Bill Clinton: Back To The Law?

The five-year suspension of former President Bill Clinton's Arkansas law license in connection with the Monica Lewinsky affair ends this week, but an aide declined to say whether the ex-president is seeking reinstatement.

Spokesman Jay Carson on Tuesday instead emphasized Mr. Clinton's commitment to treating AIDS patients around the world, fighting childhood obesity in the United States and helping tsunami and hurricane victims — work that doesn't require a law license.

The Arkansas Supreme Court's Committee on Professional Conduct, citing court policy, also would not say whether Mr. Clinton is seeking reinstatement.

Mr. Clinton agreed to the suspension on his last full day as president, Jan. 19, 2001. The agreement came on the condition that prosecutors not pursue criminal charges against him after he lied under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky, a White House intern.

Mr. Clinton accepted the penalty, imposed by the professional conduct committee, under a deal with Special Prosecutor Robert Ray, a successor to Kenneth W. Starr. The committee also imposed a $25,000 fine, which Mr. Clinton paid.

The former president does not have a license to practice law in New York, where he now lives, but has earned a considerable amount in speaking fees and from his bestselling memoir published in 2004.

According to financial disclosure reports filed last year by his wife, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Clintons reported having $5 million to $25 million in a joint bank account.