In August 2009, retiring Justice David Souter addressed the opening assembly of the American Bar Association's annual meeting in Chicago, sounding an alarm relative to the general public's lack of understanding of our system of government. Souter noted the sad reality that a "majority of the public is unaware of the structure of government," and fails to...

The HF Law Group PLLC recently announced its intention to move from the central business district of downtown Memphis to eastern Shelby County. Its new address will be 3257 Sarazen's Circle. The firm will keep a presence at its former office in Suite 500 of 119 South Main Street, mostly to accommodate its mediation practice. The firm's principals,...

By his own admission, John Grisham is no Faulkner. "I can't even read Faulkner, much less write like him," Grisham told a Memphis Bar Association luncheon a few years and several million book sales ago. But you don't have to be a hero trial lawyer in a Grisham novel to make a case that Grisham is a far more commercially successful novelist than

Mark Twain joked that a "banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain." Some of our bankers are beginning to feel the same about their regulators and are wondering if the enforcement actions under which some banks are operating do more harm than good. The dark humor question making...

By Deborah Blum | Penguin Press | $25.95 | 379 pages | 2010

This is an instructive book. It is based on the work of two New York City scientists, medical examiner Charles Norris and his toxicologist Andrew Gettler. We learn about the fatal consequences of chloroform, cyanide, mercury and other substances. Alcohol can be a bad potion, especially...