Hendersonville attorney Andy Allman has been disbarred from practicing law and ordered to pay $320,050 in restitution and court costs, according to an Order of Enforcement issued by the Tennessee Supreme Court on June 19.
The order references a Petition for Discipline filed against Allman on Aug. 29, 2017 by the Supreme Court’s Board of Professional Responsibility consisting of 79 separate complaints from individual clients.
A hearing panel found Allman, 50, knowingly, intentionally and systematically failed to provide the professional services for which he was retained; misappropriated unearned retainer fees; converted those funds to his personal or business use; and misled clients regarding the status of their cases and the filing of pleadings.
The Petition for Discipline resolved Tuesday is one of six filed against Allman since March 2016 containing more than 195 verified complaints.
The judgment is one of several pending against the once popular attorney who was temporarily suspended by the Board in September of 2016.
Since then, Allman has been charged in Sumner County Criminal Court with 39 crimes ranging from theft of more than $60,000 to the unlawful practice of law. A jury trial in that case is set to begin Feb. 19, 2019.
The attorney has also been charged in Davidson County with theft of $60,000 to $250,000 for stealing $230,000 from the estate of a Hendersonville woman’s late father. That case is scheduled to be heard in Judge Mark Fishburn’s court August 27. Allman remains free on bond on all of the charges.
In addition to the Petitions for Discipline, the Board of Professional Responsibility filed a Petition for Contempt against the attorney in July 2017, alleging he practiced law after he was suspended by the Board.
According to a Tennessee Supreme Court Special Master’s report filed March 8, the court concluded that “beyond a reasonable doubt,” Allman engaged in 139 acts of criminal contempt by continuing to practice law and ignore the suspension of his law license in September of 2016.
“The undersigned is particularly concerned Mr. Allman continued to engage with existing clients and undertook representation of new clients… promising legal services he could not deliver. Given his extensive and egregious contemptuous conduct, Mr. Allman should be sentenced to the maximum permitted by law,” wrote Special Master Matt Sweeney. Sweeney recommended a fine of $6,950 and a sentence of 480 days in the Sumner County Jail.
In April, the court ruled to set aside the Special Master’s report, agreeing that Allman’s rights had been violated at a hearing in the matter. The court also ordered a new evidentiary hearing in that case.
