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.
Memphis attorney Richard B. Fields was killed Saturday after being struck by a vehicle while crossing the street in the city's Midtown area, The Commercial Appeal reports. A native of Modesto, Calif., Fields came to Memphis in 1969 with the “Teacher Corps,” a War on Poverty initiative that trained educators to teach in inner-city schools. He received his law degree from the University of Tennessee and went on to serve in several high-profile civil rights cases in Memphis involving school desegregation and racial employment discrimination. In one profile, The Memphis Flyer calls Fields a “Socratic gadfly,” who angered fellow Democrats when he supported efforts to keep state Sen. Ophelia Ford from being seated amidst allegations of fraud in her election, and had a public falling out with former Mayor Willie Herenton, whose rise to power he had been instrumental in orchestrating. Funeral arrangements were not available at press time.
Knox County officials broke ground Friday on a building project to consolidate all juvenile court and child support services in the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center. The addition of four new courtrooms as well as space for county clerks and clerical documents will streamline the process for many families, according to the Knoxnews. Moving juvenile and child support offices from the downtown courthouse also will free up space that that had become so cluttered it was a safety hazard according to Juvenile Court Judge Tim Irwin. The cost of the project is estimated at $3 million. Construction should be completed in a year.
Leland Price, a Knox County assistant attorney general who’s helped prosecute defendants in the slayings of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, indicated over the weekend that he is planning to run next year to succeed Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz, who is retiring. Knoxnews columnist Georgia Vines writes in today’s paper that Price once considered running for Knox County district attorney general but apparently has changed his mind. Another prosecutor in the office, Republican Charme Knight, has indicated an intention to run for the DA position.
Georgiana Vines’ column in Saturday’s Knoxnews reports that Knoxville lawyer and former TBA President Pam Reeves is being vetted by a committee of the American Bar Association as a possible replacement for U.S. District Court Judge Thomas W. Phillips, who is retiring Aug. 1. Vines writes that several members of Knoxville’s legal community are in receipt of a letter from the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary asking them to evaluate Reeves’ professional qualifications in terms of integrity, competence and temperament.
Shirley C. Raines, president of the University of Memphis, announced today that she will retire effective June 30. Raines became the university’s 11th president and the first woman to hold the position in 2001. The author of 14 books and numerous journal articles, she is widely regarded as an expert in teacher education and early childhood education. Raines earned her doctorate and masters degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The university reports that John Morgan, chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, is expected to name an interim president later this week.
A medical-legal partnership between Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET) and Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga recently marked its one-year anniversary. LAET reports that the program has served 100 low-income patients and provided $660,855 worth of legal services since its inception. Lawyers have helped clients with conservatorships, foreclosures, landlord/tenant issues and insurance benefits. Medical-legal partnerships focus on improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable patients by addressing their unmet legal needs and removing legal barriers that impede health. For more information on the program, contact LAET’s Chattanooga office at (423) 756-4013.
Nashville's Cane Ridge High School is launching a youth court this week under the auspices of its Academy of Law. The installation ceremony for student court members is Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the school auditorium. The first hearing date will be Friday. The new Cane Ridge Restorative Court is collaboration between the TBA, Metropolitan Nashville Juvenile Court, Metro-Student Attendance Center and the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Student Services Department. The court has been in the planning stages for a year and is made possible through a grant from the Memorial Foundation. It will focus on truancy and disorderly conduct cases. For more information contact TBA Youth Court Coordinator Denise Bentley at (615) 277-3207 or dbentley@tnbar.org. Learn more about youth courts on the TBA website.
Student Court Will Hear Peers’ Truancy and Disorderly Conduct Cases
NASHVILLE, April 15, 2013 -- The Academy of Law at Cane Ridge High School is launching a youth court program, the Cane Ridge Restorative Court, in collaboration with the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA), Metropolitan Nashville Juvenile Court, Metro-Student Attendance Center (M-SAC), and the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Student Services department. The installation ceremony for student court members will be Tuesday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m. in the Cane Ridge High School auditorium.
The Judicial Nominating Commission today recommended three nominees to Gov. Bill Haslam to fill a vacancy on the Third Judicial District Chancery Court. Those under consideration are Beth Boniface, an attorney in Morristown; Douglas T. Jenkins, a solo practioner in Rogersville; and William Erwin Phillips, a partner with Phillips and Hale in Rogersville. The district serves Greene, Hamblen, Hancock and Hawkins counties. Read more about each of the nominees on the AOC website.
Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee met with Gov. Bill Haslam and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Col. Leo Thorsness at the state capitol this week. The event highlighted work of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, which will be implementing curriculum in schools across the country to educate students about the Medal of Honor. The foundation also will hold its 2014 convention in Knoxville. Read more and see a photo on the AOC website.
Nashvillian Patricia Jean Jordan died Wednesday at the age of 60. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Jordan grew up in Billings, Mont., and earned her law degree from the University of Denver College of Law. She returned to Montana to work in the attorney general’s office in Helena. In 1999, Jordan moved to Nashville, where she also earned a bachelor of fine arts from the Watkins College of Art, Design & Film. Services are Saturday at St. David's Episcopal Church in Nashville. Visitation is at 10 a.m. with a service following at 11 a.m. Memorials may be made to the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, Woodmont Blvd. Nashville, TN 37215; Friends of Warner Parks, 50 Vaughn Rd., Nashville, TN 37221; or the National Quilt Museum, 215 Jefferson St., Paducah, KY 42001.
The TBA today filed a motion and provisional brief to proceed as amicus curie in the case of Hooker v. Haslam -- the latest case to test the constitutionality of the Tennessee Plan for merit selection, performance evaluation and retention elections. The brief was prepared by Pat Moskal and Edmund Sauer of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP serving as special counsel.
Sharon Guffee, who took office in December as Williamson County’s first juvenile court judge, not only is settling in to her new role, but also is making plans for the future, Franklin Home Page reports. One item on the wish list is a larger facility for the court, which shares a building with the Williamson County Sheriff's Office, county jail, juvenile detention center and Alternative Learning Center, which is overflowing with more than 70 students. Guffee says the court outgrew the current space long ago. In an interview with the news website, Guffey also talks about her experience as a private attorney and as the county’s juvenile magistrate.
When Jerry Martin announced on April 3 that he was leaving his position as U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, speculation began in earnest over who would replace him. The Nashville City Paper reports that the Obama Administration has indicated it would like to move quickly on a replacement, and speculates what the president might be looking for in his new appointee.
Louisville-based Frost Brown Todd has plans to expand its Nashville office to 50 lawyers over the next two years, with ambitions to reach 75 attorneys in the next five years, the Nashville Business Journal reports. The move would make the law firm the fifth largest in Middle Tennessee. The paper reports that the firm plans to expand its services to the region’s auto and health care industries.
The Memphis Bar Association’s Probate & Estate Planning Section will hold a reception April 22 from 4 to 6 p.m. in honor of new Shelby County Probate Court Judge Kathy Gomes. The event will take place at the office of Burch Porter & Johnson, located at 130 N. Court Ave., Memphis 38103. Please RSVP to Mary Lynes at mlynes@memphisbar.org or (901) 271-0660.
Atlanta-based Gideon’s Promise will host a “Law Day Soiree” May 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Nashville offices of Frost Brown Todd. During the event, the group's president will discuss the state of the nation’s public defense system and share about the mission of the organization. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean also will be honored and select outtakes from an upcoming HBO documentary, Gideon’s Army, will be shown. The event is sponsored by Nashville Public Defender Dawn Deaner; Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz; Bell Tennent & Frogge; Bone McAllester Norton; Dodson, Parker, Behm & Capparella; and Frost Brown Todd, located in the Pinnacle at Symphony Place, 150 3rd Ave. S., Suite 1900, Nashville 37201. RSVP for the event by April 24 to Roshonda Carter. Learn more about Gideon’s Promise, formerly known as the Southern Public Defender Training Center, by watching this recent New York Times video about a young prosecutor who graduated from its program.
The Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct has issued a public censure and public reprimand to Third Judicial District Circuit Court Judge John K. Wilson. The board reports that the censure is a result of Wilson’s conduct at a 2011 deposition as well as his failure to abide by a resolution and agreement previously reached with the Court of the Judiciary (the board’s predecessor organization). The reprimand was due to an improper ex parte hearing and improper ex parte relief granted with respect to a petition to modify a permanent parenting plan. A public censure requires Wilson to personally appear before the board, which will meet next in August. Read more or download the censure and reprimand.
The bill (SB 200) to overhaul the workers’ compensation system, transfer responsibility to an administrative judiciary and narrow the range of discretion in the system received easy final passage in the state House today.
Meanwhile, budget deliberations, which will formally resume on Monday afternoon, continue to include the McNally amendment. With only one week likely left in the session, and most notice and other rules suspended, advocates must now expand their focus to all members of the Senate Finance Committee to try to head off quick adoption of the proposal by the chair.
