Opinion
No. 2010-1358.
Submitted September 28, 2010.
Decided December 9, 2010.
ON REPORT by the Board of Commissioners on Character and Fitness of the Supreme Court, No. 431.
David E. Ernst, for the Warren County Bar Association.
{¶ 1} In 2008, Steven Todd Reynolds of Lebanon, Ohio, applied for permission to register as a candidate for admission to the practice of law in Ohio and to take the bar examination. The Admissions Committee of the Warren County Bar Association conducted an investigation of his character and fitness. The committee made an unfavorable recommendation, and Reynolds appealed. See Gov.Bar R. I(12).
{¶ 2} A formal hearing on the matter was scheduled for February 12, 2010, before a three-member panel of the Board of Commissioners on Character and Fitness, but it was canceled at the request of the applicant. The matter was later rescheduled for June 11, 2010, but the applicant failed to appear at the hearing.
{¶ 3} Based upon the applicant's failure to attend the hearing, the panel unanimously found that the applicant had failed to cooperate in the character and fitness process and had failed to meet his burden of proving that he has the requisite character and fitness to be permitted to sit for the Ohio bar exam. The panel, therefore, recommended that his application be denied until he has cooperated with the board and a full hearing regarding his character and fitness has been conducted.
{¶ 4} The board concurred in the panel's recommendation that the applicant be disapproved. The board also recommended that the applicant be permitted to reapply for admission to the practice of law in Ohio by filing a new application to register as a candidate for admission to the practice of law and an application to take the bar examination.
{¶ 5} Based upon the foregoing, we accept the board's recommendation to disapprove the applicant's pending application. The applicant may apply to take a future bar exam, provided that he submits a new application to register as a candidate for admission to the practice of law and an application to take the bar examination and cooperates with a complete character and fitness investigation, including an investigation and report by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, so that we may determine whether he possesses the requisite character, fitness, and moral qualifications for admission to the practice of law in Ohio.
Judgment accordingly.
BROWN, C.J., and PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, O'CONNOR, O'DONNELL, LANZINGER, and CUPP, JJ., concur.