| Tennessee Bar Association

January, 2008

Cover Story

New Legal Services Director Housepian Sees Pro Bono as a 'Great Gift'

"My work provides a great opportunity to live out my faith and purpose. It gives meaning to why I became a lawyer," Gary D. Housepian [house-SEP-ee-an] says of his relatively new job as executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee & the Cumberlands (...

Feature Story

Garbage, Garbage Everywhere . . .

The Effects of United Haulers Association Inc. v Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority on Local Government Solid Waste Management

Recently, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion upholding a local government's ability to exercise flow control over solid waste. In the case of United Haulers Association Inc. v...

Feature Story

Dying Declarations ... the Trials of Stanley Puryear

I had thought that ax murders went out of fashion after Lizzie Borden's 1893 parricides in Massachusetts. But they surfaced again in Memphis around 4:30 a.m. on Monday, May 2, 1932. At 1300 Ridgeway (near the intersection of present day Mississippi Boulevard and South Parkway), Stanley Puryear axed wife Aurelia and daughter Aurelia Zenia (age 8). Then he...

President's Perspective

Our Work Is Not Yet Done

Traditionally, the January issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal focuses on access to justice. It honors the nearly 2,000 Tennessee attorneys who provide pro bono services and voluntarily report their activities. Individuals are recognized for specific representation or work that advances the administration of justice by providing...

People

Legal Aid Society wins excellence awards

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands (LASMTC) received two of the top awards presented in the Center for Nonprofit Management's 2007 Salute to Excellence program. The Chief Executive of the Year Award went to Ashley Wiltshire Jr., in recognition of his leadership...

But Seriously, Folks

Dancing with the Lawyers

I'm a lousy dancer. It's not my fault. I grew up in the Baptist church where I was taught that dancing was a mortal sin, like smoking or drinking or voting for a Democrat. For the eternal life of me, when I was a child, I could not understand the theological basis for prohibiting dancing as sinful. I could find absolutely nothing in the Bible about it....

Day on Torts

Strike One. You're Out!

Judges on the federal appellate courts have a tough job. They routinely face a wide range of legal issues where federal law is applicable. Those federal issues may have been addressed by any one of the other appellate courts or the hundreds of federal district judges and therefore the author of an opinion must wade through lots of law before reaching a...

News

Legislative Wrap-up

Corporate Counsel Pro Bono Initiative Grants Available

Applications are now being accepted for the 2008 Corporate Counsel Pro Bono Initiative Grants. Sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association, the grants will be funded by money raised from the First Annual Corporate Counsel Pro Bono Initiative Reception and Dinner. The money will go to local...

Letters of the Law

The following letter was written to Journal author Charles H. Anderson:

As a longtime member of the Tennessee Historical Commission, I found your article on Judge Anderson ("Joseph Inslee Anderson: Pioneer Federal Judge and Classic 'Roman' Senator," November 2007 Tennessee Bar Journal) to be very interesting and...

Disciplinary Actions

Reinstated

The following attorneys have been reinstated to the practice of law after complying with Supreme Court Rule 21, which requires mandatory continuing legal education:
John Thompson Harding, Goodlettsville; Thomas Michael Leveille, Knoxville; James A. Meany III, Dalton, Ga.; ...

Paine on Procedure

The Trial of Sabrina Lewis, "The Lady with the Vases"

Dying Declarations

On Friday, July 13, 2001, Sabrina Lewis drove a killer to Always Antiques to rob and murder the proprietor, Gary Dean Finchum. She was convicted and sentenced to 21 years.

Sabrina had been casing the store for three weeks under the ruse of wanting to sell two vases. On the fatal morning she left...