The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to reinstate the law license of perennial high court candidate and family law attorney Michelle MacDonald, agreeing with a panel of lawyers that she hadn't "undergone the requisite moral change for reinstatement to the practice of law."
Minnesota Supreme Court refuses to reinstate Michelle MacDonald's law license
The perennial conservative high court candidate has had her law license suspended twice.
July 26, 2023 at 9:27PM
The high court indefinitely suspended MacDonald's law license in June 2021 after repeated instances of misconduct, her second suspension in the past five years. MacDonald appealed for reinstatement in December 2021. After a three-day hearing, in which she brought seven witnesses to testify, a panel for the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board recommended against reinstatement.
"The panel determined that MacDonald minimized the seriousness of her misconduct, neglected to acknowledge her misconduct, and was unable to show — through her own words or through the testimony of others — any recognition of the harm she caused by her misconduct," the Supreme Court justices wrote in their decision, agreeing with the panel's recommendation.
MacDonald is a Republican who has run four times for the Supreme Court. Justices Margaret Chutich and Paul Thissen — who defeated MacDonald in the 2018 and 2020 elections — recused themselves from the decision.
MacDonald has had a history of disciplinary action. Her law license was suspended in 2018 for 60 days for several ethics violations, including failing to competently represent a client, knowingly disobeying a court rule and engaging in disruptive courtroom conduct.
The court also concluded that MacDonald made false statements about the integrity of Dakota County Judge David Knutson, who presided over the 2013 child-custody trial of Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, MacDonald's client. Grazzini-Rucki was later convicted of hiding her two teenage daughters from their father for two years.
MacDonald repeated those false statements about Knutson in a 2018 radio interview while she was serving a two-year probation term. Her continued suspension could disqualify MacDonald from mounting another bid for the state Supreme Court.
"We hold that MacDonald has not met her burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that she has undergone a moral change," the justices wrote.
Staff writer Stephen Montemayor contributed to this report.
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