The Perry Mason Moment

Famed Jailhouse Lawyer Intercedes for Simmons, attacked WSBA’s “Moral Character” decision

Supremes unanimously side with Simmons, she’ll take the bar in 2018

For the first time in over 30 years, the Washington State Supreme Court issued a public ruling regarding the moral character of a prospective lawyer. The order clears the way for Tarra Simmons to sit for the Bar in Feb. 2018.

Last Thursday, after five months fighting the WSBA’s decision to bar her from entry on moral character grounds, Simmons’ appeal was heard by the Washington State Supreme Court. Simmons was accompanied by the aforementioned convicted bank robber – her attorney Shon Hopwood, currently an Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University and a member in good standing of the WSBA – and a Kitsap County Judge who’d also agreed to testify on Simmons’ behalf.

By the end of the day, Simmons’ case was aided by the unlikely star whose testimony on her behalf resonated with unparalleled personal and professional authority.

When Hopwood rose and addressed the court on Simmons’ behalf, he related the stirring story of a convicted bank robber-turned jailhouse lawyer, whose self-taught grasp of the law was so firm that his initial jail house petition was not only heard in the United States Supreme Court – but resulted in the reversal of a previous sentencing decision for the prisoner in question.

This bank robber later attended law school in Washington State, and upon graduating, petitioned the WSBA’s moral character board for admittance to the State Bar.

Hopwood told the justices that he knew this man’s story well – because it was his own.

Speaking from a position of personal and professional authority, Hopwood reminded those present that the point of the justice system is to rehabilitate as opposed to punish.

“It is undisputed here that all of her prior misconduct, the crimes, the incarceration and the bankruptcies all resulted from untreated trauma and drug addiction,” Hopwood said.

Hopwood told the panel the that the question was not whether Simmons had a derogatory record, but whether she had recognized her deficiencies and become a better person. Had she sought treatment for her addiction? Had she dealt with her grief? Had she handled the derogatory financial episodes and emerged a better person for it?

“We think the answer to these questions is a resounding yes,” Hopwood told the Court. “Character is not static, people change.”

After a brief period of reflection, the Washington State Supreme Court unanimously overturned the WSBA’s moral character board decision last Thursday, clearing the way for Simmons to sit for the Washington State Bar Examination.

Simmons will sit for the next edition of the State Bar Exam, scheduled to begin February 27 in Tacoma. In the meantime, she is working for the Public Defender Association and studying for the bar.

Next: Meet the bank-robber-turned-lawyer that helped make it all possible.

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