Lawyer Gets License Suspended For 3 Years After Fourth Cocaine Conviction
MUSKEGON (WWJ/AP) - A Michigan lawyer will lose his ability to practice law for three years due to a 2013 cocaine conviction, his fourth such offense.
Terry Nolan, one of Muskegon's highest-profile trial attorneys, won't have a law license again until November 2017, when the suspension is up. A Michigan Attorney Discipline Board hearing panel comprised of three Muskegon County lawyers announced its decision last week.
Nolan must also follow his four-year misdemeanor probation, including monthly drug tests, counseling and a recovery group, if he doesn't want to lose his license altogether, The Muskegon Chronicle reported.
"In recovery we expect the worst and hope for the best," Nolan said. "I've been prepared for a long time ... Obviously I'm disappointed, I would have liked a different result. But I'm not fighting it, I'm not appealing it, I'm accepting the consequences of my behavior."
While his law license is suspended, Nolan plans to work at his law firm as a legal assistant for another attorney and finish writing his third book.
Nolan was arrested for cocaine used in February 2013. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to one month in jail, followed by five months of house arrest and four years of probation.
Nolan had previously lost his license for seven years due to other cocaine convictions.
His first conviction for cocaine use was in 1992, which earned him a 90-day suspended jail sentence. Ten years later, Nolan was busted with crack cocaine and sentenced to two years probation. While still on probation in 2003, he was arrested for cocaine possession and sentenced to six-months in jail.
Nolan lost his law license after his 2002 arrest, regaining it only in late 2009.
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