In the Matter of Shaquandra A. Woods

Shaquandra Woods, a member of the State Bar of Georgia since 2019, was convicted in federal court in the Southern District of Georgia of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a felony. After that conviction, she asked the Supreme Court of Georgia to suspend her law license while she appealed, and the court agreed. Her appeal failed: the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed her conviction, and her request for a full court review was denied. Woods then asked to voluntarily give up her law license entirely, admitting that her felony conviction violated the rule barring lawyers from being convicted of a felony. The State Bar agreed she should be allowed to surrender her license. The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted her request and ordered her name removed from the rolls of attorneys authorized to practice law in the state.

A lawyer's felony conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud violates Rule 8.4(a)(2) of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, and voluntary surrender of her license, treated as equivalent to disbarment, is an appropriate sanction once that violation is admitted and the conviction is final.

The decision permanently removes a convicted felon from Georgia's list of licensed attorneys, protecting clients and the public from being represented by a lawyer with a felony fraud conviction. It also illustrates how federal criminal convictions can end a Georgia legal career even without a separate bar disciplinary trial.

Petition for voluntary surrender of license accepted

1. Georgia's professional conduct rules (Rule 8.4(a)(2), found in Bar Rule 4-102(d)) make it a violation for a lawyer to be convicted of a felony, with disbarment as the maximum possible punishment.
2. Woods had already admitted in an earlier filing that her federal conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a felony, violated this rule, and the court had suspended her license while her appeal was pending.
3. Once the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed her conviction and denied further review, Woods asked to voluntarily surrender her license rather than face further proceedings, again admitting the rule violation.
4. The court treated voluntary surrender of a license as equivalent to disbarment, and pointed to its recent acceptance of similar petitions from other attorneys whose felony convictions violated the same rule as consistent precedent.
5. Because the felony conviction was final, admitted, and matched a rule violation carrying disbarment as its maximum sanction, the court found surrender of the license an appropriate outcome and ordered her removed from the rolls of licensed attorneys.

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