Ex-Assistant AG Loses Michigan Law License After Anti-Gay Rants

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A former lawyer with the state of Michigan has lost his law license in a misconduct case related to his public hostility for a gay student leader at the University of Michigan.

Andrew Shirvell's disbarment was ordered Thursday by a panel at the Attorney Discipline Board. He can appeal to the full board.

The then-30-year-old Shirvell was working as an assistant attorney general when he was fired in 2010 — accused of harassment after criticizing then 21-year-old Christopher Armstrong on an anti-gay blog, on Facebook and during visits to the U-M campus.

Shirvell said he was exercising free-speech rights, but the panel at the discipline board says his motive was "dishonest or selfish," not simply careless.

A message seeking comment was left with his attorney.

In a separate matter back in 2011, Armstrong filed a lawsuit against Shirvell claiming the attorney had been stalking him on campus and at his home. Armstrong's attorney Deborah Gordon said in the complaint that Shirvell displayed a "bizarre personal obsession" with Armstrong through online posts in which he claimed Armstrong was pushing a "radical homosexual agenda."

In a previous interview with WWJ Newsradio 950, Armstrong called the whole ordeal a "nightmare."

A jury in 2012 ordered Shirvell to pay $4.5 million to Armstrong in that case.

Shirvell is a 2002 University of Michigan graduate. He was banned from visiting the Ann Arbor campus in 2010.

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