Kentucky

From Courier Journal (click on heading for entire post).  Interesting thought in this era of corporate responsibility and duties owed to shareholders and the public - would some consider a person claiming to be an attorney who was not an attorney was entitled to his compensation and benefits during that time period and should the corporation take action to protect their shareholders for this "mistake"?

Putative attorney Chris Watkins several years ago came under significant scrutiny and criminal charges when he practiced law without a license.  See, eg:  Jason Riley's story in the Courier Journal from 2005 - Prosecutors say Louisvillian posed as lawyer for years.

State supreme court suspends former Humana lawyer

By Andrew Wolfson ? awolfson@courier-journal.com ? October 27, 2008

Humana?s former general counsel has been suspended from the practice of law for one year as a sanction for working as a lawyer without a license for 15 years.

The Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously imposed the penalty last Thursday on Arthur Hipwell, who served as general counsel for the insurance company almost continuously from 1992 to 2007.

Hipwell?s Kentucky law license had expired in 1985 because he failed to pay his bar dues.

Hipwell, who retired from the company in July, claimed he wasn?t required to be licensed because he didn?t appear in court for Humana or perform legal work for the general public.

But in accepting the one-year suspension, Hipwell admitted that his duties as general counsel and senior vice president included supervising the work of in-house attorneys and signing corporate documents for the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agenices, which the Supreme Court said requires a license.