On April 20, Cathleen Grady Conley, an attorney licensed to practice law in Tennessee, received a Public Censure from the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Conley’s office is located at 200 N. Washington St. in Tullahoma.
To obtain business, Conley’s office staff reviewed bankruptcy court records and phoned creditors who had not yet filed a proof of claim, according to a release from the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Tennessee Supreme Court. If the creditor expressed interest over the telephone, Conley’s staff sent an email with a claim form and an agreement providing that Conley would receive one third of any money recovered from the debtor. The phone call and email did not explain that Conley would not be acting as an attorney or provide notice that the protections of the client-lawyer relationship did not exist. Conley was thereby subject to the rules of professional conduct and violated the rules relating to the solicitation of potential clients.
By these acts, Conley violated Rules of Professional Conduct 5.7 (responsibilities regarding law-related services) and 7.3 (solicitation of potential clients) and is hereby Publicly Censured for these violations.
A Public Censure is a rebuke and warning to the attorney, but it does not affect the attorney’s ability to practice law.
Conley and been an attorney since 1976.
Local Attorney Receives Censure
