In the Matter of Leonard Richard Medley, III

Leonard Richard Medley III, a member of the State Bar of Georgia since 2000, pleaded guilty in December 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a felony, in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia. After his conviction, he asked a Special Master to let him voluntarily surrender his law license rather than face formal disbarment proceedings. Medley admitted that his felony conviction violated the state's rule barring lawyers from being convicted of felonies. The Special Master recommended the Supreme Court of Georgia accept his petition, and Medley did not challenge that recommendation. The court agreed, finding that accepting the surrender protected the public and matched how it has handled similar financial-crime cases before, and it removed his name from the rolls of lawyers allowed to practice in Georgia.

The court held that a lawyer's felony conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud violates the rule against lawyers being convicted of felonies, and that accepting his voluntary surrender of license, which is equivalent to disbarment, best protects the public and matches how similar cases have been handled.

The case removes another Georgia lawyer from practice following a federal fraud conviction, protecting current and future clients from someone found to have engaged in fraudulent conduct. It also reinforces that Georgia treats felony financial crime convictions by attorneys as grounds for effectively automatic disbarment.

Voluntary surrender of license accepted

1. Medley pleaded guilty to a federal felony, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which by itself establishes a violation of Rule 8.4(a)(2), the Georgia rule barring lawyers from being convicted of felonies, since a felony conviction alone is enough to break this rule.
2. Because Medley admitted this violation and did not file any exceptions to the Special Master's report by the deadline, the matter became ready for the Supreme Court of Georgia's review without any dispute to resolve.
3. The court looked to prior similar cases involving attorneys convicted of felony financial crimes and found that it has consistently either disbarred those attorneys or accepted their voluntary surrender of license, which has the same practical effect as disbarment.
4. Applying that consistent practice, the court concluded that accepting Medley's petition to voluntarily surrender his license was best for protecting the public and removed his name from the list of people allowed to practice law in Georgia.

• attorney disbarment
• wire fraud conspiracy
• voluntary license surrender
• State Bar of Georgia
• felony conviction