Attorney Louis Woodruff of Raleigh, NC; ethical misfit

The state of North Carolina presented Louis F. Woodruff with a law license in 1986 after he graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

The Grievance Committee of the North Carolina State Bar found Louie guilty of engaging in the following misconduct.

• Failure to review office manager’s handling and record-keeping of entrusted funds, Louie enabled the manager to embezzle entrusted client funds for several years
• Louie failed to supervise his nonlawyer office manager to the extent necessary to ensure that her conduct was compatible with Defendant's professional obligations 
• Failed to promptly inform the State Bar of his discovery or reasonable belief that entrusted property had been misappropriated (stolen) or misapplied
• Failed to properly maintain and deposit entrusted funds
• Failed to maintain minimum records required for a general trust account
• Failed to list the name of the client on electronic transfers from trust accounts
• trust account
• Failed to indicate on items payable to the lawyer the client balance from which the
• items were drawn
• Failed to conduct monthly reconciliations of his trust account

As a direct consequence of his misconduct the cheerleaders for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Committee on Professional Conduct punished Louie by gifting him with a complimentary stayed 2-year suspension of his law license.

In truth, the comedians sitting on the Grievance Committee didn’t mete out any meaningful punishment to Louie.

As we speak (ca. March 2022), Louie practices his so-called brand of law in Raleigh, North Carolina.