NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) — Longtime Baton Rouge attorney Audrey Melissa Lamb faces a possible fully deferred suspension following a recommendation issued Aug. 23 by a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) hearing committee over allegations stemming from her 2017 DWI arrest.
In its 12-page recommendation, LADB hearing committee No. 1 recommended the Louisiana Supreme Court hand down a fully deferred year-and-a-day suspension against Lamb and also ordered her to pay all costs and expenses in the disciplinary member. The hearing committee found the formal charges were proven and warranted a minimum baseline sanction of suspension.
"However, the mitigating factors in this instance are compelling," the hearing committee's recommendation said.
The recommendation was signed Aug. 19 by committee chair H. Price Mounger and was issued the following day. Attorney member Rachel P. Catalanotto and public member R. Thomas Brown concurred in the recommendation.
Lamb was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on Oct. 9, 1998, according to her profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website. No prior discipline before the state bar is listed in the profile and a search of the LADB's online database of disciplinary decisions and rulings also turned up no prior record of discipline.
Allegations against Lamb stem from her arrest Sept. 8, 2017, following an auto accident on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge, according to the recommendation. Lamb was charged with DWI and was found in possession of marijuana and a firearm.
Lamb was cooperative with police the day of her arrest and with the office of disciplinary counsel during discipline proceedings against her. She entered a pre-trial diversion program and completed random drug tests, an online driving course and a Mothers Against Drunk Driving class.
The hearing committee's recommendation also described years of heartbreak that Lamb endured, including a broken marriage and the flooding of her home in 2016, and that the events leading up to her arrest had not been a regular occurrence.
"She explained that she had been under so much stress that she honestly wanted to let her hair down, to forget all the things she had to do," the recommendation said
Lamb "acknowledged the poor judgment she used" and expressed "sincere regret and remorse and was extremely thankful that no one was injured in the accident," the recommendation said.