BOSTON (AP) – Three years after F. Lee Bailey was disbarred for allegedly misusing $6 million in stock that belonged to a client, the famed attorney is trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered legal career.

Bailey appeared in a Boston courtroom Thursday to ask for a hearing on his bid to regain his law license.

His attorney, Joseph Balliro, told a panel of three judges in U.S. District Court that his client’s disbarment was a “grave injustice.”

Balliro said new evidence has surfaced since Bailey was disbarred in Florida in 2001 – evidence, he said, that federal attorneys gave conflicting testimony about Bailey’s handling of his client’s assets.

“The Florida court never had an opportunity to see what we say is critical evidence,” Balliro said.

The three-judge panel didn’t immediately rule on Bailey’s request for a new hearing, but gave Balliro 30 days to present his argument in writing.

Bailey has represented the likes of O.J. Simpson, Patty Hearst and Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed to being the Boston Strangler, over the course of a storied legal career that spans four decades.

Bailey was disbarred in Florida in November 2001. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court followed Florida’s lead, revoking Bailey’s law license in March 2002 – a move commonly employed to prevent disbarred attorneys from moving across state lines to practice law.

The SJC ruled that Bailey deliberately broke ethical rules. The court also rejected his argument that he was entitled to spend the appreciation on the stock he was holding for his client.

Bailey is challenging the SJC’s decision in federal court.

Bailey’s legal woes date to a 1994 deal he reached with prosecutors to have a client, Claude Duboc, plead guilty to drug smuggling charges.

The deal called for Bailey to use the $6 million in stock to maintain Duboc’s properties, including two large estates in France.

The government said Bailey was supposed to return the stock to authorities after the properties were sold. Instead, he transferred the stock to his personal Swiss bank account, borrowed over $4 million against the shares, then transferred the bulk of that money to personal accounts and spent it.

In January 1996, he was jailed for about six weeks after he defied a court order to relinquish control of the stock.

Bailey claims his agreement with the government didn’t bar him from using the stock to cover his expenses and pay his fees.

“I want to add the evidence to prove that,” Balliro said.