In the Matter of Paul Gerard Wersant

Paul Gerard Wersant, a member of the State Bar of Georgia since 2004, pleaded guilty in Forsyth County Superior Court in February 2025 to two felony counts of interstate interference with custody and one felony count of filing false documents. Under the rules that govern Georgia lawyers, a felony conviction is professional misconduct, and Wersant was supposed to report his convictions to the State Bar within sixty days but apparently did not. The State Bar found out anyway and asked the Supreme Court of Georgia to appoint a special master to look into the matter. At a hearing, Wersant said he wanted to give up his law license voluntarily instead of contesting the case, and he later filed that petition. The special master called the false-documents conduct especially serious and recommended disbarment-level treatment. The State Bar agreed, and the Supreme Court of Georgia accepted the surrender, removing Wersant from the rolls of attorneys allowed to practice law in Georgia.

The court held that Wersant's felony guilty pleas violated the rule barring lawyers from being convicted of a felony, and accepted his voluntary surrender of his law license as the appropriate outcome, resulting in his removal from the rolls of Georgia attorneys.

The case removes a convicted felon from Georgia's list of licensed attorneys, protecting clients and the public from being represented by someone with felony convictions for custody interference and falsifying documents, and reinforces that Georgia lawyers must report their own criminal convictions.

Voluntary surrender of license accepted

1. The court noted that Georgia's professional conduct rules make it misconduct for a lawyer to be convicted of a felony (Bar Rule 8.4(a)(2)), and Wersant's guilty pleas to interstate interference with custody and filing false documents both qualified as felonies under Georgia law.
2. The court observed that Wersant was also required to self-report his convictions to the State Bar within sixty days but apparently failed to do so, prompting the Bar to initiate disciplinary proceedings on its own once it learned of the convictions.
3. A special master appointed by the court held a hearing, after which Wersant chose to file a petition to voluntarily surrender his law license rather than contest the disciplinary charges further.
4. The special master recommended accepting the surrender, specifically flagging the false-documents conduct as particularly serious misconduct warranting the equivalent of disbarment, and the State Bar agreed with that recommendation.
5. The court compared this case to its own recent precedent accepting voluntary license surrenders for similar felony convictions and, finding the outcome consistent with those cases, accepted the surrender and ordered Wersant removed from the rolls of Georgia attorneys.

• attorney disbarment
• voluntary surrender of law license
• felony conviction
• State Bar of Georgia
• interference with custody