Two Lawyers Are Disciplined

Two lawyers have been disciplined in recent weeks by the North Carolina State Bar:

Pursuant to a consent order signed on February 4, 1992, the Disciplinary Hearing Commission suspended the law license of Chapel Hill attorney Barry D. Nakell for one year. The one-year suspension was stayed for four years, upon a number of conditions. The committee found that Nakell engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation by shoplifting a book from a Carrboro bookstore in January 1991.

Additionally, the committee found that Nakell had an insufficient legal basis to assert the civil rights actions regarding the defendants in an action filed ln federal court in January 1989. The committee found that Nakell’s actions embarrassed state officials and may have affected the prosecution of a pending criminal action. No additional discipline was imposed upon Nakell for his conduct in the 1989 federal lawsuit, however, in light of previous actions by the courts in a federal Rule 11 proceeding and a state court contempt proceeding.

On Feb. 14, Kurt R. Conner of North Wilkesboro received from the Disciplinary Hearing Commission (DHC) of the N.C. State Bar a five-year suspension of his law license, with three years of that suspension stayed. Thus, Conner is suspended from the practice of law for two years.

The DHC found that Conner had been convicted of failure to file federal income tax returns for 1985-1987. Conner also failed to promptly obtain a divorce for a client and he failed to communicate with that client about the status of his case. Finally, Conner did not respond to the State Bar’s formal inquiries about grievances filed against him.