Leicester Stovell: LeBron Paternity Suit, Defamation, and Disbarment

Leicester Bryce Stovell is a disbarred Washington, D.C. attorney and former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer who became publicly known after filing two unsuccessful lawsuits against NBA star LeBron James, in which he claimed to be James’s biological father. Both suits were dismissed, and Stovell’s law license was later revoked for reasons unrelated to that litigation: the D.C. Court of Appeals disbarred him in 2018 for misappropriating client funds and neglecting client matters, and the U.S. Supreme Court disbarred him from its bar in 2020.¹

The 2010 Paternity Suit Against LeBron James

In June 2010, Stovell filed a $4 million suit against LeBron James and James’s mother, Gloria James, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, representing himself.² He alleged fraud, defamation, and misrepresentation, and claimed he was LeBron James’s biological father.

According to the complaint, Stovell said he met Gloria James at a Washington-area bar in mid-March 1984, that they had a single sexual encounter, and that she later told him she was pregnant with a son she planned to name “LeBron” — a name Stovell suggested was drawn from his own first and middle names, Leicester Bryce.³ He acknowledged that a 2007 DNA test had excluded him as the father but alleged the results had been tampered with as part of what he called a “comprehensive, sophisticated and well-funded effort” to conceal James’s true paternity. He offered no specific evidence of how any tampering occurred. He also pointed to physical resemblance and to the fact that James had named his second son “Bryce.”⁴

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly dismissed the case on September 16, 2011. The court found Stovell’s requested damages “speculative in nature” and held that his claim for “loss of love and affection” was not a recognized form of damages for common law fraud. On the defamation theory, the court concluded that no reasonable person would have interpreted LeBron James’s public comments about his absent father as references to Stovell.²

The 2013 Defamation Suit

Stovell filed a second federal suit in Washington on April 29, 2013. This one alleged that James had defamed him in comments published in the April 30, 2012 issue of Sports Illustrated. The article did not name Stovell, but he argued that readers familiar with the earlier paternity case would connect James’s comments about growing up without a father to him.⁵

Judge Kollar-Kotelly dismissed the case on September 2, 2013, on statute-of-limitations grounds. The magazine issue had been available on newsstands by April 25, 2012, so the one-year limitations period had expired four days before Stovell filed.⁵

Why He Was Disbarred

The conduct that ended Stovell’s legal career had nothing to do with the James litigation. A hearing committee of the D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility reviewed four separate client matters and found, by clear and convincing evidence, that Stovell had committed serious ethical violations across all of them.⁶

The committee found Stovell had intentionally misappropriated money from at least two clients and had failed to place client funds in a required trust (IOLTA) account. He admitted he had not known client funds needed to be held separately, and instead deposited retainers into personal and business checking accounts and spent the money on personal expenses. For a third client, he kept no accounting records at all, testifying that he tracked the matter in his “mind.” A fourth client had retained him for a child support case; he missed a scheduled court hearing, stopped communicating with her, and abandoned the case.

The committee concluded that Stovell had “failed the legal system by engaging in dishonest acts and seriously interfering with the administration of justice,” and rejected his defense that inexperience running a solo practice explained the misconduct.⁷ The board recommended disbarment in February 2018, and the D.C. Court of Appeals issued its disbarment order that June.

Reciprocal Discipline in Other Jurisdictions

Other courts where Stovell was admitted followed suit. On October 11, 2018, the Supreme Court of Ohio suspended him from practice for five years on a reciprocal basis, conditioning any future Ohio reinstatement on prior reinstatement in D.C. and completion of continuing legal education requirements.⁸ The Supreme Court of Illinois disbarred him during its May 2019 term.¹

The U.S. Supreme Court suspended Stovell from its bar on August 5, 2019, and issued a rule directing him to show cause why he should not be disbarred. He did not respond, and the Court entered an order of disbarment on September 11, 2020.⁹

Background Before the Litigation

Stovell graduated from Princeton University and received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1980.¹⁰ He served as a Senior Legal Advisor at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 1983 to 2002.¹¹ One source also described him as a former Department of Justice attorney, though the specifics of that role have not been publicly detailed.¹ He was admitted to the D.C. Bar on July 9, 2004, and ran a solo practice from his home and a K Street office in northwest Washington, handling matters that ranged from family court disputes to U.S. Supreme Court filings.⁶

1
Bloomberg Law. SCOTUS Disbars Lawyer Who Claimed to Be LeBron James’ Father
2
Akron Legal News. Stovell v. James
3
CNN. Man Files Paternity Suit Against LeBron James
4
New York Daily News. LeBron James Sued for $4 Million by Leicester Bryce Stovell
5
Courthouse News Service. LeBron James Blocks Suit From Self-Avowed Dad
6
D.C. Bar. Hearing Committee Report, Board Docket No. 16-BD-046
7
JD Journal. Washington D.C. Attorney Leicester Stovell Disbarred
8
Supreme Court of Ohio. Disciplinary Counsel v. Stovell, 2018-Ohio-4100
9
Supreme Court of the United States. Order List, Case D-3049
10
ABA Journal. SEC Lawyer Sues LeBron James, Claims Tampering With Paternity Test
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Above the Law. Lawyer of the Day: Leicester Bryce Stovell