COLUMBUS — Disgraced former attorney general Marc Dann Tuesday urged the Ohio Supreme Court to let him keep his law license, arguing that a proposed six-month suspension is too severe and out of line with what others convicted of similar charges have faced.

But several justices specifically questioned whether Mr. Dann should be held to a higher standard because he was serving as Ohio’s top lawyer at the time.

“Clearly there seems to be some distinction," said Justice Yvette McGee Brown. “Not only is he the top law enforcement officer for the state, but he should have clearly realized that chartering a plane and not disclosing that on his ethics application was a problem. He is the chief law enforcement officer of the state."

Mr. Dann, a Democrat, resigned after less than a year and a half in office after sexual harassment allegations were brought against a top aide. In the fallout, he admitted to his own consensual affair with his office scheduler.

He later pleaded guilty to two first-degree misdemeanors for using campaign and inaugural accounts to funnel extra compensation to two top aides and for failing to disclose income and gifts on ethics forms.

Among the gifts he didn’t report was $20,000 in private air travel to a 2007 Arizona conference for himself and family members that was financed by a Texas lobbyist for a firm doing business with the Ohio Lottery Commission at the time. He also failed to report rent payments made by the campaign and inaugural accounts for a condominium he shared with the two former aides.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which essentially acts as prosecutor in attorney discipline cases, had recommended a stayed six-month suspension of his law license. But it was overruled by the state attorney disciplinary board, which ultimately recommended a flat six-month suspension. The final arbiter is the high court.

Mr. Dann’s attorney, Alvin E. Mathews Jr., argued that the charges did not stem from Mr. Dann’s role as attorney.

“All office-holders have to fill out these financial disclosure forms," he said. “He’s not representing a client while he’s doing this. The other conduct relating to the compensation of the employees had nothing to do with a client matter. These matters had to do with personal disclosures, and they had to do whether he had to disclose monies that were from the political campaign fund on his personal ethics form."

Mr. Mathews pointed to the public reprimand that was handed to former Republican Gov. Bob Taft after he pleaded “no contest" in 2005 to four first-degree misdemeanor counts of failing to disclose golf outings and other gifts worth $75 or more. Among the sources of those gifts was Tom Noe, a former Toledo-area coin dealer and past chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party, who is serving an 18-year state sentence for the theft of $13 million from a $50 million investment he ran for the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation.

He also pointed to the stayed six-month license suspension that George Forbes, former Cleveland City Council president and BWCoversight board member, received after being convicted in 2007 of similar ethics charges related to gifts received from investment brokers seeking to do business with the bureau.

But Joseph M. Caliguiri, representing the disciplinary counsel, noted that this isn’t Mr. Dann’s first disciplinary case. In 2005, he was given a public reprimand for neglecting a case in his private practice.

“Just three years later he’s commiting misconduct again," he said.

He also took issue with Mr. Mathews’ argument that Mr. Dann has already taken responsibility and been punished in other venues, including his decision to resign from office 12 days after a full-fledged, multi-agency investigation was launched into his brief tenure in office.

“If I remember this correctly, they were looking under every bed and sheet," said Justice Paul Pfeifer. “That may be a poor choice of words."

Mr. Dann rode the backlash that followed the BWC scandals, resulting in a nearly clean sweep of Republicans from statewide executive office in the 2006 election. He later spoke of being unprepared for a job he didn’t expect to win.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, who served as Mr. Taft’s lieutenant governor in his first term, challenged Mr. Mathew’s suggestion that Mr. Dann should have been given credit for voluntarily going to the disciplinary board.

“It was all over the newspapers for God’s sake," she said.

First Published April 3, 2012, 4:51 p.m.