By Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal
(972) 369-0577
A professional license is like your personal Alamo. It’s your livelihood and must be defended at all costs.
Any criminal charge must be evaluated to gauge it’s impact on your ability to either attain or maintain a professional license. In some instances losing a license because of a criminal record is automatic and in other instances it may simply open the door to a licensing board to taking action.
This intersection of law is between traditional criminal law and administrative law as criminal courts don’t directly weigh-in on licenses such as medical licenses, CPA licenses, or engineering licenses. Those decisions are made by different bodies.
Texas Occupations Code Chapter 53 governs the consequences of criminal records on certain professional licenses. It’s structure demonstrates the complex and layered approach the legislature intended in situations when dealing with certain crimes as they relate to certain professions.
Your criminal lawyer needs to be mindful of the professional consequences in a criminal action. Someone facing family assault charges, DWI, or drug charges may be facing stiff probation from the criminal court — but probation may be a hollow victory if administrative action against a professional license wipes-out your ability to put food on the table.
The end-game is what really matters and a good criminal lawyer is thinking 5-steps ahead. Sometimes you simply need a “not-guilty” verdict… and that is that!
*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article is intended to be legal advice. For legal advice about any situation you should contact an attorney directly.