Roy W. Yunker, Jr. appeals the final decision of the Board to Determine Fitness of Bar Applicants “Board” denying his application for certification of fitness to practice law. For the reasons which follow, we affirm the decision of the Board. Prior to making its final decision, the Board tentatively determined not to certify Yunker as fit to practice law. In so doing, it specified areas of concern which included, inter alia, Yunker’s apparent failure to accurately disclose his criminal history; his discharge from the military after an alcohol-related incident; his law school’s withdrawal of its recommendation of trust to the Board following Yunker’s post-graduation amendment of inaccuracies on his law school application; occurrences of his intoxication and insubordination during a legal internship; and troubling responses during an informal interview with the Board, which the Board believed constituted “a pattern of conduct that demonstrates a lack of judgment, integrity, character, professionalism and the requisite moral fitness required of a prospective member of the State Bar of Georgia.” A hearing officer was appointed to conduct a hearing in the matter prior to a final decision by the Board. The hearing was held on October 20, 2009, and after considering the testimony and documents of record, the hearing officer recommended that the Board issue a final order denying Yunker certification. In so doing, the hearing officer made the following findings of fact.
Yunker applied to John Marshall Law School in July 2005. The law school application asked whether the applicant had ever been charged or convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic offense, and Yunker answered “no” even though he had been convicted of misdemeanor offenses in three separate incidents. In 1988, he pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol “DUI” in North Carolina, in 1989, he pled nolo contendere to disorderly conduct and damage to property in Pennsylvania, and in 2000, he pled nolo contendere to family violence battery in DeKalb County, stemming from an incident in which he choked his then wife. According to Yunker, these incidents were influenced by his consumption of alcohol. Yunker was admitted to the law school, and started taking classes in August 2005.
