Posted by wlansden |
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By James Bowden
Writers for a certain network television show take note: an attorney in Tennessee has not only been disbarred for violating the rules of professional responsibility – he’s also on his way to jail.
The attorney’s ethical transgressions run the gamut, including (among many other things) assorted failures to keep clients informed, sharing the profits and losses of legal practice with a non-lawyer, and that mortal sin of professional responsibility – mishandling client funds. The story as to how he landed himself with a stint in the clink, however, is even more tragicomic: after his license was suspended on February 24, 2009, the offending attorney somehow managed to rack up 50 charges of criminal contempt for practicing law without a license and holding himself out to the public as an attorney by July 24, 2009. The maximum sentence available under Tennessee law is $2,500 plus ten days in jail for every contempt charge, or 500 days. The Tennessee Supreme Court took pity on him due to his being disbarred, however, and reduced his jail time to 50 days. For those of you keeping count, that means that disbarment = 450 days in jail.
Denying the Board of Professional Responsibility’s Motion to Strike the wayward attorney’s brief for failure to comply with the Court’s instructions the Tennessee Supreme Court added: “although the Court is inclined to agree with the Board’s recitation, having the brief remain in the record is the best way to evidence its deficiencies.” Ouch. A stinging bench-slap like that would leave the most hardened transgressor chastened, right? Nope – reached for comment following the Court’s order, he was sporting the glasses with rose lenses: “I think I did a good job for 99 percent of the people I represented." Exit, pursued by a bear.
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