Stradley Law Firm · Licenses, boards and employers
Professional exposure.
Where a criminal allegation runs alongside a license, a board, an employer or a regulator — and the two cannot be handled separately.
The second case
Beating the charge is not the same as keeping the career.
For a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer, an accountant, a broker, a teacher, a pilot, a contractor or anyone else holding a license, a criminal allegation starts two proceedings, not one.
The second is run by a board that answers to nobody involved in the first. It applies a lower standard of proof, it is frequently faster, and it is not bound by what happens in the courtroom.
It is entirely possible to win the criminal case and lose the license. That happens when the two are handled by people who are not speaking to each other, and when something said to resolve one is later read by the other.
The reporting trap
Some obligations are triggered by the resolution itself.
Many licenses carry a duty to report an arrest, a charge, or a disposition — sometimes within days, and sometimes regardless of the outcome. Missing that deadline can become a bigger problem than the underlying allegation, because failing to report is a clean, provable violation in a way a contested allegation never is.
The trap is that a disposition which reads as a victory in criminal court can still be a reportable event, and can be characterised in a way that satisfies the prosecutor and damages the licensee.
A resolution should be negotiated with its wording in mind, not just its sentence.
Employers run their own clock
An internal investigation does not wait for a court.
HR and outside counsel commonly open an investigation immediately, on a timeline that has nothing to do with the criminal case. What is said in that process does not stay in it, and it is routinely obtained later.
The instinct to cooperate fully and immediately — to demonstrate that you have nothing to hide — is the instinct that most often creates a statement the criminal case then has to live with.
Cooperating is often right. Cooperating without anyone thinking about sequence, wording and what is being waived is not.
How it is handled
One strategy, aware of every forum it touches.
The point is not that one lawyer does everything. It is that nothing is said in one proceeding without knowing what it does to the others — the criminal case, the board, the employer, and where relevant an insurer or a regulator.
That includes the order things happen in. Which proceeding moves first is sometimes the most consequential decision in the whole matter, and it is frequently made by default rather than on purpose.
Discretion is part of the work
Most of this is about the allegation staying small.
A licensed professional’s exposure is rarely just the sentence. It is the hearing, the notice, the colleague who hears about it, and the search result that outlives all of it.
That is why the pre-charge work matters most for this group, and why a small caseload is a feature rather than a limitation.
Questions people actually ask
The ones that come up every time.
Do I have to tell my board straight away?
It depends on your license and sometimes on the wording of what happened. It is one of the first things worth checking, because reporting deadlines are short and missing one is a separate, easily proven violation.
If the charge is dismissed, is my license safe?
Not automatically. Boards apply their own standard and can act on conduct that never resulted in a conviction. A dismissal helps considerably; it does not close the second file by itself.
My employer has asked me to sit down with their investigator. Should I?
Often yes, eventually — but not before someone has thought about sequence and wording. That interview can end up in the criminal case.
Does deferred adjudication protect my license?
Sometimes, because it is not a conviction. But many boards and many licensing statutes treat it as reportable anyway. This is exactly the sort of thing that should be checked before a plea, not after.
Can any of this be kept quiet?
Some of it, sometimes, and that is the whole argument for acting before charges are filed. Once a matter becomes a public court record, the options narrow sharply.
General information about how these matters work in Texas, not legal advice about yours. Every case turns on its own facts, and nothing on this page creates a lawyer–client relationship. If any of it applies to you, the useful next step is a conversation, not more reading.
Speak to Bill
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If it is the middle of the night and you are deciding whether to call in the morning — call in the morning. Do not speak to anyone official before you do.
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Houston, Texas 77008
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