In the Matter of Stephanie Dianne Woodard

Stephanie Dianne Woodard, a Georgia lawyer who served as Solicitor General of Hall County, was indicted on 24 felony counts after she sought and received reimbursement for personal expenses, such as a dog cremation and an LSAT prep course for her daughter, that were not legitimate official costs. She pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count and resigned her office. She first asked the Supreme Court of Georgia to accept only a public reprimand, but the court rejected that as too lenient and invited her to try again. In her renewed petition, Woodard asked for a suspension of three to 12 months, ideally backdated to when she finished her criminal sentence. The State Bar agreed a suspension was warranted but wanted 12 months with no backdating. The court accepted Woodard's petition, imposed a 12-month suspension, and backdated it to the date she became an inactive Bar member rather than the earlier date she requested.

The court held that a 12-month suspension is the appropriate sanction for Woodard's admitted dishonesty and misdemeanor conviction, and that the suspension should run retroactively only to the date she became an inactive Bar member, not to the earlier date she claimed she stopped practicing, because she failed to substantiate that earlier claim.

The decision signals that Georgia lawyers who are also public officials face serious discipline, not just reprimands, for misusing public funds, even when amounts are modest and no prison time results. It also clarifies what proof attorneys must offer to get suspensions backdated.

Petition for voluntary discipline accepted; 12-month suspension imposed nunc pro tunc to June 26, 2025

1. The court compared Woodard's case to two prior disciplinary cases with similar facts: a six-month suspension for an Assistant District Attorney who helped steal county funds, and an 18-month suspension for an attorney who overbilled an indigent defense program, to decide where Woodard's conduct fell on that spectrum.
2. The court found the record showed Woodard's misconduct was largely intentional, since she pleaded guilty to willfully and knowingly overcharging the government, undercutting her argument that a shorter suspension was warranted because her acts were unintentional.
3. Weighing the seriousness of violating Rule 8.4(a)(4), a rule barring dishonesty or fraud that the court called one of the most serious violations a lawyer can commit, along with her multiple offenses and public-official status, the court concluded a suspension longer than three months was required.
4. On the request to backdate the suspension (a nunc pro tunc order), the court applied the rule from a prior case (Onipede) requiring an attorney to prove exactly when she voluntarily stopped practicing law and that she met her ethical obligations to clients.
5. The court found Woodard's unsworn claim that she stopped practicing law in August 2024 was undermined by her failure to mention it in her first petition and her delay in formally becoming an inactive Bar member, so it backdated the suspension only to that later, undisputed inactive-status date.

• attorney suspension
• State Bar of Georgia
• public corruption
• misappropriated funds
• voluntary discipline petition