| Tennessee Bar Association

October, 2009

Cover Story

The Custom of Relying Solely on 'Next-of-Kin' Relationship to Authorize Health Care Decisions Is Not Supported Under Tennessee Law

Tennessee courts have clarified who has the right to make health care decisions on behalf of an incapacitated patient, and they have rejected the customary practice of relying solely on a "next-of-kin" relationship....

Cover Story

Health Care Arbitration Agreements in Tennessee

Civil litigation of medical malpractice and related health care claims is often seen as expensive, slow and unpredictable with potential for excess judgments and reputational damage to health care providers.[1] Amid countless proposals for reform, one currently available option that some health care providers have begun to use is to form agreements with...

Feature Story

October Is 'Celebrate Pro Bono' Month

State and National Efforts

The Tennessee Bar Association is joining with legal organizations across the state for "Celebrate Pro Bono Month" in October. Activties are being planned now across Tennessee to bring attention to pro bono efforts of Tennessee lawyers, to help Tennessee citizens in need of legal assistance, and to provide training for...

President's Perspective

The TBA Celebrates Pro Bono IOLTA Turns 25 in Tennessee

Twenty-five years ago, Emmett Marston of Memphis was the Tennessee Bar Association president " the same year the Tennessee Supreme Court entered the order sustaining the petition of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) and the Tennessee Bar Foundation (TBF) "for this Court to authorize the establishment and implementation of a program for the utilization...

People

Pamela L. Reeves, of the Knoxville law firm Reeves, Herbert...

But Seriously, Folks

The Trial of Atticus

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the 48th anniversary of the film based on the novel, featuring an Academy Award-winning performance by Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. If you ask a lawyer to name his or her all-time favorite novel, the odds are...

Bank on It

Obama Administration Proposal to Rebuild Financial Supervision and Regulation

FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

The Obama Administration has proposed radical changes in the ways banks and other financial companies are regulated. While at this writing, none of these proposals has been implemented, it is instructive to examine the outline of the Department of Treasury's "new foundation."

The plan proposes to...

News

New Web Site Connects You to Other Lawyers

TBAConnect

It's like Facebook but without your high school friends popping up " and no ads for botox or wrinkle cream!
The Tennessee Bar Association has launched a new social networking platform for members " called TBAConnect. This service provides many of the same features of mainstream sites such as Linked In or Facebook...

Letters of the Law

'Twombly' article very helpful

This letter was sent to Andrée S. Blumstein, who wrote the referenced article.

Thank you again! Your article in the July Tennessee Bar Journal, "Twombly Gets IQBAL-ED" was another excellent example of your helpful analysis in this evolving procedural issue. It is of great interest to those of us who still call ourselves "...

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 D. Hanover, Los Angeles, Calif. and Helen Eckert Phillips, Lebanon, Va.

The following attorneys have been reinstated to the...

Paine on Procedure

The Federal Residual Hearsay Exception

The birthplace of this evidentiary nonsense was Selma in Dallas County, Ala. On Sunday, July 7, 1957, the clock tower of the courthouse fell into the courtroom. A newspaper article published in 1901 reported a courthouse fire during construction. In Dallas County v. Commercial Union Assurance Company Ltd., 286 F.2d 388 (1961), the Fifth Circuit...

The Law at Work

Where There's Smoke but No Fire

Ricci v. DeStefano Holds Statistical Disparities Cannot Justify Race-Based Employment Decisions

The publicity following the Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano,[1] can be attributed to the then-pending nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. The publicity tends to overshadow the actual...