--- title: In the Matter of William D. Thompson Jr collection: opinions id: S21Y0355 cite_as: In the Matter of William D. Thompson Jr, 310 Ga. 753 (2021) canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S21Y0355 md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S21Y0355.md text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S21Y0355/text source_url: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10367880/in-the-matter-of-william-d-thompson-jr/ date: 2021-02-01 status: published corpus_version: opinions-2026-09-14 license: Public record of the Supreme Court of Georgia, via CourtListener and the court's own website; see about.md publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice. up: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/2021.md previous: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20G0528.md next: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S21Z0449.md index: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/index.md omitted: opinion extras omitted_chars: 1843 omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S21Y0355.md?full=1 docket: S21Y0355 citation: 310 Ga. 753 court: Supreme Court of Georgia case_type: bar discipline authoring_justice: Per Curiam disposition: Petition for voluntary discipline rejected vote: All the Justices concur word_count: 437 date_filed_source: courtlistener citations: - 854 S.E.2d 522 record_source: courtlistener legal_areas: - professional discipline upstream_id: "10367880" summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5 --- # In the Matter of William D. Thompson Jr Supreme Court of Georgia, docket S21Y0355, filed 2021-02-01, 310 Ga. 753. ## Opinion 310 Ga. 753 FINAL COPY S21Y0355. IN THE MATTER OF WILLIAM D. THOMPSON, JR. PER CURIAM. This disciplinary matter is before the Court to consider a petition for voluntary reciprocal discipline filed by William D. Thompson, Jr. (State Bar No. 710152), pursuant to Bar Rule 4-227 and Rule 9.4 of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct found in Bar Rule 4-102 (d). In his petition, Thompson, who has been a Georgia Bar member since 2003 and is currently in inactive status, admits that he was suspended from legal practice in Florida for one year, effective January 8, 2020, to be followed by two years on “probation,” for misconduct involving his mismanagement of his trust account. The State Bar filed an untimely response to the petition, recommending that the petition be accepted. Nevertheless, Thompson’s petition contains several deficiencies that preclude final resolution of this matter at this time. First, the petition fails to identify which Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct his conduct violated. See Bar Rule 4-227 (a) (providing that “[a] Petition for Voluntary Discipline shall contain admissions of fact and admissions of conduct in violation of Part IV, Chapter 1 of these Rules sufficient to authorize the imposition of discipline”). The petition also fails to establish that the requested one-year suspension is appropriate discipline under Georgia law. This latter deficiency is particularly salient given that, although Thompson recites that he received a one-year suspension in Florida, he also received a further two-year “probation” period, during which he is restricted in using a trust account and faces additional reporting obligations and fee payments to the Florida Bar. The Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct do not contemplate a comparable “probation” mechanism. See generally Rule 9.4 (b) (3) (noting that, where a reciprocal disciplinary matter proceeds to the State Disciplinary Review Board, that body “shall recommend imposition of substantially similar discipline” to that received in the disciplinary proceeding in the other jurisdiction). Furthermore, although Thompson references various documents associated with the Florida disciplinary proceeding in this petition, no such documents were attached for our review. Finally, Thompson states that he is in inactive status, but he fails to note that he is not an inactive member in good standing. Rather, he is currently under suspension for failure to pay his license fee. Accordingly, Thompson’s petition for voluntary reciprocal discipline is rejected. Petition for voluntary discipline rejected. All the Justices concur. DECIDED FEBRUARY 1, 2021. Petition for voluntary discipline. Paula J. Frederick, General Counsel State Bar, William D. NeSmith III, Deputy General Counsel State Bar, Jenny K. Mittelman, Wolanda R. Shelton, Assistant General Counsel State Bar, for State Bar of Georgia. ## Summaries written by Georgia Commons The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the opinion above and is not part of the court's opinion. Quote the opinion, not the summary. The Supreme Court of Georgia rejected an attorney's request to accept a one-year Florida suspension as equivalent discipline in Georgia, finding his petition incomplete and misleading about his current standing. ### Plain-language summary William D. Thompson, Jr., a Georgia lawyer who had been suspended from practicing law in Florida for a year over mishandling his trust account, asked the Supreme Court of Georgia to impose the same discipline here through a process called reciprocal discipline, where Georgia mirrors punishment handed down by another state's bar. The court found several problems with his request. He did not say which specific Georgia ethics rules his conduct violated, he did not show that a one-year suspension matched what Georgia's rules require given that Florida also placed him on a two-year probation with conditions Georgia's rules do not have, he did not attach the Florida disciplinary documents he referenced, and he inaccurately described his current status as an inactive Georgia Bar member in good standing when he was actually suspended for failing to pay his license fee. Because of these gaps, the court rejected the petition. ### Holding, as summarized A petition for voluntary reciprocal discipline must identify the specific Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct violated, establish that the requested discipline is appropriate under Georgia law, include supporting documentation, and accurately describe the attorney's current bar status; because Thompson's petition failed on all these points, it was rejected. ### Disposition Petition for voluntary discipline rejected. All the Justices concur. ### Why it matters The ruling shows that Georgia lawyers disciplined in other states cannot automatically import that punishment here; they must fully document the violation and match it to Georgia's own rules, which protects the integrity of Georgia's attorney discipline process and public trust in it. > The summarized reasoning, checked quotes, suggested questions, and the CourtListener opinion records (1,843 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S21Y0355.md?full=1