Less Than Disbarment For Insider Trading
The Tennessee Supreme Court ordered suspension rather than disbarment for an insider trading conviction.
James Carl Cope is an attorney originally licensed to practice law in Tennessee in 1974. On October 21, 2016, Mr. Cope pleaded guilty in federal district court to one count of the felony offense of insider trading in violation of United States Code title 15, section 78j(b) and Code of Federal Regulations title 17, section 240.10b-5.1 The federal court ultimately sentenced him to twenty-four months of probation, the first nine months of which required home confinement, with a fine of $200,000.
He was suspended shortly after the plea.
We first consider the facts of this case. Mr. Cope’s conduct was essentially limited to one instance, although the intended purchase of 10,000 shares took two separate days to complete. He did not share the non-public information with anyone else, and he did not attempt to hide his action. His unrealized profits amounted to approximately $56,000, which he has disgorged in addition to paying a $200,000 fine. He has had no other disciplinary actions in his lengthy career.
The court declined to impose disbarment and
we conclude that the circumstances justify the imposition of a term of suspension rather than that of disbarment in this case because, inter alia, Mr. Cope has had no other disciplinary actions in his career, his criminal conduct was atypical, and his conduct did not injure his clients. In addition, the Panel’s imposition of a term of suspension of twenty-five months is appropriate because Mr. Cope’s conduct was somewhat less egregious than that of other attorneys who received lengthier suspensions, particularly in the Lockett case wherein the criminal conduct spanned three years and directly impacted the attorney’s firm. See Lockett, 380 S.W.3d at 21-22. However, in the interest of maintaining uniformity in attorney sanctions, Mr. Cope’s suspension must be prospective rather than retroactive to the date of his initial suspension by this Court in October 2016. If Mr. Cope’s suspension were retroactive, the total length of his suspension would only be twenty-five months, half of what other attorneys in similar cases (even those whose suspension was also retroactive) received. Because a retroactive suspension would be a drastic departure from the length of the sanctions imposed in prior cases, we modify the Panel’s judgment to impose a twenty five-month suspension prospectively from the filing of this opinion.
Daily News Journal reported on the conviction and noted his resignation as county attorney
Longtime county attorney Jim Cope has resigned, County Mayor Ernest Burgess announced in an email to The Daily News Journal Thursday.
“Yesterday afternoon, I received notice from Jim Cope of his resignation as the [Rutherford] County Attorney effective Oct. 19, 2016,” Burgess said in an email shared with County Commissioners. “I want to express publicly to Mr. Cope my sincere thanks and appreciation for his many years of dedicated, wise and professional counsel to Rutherford County.”
(Mike Frisch)