The Tennessee Supreme Court has appointed three members to the state Board of Professional Responsibility which investigates complaints against attorneys and disciplines lawyers who violate professional rules.
Mark L. Hayes, a Dyer County attorney, was reappointed by the court for a three year term ending Dec. 31, 2005. New members also appointed for three year terms are John J. Hollins, a Nashville attorney, and Gail Carr Williams, assistant director of community, government and neighborhood relations at Vanderbilt University. Williams fills one of three non-attorney positions on the 12-member board.
In its order, the Supreme Court named Memphis attorney Charles Carpenter as board chair and Bristol attorney C. Thomas Davenport, Jr., as vice chair. The court extended its “deep appreciation and gratitude” to outgoing members Jack W. Robinson and McDonald Williams for “their years of dedicated service.”
In 1996, the Supreme Court expanded the board to include three non-attorney members. The goal was to increase public confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of the board’s disciplinary process, said Justice Adolpho A. Birch, Jr., the court’s liaison to the Board of Professional Responsibility.
The board, an arm of the Supreme Court, received 1,171 complaints from Nov. 1, 2001, through Oct. 31, 2002, resulting in nine disbarments, 13 suspensions, 13 public censures, 50 private reprimands and 82 private admonitions. Another four attorneys opted to take disability inactive status. The number of complaints against attorneys dropped from the previous 12 month period, when the total was 1,397.
In the past 26 years, the board received 32,280 complaints resulting in 141 disbarments, 333 suspensions, 368 public censures and 2,397 private reprimands or admonitions.
In 2002, fees paid by attorneys provided the board with revenue of $1.6 million.