The Tennessee Supreme Court on Jan. 30 issued an order referring Anderson County lawyer Matthew Allen Birdwell to the Board of Professional Responsibility for whatever action the board deems warranted. The court took the action after Birdwell pleaded guilty to possession of a handgun while under the influence, a Class A misdemeanor, in the Criminal/Circuit Court for Anderson County. He received judicial diversion.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today transferred the law licenses of three attorneys to disability inactive status. They are: Hamilton County lawyers Jeffrey D. Boehm and Carol Anne Mutter and Williamson County lawyer William Howard Knapp. The lawyers may petition the court to be reinstated upon showing that the disability has been removed.

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently suspended 27 attorneys for failure to pay the annual registration fee; 15 of them also failed to file proof that client funds are held in an IOLTA-compliant account. View the fee suspension order and IOLTA suspension order. See the list of all lawyers suspended and reinstated for fee and IOLTA violations in 2024 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

Knox County lawyer Mark Steven Graham has received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court. The court noted that Graham’s law license is currently suspended yet he filed a pro se lawsuit and identified himself in the pleading as a “lawyer” and “member of the Bar of the State of Tennessee.” Graham also signed the pleading by using the term “Esq.” and included his Board of Professional Responsibility licensure number and a designation that he was filing pro se. His actions were determined to violate Rules of Professional Conduct 7.1, 3.4 and 8.4(g).

Davidson County lawyer Alex Fletcher Thompson was temporarily suspended from the practice of law on Jan. 26. The Tennessee Supreme Court took the action after finding that Thompson failed to comply with its order entered on Nov. 28, 2023. The court also granted a motion to file documents in the case under seal.

Davidson County lawyer Wendell Cornelius Dawson was suspended from the practice of law for three years on Jan. 26, with three months to be served on active suspension and the remainder on probation. The Tennessee Supreme Court conditioned the suspension on Dawson incurring no new complaints of misconduct related to the discipline, additional continuing legal education, engagement of a practice monitor and payment of costs in the amount of $6,265. The court found that Dawson failed to communicate with clients adequately about the status of their cases, move his clients’ cases forward diligently and expeditiously, respond to requests for evidence from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and represent his clients competently. These actions were determined to violate Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 3.2 and 8.4(a).

Davidson County lawyer Joseph Paul Weyant has received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court. Weyant was hired to file a petition to probate a client’s late fiancé’s estate. At the time the fiancé died, the fiancé was a beneficiary of his mother’s estate, and it was anticipated that he would receive a distribution from that estate. Weyant filed the petition but then filed a motion to close the estate prior to a distribution. Weyant then terminated representation of the client. The client hired another attorney to reopen the late fiancé’s estate and paid that attorney $3,102. The court found that Weyant’s action violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.3, 1.4 and 8.4(d). The court also conditioned the censure on the payment of $3,102 in restitution to the client within 90 days.

Sullivan County lawyer Charles Brandon Sproles has received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court. Sproles represented a grandmother in successfully seeking child support for the grandchild of whom she had legal custody. But he delayed more than eight months in entering an order setting the child support despite multiple requests from the client. In the intervening eight months, the grandmother received some of the owed child support by opening a case for child support with the local state child support office on her own. The court found Sproles’ actions violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3, 3.4 and 8.4(d). The court also conditioned the censure on Sproles paying the client restitution in the amount of $1,572 within 90 days.

Rutherford County lawyer Jerry Baxter Jackson III has received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court. The court found, that in one case, Jackson failed to timely file an amended parenting plan as ordered by the court, take action to extend the deadline with the court and attend the court’s next scheduled hearing. In another client matter, Jackson failed to respond to a motion for summary judgment on behalf of his client and failed to explain the effect of the motion to the client. His actions were determined to violate Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 3.4 and 8.4(d).

Knox County lawyer Thomas Fleming Mabry has been disbarred by the Tennessee Supreme Court. The court found that Mabry failed to properly notify the IRS in advance of a foreclosure, failed to timely notify clients of a suspension, engaged in the unauthorized practice of law, charged his client an unreasonable fee, failed to promptly refund unearned fees and prepaid expenses, failed to account for prepaid expenses, failed to promptly furnish a client file to new counsel, failed to promptly withdraw from representation, made material misrepresentations to his client, misappropriated third-party funds, and improperly held himself out as authorized to practice law in North Carolina. These actions violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.16, 5.5(a) and 8.4(a), (b), (c) and (g). Read more in this release from the court.