A former Maine lawyer’s request to reinstate his law license was denied, again.
Seth Carey’s request to reinstate his law license was denied by Penobscot County Judge Ann Murray on Aug. 8. Carey failed to follow the rules in his request to get his license reinstated and did not disclose a 2023 assault conviction and guilty plea to disorderly conduct criminal in 2025, the 27-page decision said.
Carey of Rumford had his license first suspended in 2009, then again in 2016 for two years, then for three years in 2018 for unlawful sexual touching contact and domestic assault. He was given an additional eight-month suspension in 2021.
His applications to have his license reinstated have been denied three times since 2021. Carey cannot apply for reinstatement until 2029, a period of time that’s appropriate because of the “very limited progress” Carey has made and the “significant progress” he needs to make to be reinstated, Murray said.
Carey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He ran for district attorney in 2018 for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.
Carey faced multiple criminal charges, including felony gross sexual assault and sex trafficking, that were dismissed in 2023. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. Despite admitting to assaulting the woman, Carey’s conduct does not reflect someone who has accepted responsibility, and he did not disclose his criminal convictions to the Board of Overseers of the Bar as required, according to the decision.
During three days of hearing in front of the Grievance Commission Panel in February, Carey was at “times logical and linear and at other times disjointed, repetitive, unfocused, and meandering,” the decision said.
His conduct leading up to the hearing also failed to show that his behavior had changed. Between September 2022 and early 2026, Carey’s behaviors included “bullying and abusive behavior” to people he sees as adversaries, and errors in filings that “no reasonably competent attorney would make.”
In filings before the hearing, Carey used ChatGPT to write one motion and failed to check the AI-generated citations, which he admitted “misstated case law,” the decision said.
“This conduct is incredibly striking and negatively reflects on multiple criteria for reinstatement,” Murray wrote.
Before the hearings, Carey was required to disclose any lawsuits he was involved in, and he listed about 30 cases. However, there were seven lawsuits Carey did not disclose that he had filed, and within those the lawsuits, he had “unfocused, repetitive, vituperative, hostile and intemperate narrative and allegations,” according to the decision.
In the years since, Carey has inconsistently participated in mental health treatment, but it hasn’t been successful in changing his “problematic behavior,” Murray said.
“Carey’s behavior demonstrates that he continues to struggle with impulse control, lack of focus and organization, lack of attention to detail, problematic interpersonal functioning, misperception of authority, poor decision making, inability to modulate his reactions, lack of competence in handling legal affairs, excessive argumentativeness, inability to express anger in a socially appropriate manner, and blaming others for his setbacks,” Murray wrote. “All of these challenges are impediments to the practice of law.”