NEW ORLEANS — West Monroe attorney Francis C. Broussard, disbarred in 2014 follow a tax fraud plea, may have to wait longer to apply for reinstatement following a Feb. 5 recommendation by a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) hearing committee.
In its six-page recommendation, LADB Hearing Committee No. 3 recommended that an additional year and a day be added to the time Broussard will have to wait to apply for readmission after finding he violated professional conduct rules since his disbarment.
The committee found Broussard failed to comply with annual registration requirements and to keep a client reasonably informed.
The newer allegations against Broussard stem from a July 2018 complaint by a client who hired Broussard in 2011 to represent him in a workers' compensation matter.
The recommendation was signed Feb. 3 by committee attorney member Tyler Storms and was issued the two days later. Committee chair Frederick King and public member John Hardy Dowd concurred in the recommendation.
Broussard was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on April 18, 1986, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website.
In October 1998, Broussard was admonished by the LADB for allegedly engaging in an improper business transaction with a client. He received a fully deferred six months suspension in September 2002 for allegedly engaging in a concurrent conflict of interest with one client and negligently commingling and converting client funds in separate matter.
Broussard was placed in interim suspension following a February 2014 Louisiana Supreme Court order and his guilty plea to one count of filing false, fictitious or fraudulent tax claims in which he allegedly tried and failed to receive more than $9.7 million in tax refunds. He was disbarred over the tax fraud charge following a January 2017 Supreme Court order.
The more recent allegations against Broussard were filed in December 2018 by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. The hearing before the committee was in November.