Raleigh attorney Gene Boyce told Carolina Journal that his efforts to get the courts to rule on a dispute he is having with the North Carolina State Bar, the state agency that regulates attorneys, is important because it has implications for other licensing boards and the occupations they regulate.
Boyce filed an appeal with the North Carolina Court of Appeals challenging a Wake County Superior Court judge’s decision not to hear a complaint Boyce filed against the State Bar involving Attorney General Roy Cooper. The judge ruled that Boyce did not have standing in the matter. Cooper is the Democratic Party nominee running in the November election against incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.
Boyce wants the Appeals Court to address the following question: “If a state licensing agency has ‘standing’ to question and rule on ethical conduct of a licensee, does the licensee not have ‘standing’ to question by declaratory judgment the ethical conduct of the lawyers running his licensing agency?” In the appeal, Boyce notes that 57 North Carolina job-licensing agencies regulate 154 licensed job categories. He argues that if these agencies (including the State Bar) have standing to address misconduct by licensees, the licensees also should have standing in court to address allegations that their regulatory board staff has engaged in similar misconduct.
Other occupations subject to state licensing and regulation include real-estate agents, barbers, doctors, locksmiths, and home inspectors.
Boyce said attorneys with the State Bar should be subject to the same rules he must follow. They should acknowledge professional misconduct when it is reported to them and acknowledge a conflict of interest when one exists.
Boyce’s complaint sought to force the State Bar to address allegations of professional misconduct by Cooper that began in 2000 when Cooper was the Democratic Party’s nominee for attorney general and his Republican opponent was Dan Boyce, Gene’s son. Boyce claimed at the time that Cooper knowingly made false statements in TV ads that harmed his reputation. In 2000 Boyce took legal action against Cooper in state and federal court, and in 2014 the matter was scheduled to go to trial. Boyce contends Cooper’s misconduct ended in 2014 when Cooper confessed that political ads he ran against the Boyce family were not true. The parties signed an agreement ending the civil action, but Boyce’s complaint about the State Bar says Cooper’s conduct is a separate issue.
Boyce asked the court for a declaratory judgment forcing the State Bar to acknowledge Boyce’s claims of Cooper’s misconduct; declaring that the State Bar has a conflict of interest in the matter because Cooper, as attorney general, is the attorney for the State Bar; and referring the dispute to an alternative agency for investigation, findings of fact, and discipline if appropriate. The State Bar claimed that Boyce did not have standing to pursue his allegations and sought to have the case dismissed.
Boyce said that as an attorney he has an ethical obligation to report professional misconduct of other attorneys to the State Bar. According to the complaint — filed in January in Wake County Superior Court — Boyce notified the State Bar on multiple occasions about Cooper’s alleged misconduct, but the State Bar has not responded. Boyce also argued that the State Bar has a conflict of interest in the matter because Cooper serves as the attorney for the State Bar.
In May, Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens agreed with the State Bar and dismissed Boyce’s complaint.