Should NC change how lawyers are disciplined? Attorneys, politicians disagree

The North Carolina State Bar, which investigates lawyers accused of misconduct, is facing increased pressure from the Republican-led state legislature to make reforms. On Friday, the bar’s top lawyer appeared before a new legislative committee, where she defended its work and pushed back against some proposed changes.

Woody White, a Wilmington defense attorney and former Republican state Senator, is chairing the committee along with Larry Shaheen, a GOP political operative from Charlotte. They’ve said they’re concerned that the bar might be engaging in “cancel culture” and targeting lawyers for investigation based on their political views or statements.

They have yet to cite any examples of that happening. On Friday Carmen Bannon, the bar counsel, said she doesn’t believe it’s true based on her 18 years of experience handling disciplinary cases for the bar.

“I was distressed at the last meeting to learn that there were concerns of political partisanship in our process,” Bannon said. “I do want to say that I have been doing this quite a while; I’ve never seen it. I’ve never heard any suggestion that that comes into play. … If it did happen, I would want to know about it. It is unacceptable. It is absolutely not what the state bar is about.”

Friday’s meeting also featured commentary from the other side: Lawyers who are known for defending other lawyers facing trouble with the bar. Raleigh attorney Alan Schneider and Wilmington attorney Ed West spoke at length about the issues they’ve identified in decades of experience.

Social media has changed the landscape, they said, raising concerns about how much information the bar should share with people who file a complaint against a lawyer that does end in private disciplinary action. The bar can send public or private disciplinary letters, and also sometimes quietly refers lawyers to professional training or substance abuse counseling.

Colon Willoughby, the former Wake County District Attorney who now sits on the Bar Review Committee, echoed their concerns.

“We have gotten to a point in our society where there really is no such thing as private discipline and confidentiality anymore,” Willloughby said. “It seems to me that, with the internet and social media, that any complainant has the ability to make these things public.”

Necessary discipline, or 'cancel' culture? NC lawmakers may revise ethics oversight for lawyers

Democratic lawmakers have been skeptical of the new committee, authorized by GOP leaders in last year's state budget.

After WRAL reported on the committee's initial meeting last month, a group of 15 Democrats in the House of Representatives, all of them lawyers, co-signed a statement warning against reforms that could reduce transparency.

"The purpose of the state bar’s attorney discipline process is to protect the citizens of North Carolina, not to protect lawyers," the Democratic lawyers wrote. "Attorneys accused of misconduct are entitled to due process but the ultimate results of the process must be transparent to the public."

Most state bar complaints go nowhere. But for the lawyers who face accusations, fighting them can be stressful, time-consuming and expensive.

In 2023 the bar resolved more than 1,000 allegations against North Carolina lawyers and dismissed the majority of them almost immediately, without investigation.

Of the 428 complaints that officials decided did warrant an investigation, nearly all of those were also eventually dismissed. Only 84 cases ended in any sort of formal discipline; a few dozen others ended in less formal steps like warnings or referrals to counseling. And only 28 lawyers faced a hearing to temporarily or permanently stop them from practicing law.

West and Schneider said that although most bar complaints do get dismissed, the ones that don’t can seriously threaten people’s careers and livelihoods. They said attorneys facing a bar complaint need more due process rights, although Bannon expressed a concern that that could help people destroy evidence implicating them, or intimidate witnesses.

And while the committee’s members have expressed a desire to make certain bar findings less available to the general public, Bannon said there can be good reasons to make things public — and sometimes as quickly as possible. “If I [investigate] a lawyer defendant who is serially molesting young clients, I want that complaint to be public,” she said.

White interrupted, saying he agrees with her that “nobody wants to protect or make it easier for bad lawyers who have done bad things to get away with it.”

At the committee’s initial meeting, he expressed interest in letting lawyers get their disciplinary records expunged, but only if there was nothing nefarious alleged.

State Bar attorney: Innocence advocate violated woman's privacy

During her efforts to prove Sledge’s innocence, Mumma took a water bottle used by someone she thought might be related to the real murderer to test for DNA. After a two-year investigation the bar found that she violated ethics rules and gave her an admonishment, the lowest possible level of discipline.

“It was the worst experience of my life,” Mumma said Friday. “... If I could not have afforded the counsel I was able to get, I would’ve lost my license.”

White ended Friday’s meeting by saying that the committee’s next meeting, on Feb. 29, will feature a lengthier presentation by Mumma. He declined to give further details.