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Clearwater parking lot shooter's ex-attorney loses her law license.

Lawyer Lysa Clifton, right, once served on the defense team of Clearwater parking lot shooter Michael Drejka. The Florida Supreme Court stripped her of her law license in part becsause she directly solicited Drejka to hire her, which is against Florida Bar rules. [Times]
Lawyer Lysa Clifton, right, once served on the defense team of Clearwater parking lot shooter Michael Drejka. The Florida Supreme Court stripped her of her law license in part becsause she directly solicited Drejka to hire her, which is against Florida Bar rules. [Times]
Published July 28, 2019

The Florida Supreme Court has stripped the law license of a lawyer who was accused of pitching her legal services to Clearwater parking lot shooter Michael Drejka while he was in the Pinellas County jail, the Florida Bar announced Friday.

Lysa Clifton, 31, agreed to surrender her license over Bar charges of direct solicitation of a client "in a high-profile criminal case" and failure to perform services for a client and pending criminal charges of DUI, possession of a controlled substance and driving with a suspended license.

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On July 19, 2018, Drejka shot and killed 28-year-old Markeis McGlockton in the chest, killing him, in a dispute over parking in a handicap spot without a placard. The case reached national prominence because the Pinellas County sheriff decided not to arrest Drejka under Florida's stand your ground law.

Prosecutors, however, later charged Drejka, 48, with manslaughter and his trial is scheduled to start in August.

The Bar announced in fall 2018 that it was opening an investigation into Clifton for meeting with Drejka in jail. Seeking out a specific client to represent them is known as solicitation, an ethical violation in the eyes of the Bar.

Clifton was also under a Bar investigation after her November 2018 arrest on a DUI charge in Hillsborough County that has not yet been resolved.

The Supreme Court granted Clifton's petition to have her law licenses revoked. That means she will not have to defend herself against the allegations. She joined the Bar in 2012.

Clifton could not be reached for comment Friday.

Contact Aaron Holmes at (706) 347-1880 or aholmes@tampabay.com. Follow @aaronpholmes.