Flamboyant Tulsa attorney Ron Durbin’s law license has been suspended

The suspension is the result of a lawsuit filed by the Oklahoma State Bar last summer alleging misconduct back in 2017.

In a lengthy email response, Durbin said the Supreme Court’s decision “confirms … that they will do everything they can to cover up legal and legal corruption in Oklahoma.”

He said the court is “made up of liberal scribes” who “make laws from the bench.”

But Durbin did not deny all the allegations against him.

“I intentionally and proudly made the decision to cross the thin black line,” he wrote in the email to the Tulsa World.

The colorful Durbin is known for his involvement in the medical marijuana industry and his aggressive, profanity-laced diatribes against the justice system, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority.

He repeatedly and publicly referred to at least one judge as “a drunk” and questioned the honesty and ethics of numerous other officials.

In one case, Durbin got into a loud argument with several district judges and a bailiff in the hallway of a Tulsa County courthouse.

In another case, he engaged in a livestreamed argument with a Bureau of Narcotics employee and several law enforcement officials. According to the OBA petition filed against him last summer, Durbin has been the subject of complaints to the bar from Tulsa city employees and several clients, including a former brother-in-law.

In a 254-page response filed March 19, Durbin describes the Oklahoma Bar Association’s general counsel as “either incompetent or corrupt” and argues that the OBA has not taken action against other attorneys who have more serious charges pending be.

“I am guilty of expressing my opinions and expressing my First Amendment rights and that is all I am guilty of,” Durbin wrote in the email to the World. “When I began this fight to expose corruption, I knew it would not be easy. …Those in power will do whatever they can to hold on to power, and smearing me was certainly on my mind.

“I will be filing a lawsuit in federal court in the coming weeks seeking a preliminary injunction against the Oklahoma Supreme Court regarding this stay.”

In its order, the Supreme Court explains that an OBA investigation found that Durbin “continues to make reckless, malicious and dishonest statements” in which he “disparages judges, the judiciary, opposing counsel, the OBA and anyone with opposing views.”