The Tennessee Supreme Court today held that attorneys must pay their professional privilege tax or face suspension, and if they are suspended, it takes effect the moment the Court enters the order of suspension.
Every year, attorneys licensed in the State of Tennessee are required by statute to pay a professional privilege tax. If an attorney fails to pay this tax on time, he may face the summary suspension of his law license. In this case, a Montogomery County attorney, Colleen Ann Hyder, was suspended in January 2020 for failing to pay her professional privilege tax but continued to represent clients. This is the unauthorized practice of law.
Ms. Hyder’s continued representation while her license was suspended resulted in ethics charges with Tennessee’s Board of Professional Responsibility, the board that handles lawyer discipline. After a hearing, the Board found Ms. Hyder was not authorized to practice law once her license was suspended and recommended the Tennessee Supreme Court issue Ms. Hyder a public admonition. Ms. Hyder appealed the Board’s recommendation to the Montgomery County Chancery Court. The chancery court agreed but modified the sanction to public censure.
Ms. Hyder appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court for review, arguing she was authorized to continue practicing law for thirty days after the date of her suspension and she should not be subject to a public censure. In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Dwight E. Tarwater, the Court rejected these arguments.
The Court held the section governing suspensions for not paying the professional privilege tax is not ambiguous. It does not contain, and makes no reference to, a thirty-day grace period to continue representing clients. Since Ms. Hyder represented clients after her license was suspended, she engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.
To read the unanimous opinion in Hyder v. BPR, authored by Justice Dwight E. Tarwater, go to the opinions section of TNCourts.gov.