If you’re a high-profile figure with a law license and you’ve been convicted with a crime, there’s an extremely high chance that you’ll be disciplined professionally.
Rod Blagojevich was officially disbarred in 2020 after then-President Donald Trump commuted the former governor’s 14-year sentence following his conviction for various “pay-to-play” schemes, including an attempt to sell Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat.
Last year, the Illinois Supreme Court indefinitely suspended the law license of former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) following his tax fraud conviction. Daley Thompson is now fighting to get his law license back.
Now former Commonwealth Edison CEO and felon, Anne Pramaggiore, has also jumped on that train, embarking on a quest challenging the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission’s petition to have her law license suspended.
Pramaggiore, in arguing to keep her law license, maintained in a recent filing with the Illinois Supreme Court that she did nothing wrong, WBEZ’s Dave McKinney reported.
Never mind that conviction back in May, when she and three co-defendants were found guilty on all counts of bribing former House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for his support of legislation that would benefit ComEd.
Pramaggiore didn’t endear herself to jurors with her testimony, and that point is equally damning. As juror Amanda Schnitker Sayers put it, taking the stand “did not do her well.”
Pramaggiore has a right to defend herself against any sanctions, as former Gov. Pat Quinn told McKinney. But Quinn is also spot-on when he said Pramaggiore seems to be “thumbing her nose” at the criminal justice system in her fight to practice law.
Breaking the law is bad enough. Being found guilty in a political corruption case that corrodes public trust, is especially egregious.
A bribery charge was dismissed against ComEd on Monday, but the utility giant has paid a $200 million fine for its role in the long-running bribery scheme and has cooperated with the federal investigators as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.
Pramaggiore, for her part, “violated the Rules of Professional Conduct” and that “conduct involves moral turpitude or which reflects adversely upon her fitness to practice law,” the disciplinary commission wrote in a filing.
If you can’t follow the law, you really shouldn’t be practicing it.
The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. See our guidelines.
