Morrissey eligible for law license

A one-page decision Friday by the state Supreme Court that is absent any legal or evidentiary analysis sets ground rules for the reinstatement of Del. Joseph D. Morrissey's license to practice law in Virginia.

The court's rejection of a Virginia State Bar disciplinary board recommendation in May to preserve Morrissey's years-long disbarment requires the lawyer-turned-legislator to pass the written portion of the state bar exam and to show that he has had 60 hours of continuing legal education in the past five years.

Morrissey, a Henrico County resident, also must achieve a scaled score of 85 or higher on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination.

Morrissey was in Australia on Friday and could not be immediately reached for comment, according to his legislative office. The Democrat, who won another term in office last month, represents the 74th House District, which covers parts of Charles City and Henrico counties and the city of Richmond.

The decision could re-establish Morrissey's presence in area courtrooms. Chief Justice Cynthia D. Kinser and two other members of the nine-judge panel, LeRoy F. Millette Jr. and Elizabeth A. McClanahan, cast dissenting votes, and the state bar opposed the decision.

In a 40-page response to a decision by a state bar disciplinary board to recommend against reinstatement, Morrissey's lawyer, Edward B. Lowry, attacked the recommendation as failing to "adequately set forth the tremendous amount of positive evidence regarding Morrissey's activities" in the eight years since his license was revoked.

And Lowry told the Supreme Court in July that the disciplinary board's recommendation in May "is replete with inaccuracies and misleading statements."

"In the history of the annals of the Virginia State Bar, one would be hard-pressed to find another applicant for reinstatement who has redeemed himself more than Joe Morrissey," the petition states, noting that Morrissey was supported at hearings earlier this year by "law school deans, legislators, pastors, members of the business community, (and) ordinary citizens."

Morrissey, who turned 54 in September and whose phrase — "I will fight for you" — became as much a warning of his public temperament as it was a legal slogan for his law practice, has convictions for assault and had a reputation for disrespect of court officials.

In 1991, he engaged in a courthouse hallway fight with equally combative attorney David Baugh.

Richmond's commonwealth's attorney from 1989 through 1993, Morrissey lost his license in 2003 when he allegedly failed to notify clients and others in the legal system of an earlier suspension.

Lowry attacked that claim in his argument to the Supreme Court, and Lowry pointed as well to superlative testimony about Morrissey's character and abilities at the reinstatement hearings in April and May from university professionals who worked with him in Ireland and Australia after the 2003 revocation.

Lowry also highlighted the testimony of Del. Harvey B. Morgan, R-Middlesex, one of the General Assembly's most-mannered veterans, who called Morrissey "one of the brightest lights we have seen in a long time" and who said he never had seen Morrissey "at any time being anything other than cordial and courteous."

Other witnesses for Morrissey included Richmond Sheriff C.T. Woody Jr., who called Morrissey a changed man who counseled inmates about persevering, and Mark Jones, who testified at the reinstatement hearing that Morrissey provided $100,000 toward a scholarship fund for high school students in his district.

Morrissey, argued Lowry, "has done everything humanly possible to show that he has redeemed himself and is fit to resume the practice of law," Lowry wrote to the Supreme Court.

At the hearings earlier this year, though, one member of the discipline panel said that Morrissey "exhibited no remorse, no sense of regret or shame," adding that reinstating Morrissey's license would have a detrimental effect on public confidence in the legal system.

Lowry blasted that logic and pointed to the bias of the decision to deny reinstatement.

The discipline panel, Lowry said, spent just two paragraphs to cover years of philanthropic and volunteer work by Morrissey. But the panel, Lowry said, used six pages to describe a fistfight that had occurred 13 years ago.

Lowry called the unbalanced account "a mystery."