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Ex-BigLaw Associate Suspended After Child Sex Abuse Conviction

By Andrew Lu on July 06, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

You can have your law license suspended for a lot of reasons, and it should be no surprise that being a convicted child sex offender is one of them.

Former Debevoise & Plimpton associate Kenneth Schneider was convicted to 15 years in prison last year for having sex with a minor, reports the ABA Journal.

He is appealing his conviction and maintains he didn't turn the Russian teen into his "sex slave" for 6 years. Even still, the appeals court (not the state bar) suspended his law license.

It's rare to see a court step in and take disciplinary action against a lawyer such as suspending their law license. Generally, the state bar association in each state governs how they discipline their members. However, given the lurid facts of Kenneth Schneider's case, U.S. District Court Judge Juan Sanchez felt compelled to step in.

In October 2010, Schneider was convicted of traveling to a foreign county to have sex with a minor, reports the ABA Journal. He was accused of sexually abusing a Russian teen and making the child his "sex slave" for six years. The former Big Law attorney apparently paid for the teen's ballet training and in exchange enslaved the youth.

For the crimes, the judge called Schneider a "monster" and sentenced him to 15 years, reports the ABA Journal. Schneider maintains his innocence and has appealed. In the meantime, Schneider is also facing an ethics investigation from his state bar. Not wanting to wait on the results of the ethics hearing, Judge Sanchez stepped in and suspended Kenneth Scheider's license pending the hearing.

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