On Friday, October 18, 2022, the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board ruled on the joint request of the Virginia State Bar and Respondent Arlington attorney William Hale Thompson, Jr. to accept the Agreed Disposition relating to charges of violations of the rules of professional conduct.
The case titled In the Matter of William Hale Thompson, Jr. was brought by the Virginia State Bar, Docket No. 21-041-121592.
The charges cited violation of Rules 1.5(a), 1.15(b)(3), 1.15(b)(5), and 1.16(e) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
This disciplinary matter involves Respondent’s having received a flat fee of $5,000 from the complainant, Kelsey Chavers for representation in filing a Title IV with the University of Mary Washington and the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) based on allegations of racial discrimination by a professor. A Title IV complaint was filed before the OCR on January 27, 2020, which was dismissed by the OCR on April 8, 2020, with a 60-day deadline to appeal the dismissal.
On May 4 and 12, 2020, Chavers asked Respondent to file an appeal and sent specific details to include in the appeal. Respondent drafted an appeal on May 22, 2020, which according to Chavers, “did not contain any elements to address the requirements for consideration of an appeal,” and Chavers wrote and filed the appeal herself, which was denied by the OCR on July 8, 2020.
Respondent underwent a quadruple bypass heart procedure on October 16, 2020, and was readmitted to the hospital in November 2020.
On January 2021, Chavers hired Joseph Steffen to replace Respondent, after terminating Respondent through a letter dated December 13, 2020, demanding a copy of her file and the return of the $5,000 fee. On January 8, 2021, Chavers filed an instant complaint.
Respondent and the bar counsel stipulated that public reprimand is the appropriate discipline for Respondent’s violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
On October 12, 2022, the parties filed the Agreed Disposition which reads:
“Bar counsel and Respondent tender to the Disciplinary Board for its approval the agreed disposition of a Public Reprimand with Terms as representing an appropriate sanction if this matter were to be heard through an evidentiary hearing by a panel of the Disciplinary Board. Bar counsel and Respondent agree that the effective date for the sanction shall be the date of the Disciplinary Board Order approving this Agree Disposition. . . “
Accordingly, the Disciplinary Board, upon consideration of the Agreed Disposition, the Certification, Respondent’s Answer, Respondent’s Disciplinary Record, the arguments of the parties, and after due deliberation accepted the Agreed Disposition.
The Memorandum Order reads:
“It is ORDERED that the Disciplinary Board accepts the Agreed Disposition and the Respondent shall receive a Public Reprimand with Terms, as set forth in the Agreed Disposition. . .
It is further ORDERED that the sanction is effective October 18, 2022.”
According to Martindale, Mr. William Hale Thompson, Jr. has been licensed in Virginia and in the District of Columbia.
A copy of the original filing can be found here.
