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Character and Fitness? If this guy can pass, then...

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:38 am
by RUQRU
From time to time members have posted concerns about minor transgressions giving them a problem with passing the Character and Fitness review. Well, read this and see if you really have a problem...

Attorney Damon Chase: Arrested a dozen times, now he's a prominent lawyer
His clients include ousted GOP Chairman Jim Greer

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os- ... 2217.story
Damon Chase is one of the most prominent attorneys in Seminole County. His clients include Jim Greer, ousted chairman of the Florida GOP, and Rep. Chris Dorworth, the man slated to become Florida's House speaker in 2014.

But before Damon Chase became a lawyer with an office overlooking a golf course and 37-foot yacht, docked on the coast, he was a man with a different name and a long history of arrests — including armed robbery and fraud — that began when he was only 7.
--ImageRemoved--
Damon Chase, right, helped bail former Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer, center, out of jail. Greer's wife, Lisa, is at left. (GEORGE SKENE, ORLANDO SENTINEL / June 2, 2010)

He disclosed to the UF college of law and the Florida Board of Bar Examiners — the group that decides whether one gets to be a lawyer — his whole life story.

For the bar examiners, it was not an easy sell. They treated him, for a time, like a criminal who could not be reformed. That's largely because of two criminal cases: Chase was arrested in Fort Lauderdale when he was 28, accused of using another man's Social Security card to try to get a fake drivers license.
So for those worried that being fired from a job at a fast food restaurant might lead to C&F issues, well have a good laugh!

Re: Character and Fitness? If this guy can pass, then...

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:59 am
by CanadianWolf
It probably doesn't hurt that he married the daughter of an influential & politically powerful Florida judge.

Re: Character and Fitness? If this guy can pass, then...

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 10:01 am
by fornicator
yeah, there are lots of cases about convicted felons passing character and fitness (as long as their crimes didn't involve dishonesty). but see what happens if you miss one payment on your student loans. . .

Re: Character and Fitness? If this guy can pass, then...

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 10:37 am
by Royal
Keep in mind that this is in FLORIDA.

Re: Character and Fitness? If this guy can pass, then...

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 11:38 am
by TheTopBloke
Watch The Weather Underground on Hulu. There's an individual in that documentary that belonged to that group that bombed US buildings, and she teaches at Northwestern.

Re: Character and Fitness? If this guy can pass, then...

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:27 pm
by bemidiji41
TheTopBloke wrote:Watch The Weather Underground on Hulu. There's an individual in that documentary that belonged to that group that bombed US buildings, and she teaches at Northwestern.
Even though Bernardine Dohrn is a clinical professor at Northwestern, she was never admitted to the Illinois bar. She sat for and passed the exam but couldn't pass the C & F section due to her involvement with the Weathermen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardine_Dohrn

Re: Character and Fitness? If this guy can pass, then...

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 8:01 pm
by nealric
but see what happens if you miss one payment on your student loans. . .
Most people's loan payments haven't even started (unless they failed the bar the first time). And nobody has been denied bar admission for a single missed student loan payment.