NEW ORLEANS – Longtime Monroe attorney Sedric E. Banks faces possible deferred suspension and probation following a recommendation issued Jan. 10 by a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) hearing committee over allegations stemming from an estate matter.
In its recommendation, the LADB's three-person panel recommended the Louisiana Supreme Court hand down a fully deferred one-year suspension against Banks and that he be placed on a year of probation.
Committee chairman Frederick King signed the recommendation, with which attorney Tyler Storms and public member John Dowd concurred.
Banks was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on Oct. 1, 1976, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association’s website. Banks had no prior history of discipline in Louisiana, according to the recommendation, which counted his long legal career in the state as a mitigating factor in the disciplinary proceeding against him.
Allegations against Banks stemmed from representation of a client beginning in 2010 by himself and another attorney to administer a succession and in "companion litigation," according to the background portion of the recommendation.
Banks was alleged to have violated five professional conduct rules, but the committee found that only two of those violations "were proven by clear and convincing evidence."
The two rules Banks allegedly violated regarded collecting unearned fees and conflicts of interest. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel alleged Banks entered a conflict of interest when he took "an oblique action" on behalf of a family member in the succession and that he attempted to collect an unfunded contingency fee for the work previously done and where no recovery was had in filing litigation.
The committee found Banks "violated duties owed to his client," that he "acted knowingly but without animus," that his alleged misconduct "caused no actual harm" and that "he refuses to acknowledge the wrongful nature of his conduct," the recommendation said.