WREG
Garrison
A Memphis attorney who once represented a man who claimed a role in a conspiracy to assasniate Martin Luther King Jr., was disciplined recently for giving financial assistance to clients.
Lewis K. Garrison received a formal censure Wednesday by the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Board of Professional Responsibility. That public rebuke came after Garrison gave a client money to rent a car and pay for rent.
Garrison represented the client in a personal injury claim after an auto accident. The money he gave the client was an advance from a settlement, according to the board. A petition was filed against Garrison in June 2017.
“Mr. Garrison had been disciplined on four prior occasions for improperly providing financial assistance to clients,” reads a statement from the board.
The censure is a public rebuke of the actions and a warning to Tennessee’s attorneys. But it does not affect attorneys’ ability to practice law in the state.
For a time, Garrison represented a Memphis man, Loyd Jowers, who said in interviews and in court that he hired a man to assassinate King. Garrison represented Jowers through a trial in which Jowers was declared liable in King’s death.
Later, Garrison represented Jamal Woods, a University of Mississippi freshman whose truck was vandalized in a crime considered to be racially motivated. Garrison represented the Woods and his family at the request of the Memphis Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Garrison said at the time.
