Did Law Clerk Destroy Documents To Help Captivating Lawyer?

A law clerk with a penchant for destroying documents...

No one said clerking for a judge is easy. The work is intellectually challenging, your boss can be demanding, and you may have to deal with that pesky Harvetta woman (affiliate link). But the crux of a job with the judiciary is pretty simple to grasp: don’t impede the administration of justice. At least not unless your judge tells you to.

Which brings us to the tale of Allyson Campbell, a law clerk for the 4th Judicial District Court in Louisiana who sits at the center of her own legal thriller starring sidewards glancing judges, zealous newspaper reporters, and silver fox “IT” factor lawyers.

The Samford Law grad wasn’t always the subject of controversy. She was named Young Professional of the Week back in 2013. In that profile she said:

My father told me you have to enjoy what you do; otherwise, you’ll never be any good at your job. I’m lucky enough to love what I do.

Unfortunately, more than one recent lawsuit claims that what she loves to do is destroy documents. The profile also noted that Campbell is a “society columnist.” Make a note, because this will come up later.

This spring, a local newspaper, The Ouachita Citizen, filed a criminal complaint against the 4th Judicial District Court itself for its refusal to give up disciplinary records about Campbell.

Campbell is alleged to have “shredded court filings and delayed numerous writ applications” and to have “used such court records as an end table in her office,” according to The Ouachita Citizen.

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Don’t these people watch HGTV? Using reclaimed court records — in this case 52 missing writs — as an end table is the height of Neo-Corruption design. Anyway, the court was having none of this complaint and sought a declaratory judgment to protect Campbell’s records from reaching the public. An ad hoc judge sided with the court.

Now, lawyers for a litigant appearing before Campbell’s judge have filed a new petition for damages against her alleging that a pattern of document destruction, withholding evidence from the record on appeal, narcissism, and booze have prejudiced their client. And the pleading pulls no punches when it comes to the judges on the court, who it alleges enable Campbell’s behavior.

Why are the lawyers so sure Campbell had it in for them?

Campbell published and declared in the Sunday edition of the Monroe newspaper The News-Star her bias, favoritism, and praise for Cork’s counsel Thomas M. Hayes, III, when she wrote in her weekly “society” column that he, as well as Judge D. Milton Moore, III, of the Second Circuit Court of Appeal, had the “IT” factor, “a somewhat undefinable quality that makes you and everyone else around stand taller when they enter the room, listen a little more closely, encourage you to take fashion or life risks, make each occasion a little more fun, and generally inspire you to aim to achieve that ‘IT’ factor for yourself.”

Is it possible the “IT” factor is just having “III” appended to your name? The “IT” factor certainly sounds like a reason to tilt a case one direction. I mean, come on… “IT.”

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The petition alleges that a pair of judges on the court investigated Campbell’s behavior and learned from eyewitnesses that Campbell had “boasted in a local bar that she had, indeed, shredded or withheld a court document” to expressly harm another attorney who had already filed an earlier complaint over missing documents. And yet, no discipline befell Campbell, prompting the petition to conclude that she was “beyond supervision let alone discipline.”

And that’s why the plaintiffs moved to recuse, in the underlying action, the judge Campbell clerked for, Judge Rambo, and now, in this pleading, the entire court. In fact, the complaint cites the amusing snag it encountered in its efforts to recuse Judge Rambo as one of the primary motivations behind this petition:

Ironically, though, shortly after the recusal motion and memo were filed, Judge Rambo held a status conference wherein he expressed his extreme displeasure to Plaintiff’s counsel that Plaintiff had filed a motion to recuse without a supporting memorandum. Counsel for AESI and Palowsky advised Judge Rambo that was exactly why they were asking him to recuse himself, i.e., because their filings were obviously being intercepted before he could read them.

Irony? To quote Sterling Archer, “This is like O. Henry and Alanis Morissette had a baby and named it this exact situation.”

Moreover, Campbell had posted several pictureson her Facebook page which were viewable by the public/and which indicated that that she not only did her job in restaurants and/or bars, but also that she drank alcohol while doing so. For example, she captioned one picture, which was obviously taken in a restaurant and which showed food and alcoholic beverages, “Seafood nachos at the office.” She then posted a picture from the same restaurant of the half-eaten meal and two empty drink glasses and commented, “Too many house hooker drinks.”

Drinking on the job — especially while employed by the taxpayers — is not something you do just because you can. It’s something you do to numb soul-crushing ennui. Something that Campbell seems to lack based on these excerpts from her famed society column cited in the complaint:

On February 15, 2015, she quoted Oscar Wilde again when she said that “to love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

On April 5, 2015, she told her readers as follows: “I say live life to the fullest, follow no one’s rules except your own (and law enforcement, of course) and continue to excel at your own personal spectacular talents.”

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On June 14, 2015, Campbell again cited Oscar Wilde and stated, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” She then described how she “concocted … a faux rom-com worthy ‘don’t leave me’ airport scene,” and she declared, “goodness, I love attention.” She then closed her column with W. David Johansen’s words “I am doing exactly what I want to do, and I am having fun doing it.”

No doubt if she’s really plowing through “house hooker drinks” while on the clock as a law clerk. Still, if these allegations are true, she may want to come to grips with only being a society columnist.

And as we all know, writers are never allowed to drink on the job.

(Read the whole set of hilarious allegations on the next page…)

Young Professional of the Week [The Advertiser]
Public records allegedly used as an ‘end table’ ignite legal battle, newspaper reports [Times-Picayune]