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In re Application of Olterman10/14/2005
Submitted June 15, 2005
{ } Applicant, William Ward Olterman, of Camden, Ohio, graduated from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in May 2003. He applied to take the Ohio bar examination in July 2003. His character and fitness were approved, and he sat for the examination but did not receive a passing score.
{ } Applicant then applied to take the February 2004 Ohio bar examination. The Admissions Committee of the Preble County Bar Association approved the application with qualifications, citing applicant's failure to recognize and accept his apparent alcohol problem. Applicant did not sit for the bar examination that year but instead appealed the admissions committee's qualified approval.
{ } A three-member panel of the Board of Commissioners on Character and Fitness held a hearing in January 2005. Applicant testified at the hearing, as did his mother and a colleague.
{ } Applicant has a history of legal troubles, including several alcohol-related offenses. He was convicted in April 1996 on a charge of underage possession of alcohol. He was convicted in December 1997 on disorderly-conduct and petty-theft charges and was also found in contempt of court that month. His traffic-related convictions include failure to display a license plate (1993), reckless operation (1993), speeding (1996, twice in 1997, and 1998), and driving under the influence of alcohol (1997, 2000, 2003).
{ } When he applied to law school in 1998, applicant did not provide truthful information to the Thomas M. Cooley Law School about his past legal troubles. Several months later, after enrolling at the law school, he voluntarily acknowledged to a law school administrator that he had not been forthcoming about his convictions and traffic offenses. The school suspended him for one year and placed him on permanent probation. After the one-year suspension, he was readmitted, and he completed his course of studies at the law school.
{ } Applicant has received counseling for his alcohol problem on several occasions. He spent three days at an inpatient program in 1998, attended eight outpatient sessions at a recovery center in 2000, received intensive outpatient treatment and less frequent outpatient counseling for several months in 2000 and 2001, and attended at least ten outpatient sessions in 2003.
{ } At the hearing before the panel in January 2005, an attorney and co-worker from the law office where applicant had been working for two years as an intern testified that she has never seen any evidence that he uses or abuses alcohol. Applicant's mother testified that she and her husband are providing support and encouragement to him, and she believes that he has been sober since October 2003.
{ } Applicant himself testified before the panel too, and he stated that he has indeed been sober since his most recent arrest for driving while under the influence of alcohol in October 2003. He stated that he has attended at least three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings each week since February 2004 and plans to continue to do so. Applicant testified that he now acknowledges that he is an alcoholic and, at the time of the hearing, had reached the fifth step of AA's 12-step program for recovering alcoholics.
{ } A written assessment prepared by a staff member of the Butler County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board in January 2005 listed applicant's relapse potential as "moderate." Applicant acknowledged at the hearing before the panel that he had stopped attending AA meetings in 2001 because he believed that he was not dependent on alcohol. By the summer of 2003, he was attending the meetings again, but then stopped attending in September of that
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