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.
Acclaimed author Harper Lee is suing her literary agent Samuel Pinkus, alleging that he tricked her into signing a document transferring the royalties from her 1960 novel “To Kill A Mockingbird.” The 87-year-old was recovering from a stroke and says she did not understand what she was doing. “Pinkus knew that Harper Lee was an elderly woman with physical infirmities that made it difficult for her to read and see,” her lawyer, Gloria Phares, wrote in the suit. “Harper Lee had no idea she had assigned her copyright.” The ABA Journal has the story.
Three open positions will be filled by the Tennessee Bar Association Board of Governors at its June 15 meeting. The positions — West Grand Division Governors (Positions 1 and 2) and the 4th District Governor — are open seats created when no one sought to be considered for the seats by the deadline. If you would like to be considered for one of the positions, contact TBA Executive Director Allan F. Ramsaur by June 10. The West Grand Division includes Henry, Decatur, Hardeman, McNairy, Carroll, Chester, Hardin, Madison, Henderson, Fayette, Benton, Gibson, Weakley, Obion, Haywood, Crockett, Lake, Dyer, Tipton, Lauderdale and Shelby counties. The 4th District includes White, Warren, Franklin, Lincoln, Van Buren, Fentress, Moore, Marshall, Pickett, Bedford, Cannon, Putnam, Smith, Rutherford, DeKalb, Overton, Jackson, Wilson, Macon, Clay, Coffee, Trousdale, Grundy and Sequatchie counties. In accordance with Article 47 of the TBA Bylaws, the board may fill the vacancies at its June meeting, with terms running through spring 2014.
Shelby County commissioners appear reluctant to grant the Juvenile Court’s request for a $1.6 million budget increase, the Commercial Appeal reports. Meeting Wednesday night, commissioners questioned the need for the increase that court officials say is necessary to fund measures required to be in compliance with a memorandum of agreement reached between the court, the county mayor’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice. Larry Scroggs, the court’s CAO and general counsel, said “We have been told we cannot safely operate a detention facility without having the mental health and medical comprehensive care. So what do we do? That is a huge issue."
African Americans voted in greater proportion to whites during the 2012 election, data released by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates. For the first time, blacks were more likely than non-Hispanic whites to have cast a ballot in the November presidential vote -- both nationwide and in Tennessee. According to the Tennessean, the surge in black turnout shows the growing importance of minority voters.
After months of effort to legalize home music studios in Nashville, the Metro Council yesterday deferred action on the ordinance indefinitely. Currently, codes officials look the other way as hundred of musicians run professionals studios out of their homes. The proposal was intended to give them a way to operate within the law. Councilmember Megan Barry says she had just enough votes to approve her ordinance, but she chose to put it off. “I believe that a measure like this – balancing neighborhood concerns with business interests and the city’s music-oriented DNA – should be enacted by a large margin, not a narrow one.” She told Nashville Public Radio.
A consortium of 28 law schools called Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers has created an interactive website that compiles school’s jobs data from various legal sources including the American Bar Association, U.S. News & World Report, the National Association for Legal Career Professionals and Law School Transparency. The site Law Jobs: By the Numbers allows users to customize searches of ABA jobs data. Users may compare law school employment statistics using any of those three formulas or enter their own search criteria, the National Law Journal reports. "The tool is a natural outgrowth of the law school employment data that is now available," said Alli Gerkman, incoming director of Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers. "It lets users create their own rates and, because we have made the formulas completely transparent and accessible, it teaches them how different criteria can impact the employment rates reported by schools, publications and organizations."
Former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin was convicted by a jury of criminal corruption in connection with two Supreme Court campaigns, and sentenced Tuesday to three years of house arrest and two years of probation. The conviction over campaign corruption has sparked high-profile calls for Pennsylvania to switch to a merit-based selection system for picking judges, an option endorsed recently by four former Pennsylvania governors. Gavel Grab has the story.
More than 30 law schools in Tennessee and surrounding states have signed up to participate in the 3rd Annual TBA Diversity Job Fair set for Aug. 23-24 at the Tennessee Bar Center in Nashville. This event provides legal employers in Tennessee the opportunity to interview diverse 2L and 3L law students for summer associate positions, clerkships and associate attorney positions. The employer registration deadline is June 7. To learn more, sign up online or contact TBA Programs Director Lynn Pointer. The TBA Diversity Job Fair is an initiative of the TBA Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity.
State Sen. Doug Henry, D-Nashville, told the Tennessean yesterday that he will not seek re-election for his seat in 2014. The 86-year-old was first elected to a House seat in 1955 and has held his current Senate seat since 1971. “During the last quarter century that I served with Sen. Henry, no one served with more dignity, greater intelligence and greater fidelity than Sen. Henry,” said Tennessee Democratic Party chairman Roy Herron, a former Tennessee state senator. “He is respected by all and loved by so many,” he continued. “The Tennessee Senate will miss his wise leadership and tremendous example.”
