Stay current with legal news in Tennessee. This page features the latest news for and about the Tennessee legal community, either produced by the Tennessee Bar Association or collected from news sources.
The Nashville Business Journal ranked Nashville’s law firms by their number of local attorneys, including the number of partners, associates, and non-lawyer employees. Waller again this year edges out Bass, Berry & Sims for the top spot. Information about the number of attorneys of counsel, paralegals and each firm’s top three areas of practice can be found in this week’s print edition of the Journal.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will dedicate most of its time this spring to comprehensive immigration reform including changes for technology companies and agricultural businesses, committee chair Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, said Wednesday. The Blog of the Legal Times reports that the committee will begin public hearings next month. Leahy also stated the committee will continue oversight of the nation's counterterrism efforts and protecting civil liberties, including the administration’s use of drones abroad as well as in the U.S.
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that where contracting parties have agreed to allow assignment of a contract with the consent of the non-assigning party, and the agreement is silent regarding the anticipated standard of conduct in withholding consent, an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing requires the non-assigning party to act with good faith and in a commercially reasonable manner in deciding whether to consent to the assignment. In the case of Dick Broadcasting Company, Inc. v. Oak Ridge FM, Inc., the Court overturned the trial court’s opinion and ruled in favor of DBC that the duty of good faith and fair dealing applied to the right of first refusal agreement. A separate concurring opinion was filed by Justice William Koch.
In the single criminal case it granted review this week, the Tennessee Supreme Court will be considering whether it should modify the existing rule classifying the victim of statutory rape as an accomplice and requiring corroboration of the victim’s testimony. Read more about the case and a forecast in the Raybin and Perky Tennessee Supreme Court Hot List.
Annie Christoff of Bass, Berry & Sims has been voted the new 2013 president of the Young Lawyers Division of the Memphis Bar Association. The Memphis-native and Georgetown University Law School graduate hopes to continue the group’s focus on the mentoring of young lawyers and increased pro bono participation. Christoff also works with local nonprofits Church Health Center and the American Cancer Society, which she hopes to parlay into her coming year as president. Read the full feature on Christoff in the Memphis Daily News.
Gov. Bill Haslam announced yesterday he plans to boost Tennessee college graduation rates by 23 percent by 2025. Currently only 32 percent of adults in the state hold a post-secondary degree, which is not enough to meet the requirements of the modern job market, Haslam said. He appointed Randy Boyd to lead a group consisting of heads of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Board of Regents, and University of Tennessee systems to find ways to tackle the “iron Triangle” of affordability, access, and quality issues for public colleges and universities across the state.
The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed two prior rulings in which it held an employer’s subrogation right against an employee’s recovery from a third party in a negligence case does not include the amount of future medical benefits be provided to the employer. In Joshua Cooper v. Logistics Insight Corp., Cooper sought workers compensation benefits from his company MasterStaff after being assigned to work at ProLogistics, Inc and being injured by a ProLogistics employee. After winning his negligence case against ProLogistics, Cooper reimbursed MasterStaff for the medical expenses paid on his behalf. MasterStaff then asserted that the settlement did not dispose of all the claims regarding future medical expenses.
President Barack Obama unveiled today a $500 million program to curb gun violence that includes requiring federal agencies to make more data available for background checks, appointing a full-time director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and directing the Centers of Disease Control to research gun violence. Obama issued 23 orders that do not require congressional approval, but said Congress must act soon to implement the rest of the changes, the Tennessean reports.
An Ohio high school teacher has sued her district for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by reassigning her to an elementary school, the ABA Journal reports. The suit contends the transfer constituted disability discrimination since she has a phobic fear of young children.
Republican Rep. Chuck Fleischmann has been appointed to the House Appropriations Committee’s Energy & Water Development Subcommittee, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. The committee oversees funding for the U.S. Department of Energy, and handles Tennessee Valley Authority issues. According to a committee news release, Fleischmann will also serve on appropriations subcommittees dealing with homeland security and labor, and health and human services.
President Barack Obama has signed into law the expansion of the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program, which is aimed at capturing the world’s most serious human rights abusers, WRCB.com reports. Established in 1984, the program gives the secretary of the state the authority to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of anyone who plans, commits, or attempts international terrorist acts. The new law, which passed Congress with bipartisan support, now allows the State Department to publicize and pay rewards for information about people involved in transnational organized crime or foreign nationals wanted by any international criminal tribune for war crimes or genocide.
