TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Jan 21, 2025

Texas lawyer Nuru Witherspoon has received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court. Witherspoon, through two non-lawyer independent contractors employed by his law firm, unlawfully solicited Tennessee families while they were planning funerals in connection with the death of a child in Memphis and with the Woodmore Elementary school bus crash that occurred in Chattanooga. Witherspoon’s contracted employees targeted communication to the victims’ families within 30 days of the accidents, engaging in five acts of solicitation in violation of the Unauthorized Practice of Law Statute and one act of a non-lawyer falsely advertising or holding himself out as a lawyer in violation of the law. Witherspoon ordered or knew about the employees’ conduct and failed to take reasonable remedial action to correct it. He was aware of and responsible in his supervisory role for the contract employees’ conduct, and he also acted in common enterprise with the contract employees in committing unfair or deceptive practices. Witherspoon violated Rules of Professional Conduct 5.3(c), 7.3(a) and (b) and 8.4(a) and (c).