Lawyers Seek $36,611.53 In Clemmons' Cleanup Case

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Attorneys assigned to cleanup the financial wreckage left behind by jailed and disbarred Nashville attorney John E. Clemmons are seeking fees and expenses totaling another $36,661.53, according to recent filings in Davidson Probate Court.
The fee requests comes in just one of the four cases from which Clemmons, 68, now serving an 18-year prison sentence, has admitted stealing more than $1 million. If approved the latest request would boost total legal fees since Clemmons removal to more than $105,000.
In a lengthy and detailed filing Paul Gontarek is seeking payment of $21,816.50 for work done by himself and colleagues at the Nashville firm of Howard Mobley Hayes and Gontarek. An additional $14,795.03 is being requested by Patrick Mason, a Memphis area attorney also working on the case. Previously they were paid a total of $69,066.46.
Clemmons, who pleaded guilty to stealing $771,009 from the estate of William C. Link, also entered guilty pleas in the other cases, including one in Rutherford County.
When Clemmons' thefts were uncovered Davidson Probate Judge David "Randy" Kennedy removed him from the estate and conservatorship cases and named Gontarek to replace him.
In the recent filings Gontarek reported that thus far $375,000 has been recovered for the Link estate, that amount coming from a bond on Clemmons required by the court.
"Upon taking over as the successor administrator, the undersigned quickly learned that neither the estate nor the special needs trust (for Link's daughter) had any funds," Gontarek wrote.
"All actions taken  by the administrator were reasonable and necessary given the circumstances of the case," Gontarek continued, adding that he was forced to pore through thousands of pages of Clemmons' fraudulent filings going back eight years.
Gontarek wrote that he had to "decode" the false and fabricated accountings submitted by Clemmons.
Beyond the $375,000, Gontarek reported that other efforts to recoup money for the Link estate and his daughter await rulings in state and federal courts.
A suit filed against the Davidson Probate Clerk's office awaits a ruling from Senior Judge Ben Cantrell. That suit seeks $515,907 from Metro government based on the claim that court officials failed to monitor Clemmons activities, thus allowing him steal from his clients.
A parallel suit for $157,050 has been filed against Metro in another one of Clemmons' former cases, the conservatorship of Donald Griggs.
In a second suit on the Links estate pending in federal court, the insurance firm that provided Clemmons malpractice coverage has charged that it should not be liable because Clemmons actions were illegal and not covered by his policy.
The bill submitted by Gontarek's firm seeks payments for hourly rates ranging up to $275 an hour. Mason billed at a $135 an hour.
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