As a lawyer who has been disciplined by the Missouri Supreme Court’s Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel (OCDC), Mark McCloskey is happy to see Chief Disciplinary Counsel Alan Pratzel retire.
‘I think he's had an agenda which has been probably detrimental to the practice of law in this state for the time that he's been chief,” McCloskey alleges. “Political offenses have had more weight than actual abuses.”
The law licenses of McCloskey and his attorney wife, Patricia, are under probated suspension after they were arrested and charged with misdemeanors for brandishing an assault rifle and a semi-automatic pistol in front of their St. Louis residence two years ago while George Floyd demonstrators marched towards former Mayor Lyda Krewson’s nearby home.
“I wish he had retired 15 years ago,” McCloskey told the St. Louis Record.
Pratzel has been chief of the OCDC for almost 40 years, retiring on Nov. 11.
Before being appointed the Chief Disciplinary Counsel by the Missouri Supreme Court in April 2007, Pratzel was in private practice. He began working for the attorney discipline system in 1985 as a City of St. Louis special representative.
“The problem is people get into these bureaucratic positions and he has a position of absolute autocratic power where he can make or break your life or career,” McCloskey said. “I'm always opposed to people that have unelected positions where they can exert enormous power over you and that is what he has had.”
Pratzel, who is an adjunct professor of Professional Responsibility at the University of Missouri School of Law in Columbia and at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, is being replaced by Laura E. Elsbury who has been general counsel at the Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) since September 2018. Prior to joining the MEC, Laura worked as an assistant Attorney General for nearly 10 years.
“I’ve spoken to people who worked with Laura in the Attorney General's office and she comes highly recommended,” McCloskey added. “She seems to be a bright and hard-working lady with a go-getter attitude while going above and beyond the call of duty. So, I'm looking forward to a breath of fresh air in the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel.”