Supreme Court upholds attorney's 30-day suspension

The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the 30-day suspension of a Nashville bankruptcy attorney who called Judge George Paine "a bully and clown" in an email sent in the aftermath of the bankruptcy filing of restaurant chain Barnhill's.

Caldwell Hancock's suspension stems from his representation of Barnhill's from December 2007 through the following spring. After filing papers to withdraw from the case in April 2008, Hancock submitted a fee application for almost $356,000, which he later amended to $373,000. That summer, the Nashville Scene reported that the initial application included billings for almost 75 hours of work over a three-day span and detailed an email from Hancock that referred to another attorney involved in the case as an "asswipe." Hancock said that characterization referred to an old Saturday Night Live joke.