TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jul 9, 2025

Kentucky lawyer Michael James Thompson received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court on July 9. The court found that while representing a client in a custody proceeding, Thompson exchanged sexualized communications with the client, which created a conflict of interest. The court also determined that Thompson communicated with the client about the custody proceeding through Instagram messaging, which did not include any privacy controls. It imposed the censure in Tennessee for violations of Kentucky Rules of Professional Conduct 1.6 (protecting confidential information) and 1.7(a)(2) (concurrent conflict of interest).