Serving every lawyer every day
Strong judiciary maintained in appellate elections
Larry Wilks, President

Larry Wilks President

Just a few thoughts on the August 3 election. A few special interest groups tried to attack some of our justices and appellate judges. Thankfully the voters saw through these attacks and strongly voted to retain all 27 appellate judges. All 27 had been through a rigorous non-partisan review by the Judicial Evaluation Commission. All 27 had received a recommendation for retention.

The Tennessee Plan works and we must be diligent to protect it. A few Tennesseans may urge the legislature to tinker with the plan. I call on you to take the time to tell your elected representatives and your family, friends and neighbors that the Tennessee Plan works and to resist these efforts.

One part of our “serve every lawyer, every day” theme is to ensure that we have a strong judiciary that is protected from improper influence. We thankfully had a good outcome this election cycle, but when the administration of justice hangs in the balance as well as the perception of the administration of justice, we can never relax. You can rest assured that the opponents of the Tennessee Plan will continue to complain. I most respectfully disagree with them and hope you will too. Congratulations to all 27 appellant judges who were retained. Our Tennessee Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Court of Criminal Appeals are among the finest in this great nation. Give them our thanks and continued support.

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On a separate note, congratulations to our very own Tennessee Bar Association and many of our members who won national awards at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association in Hawaii. The TBA staff won the National Association of Bar Excecutives’ 2006 LexisNexis Community and Educational Outreach Award for its Stand Up and Deliver initiative “Freedom’s Foundation, the American Legal System.” Special thanks go to our friend and former president, Bill Haltom, who spearheaded this effort. As a result, the award’s $25,000 worth of LexisNexis research time will be used by the bar for pro bono activities.

Also, the TBA Young Lawyers Division won “Outstanding Service to the Bar” for YLDs with 3,000 or fewer members for its TBA JobLink Project. The TBA/YLD also won second place awards for Building Healthy Relationships and its newsletter, The Tennessee Young Lawyer.

Let me send special congratulations to Danny Van Horn, Cindy Wyrick, YLD Director Stacey Shrader, and all the other Tennessee lawyers and TBA staff who gave so generously of their time to make these awards possible. As nice as the awards are, the many acts of kindness which made a difference in the lives of our lawyers and the public are what is really special. Just another reminder of why they call Tennessee the Volunteer State! Keep up the great work.

See you at the service place — the TBA.

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Thought for the month: “The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back.” —Abigail van Buren