In Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Cade is conspiring to create chaos and his co-conspirator Dirk, responding to things that would need to be done to accomplish that end, says, “The first thing we do. Let’s kill all the lawyers.” Many people misquote that particular passage and wrongfully focus just on taking out lawyers. In fact, that may be one of the most...

Knox County Law Director Joe Jarret has been appointed to the board of directors of the East Tennessee Military Affairs Council and as the judge advocate for American Legion Post #2 in Knoxville.

In the second decade of the 21st century, we Americans have become very impatient. We absolutely refuse to wait for anything. When we’re hungry, we want our food fast, or more accurately, fast food. We don’t have time to wait for a table at a restaurant and then wait for the waiter and then wait for our food. And above all, we can’t waste a billable hour...

When I was growing up, on Sunday evenings my frugal, blue-collared father would dole out a modest amount of cash to each of his three children. The money was to last until the following Sunday night. We could spend it any way we wished, but it needed to cover school lunches, entertainment, special articles of clothing we wanted but didn’t need,...

Professor John Lande wants to liberate litigators from unplanned late negotiations. In Lawyering with Planned Early Negotiation: How You Can Get Good Results for Clients and Make Money, Lande shows us how. Not limited by an “ivory tower” approach to the subject, Lande includes suggestions from practicing attorneys interviewed for thebook. He...

Question: What do Tennessee and Utah have in common? Answer: A profound bias toward allowing folks who create trusts to control who gets what information about the trust. Tennessee may be marvelously forward-thinking or dangerously backward on this issue, but we are clearly not in the mainstream. Regardless, Tennessee lawyers have trust drafting options...