On July 4, 2023, L. Lin Wood Jr. wrote the State Bar of Georgia asking to transfer to Retired Status. Associated Press, CNBC, and the New York Times reported the letter from copies he posted on Telegram. CNBC quoted the letter: “I understand that this request is unqualified, irrevocable and permanent.” He added that if granted retired status he was “prohibited from practicing law in this State and in any other state or jurisdiction” and “may not apply for readmission.”
CNBC reported that on July 5 his listing on the Georgia bar directory changed from “active member in good standing” to “retired.” Associated Press wrote that a bar spokeswoman confirmed dismissal of two pending complaints, and that the Office of General Counsel told a court it believed retirement had “achieved the goals of disciplinary action, including protecting the public and the integrity of the judicial system and the legal profession.” Breitbart carried the same bar language the same day.
The disciplinary files were not a secret. They grew out of the 2020 election litigation and related professional-conduct inquiries, including a bar request for a mental-health evaluation that Wood sued to block. Reuters reported in June 2021 that a federal judge dismissed that suit. Associated Press noted an Eleventh Circuit ruling that he had not shown bad faith behind the evaluation request. Those are the process facts. This journal does not treat a dismissed disciplinary file as a finding of the charges, and it does not treat retirement as a quiet fade that hides the file.
Wood’s own words sit next to the bar’s. He told CNN, “I have retired from the active practice of law as I have been planning to do since late 2019.” On Telegram, as CNBC quoted him, he said the bar had “agreed to drop the disciplinary cases against me in return for my agreement to take the status of RETIRED.” Both sentences are in the record. Readers can hold them together.