NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) — Longtime and ineligible Arizona attorney Sabinus A. Megwa has been reciprocally disciplined, for the second time in little more than a year, following an Oct. 15 Louisiana Supreme Court attorney disciplinary proceeding.
In its four-page disciplinary proceeding, the court suspended Megwa, of Phoenix, for six months and a day to be followed by 18 months' supervised probation.
Megwa received the same discipline this past May in a presiding disciplinary judge's final judgment and order after the State Bar of Arizona filed an agreement for discipline by consent with the Supreme Court of Arizona.
In the agreement, Megwa admitted to violating professional conduct rules regarding scope of representation, diligence, communication, fees, expediting litigation and other misconduct. His suspension was made retroactive to April 9 and he was ordered to handle only the two client cases mentioned in the Arizona disciplinary proceedings, which "he disclosed separately," the agreement said.
Megwa was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on Oct. 9, 1981, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website and to the bar in Arizona on May 9, 1987, according to his profile at the State Bar of Arizona's website.
Megwa has been ineligible to practice in Louisiana since September 1995 for failing to pay his bar dues and a disciplinary assessment, failing to fulfill mandatory continuing legal education requirements and failing to file a trust account disclosure statement, according to the disciplinary proceeding.
In previous disciplines Megwa was reprimanded in April 2015 and was suspended and then reinstated and placed on probation in 2017, according to information on his State Bar of Arizona profile.
In September 2017, the Louisiana Supreme Court reciprocally suspended Megwa for 30 days, followed by 18 months of supervised probation, following similar discipline handed down in Arizona.
"He never sought reinstatement from this suspension," the Louisiana Supreme Court said in its disciplinary proceeding. "Thus he remains suspended from the practice of law in Louisiana."
The office of disciplinary counsel in Louisiana filed its petition for reciprocal discipline after receiving notice last spring of Megwa's further discipline, according to the Louisiana Supreme Court's proceeding.
"Under these circumstances, it is appropriate to defer to the Arizona judgment imposing discipline upon [Megwa]," the disciplinary proceeding said.