Summary: Tennessee disbarred an attorney who kept client funds for services he did not provide and lied to clients about their cases.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has disbarred a Sumner County lawyer for failing to provide services that clients paid him for. The disciplinary panel determined that Andy Lamar Allman, 49, was paid by clients for services he failed to provide, according to the Tennessean.
Allman’s disbarment was effective Tuesday. He is also ordered to pay $320,050 in restitution plus the costs of the disciplinary proceeding. The Board of Professional Responsibility reviewed 79 separate complaints filed by Allman’s clients.
The hearing panel found that he intentionally did not provide services to clients who had retained him and then misappropriated the unearned retainer fees given by those clients. He also misled his clients regarding the status of their cases, according to the Board of Professional Responsibility’s findings.
Last August, Allman was indicted on 17 counts of theft of property after the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation investigated starting in December 2016. He had been suspended from practicing law since September 2016. The TBI statement said, “During the course of the investigation, agents developed information that Allman had taken funds from his clients from December 2012 through October 2016.”
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To learn more about other Tennessee attorneys in trouble, read these articles:
- Attorney Disbarred from Tennessee and Louisiana
- Greeneville Attorney Edward Kershaw Challenges Judge
- Attorney Uses Clients Funds to Pay Personal Bills
Photo: fox17.com