A former Farmington attorney was publicly reprimanded this week for failing to represent a client properly.

Kevin M. Joyce appeared before a grievance commission panel of the the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar on Tuesday for a disciplinary hearing about his conduct.

Joyce represented John A. Crosby Jr. in a 2013 divorce. Crosby filed a complaint against Joyce last year after Joyce failed to inform his client that he had never before handled a federal so-called “qualified domestic relations order” to process the divorce court’s terms of distribution of Crosby’s Thrift Savings Plan from his federal employment. Crosby had asked Joyce about his experience with the process and supplied him with materials to assist him.

Joyce failed to process Crosby’s court-ordered paperwork regarding the division of the plan in a timely fashion. Shortly afterward, Joyce informed Crosby that he was leaving his law practice.

Joyce advised Crosby to retain Joyce’s law partner to handle the ongoing court-mandated process for distribution of Crosby’s savings plan. But Joyce had known that his partner was planning to join a law firm that represented Crosby’s wife in their divorce that would have created a conflict of interest.

Joyce admitted he had violated sections of the Maine Rules of Professional Conduct and waived his right to a review of the sanction.

Joyce was admitted to the Maine Bar in 1995 and until last year, had been practicing at a small law firm in Farmington, where he represented clients in a number of high-profile criminal cases. He had also represented clients in Oxford County.