Court takes reciprocal action against Ky. attorney

CHARLESTON – The state Supreme Court has followed suit with Kentucky's high court in temporarily suspending an Ashland attorney's license.

The Court on Sept. 8 accepted the recommendation of its Lawyer Disciplinary Board that it mirror the disciplinary action taken by the Kentucky Supreme Court to suspended Sharon E. Rowsey. The Kentucky Court on March 24 ordered Rowsey's license suspended for six months.

However, Rowsey, a partner in the law firm of Wilson Stavros and Rowsey, would only be suspended for 61 days and placed on probation the remaining four months provided she complete an ethics and professionalism enhancement program.

The suspension, records show, stemmed from Rowsey, 49, giving "incomplete, misleading and false testimony on at least two occasions," in an unspecified case before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky sometime prior to 2007. The Court showed leniency based on, among other things, her absence of prior disciplinary problems.

In adopting the Kentucky Court's decision, the West Virginia Court added that Rowsey's license would remain suspended until she was readmitted to the Kentucky Bar, and provided a certified copy to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Though the Kentucky Bar Association's Web site shows her license to be active, the state Bar Association's Web site shows her West Virginia license still under suspension.

Records show, Rowsey was admitted to practice law in Kentucky on Nov. 3, 1988, and received her West Virginia license on April 6, 1989.

West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number 11-0623