NEW ORLEANS – Suspended longtime Shreveport attorney Kirby Dale Kelly faces possible permanent disbarment following a recommendation issued May 8 by a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) hearing committee over allegations in five client matters.
In its 27-page recommendation, the three-person panel found allegations against Kelly "are so numerous and so egregious that he should be permanently disbarred."
"The evidence is clear and convincing that specific clients, unnamed clients, specific third party medical providers and unnamed third party providers of services were substantially injured monetarily and [Kelly] has made no restitution and made no attempts of restitution," the recommendation said.
The recommendation was signed Dec. 3 by committee chairman Stephen V. Vallaway and was issued the following day. Attorney member Jeffrey L. Little and public member Albert R. Dennis III concurred in the recommendation.
Kelly was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on Oct. 8, 1993, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website. Kelly, a personal injury attorney whose law office is on Line Avenue in Shreveport, has advertised himself as "the guy with the hat."
Kelly had no prior history of discipline in Louisiana, according to the recommendation.
Kelly was indefinitely suspended in January following a Supreme Court order for "threat of harm" following an office of disciplinary counsel motion. The order at the time provided no details about why Kelly was suspended.
Formal charges were filed against Kelly the following month, according to the recommendation.
Kelly did not file an answer to the office of disciplinary counsel's formal charges, and in July the factual allegations were deemed admitted, according to the recommendation.
One of the client matters involved a complaint filed in March of last year by a third-party medical provider who treated 54 of Kelly's personal injury clients, the recommendation said.
"Despite repeated demands dating back to 2017, (Kelly) failed to deliver $74,040.00 in outstanding medical expenses withheld from settlements for 54 clients," the recommendation said.
Though Kelly did not answer the formal charges to the panel, the recommendation said Kelly claimed that any conversion in the third-party medical provider's complaint resulted from his "asserted inability to supervise subordinate lawyers and staff."