was suspended and the following November the state Supreme Court revoked his conditional admission for allegedly violating the terms of his conditional admission. The court then ruled Marcello must complete inpatient substance abuse treatment and a five-year attorney assistance program before he could reapply.
In November 2017, the state Supreme Court denied Marcello's petition to be readmitted with a single dissent from Justice Marcus R. Clark, who said he agreed that Marcello should not be readmitted but disagreed that the attorney should be allowed to petition for readmission.
The majority of the court then ruled Marcello can reapply after he has fully complied with the court's November 2011 order but Clark wrote in his dissent that Marcello then showed no signs of that.
"Again, by his own admission, he continues to use alcohol two to three times a week," Clark wrote at the time.