High-Profile Detroit Municipal Lawyer to Lose License After 28 Years
After 28 years in practice, the former deputy director of the Detroit Law Department is poised to lose her law license.
Unless she appeals and the full Michigan Attorney Discipline Board reverses a hearing panel’s determination, Brenda Braceful will lose her law license March 13, reports the Detroit Free Press. If the license revocation isn’t reversed, she could reapply after five years, but would have to retake the Michigan bar exam.
The 56-year-old had agreed to accept a three-year suspension for transferring $14,000 from a client trust account during a period when she reportedly was not working for the city. However, the discipline board panel decided on revocation because of “evidence that contradicted her testimony blaming the problem on her bank for mistakenly wiring money to her son from her client trust account rather than her personal account,” the newspaper writes.
Braceful resigned last year from her $110,000-a-year municipal job, and now works as a hearings manager for the city’s human resources department.
“I’m disappointed with the way my legal career ended, but I have moved on with my life,” she told the Free Press yesterday.
