ATLANTA (AP) — A former Georgia appeals court judge who was removed from the bench in 2023 for ethical misconduct has been suspended from practicing law until August 2025.
The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday decided that Christian Coomer should have his law license suspended for two years for exploiting a vulnerable client when Coomer was a private lawyer. But the court agreed that Coomer could backdate the beginning of the suspension to Aug. 16, 2023, the day the high court kicked him off the bench.
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Coomer said he intentionally had abstained from practicing law beginning on that date.
Coomer had originally sought a one-year suspension, but agreed to two when the State Bar of Georgia opposed one year as too lenient. A special master found a two-year suspension was in the range of penalties that other lawyers who had committed similar offenses had received and that although the penalty might be seen as “favoritism,” Coomer should not be “treated more harshly than any other lawyer who had committed the same violations.”
Coomer took loans of $369,000 from client Jim Filhart on favorable terms and wrote a will and trust that would have given Coomer and his relatives some or all of the client’s money when he died. Coomer repaid the money, but only after the client sued him.
Justices wrote that even though they ruled the same behavior required them to entirely remove Coomer as a judge, the two-year suspension was not inconsistent.
They said that’s because the ethics charges from the Judicial Qualification also faulted Coomer for looting his campaign account to pay for a family vacation to Hawaii and loans to keep his struggling law firm afloat, issues that weren’t part of Tuesday’s decision. They also said it would be awkward to force the State Bar to seek penalties against Coomer higher than the bar supported. Finally, the court said judges are held to a higher standard of behavior than everyday lawyers.
“Although part of the public interest served by regulating the practice of law includes sustaining public confidence in the legal system, that important interest is not as acute when regulating lawyers as it is for judges,” the court wrote in an unsigned 7-0 decision.
Coomer, a former state lawmaker, was appointed to the appeals court by then-Gov. Nathan Deal in 2018. He had no prior disciplinary history and said he had increased his charitable activities to try to atone for his misconduct.
“I have made mistakes, but I am trying to be better and do better,” Coomer said in a statement Tuesday. “I’m thankful to the Supreme Court for the opportunity to practice law and to the many people who have supported me, prayed for me, and encouraged me. I am working to make my community a better place through volunteer work and will dedicate myself to service when I return to the practice of law.”
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