Rule 20 Surrender of License, Discipline By

CONSENT. A. Surrender of License. An attorney may surrender his or her license upon the conditions agreed to by the attorney, the Executive Director, and a panel of the Committee. An attorney may offer or consent to the voluntary surrender of his or her license at any stage of the proceedings. No petition to the Supreme Court for voluntary surrender of license by an attorney shall be granted until it is referred to a panel of the Committee and the recommendations of the panel are received by the Supreme Court. (See Section 20(E)(2), for the procedure where there is a disciplinary proceeding pending, if Supreme Court does not accept the voluntary offer of surrender.) B. Discipline by Consent.

(1) An attorney against whom a formal complaint has been served may, (a) not less than twenty (20) calendar days before the panel meeting at which the complaint will be on the panel agenda for ballot vote action or (b) not less than twenty (20) calendar days before the commencement of a public hearing before a panel of the Committee, tender a conditional acknowledgment and admission of violation of any of the Rules alleged in the formal complaint, or to particular provisions of Rules so alleged, in exchange for a stated disciplinary sanction in accordance with the following:

(2) With service of a formal complaint, the respondent attorney will be advised that, if a negotiated disposition by consent is contemplated, the respondent attorney should contact the Executive Director to undertake good faith discussion of a proposed disposition. All discipline by consent proposals must be approved in writing by the Executive Director, before they can be submitted to a panel.

(3) Upon a proposed disposition acceptable to the respondent attorney and the Executive Director, the respondent shall execute and submit a discipline by consent on a document prepared by the Executive Director setting out the necessary factual circumstances, admission of violation of the Rules, and the proposed sanction.

(4) The consent proposal, along with copies of the formal complaint, and the recommendations of the Executive Director, shall be presented to a panel of the Committee for their votes by written ballot to accept or reject the proposed disposition. The respondent will be notified immediately in writing of the panel decision. Rejection will result in the continuation of the formal complaint process, using a different panel, by a ballot vote pursuant to Section 10 or a public hearing pursuant to Section 11, as the case may be. C. No appeal may be taken from a disciplinary sanction entered by consent.

D. The panel shall file written evidence of the terms of the discipline by consent with the Clerk, unless the discipline by consent is a non-public warning. E. Serious Misconduct. If the discipline by consent involves allegations of Serious Misconduct and a suspension of the respondent attorney's license, it shall be presented to the Supreme Court for approval or disapproval.

(1) The Executive Director shall present to the Supreme Court, under such procedures as the Supreme Court may direct, any discipline by consent proposal which the Executive Director has reached with a respondent attorney and which involves allegations of Serious Misconduct and a suspension of license.

(2) If the Supreme Court does not approve of the proposed discipline by consent or the voluntary surrender of license, the matter shall be referred to a panel that has not rendered a decision in the case by ballot vote. The new panel shall resume, as practical, the proceedings at the stage at which they were suspended when the proposal was made and submitted to the Supreme Court. If both regular panels have been used in prior proceedings involving a case, the case shall go to Panel C and then, if necessary, to Panel D for consideration.

(3) The fact that an offer and proposed sanction was agreed to by the Executive Director, the terms of the proposed discipline by consent, and the fact that the Supreme Court rejected the proposal shall not be disclosed to the new panel, except in those instances where disclosure of compromises is permitted under Rule 408 of the Arkansas Rules of Evidence.