Applications are now available for lawyers interested in being appointed to any of the more than 600 positions for which the American Bar Association (ABA) president makes appointments. The deadline for submitting applications is Feb. 25. The Tennessee Bar Association's ABA Resource Committee is offering assistance to lawyers interested in applying for service on the various committees, commissions and other entities to which the ABA president appoints. Contact ABA Resource Committee Chair Jonathan Cole or ABA State Delegate Randy Noel for further information about ways in which the committee can be of assistance.
Davidson County lawyer Quenton White received a public censure from the Board of Professional Responsibility on Jan. 15. The board found that for over a month, White practiced law while his license was administratively suspended for IOLTA noncompliance and failure to pay the annual registration fee. His actions violated Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5. Download the BPR notice
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear six cases during its April sitting, which begins April 15. The cases include questions of whether an individual who has not been arrested but is interviewed by police has the right to remain silent; whether federal funds can be withheld from anti-AIDS groups that do not actively oppose prostitution; whether federal law preempts port regulations that limit the operations of federally licensed truckers; whether state or federal law controls the right to receive death benefits from a federal employee’s life insurance policy; whether the federal anti-extortion act applies to a private individual fighting a government recommendation about a pension fund; and whether Congress has authority to make failure to register for a sex crime a federal offense long after the sentence imposed for the crime is completed. Learn more on SCOTUSBlog.
It was just a few words and a joke at that, but Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas broke his seven-year long silence on Monday when he spoke at oral arguments. What Thomas said is not clear, other than he appears to have joked about Ivy League lawyers, reports the Associated Press. The argument transcript only records a few words. It quotes Thomas as saying, "Well, he did not..." Several justices laughed in response. Louisiana lawyer Carla Sigler replied: "I would refute that, Justice Thomas." Two lawyers in the courtroom said Thomas was joking about Ivy League law school graduates, although one said it was at the expense of Thomas' alma mater, Yale. The other said rival Harvard was the butt of the joke. Thomas hasn't asked a question in court since Feb. 22, 2006.
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether a jury or a judge should have the final say on facts that can trigger mandatory minimum sentences in criminal trials, reports the Associated Press. The justices heard arguments yesterday in the case of Allen Alleyne, who was convicted of robbery and firearm possession. The jury found that Alleyne's accomplice did not brandish a weapon, but the judge said he did, raising Alleyne's minimum sentence from five to seven years on that charge. Alleyne's lawyers say the brandishing decision should have been the jury's, and it should have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, not the lower standard used by the judge.
Senior Judge Walter Kurtz today denied new trials for two brothers convicted in the 2007 slayings of a Knox County couple, but granted a retrial for a third defendant, Knoxnews.com reports. Lemaricus Davidson, who is facing the death penalty, and his brother, Letalvis Cobbins, who is serving life without parole, will not get new trials because, according to Kurtz, there was DNA evidence linking them to the killings. Their friend George Thomas, however, will get a second chance because former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner, who presided over the original trial, did not rule on whether he could serve as a "13th juror" in the case. The issue of new trials for several defendants arose in the wake of a pill scandal that implicated Baumgartner and raised questions about the legitimacy of verdicts handed down in his court.
Tennessee’s judicial districts have not been redrawn since 1984 and some powerful voices in the General Assembly are saying it is time to rework the borders to reflect changes in the state’s population, according to TN Report. “Rural counties have become suburban counties, and suburban counties now wrestle with issues similar to urban counties,” Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey said in a statement. “Put simply, our state is a dramatically different place than it was when the last redistricting occurred. This naturally results in inefficiency and misallocation of resources.” Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, the new chair of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, which likely would handle the task, said the issue is “worthy of consideration.” The TBA has obtained a draft map and talking points supporting its proposed changes. Both were circulated last fall.
Wm. Reece Smith Jr., whose legal career was recounted in the book "A Consummate Lawyer", died Jan. 11 after a brief illness. He was 87. Smith was president of the American Bar Association from 1980-1981 and during that time established the ABA Center for Pro Bono. He also chaired the ABA's Committee on Legal Services for 12 years. During the 1980s, Smith opposed the Reagan Administration's efforts to defund the Legal Services Corporation and is credited with leading a lawyer "March on Washington" – an event that eventually led to the creation of ABA Day. Though he was born in Athens, Tenn., Smith attended the University of Florida College of Law and practiced in Tampa with the firm of Carlton Fields. Funeral services will be held Thursday at the Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to the ABA Fund for Justice and Education, the Florida Bar Foundation, Bay Area Legal Services or the Hillsborough County Bar Foundation. Learn more about his life and the funeral arrangements from Carlton Fields.
