Franklin attorney Erich Webb Bailey has been placed on reciprocal interim suspension following a Dec. 15 Louisiana Supreme Court disciplinary proceeding and similar suspension last summer in Tennessee.
Bailey has since been placed on disability inactive status in Tennessee, according to an order issued by the Tennessee Supreme Court in October and a Tennessee State Bar announcement earlier this month.
This past July, Bailey was suspended pending further order following a Tennessee Supreme Court order that handed down the same discipline. After the Tennessee court's action, the Louisiana State Bar office of disciplinary counsel filed a motion for reciprocal discipline, according to the Louisiana Supreme Court's two-page disciplinary proceeding. In October, the Louisiana court issued an order giving Bailey 30 days "to demonstrate why the imposition of identical discipline in this state would be unwarranted."
Bailey did not respond, according to the disciplinary proceeding. "The imposition of identical discipline in Louisiana is clearly appropriate, and there is no suggestion otherwise upon the face of the record," the disciplinary proceeding said. "Accordingly, we will place [Bailey] on interim suspension until further order."
Bailey was admitted to the Louisiana bar April 29, 2010, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar's website. He has been licensed in Tennessee since 2014, according to his profile at the Tennessee Supreme Court's Board of Professional Responsibility website.
In the same month that the Louisiana Supreme Court issued its order directing Bailey to indicate why he should not be reciprocally suspended, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued another order placing Bailey on disability inactive status. That decision was announced by the Tennessee State Bar on Dec. 1, which also said Bailey cannot practice law while on disability inactive status. "He may return to the practice of law after reinstatement by the Tennessee Supreme Court upon showing of clear and convincing evidence that the disability has been removed and he is fit to resume the practice of law,” the Tennessee bar's December announcement said.