The Louisiana Supreme Court has permanently disbarred New Orleans attorney Lionel “Lon” Burns Jr., stripping him of his law license and closing the door on any future bid to return to practice. In an April 9 ruling, the court found that Burns secured a default divorce judgment with forged documents and false statements, then kept quiet about the fraud. The justices pointed to a pattern of dishonest conduct that they said undermined the administration of justice and left no reasonable hope of rehabilitation.
According to the court’s order posted on the Louisiana Supreme Court website, Burns’ name will be removed from the roll of attorneys and his license revoked. The order details findings that he filed forged pleadings, made false statements of material fact, failed to supervise a non-lawyer assistant, and engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. Two justices dissented, arguing the punishment went too far.
Background: The Lucky Divorce
The disciplinary case traces back to a 2021 divorce Burns filed for client Paul Lucky III. In that proceeding, a waiver and verification bearing the purported signature of Lucky’s spouse, Tierra Singleton, were filed in court, then later challenged as forgeries. As recounted in the Fourth Circuit’s opinion published by Justia, the trial court ultimately vacated the default judgment and sent the matter back for a factual hearing to determine who had executed and filed the fraudulent paperwork.
A later hearing produced findings, reported by local media, that Burns, a paralegal and Lucky had committed perjury and that the default divorce judgment was obtained through fraud. As reported by FOX 8, the Supreme Court relied on those findings in concluding Burns knowingly failed to disclose the forgeries and made false statements of material fact.
Past Discipline And Federal Suspension
Burns was no stranger to the disciplinary system. He received a one-year suspension in 2018 and another two-year suspension from the state Supreme Court in November 2024, according to the Louisiana Bar Journal. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana also entered an order suspending Burns from practice in that court for two years, an order dated March 24, 2025, that made the federal suspension retroactive to the state suspension, and that order appears on the Eastern District of Louisiana docket.
What This Means
The Supreme Court’s ruling is final. Burns’ name will be stricken from Louisiana’s roll of attorneys and he is barred from practicing law in the state going forward. The sanction ranks among the harshest the court can impose and, according to the court’s notice on its website, is intended to address conduct that wasted judicial resources and chipped away at public confidence in the courts.
