LITTLE ROCK — Darrell F. Brown Sr., a prominent Little Rock lawyer who was disbarred on March 8 by the Arkansas Supreme Court, has been granted permission to pursue an appeal of a federal court decision without paying a filing fee.
U.S. District Judge David S. Doty of Minnesota, who is serving as a special judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas, issued an order Wednesday granting Brown's 2006 application to proceed with his appeal "in forma pauperis."
Brown and lawyer R.S. Mc-Cullough, also of Little Rock, are appealing Doty's May 11, 2006,order remanding to the Arkansas Supreme Court the state's separate disbarment proceedings against them.
Doty also has stayed a federal lawsuit the men filed jointly to challenge the disbarment proceedings. The lawsuit contends that the state's lawyer disciplinary panel discriminates against black lawyers.
When the lawyers, both of them black, filed the federal suit, the Arkansas Committee on Professional Conduct was on the verge of holding separate disbarment hearings.
Doty said in May 2006, in an order that sent the disbarment cases back to the state's jurisdiction, that federal courts are to refrain fromenjoining pending state proceedings in which important state interests are involved, and that such proceedings include lawyer disciplinary proceedings.
Since then, Brown was disbarred based on an unchallenged complaint from Special Judge John Cole, who said he found numerous instances of "serious misconduct" involving Brown, including the converting or misappropriating of funds from clients.
McCullough's disbarment hearing was scheduled to be heard on Thursday, but it was postponed at the request of his attorneys and has not been rescheduled.
Doty was appointed to hearthe lawsuit, and the request to remove the disbarment cases to federal court, after the recusal of all the district judges in the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, who have barred McCullough from practicing in federal court while his disbarment is pending.
McCullough has already been granted permission to proceed before the 8th Circuit, without paying a filing fee, in his appeal of Doty's decision to remand the disbarment proceedings to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The 8th Circuit, headquartered in St. Louis, confirmed Friday that both men's appeal of Doty's order is pending.
Arkansas, Pages 17 on 09/08/2007