Tennessee board clears attorney in ethics complaint from state campaign finance watchdog

Cynthia Sherwood, right. is the defense attorney for former Tennessee House staffer Cade Cothren.(Photo: John Partipilo)

The Tennessee panel that handles attorney disciplinary cases has cleared a lawyer accused of an ethics violation involving an encounter between a private eye and the state’s campaign finance chief.

The state Board of Professional Responsibility notified Nashville attorney Cynthia Sherwood in early July that it dismissed a complaint against her filed by the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance, the state body in charge of regulating campaign finance disclosures. 

Sherwood provided a copy of the confidential letter to the Lookout.

“The decision speaks for itself,” Sherwood said in an email statement. “The frivolous complaint was dismissed outright. I cannot speculate about why the Registry and AG’s Office don’t want to admit the complaint against me was dismissed outright.” 

Sherwood represents Cade Cothren, the former chief of staff to Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada. Cothren and Casada were convicted on multiple counts of federal bribery and kickback charges involving state-funded constituent mailers run by a secretive vendor called Phoenix Solutions. 

Cothren and Casada are seeking new trials after being convicted in May.

Former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, ex-aide, guilty in federal corruption case

Registry board members voted unanimously in September 2024 to notify the disciplinary board that a private investigator for Sherwood went to the home of registry executive director Bill Young last August and tried to talk to him about a case. Young said last year he declined to speak to the private investigator because the Registry has pending litigation involving Cothren in Chancery Court. Young is represented by a staff attorney and the state Attorney General’s Office in the case. 

The Registry’s members were upset about the incident and sought disciplinary action, saying it is unethical for an attorney to try to talk to a person known to be represented by a lawyer in a pending case.

After the Board of Professional Responsibility rendered its decision this July, the board two weeks ago asked the Attorney General’s Office for a legal opinion on whether the disciplinary board’s letter should be a public record.

Registry officials declined to release the letter until receiving clarification from the Attorney General’s Office. The Attorney General’s Office refused to release it, citing attorney-client privilege.

Registry board members also declined to divulge the Board of Professional Responsibility’s decision.

Three years ago, the Registry board subpoenaed Cothren to question him about the Faith Family Freedom Fund political action committee as part of a fraud probe. Cothren refused to comply, but Casada showed up at a later meeting and denied any connection to the PAC or knowledge of its actions. 

Yet Sydney Friedopfer, a former girlfriend of Cothren, testified to the board that Cothren had her register the political action in her name and then turn operations over to him during the 2020 election year.

The PAC used a $7,500 campaign donation from a North Carolina restaurant owner named Brandon Crawford, who was never found, to run attack ads against now-former state Republican Rep. Rick Tillis in his campaign with Republican Rep. Todd Warner of Chapel Hill. 

Tillis was critical of Casada during his short stint as House speaker, using an anonymous Twitter account to highlight the Republican leader’s excesses. Tillis resigned his seat in August 2019 amid a sexist and racist texting scandal involving Cothren.

Registry board members turned the case over to the Williamson County District Attorney’s Office, and once the trial for Casada and Cothren wrapped up, Registry Chairman Tom Lawless urged Young to have the investigation renewed.