TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Oct 28, 2025

Roane County lawyer Dana C. Hansen Chavis received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court on Oct. 28. While Chavis was employed as a federal public defender with the Federal Defender Services of East Tennessee, she was assigned to appear pro hac vice to represent a death row defendant in a post-conviction appellate matter in Virginia. The court found that during the proceedings, Chavis failed to make reasonably diligent efforts to comply with a discovery request by an opposing party and negligently failed to disclose and produce material evidence responsive to a discovery request. Chavis agreed to a conditional guilty plea acknowledging her conduct violated Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct 3.4(e) dealing with fairness to opposing party or counsel.