Tennessee Candidate Calls for Reform of Ethics Board

Knoxville, Tennessee, 14th November 2025, ZEX PR WIRE, Elliott Schuchardt, a candidate for the Tennessee General Assembly, is calling for reform of the state board that regulates lawyers.

In 1975, Tennessee established a Board of Professional Responsibility to enforce the rules of ethics in the legal profession. Schuchardt contends that the board is straying from its purpose.

According to Schuchardt, the Board is filing ethics cases against political candidates in Tennessee. Schuchardt has a list of more than fifty candidates attacked by the Board. Many of these people were running for office against sitting judges. Others were running for higher office. According to Schuchardt, the Board has filed ethics cases against two candidates for President of the United States, two candidates for governor of Tennessee, a former clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court, and two presidents of their county bar associations.

The Board has also filed ethics cases against a number of prominent African-American attorneys. For example, in 2024, the Board publicly censured the president of the Nashville chapter of the NAACP, Sheryl D. Guinn. Guinn twice ran for office as General Sessions Judge in Davidson County, Tennessee. The board has also attacked the law license of African-American candidate, Terry Renease Clayton. In 2015, Clayton was a candidate for the Nashville City Council. Since then, he has twice run for the office of State Representative.

There is also an appearance that the Board of Professional Responsibility is filing cases to interfere with civil litigation involving government officials. According to Schuchardt, nearly a dozen attorneys have sued the Board or its employees, alleging harassment for political reasons. For example, attorney David Danner alleged that the Board retaliated against his license to practice law, after he published an opinion in the Nashville City Paper criticizing the state's system for selecting judges. Attorney Carol Dawn Deaner claims the Board retaliated against her law license, after she criticized Tennessee's system for selecting court-appointed counsel.

In recent years, the Board has adopted rules that make it easier for State officials to file cases for political reasons. According to Schuchardt, the Board does not provide a neutral decision-maker in attorney ethics cases. Court rules allow the board to select the fact-finder on ethics cases from members of the Board's own organization. Schuchardt says that this creates a conflict of interest, since the panel members are agents of a party to the case. According to Schuchardt, in some cases, the Board refuses to allow the respondent attorney to present any evidence at all.

Elliott J. Schuchardt is a candidate for the Tennessee General Assembly in the 2026 election. Schuchardt is the author of America's Achilles Heel: How to Protect Your Family When America Loses the Reserve Currency. Schuchardt studied government at Cornell University and Oxford University. He is also a graduate of Columbia Law School. Schuchardt practiced law for nearly thirty years, before running for office. He focused his legal practice on civil liberties issues in the courts.

CONTACT:

Elliott J. Schuchardt

2322 Jockey Run Trail

Knoxville, TN 37920

Call or Text: (865) 304-4374

Website: www.elliott-author.com

Blog: https://elliottschuchardt.blogspot.com

This release was published on openPR.