A hearing board with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission has recommended a 60-day suspension of Tom DeVore, the Bond County attorney who made a name for himself challenging COVID pandemic orders and running for state attorney general, for rule “violations arising from his dating and business relationships with a client.”
If either party decides to appeal the hearing board’s 37-page decision, a review board will take up the case. If there isn’t an appeal, the case goes to the Illinois Supreme Court, which makes the final decision on disciplinary matters.
DeVore said Tuesday he couldn’t comment on the hearing board’s ruling but that he didn’t intend to appeal it.
DeVore’s former client, who operated a beauty parlor in Springfield, is not named in the hearing board’s report and couldn’t be reached for comment. She is listed as “R.C.” in the report.
DeVore began representing the woman in May 2020 when she sought relief from the state regulations that closed “non-essential businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” They soon began dating and later became partners in a failed hair care product business and took out two loans for a total of $500,000, according to the report.
The woman filed a complaint against DeVore with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission in May 2023, which was three months after their romantic relationship broke up in February 2023.
An administrator with the commission subsequently brought a six-count complaint before the hearing board, which heard the case in December 2024.
The hearing board found that DeVore committed multiple rule violations but did not break some of the rules as cited by the administrator.
The board said there was “clear and convincing evidence” that DeVore “began a sexual relationship with his client, R.C., after their attorney-client relationship commenced, which also constituted a conflict of interest.”
DeVore, who was represented by two attorneys in the board hearing, testified he believes the attorney-client relationship with the hair salon owner ended when businesses were allowed to reopen at the end of May 2020, but the board said states “the executive order reopening businesses statewide on May 29, 2020, did not terminate the attorney-client relationship.”
The sexual relationship between DeVore and the salon owner began in June 2020, according to the report.
“Although R.C. admitted to lying and changing her story about whether she actually believed she was Respondent’s client when their sexual relationship began in early June 2020, the contemporaneous actions of R.C. and Respondent speak louder than words,” according to the report.
“The evidence is uncontroverted that Respondent and R.C. engaged in a consensual sexual relationship, but even consensual sexual activity between an attorney and a client constitutes an impermissible conflict of interest because the attorney’s emotional involvement with the client creates a significant risk that the attorney’s independent professional judgment will be impaired.”
The reports also states that the salon owner was going through a divorce and that DeVore “prepared the pleadings for her dissolution of marriage,” which he emailed to his law firm associate for filing on June 16, 2020. While the law firm associate was the attorney of record for the divorce, DeVore continued to pass information from R.C. to the other attorney, according to the report.
“R.C. testified that Respondent was the lawyer she communicated with about her divorce until November or December 2020.”
Other rule violations cited in the hearing board’s summary include:
- “Entering into a business transaction with the client without providing the required safeguards.”
- “Bringing a frivolous chancery case against the client.”
- “Sending a disparaging email while representing a client that had no substantial purpose other than to embarrass, burden, or delay a third person.”
- “Twice communicating with a known represented party about the subject of the representation” in a bankruptcy case.
The hearing board said it “found insufficient proof” that DeVore broke a rule by filing an order of protection against the woman.
The report concludes with a “mitigation” section that notes DeVore borrowed money “to personally buy the Company’s hair care product inventory for $602,000 so that it could fully repay its loan to the bank. The inventory was the Company’s only asset, but he had sold none of it.”
Circuit Judge Sarah Smith testified that DeVore is “very straightforward and honest, even in hard situations.”
The hearing board is comprised of three volunteers, two of whom are attorneys. They heard the case in December and filed their report Monday.
DeVore, a Republican, lost to Kwame Raoul, a Democrat, in the 2022 election for Illinois attorney general. DeVore previously filed lawsuits against Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker over executive orders issued regarding the COVID pandemic.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Mike Koziatek is a reporter for the BND, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
