Fact check: The Obamas did not surrender their law licenses because of malpractice. Shared widely on Facebook, posts claim that former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama both lost their licenses to practice law for disciplinary reasons. This claim is false. Reuters Fact Check. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt.
The entry for Michelle Obama provides her maiden name, MichelleâŻLavaughnâŻRobinson, and the date she was admitted to the bar, May 12, 1989. Her Illinois registration status is âVoluntarily inactive and not authorized to practice lawââŻand she was last registered in 1993.As is the case with her husband, under Michelleâs Public Record ...
The difference is crucial: a lawyer who has surrendered his law license has given it up and therefore no longer has a license, while a lawyer who has gone on inactive status still holds a valid law license but is not currently engaged in any professional activities that require it to be active.
The bar record says that [Michelle Obama] is âVoluntarily inactive.â. This is even more common for lawyers who donât need a bar card, such as many lawyers who donât appear in court or counsel clients other than [their] employer.
Bill Clinton hung onto his law license until he was convicted of making a false statement in the Lewinsky case and had to âVoluntarily Surrenderâ his license too. President Barack Obama, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, is no longer a âlawyerâ.
He surrendered his license back in 2008 in order to escape charges that he lied on his bar application.
Itâs true that, although both President Obama and the University of Chicago have stated at various times that he was a âprofessor of lawâ or âprofessor of constitutional lawâ at the U.C. Law School, he never officially held that title. He was first a Lecturer (1992-1996) and then a Senior Lecturer (1996-2004) until elected to the Senate in 2004.
Barack Obama was not a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago. 5. The University of Chicago released a statement in March 2008 saying that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) âserved as a professorâ in the law school but that is a title Obama, who taught courses there part time, never held. 6.
Law School website, which nevertheless pointedly states that Barack Obama served as a professor there regardless of his official title.
She was admitted to the Illinois State Bar Association on May 12, 1989, according to records on the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (IARDC) website.
A meme circulating on social media platforms shows an image of the former first lady, along with text superimposed over it that reads, âNo other âfirst ladyâ ever had to surrender their law license for insurance fraud.â (RELATED: Did Michelle Obama Recently Earn A Doctorate Degree In Law?)
Splitt told us Michelle Obama filed a motion to transfer to inactive status in 1994. Barack Obama elected to have his license placed on inactive status after he announced his candidacy for president in 2007 and changed it to retired after becoming president in early 2009.
No, the Obamas didnât surrender their law licenses to avoid discipline. A years-old hoax that claims Barack and Michelle Obama surrendered their law licenses to avoid disciplinary action has resurfaced on social media.
The Obamas no longer hold active licenses to practice law, but they were not forced to surrender their licenses over any disciplinary proceedings. On the website for the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois, Barack Obama is listed as retired and was last registered in 2008.
The website shows neither of the Obamas has any public record of discipline or pending proceedings. Steve Splitt, a spokesman for the commission, confirmed to PolitiFact that there is no record "of any sort of disciplinary proceedings" involving the Obamas.
Bill Clinton hung onto his law license until he was convicted of making a false statement in the Lewinsky case and had to â Voluntarily Surrenderâ his license too. President Barack Obama, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, is no longer a âlawyerâ. He surrendered his license back in 2008 possibly to escape charges that he âfibbedâ on his bar ...
Michelle and Barack Obama are also listed on the Illinois State Bar Associationâs official website as honorary members (as are Hillary Clinton and Harper Lee for her portrayal of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird) which would be extremely strange if they had both lost their licenses in disgrace.
Just because you read the same blog post expounded upon at a thousand different sites doesn't make it any more credible. Michelle Obama left Sidley Austin in 1992 and took a job with a non-profit in 1993 that clearly was not in the natire of practicing law.
Active vs. inactive cannot possibly be court ordered. It is a choice the attorney makes each year when registering. If not engaged in the regular practice of law then you choose inactive status (still a member of the bar, but on inactive status because well, you are inactive).