Keeping professional in business pending licensure appeal
Our firm was recently approached by a client with a difficult personal and professional situation. The board that regulates his license had voted to permanently revoke his license and end his career.
Fortunately, at least in the interim, we were able to save his license and allow him to provide for his family pending the outcome of the proceeding.
Recently he had been summoned before the agency in charge of his professional license over some admitted criminal misdeeds in his past. He had made the mistake of appearing before the licensure agency and admitting his past transgressions without counsel, hoping to responsibly accept what he expected to be a short suspension — if any — and get the matter behind him.
Instead, the agency decided to permanently revoke his professional license — immediately stopping him from making a living pending his own appeal.
We examined the case and determined that there were significant procedural errors in how the agency conducted the disciplinary hearing, but this as a practical matter was only partial comfort to the client who would be “out of a job” and suspend his professional practice for the year or two that the court appeals would take to challenge the license revocation.
Justin Walker of our firm consulted with the client and realized that the practical short-term problem was as troubling to the client as the long-term issue of saving his professional license. Our firm’s first act was to ask the Ohio Attorney General’s office (the attorney for the licensing agency) to allow the license to stay in place during the pendency of the appeal. We formally made such a motion and the agency agreed!
At least for now, our client’s crisis is delayed pending outcome of the appeal. This was possible because we listened to the client and worked to achieve his desired ends. We are hopeful we can overturn the license revocation or at least negotiate a short suspension, allowing this professional to once again provide for his family. Our goal is to make a substantive difference for this client.