TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Apr 14, 2021

The Tennessee Supreme Court issued a public censure for Knox County lawyer Terrill Lee Adkins yesterday. The court found that Adkins agreed to represent a defendant in a pending product liability trial while an attorney in his office had previously been involved in the same matter at a law firm that still represented the plaintiff. Though Adkins attempted to put screening procedures in place, the court ruled that the such procedures would not avoid the imputed disqualification of the firm under Rule 1.10(d). In another case, the court found that Adkins drafted a subpoena that contained “crass, sexist language.” These actions resulted in harm to the client and prejudice to the administration of justice, and violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.10(d), 8.4(d) and 4.4.