Tim Chinaris, JD

Tim Chinaris is Professor of Law at Belmont University College of Law in Nashville, Tennessee, where he teaches courses in legal ethics, torts, insurance law, and other subjects. Professor Chinaris was Ethics Director of the Florida Bar from 1989-1997, where he ran the popular “ethics hotline” service that answers more than 25,000 calls annually from bar members.

Professor Chinaris holds bachelors and masters degrees from Florida State University, and received his J.D. With Honors from the University of Texas School of Law. He is admitted to practice law in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas. Professor Chinaris consults with and represents lawyers and others on a wide variety of professional responsibility issues, including lawyer advertising and bar admission matters. His legal ethics website is “sunEthics.com.” He co-authored the authoritative treatise Florida Legal Malpractice and Attorney Ethics (ALM 2017) (with Warren Trazenfeld and Robert Jarvis). He has served as an expert witness in various legal ethics matters, including for the successful party in the first case decided under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Professor Chinaris is active in many professional organizations, and currently serves on several Bar committees. He has chaired or served on ethics and unauthorized practice of law committees in four states, including chairing both the Florida Bar Professional Ethics Committee and the Florida Bar Standing Committee on Professionalism. Professor Chinaris currently chairs the Tennessee Bar Association Ethics and Professional Ethics Committee.

Professor Chinaris has also been active in public service. He served as an Ethics Commissioner for the State of Alabama and as a Trustee for the Jacksonville, Florida public library system.

Professor Chinaris is President of the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society, having served on the Society’s Board of Trustees since 2013. His interest in history is broad, and he is also a Director for the World War One Historical Society and a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association National Advisory Board.