JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The lawyer who represented the families of a Florida A&M drum major who died in a hazing incident, a University Christian student killed by two classmates and the victims of other high-profile cases is losing his license to practice law in Florida, the Florida Bar Association announced Thursday.
Christopher Chestnut, who has law offices in Jacksonville and Atlanta and has practiced law since 2006, was to be disbarred effective 30 days from a May 3 court order.
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Chestnut told News4Jax on Thursday that the Floria Bar didn't follow its own rules prior to disbarring him and he plans an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
According to the Bar Association, Chestnut incompetently handled matters, charged excessive fees, failed to effectively communicate with clients, failed to properly supervise lawyers and non-lawyer staff practicing without a license in another state, was dishonest, failed to provide a settlement statement to a service provider, failed to hold in trust disputed settlement funds and solicited clients.
Chestnut responded to the announcement Thursday, telling News4Jax that the Florida Bar failed to hold a hearing as required by law before ordering him disbarred.
"The underlying cases are illegal, as was the order to disbar," Chestnut said. "They violated their own rules and policies to disbar me."
He said the Bar had issues were with two trials. In one case, a judge threw out all his evidence before ruling, and in the second, a judge ended the trial before any evidence could be presented.
Chestnut represented the family of Robert Champion, a FAMU drum major who died in 2011 after a hazing aboard a bus carrying the Marching 100, as well as the family of 17-year-old Makia Coney, who sued University Christian for security lapses after she was killed by two classmates in 2010.
Two months ago, News4Jax covered Chestnut presenting the Raines football team with $17,000 raised so they could buy championship rings.
News4Jax called Chestnut's Jacksonville office asking for his response to the disbarment but has not received a response.
In September 2016, after Chestnut protested the Florida Bar's effort to suspend Chestnut's license to practice, he told the I-TEAM that "certain members of the Florida Bar establishment have been conspiring with the Floria Bar prosecutors" to prosecutor him over "personal vendettas, racial animus and greed."
"The Florida Bar has a history of prosecuting more harshly and more frequently lawyers of color,” Chestnut told Lindsey Gardner at the time. “The system in and of itself is inherently biased against small firms.”