Web Page Issue, Other Misconduct, Leads To Suspension

From the web page of the Tennessee Supreme Court

The Tennessee Supreme Court has unanimously affirmed a Board of Professional Responsibility hearing panel’s imposition of sanctions against Williamson County attorney Connie Reguli and the trial court’s requirement that Ms. Reguli pay restitution to a former client.

In 2011, the Board of Professional Responsibility filed a petition for discipline against Ms. Reguli based on three complaints of misconduct. The petition alleged, among other things, that Ms. Reguli failed to return client communications, refund unearned fees, provide an accounting of fees to a former client and the board, and that Ms. Reguli’s website contained false statements.

A hearing panel found that Ms. Reguli violated multiple Rules of Professional Conduct and imposed an 11-month, 29-day suspension, to be served on probation subject to certain conditions. Ms. Reguli and the board appealed the panel’s judgment to the Williamson County Circuit Court, which modified the panel’s sanction by reducing the length of suspension, altering and eliminating various conditions of probation, and ordering Ms. Reguli to pay restitution to a former client.  Ms. Reguli and the board appealed to the Supreme Court. Ms. Reguli alleged a number of procedural, jurisdictional, and constitutional objections, while the board challenged the trial court’s modification of the panel’s probationary period and requirements.

The Supreme Court reinstated the hearing panel’s original sanction and imposed the trial court’s additional requirement of restitution. In an opinion authored by Chief Justice Sharon G. Lee, the Court addressed Ms. Reguli’s claims, finding each to be without merit. The Court held that the fee agreement between Ms. Reguli and a former client did not adequately explain the nature of the fee and that Ms. Reguli failed to provide an accounting to her client and the Board. The Court also held that attorneys are ethically accountable for prohibited representations on their websites, even if third-party website operators are primarily responsible for the representations. 

Based on Ms. Reguli’s prior disciplinary record, her bad-faith failure to respond to requests for information from the board, her dishonest and selfish motives, her refusal to acknowledge her misconduct, and her substantial experience as a licensed attorney, the Court found that an 11-month, 29-day probated suspension from the practice of law was appropriate. As conditions of her probation, Ms. Reguli must pay restitution to her former client, submit to a probation monitor, and undergo an evaluation by the Tennessee Lawyer’s Assistance Program and submit to any monitoring requirement that TLAP deems necessary.   

Read the opinion in Board of Professional Responsibility v. Connie Reguli, authored by Chief Justice Lee.

The web page issue

Ms. Reguli testified that since 2006, she had a website hosted by a company called FirmSite and in 2007, she approved information for public posting by FirmSite. Ms. Reguli testified that she did not put the certification information on her website and was not aware that the website described her as being certified or being a specialist in family law and divorce until receiving Mr. Johnson‟s complaint in 2011. Ms. Reguli stated that she checked her website periodically before 2011, but never noticed the incorrect information. Ms. Reguli noted at the hearing that the website also falsely stated that she was licensed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and that she graduated from Purdue University in “Lafayette, Tennessee.” Ms. Reguli testified that when she received the Johnson complaint, she was very ill with cancer. She contacted the FirmSite company to correct the website in early spring of 2012.

The court

With respect to the complaint about her website, it is undisputed that Ms. Reguli‟s website represented her as having “Certification/Specialties” in “Family Law[,] Divorce.” Ms. Reguli admitted she was not certified as a specialist in any field of law. This is substantial and material evidence to support the Panel‟s finding that she violated RPC 7.4(b). Even though Ms. Reguli may not have provided the false information to her website company, she is responsible for the contents of her website. Attorney advertising includes all potential ways in which attorneys can communicate information about their services to the public, including communication through websites…Whether websites are maintained by the attorney or a third party, the attorney has the ultimate responsibility for monitoring and reviewing the advertisement to ensure compliance with ethical rules

The court rejected a host of procedural and substantive claims

Ms. Reguli contends that Tennessee‟s attorney discipline system is unconstitutional for several reasons. Ms. Reguli first contends that the preponderance-ofthe-evidence standard in attorney disciplinary proceedings is unconstitutional.  She argues that due process demands a standard of proof at least as stringent as the clear and convincing evidence standard. Ms. Reguli also argues that the combined investigative, enforcement, and adjudicative functions of the Board violate due process. Ms. Reguli‟s various remaining arguments allege that the Board is an unconstitutional body because of the financial interests of its members in the outcome of disciplinary proceedings and that the system otherwise lacks adequate due process safeguards.

The court relied on a recent decision to uphold the constitutionality of its disciplinary system. (Mike Frisch)