Governor Bill Haslam said he will decide by Monday whether or not to veto the “Ag Gag” bill that requires people who document animal abuse to turn over their recordings to police within 48 hours. According to Nashville Public Radio, Haslam said he is expecting to hear soon whether Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper thinks the bill is constitutional. After that, he will decide whether to veto the bill, sign it into law, or let it become law without his signature. More than 33,000 people nationwide have signed an American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee petition urging Haslam to veto the bill.
King Richard III had a soft side? Well, maybe not exactly, but Russell Fowler explains in this issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal how Richard's actions were among the first to acknowledge a need for equal access to justice.
The Tennessean today followed up on the discussion of whether a new federal courthouse is needed in Nashville, quoting U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, who said a report critical of the project overlooks some of the ways in which the current court building is outdated. Cooper, a Democrat who has made fiscal conservatism his calling card in Congress but has long pushed for a new federal courthouse in Nashville, told the newspaper that, “We played by the rules. We haven’t elbowed our way in the federal line. We shouldn’t be punished for that.”
The U.S. Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act yesterday by an easy 69-27 vote. But the bill faces an uphill battle in the House, the Memphis Business Journal reports. The measure would allow for the collection of state sales tax on most Internet purchases. Under current law, retailers have to collect taxes only in states where they have a physical presence. The bill also attempts to address concerns that the new requirement will burden small businesses by exempting retailers that sell less than $1 million worth of goods. Some online retailers say that exemption is too small. In a statement issued after the Senate vote, for example, eBay pledged to push the House to raise this exemption to $10 million in sales or 50 employees.
An 86-year-old Nashville woman has become the fourth victim of the fungal meningitis outbreak to file suit against Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center, The Tennessean reports. In a complaint filed late last week, attorneys for Virginia Neely allege that she was sickened after getting two injections of a tainted spinal steroid. She is seeking $3 million in compensatory damages. Neely previously sued the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for shipping the tainted medicine. That suit, however, has been put on hold because the company has filed for bankruptcy. Neely’s suit is expected to be sent to Judge Joe P. Binkley Jr., who already is handling the three previously filed cases.
Lawyers for the Department of Children’s Services say they will appeal a judge’s ruling limiting how much the agency can charge for records of children who died or nearly died in its care. Instead of the 50-cent per page cost ordered by Davidson County Chancellor Carol McCoy, lawyers for the state argue the department will spend thousands of dollars to hire, train and supervise contract paralegals to review the records before making them public. By its internal calculations, DCS predicts it will cost $5 a page or an average of $212 for each case to produce the records.
Jobs in the legal sector are at their highest level in four years according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Details released Friday show gains in the last two months as the legal sector added 2,100 jobs in April and 3,500 jobs in March (up from a predicted increase of 2,000 jobs). The total number of legal jobs now stands at 1.13 million, up by 10,000 from April 2012. At its pre-recession high in May 2007, the legal sector had 1.18 million jobs. AM Law Daily summarizes the findings.
The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services will create nine recovery courts to combat mental health and substance abuse issues across the state by combining services currently found in drug courts, mental health courts and veterans’ courts. A department spokesperson said the decision to combine resources was based on the fact that so many people dealing with substance abuse also have a mental health issue. Locations have not yet been determined for the courts, but the department says it has been working with community leaders, law enforcement and the treatment community to identify the best places for the new resources. The Chattanoogan has more.
Members of Tennessee’s Access to Justice community will gather in St. Louis this week for the 2013 Equal Justice Conference, sponsored by the American Bar Association and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association. The annual event draws lawyers, law students, members of the judiciary and other supporters of access to justice work from across the country. The conference will include sessions on innovations in technology, collaborations, research and resource management, and tangible ways to increase the capacity of pro bono programs and those supporting pro se litigants.
Sonja White, managing attorney of Memphis Area Legal Services’ (MALS) Family Law/Domestic Violence Unit, died this past Saturday (May 4). She was 49. Visitation will be Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. Funeral services will take place at 11 a.m. on Friday. Both will be held at the East Side Baptist Church, 3232 Covington Pk., Memphis 38128 according to the Memphis Bar Association. White graduated from Hofstra University School of Law and was president of the Memphis Area Women’s Council and a member of the Memphis Bar Association. She previously chaired the Memphis & Shelby County Domestic Violence Council, and served on Shelby County Unified Family Court Task Force in 2007. She joined MALS in 2001. Last year, White sat down with the Memphis Commercial Appeal and talked about her work.
Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee will receive the Lizzie Crozier French Women's Leadership Award on June 14 at the East Tennessee Women's Leadership Summit in Knoxville. Lee is being recognized for supporting and empowering women advancing in society, the Knoxville Daily Sun reports. The award is named for French, who fought for women’s suffrage and was the first woman to address the Tennessee General Assembly and run for the Knoxville City Council. Lee is a past president of the East Tennessee Lawyers’ Association for Women, board member of the Tennessee Lawyers’ Association for Women and the first woman to serve on the Eastern Section of the Tennessee Court of Appeals. Registration information for the event is available online.
