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The flamboyant lawyer was disbarred in Florida in 2001 for mishandling $6-million in stock that belonged to a client.
©Associated Press
December 4, 2002
BOSTON -- Massachusetts' highest court is considering a request from attorney F. Lee Bailey to restore his law license, which was revoked this year after he was charged with mishandling funds in Florida.
Bailey's lawyer on Monday asked the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for a new hearing on the matter. The court was expected to issue a decision within 140 days.
After the Florida Supreme Court disbarred Bailey in November 2001 for mishandling $6-million in stocks that belonged to a former client, a single SJC justice in Massachusetts also revoked his license to practice in that state last March.
The Massachusetts Office of Bar Counsel had called Bailey's handling of the money a "willful" misuse.
States often disbar lawyers who have lost their licenses in another state to prevent them from moving across state lines to practice law.
Bailey, 69, said outside the courtroom that the rules that apply to being disbarred in Massachusetts are not the same as in Florida.
"That's one of the arguments I think my counsel very effectively made," Bailey said. "They're quite different, and what Florida has found, we have contended, would merit totally different treatment in Massachusetts."
Florida disbarred Bailey for at least five years for mishandling 600,000 shares of stock owned by a former client, Claude Duboc, who now is serving life in prison for drug smuggling.
Bailey claims the government had agreed he could keep some of the stock, and insists he did nothing wrong.
During a 41-year law career, F. Lee Bailey's high-profile clients have included O.J. Simpson, the Boston Strangler, Patty Hearst and Dr. Sam Sheppard.
He currently is working as a consultant, and said he is settling back in Massachusetts, where he was first admitted to the bar in 1960.