Wing Clipping for Bird?

Action has yet to be taken, but Allen W. Bird III, a former lawyer with the Rose Law Firm of Little Rock, may soon be barred from practicing in federal court.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Weber Wright issued an order Oct. 21 forcing Bird to “show cause” within 15 days why the court shouldn’t revoke his “privilege to practice law in the United States Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas.” Bird responded Dec. 5 in a 10-page statement to the court that doesn’t challenge the allegations against him, but he denies that they deserve disciplinary action. The panel of six federal judges in Arkansas’ Eastern District federal court will soon decide the issue.

The allegations came from Bird’s involvement in a bankruptcy case that started 16 years ago involving a Fayetteville-based money-order company, Northwest Financial Express.

Bird served as the bankruptcy estate’s trustee until June 10 when U.S. District Court Judge Jimm Hendren of Fayetteville, affirmed a July 2001 order by Judge Robert F. Fussell that Bird “knowingly committed fraud” while serving as trustee for the $8.5 million Chapter 11 reorganization.

Fussell eventually ordered Bird to pay about $199,000 back to the estate for improperly billed fees. Bird was also left to pay a $330,000 legal tab to Wright, Lindsey & Jennings of Little Rock, which represented him in the appeal.

Fussell wrote in his ruling that Bird had “committed misconduct of the highest order,” and was personally liable for certain expenses.

Bird left the Rose Law Firm on Sept. 1, 2001, to start his own practice in Little Rock.

Weber Wright is the same judge whose charge of contempt against Bill Clinton for lying under oath in the Paula Jones case led to Clinton’s disbarment.