Court ponders suspension of impeached attorney general's South Dakota law license

Jason Ravnsborg speaks publicly for first time since removal from office during Supreme Court hearing

(Dave Bordewyk / South Dakota News-Media Association)

PIERRE — The impeached former attorney general of South Dakota wants to be able to practice law here again.

But his fate is now in the hands of South Dakota’s five Supreme Court justices.

Ravnsborg and his attorney, Mike Butler, appeared before the state’s High Court Wednesday morning — opposite the South Dakota Bar Association and its attorney, Thomas Frieberg of Frieberg, Nelson & Ask in Beresford.

The South Dakota Bar Association’s disciplinary board moved last year to suspend Ravnsborg’s law license for 26 months. That was the same amount of time that former Gov. Bill Janklow had his law license suspended after being convicted of manslaughter in a vehicular accident, Frieberg said. Janklow voluntarily surrendered his law license after his accident.

The disciplinary board argues that Ravnsborg’s conduct after the 2020 accident where he struck and killed Joe Boever outside of Highmore was detrimental to the high standard attorneys are held to, particularly the state’s highest ranking lawyer.

“The Board feels Ravnsborg’s conduct did that much damage or more,” Frieberg said, comparing Ravnsborg’s conduct to that of Janklow’s after the 2020 accident.

The board also took issue with Ravnsborg’s handling of its investigation into his conduct, as well as the investigation that followed the 2020 crash. Ravnsborg treated the board’s inquiry as a political matter rather than a disciplinary hearing for conduct unbecoming of a lawyer, according to its recommendation.

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