The state Supreme Court said Thursday that it has accepted the surrender of the law license of attorney Andrea Lea Davis of Hot Springs, whose relationship with then-Attorney General Dustin McDaniel led to his departure from the governor's race in 2013.
The state's high court said it accepted the voluntary surrender of Davis' law license "in lieu of probable disbarment" in accordance with the recommendation of the court's Committee on Professional Conduct.
In her petition to surrender her law license, Davis said she pleaded guilty to the felony offense of unlawful use of a communication device in a plea agreement in exchange for prosecutors dropping a manslaughter charge against her in the 2012 fatal shooting of 34-year-old Maxwell Anderson. Authorities had described the killing as a drug deal that went awry.
She also said she wants "to avoid the expense, stress and publicity" of further addressing these matters.
Davis had been licensed to practice law in the state since 2008. The Committee on Professional Conduct had placed her on interim suspension Feb. 5, 2014, and she has not practiced law since that date, she said.
Davis' relationship with McDaniel became public in her ex-husband's divorce filings.
Weeks after acknowledging what he called his "inappropriate" relationship with Davis, McDaniel ended his Democratic gubernatorial campaign Jan. 25, 2013. He said the 2014 race should be about the state's future -- not about his past.
Metro on 10/02/2015