From my files…(updated)
By Joel Thurtell
Hubby’s a lawyer, and so is she.
But what’s this?
Monica Conyers, a Detroit city councilwoman and wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., is not in the Michigan Bar Directory.
Yet her resume on the city of Detroit website notes that she earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of District of Columbia School of Law.
If you’re not a member of your state’s bar, you can’t practice law. Can’t give legal advice, can’t appear in court, can’t prepare legal documents that require a licensed lawyer’s signature and state bar number.
Isn’t that weird? She spent the time and money to get a law degree, but can’t practice her profession.
No law license.
What gives?
Back when I was a Detroit Free Press reporter, I was curious about this. I wrote on Feb. 7, 2006 to the Board of Law Examiners, an office in the Michigan Supreme Court.
“Esteemed members of the Board of Law Examiners,” I said. “This is a request under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act. I am requesting the results (pass/fail) of any and all state bar examinations taken by Monica Conyers.”
A few days later, I found a letter dated Feb. 13, 2006 from the Board of Law Examiners. “In regards to your correspondence of February 7, 2006, I would like to inform you that the Board of Law Examiniers is not controlled by the Freedom of Information Act.”
Uh-oh, I thought. My bad. I’m out of luck.
But the letter continued: “Ms. Monica Conyers sat for the February 2003, February 2004 and February 2005 Michigan bar examinations and failed those exams.”
It’s one thing to have a law degree, but quite another to be a practicing attorney. For that you need a license. I wondered: Has she taken the bar exam since February 2005? I mailed off another letter to the Board of Law Examiners on June 6 and the response arrived in the mail today and is dated June 10, 2008 — one day ago.
According to the Board of Law Examiners, “Ms. Conyers subsequently sat for the July 2007 Michigan bar examination and failed that exam.”
Four times Monica Conyers flunked the bar exam.
A practicing lawyer she cannot be.
Meanwhile, I’m puzzling about another oddity. According to his biographies in Wikipedia, in the U.S. House of Representatives and his own website, Monica’s husband, Congressman Conyers, has a 1958 law degree from Wayne State University and practiced law in Detroit for a few years before entering politics.
Now he’s chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, supervising lots of lawyers.
But doggone: I can’t find him listed in the Michigan Bar Directory, either.
Wonder what that means.
A lawyer friend emailed this snippet from the Michigan Bar, which doesn’t come up on a search:Â John J. Conyers, Jr. – P12167 (voluntary inactive).Â
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Contact me at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
I could hardly believe that she actually tried for the 4th time, but I am NOT surprised that she did not pass. She pathetically does not have the verbal skills to pass anything, let alone write a coherent legal letter to the governor asking her to step aside from the KK mess for “legal” reasons. Impossible.
Stupidity is one thing for which an individual should not be attacked. Evil intentions are quite another reason for being scrutinized. Monica Conyers and her husband are evil people who use the poor masses to cement their power in Detroit. I despise both of them for the havoc and pain they have thrust upon the citizens of Detroit for their own power and glory. When will the people wake up??
QUESTION: How in God’s great world has this entry not had a single comment before me??????????? Is anyone awake out there???
I have another thought: Does not the State Examiners need official certifications of the applicant to the Bar regarding one’s ethics and other personal qualifications? With her history of public theatrics, I think this might have played into her being rejected four times as well as the exam itself.
I found out through a reliable source that Mrs. Conyers told a tall tell about her knowing Mr. KK prior to him running for Mayor. Through my reliable source I have learned that they are related through his mother Congresswomen Cheeks-kilpatrick. She has an uncle by the name of Pastor Cheeks who happens to be Mrs. Cheeks-kilpatrick relative. Do the math if this bit of information was not hard for me to research through the internet, It should not be hard for anyone else, now I know why she is always so quick to defend him. Keep in mind that Mr. KK claims that they are just good friends. To me they both have told tall tales everytime they are in the media.
I’m no fan of Monica Conyers, but fair is fair. Listing the acedemic credential of a Juris Doctor degree from the University of District of Columbia School of Law is not any kind of representation that she practices law.
Many people have a JD and don’t practice law (I’m one of them). Putting my JD in my academic history is not any kind of suggestion that I practice law, or have practiced law. Same goes with Conyers,
That she didn’t pass the bar exam on multiple occasions is a legit observation, of course. But there is nothing ornery about her resume.
Saw Monica Conyers on Fox News – Let It Rip last night – her response to a comment suggesting her position with respect to Cobo Hall was stupid – “I don’t think they give law degrees to stupid people … do they”? It is interesting that her proclaimed intelligence doesn’t extend to having the ability to pass a bar exam after 4 attempts.
Right. Four attempts at the bar exam, all ending in failure. — JT
Re: John Conyers letting his membership in the bar become inactive
Doesn’t it cost money to maintain a membership in the bar? My husband is a physician who has certainly passed all the tests necessary to practice medicine and be board-certified in his specialty. He has also held medical licenses in the states in which we have lived since he became a physician. He does not maintain those licenses (except his current one, in Michigan) because there’s a fee (at least several hundred dollars/year) to keep it active. He is busy enough with one full time job. I suspect something similar is true of Conyers. He doesn’t practice law & has no plans of doing so. I am sure it costs money to maintain an active membership in the bar association — what’s the point of spending it for job he doesn’t plan to do? However, staying on as a “voluntary inactive” shows he didn’t get kicked out of the bar — just that he decided to stop practicing.
I used to think lawyers were smart….not anymore.