The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday permanently disbarred Brentwood attorney Connie Reguli, slamming the door on a long-running disciplinary fight that the justices said damaged public confidence in the courts. The order traces back to a series of episodes between 2014 and 2018 that the court said included harassment of a juvenile court judge and steps that helped a client and her child evade law enforcement during a heated custody dispute.
As reported by NewsChannel 5, the court wrote that Reguli used her law office "to deceive the public, intimidate judges and undermine trust in the justice system," saying her conduct "directly poison[ed] the well of justice." A hearing panel recommended disbarment in 2022, and that decision was later reviewed by the Williamson County trial court and ultimately upheld by the state’s high court.
The 2018 custody standoff
The opinion highlights a 2018 flashpoint in August of that year, when the Department of Children’s Services obtained a removal petition and a juvenile court order placing a child in protective custody. According to a federal appeals opinion, Reguli met the mother and child at a Lebanon hotel, looked over the DCS paperwork, watched as the child pulled up the missing and endangered alert on her phone, then drove them to Reguli’s Brentwood home. Phones were disabled, and the mother was given a burner phone. Authorities found the pair at Reguli’s residence the next day, and the child was taken into protective custody. A detailed account of those events appears in Justia.
Criminal cases and appellate rulings
Reguli and the mother were both criminally tried. In 2022, a Williamson County jury convicted Reguli of facilitating custodial interference and being an accessory after the fact. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals later reversed and vacated those convictions, finding that the statute and the jury instructions did not cover the conduct in the way it had been charged. The court’s criminal-opinion file is available from the state courts, and the reasoning behind the vacatur is laid out in materials published by Tennessee Courts.
How the discipline unfolded
The Board of Professional Responsibility launched an attorney-discipline case that eventually led to the 2022 hearing-panel recommendation to disbar. A probate and tribunal record, along with enforcement filings, show that the matter generated temporary suspension orders and formal enforcement efforts before reaching the Tennessee Supreme Court. Records from the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility detail the multi-step process that culminated in the court’s final order.
What the ruling means
The Supreme Court stressed that the later vacatur of Reguli’s criminal convictions did not wipe away the underlying conduct examined in the disciplinary case. The justices concluded that the record still showed serious misconduct that warranted permanent removal from the bar. Recent changes to Tennessee’s disciplinary rules also sharply limit reinstatement options for attorneys disbarred after mid-2020, so a permanent disbarment order now carries a much higher barrier to any hypothetical return to law practice. For background on those rule changes, the court’s Rule 9 materials are summarized by the Administrative Office of the Courts.
Reguli has long been a vocal parents’-rights activist and frequent critic of juvenile-court practices, both in court and in public forums, a backdrop the Supreme Court said helped frame the pattern of conduct it found sanctionable. The high court’s order effectively closes the state disciplinary chapter of her story, even as related civil cases continue to move through federal and state trial courts. Those federal appeals proceedings are summarized on Justia.
