Ethics

Lawyer facing possible suspension touts new job—providing humanitarian aid in Ukraine

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The Monument of Independence in Kyiv, Ukraine

Kentucky lawyer Ben Dusing, who’s facing a recommended three-year suspension, has said he will be going to Ukraine to manage a relief operation in Kherson, Ukraine. Photo from Shutterstock.

A Kentucky lawyer facing a recommended three-year suspension has told a Kentucky broadcast station that he will be returning to Ukraine to manage a relief operation in Kherson, Ukraine.

According to the Northern Kentucky Tribune, lawyer Ben Dusing said he has been on six humanitarian trips to Ukraine, and he will return to manage relief operations for the nonprofit group Ukrainian Patriot, WCPO reports. He will help raise money for the group, will drive an ambulance, and will deliver supplies to war victims, Dusing told WCPO.

Dusing’s law license was temporarily suspended after he was accused of filing frivolous motions and threatening court officials in a social media video. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Dusing was accused of threatening to blow up two lawyers in custody disputes involving his children.

Dusing allegedly used the F-word or a variation of it nearly 50 times in the video and threatened to bring God’s wrath on an opposing lawyer and a court attorney. He was also accused of asking his co-counsel to pay $5,000 to a psychologist to change a report concluding that Dusing was “self-centered, turbulent, narcissistic and histrionic.”

A trial commissioner has recommended a three-year suspension, with no credit for the time spent on temporary suspension since February 2022, according to April reports by the Cincinnati Enquirer and WCPO.

Dusing acknowledged that his aid job in Ukraine is dangerous, but he thinks that he was born to do it.

“The defining characteristic of life in Kherson is all-encompassing, unrelenting serious danger without a break,” Dusing told WCPO. “It’s brave as long as we’re alive. The moment that we’re dead, it’s stupid. That’s the way these things work.”

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