TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Brittany Sims on Apr 15, 2015

The Tennessee Supreme Court has rejected as too lenient a 30-day suspension of the law license of Knoxville attorney Robert Vogel, who admitted to a sexual relationship with an indigent addict — an ethical lapse that Vogel blamed on sex addiction, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. In a rare move, the court is stepping in to hold its own hearing on what Vogel’s fate should be. Records from the U.S. District Court in Knoxville and the state Board of Professional Responsibility reveal Vogel continued to practice law in Knoxville and several East Tennessee counties while the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General carried out a secret probe of his actions. The result in both probes kept Vogel’s law license intact, albeit temporarily suspended, and netted him no ban on practicing in U.S. District Court, although he can no longer serve as a court-appointed attorney for the poor.