| Tennessee Bar Association

November, 2011

Cover Story

First to File

On Sept. 16, President Obama signed into law the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the America Invents Act).[1] This legislation implements the most significant statutory changes in U.S. patent law in decades. Many of these changes will alter the impact of the U.S. patent system on your clients’ business. The changes are phased in over time, with some...

Feature Story

Personal Guaranties in Construction Loan Defaults

I. Introduction

The subject of this article is the enforcement of personal guaranties in Tennessee. The guaranties involved relate to an equipment loan and a separate construction financing loan. Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation (Cat Financial) sued three individual guarantors for breach of contract arising out of personal guaranty...

President's Perspective

An Attitude of Gratitude

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. It has all of the best parts of what Christmas should be but sadly often isn’t, including family and a time to reflect on the blessings in our lives. It always amazes me when I see folks living in true poverty whether here in Tennessee or in some foreign country and these folks display a grateful heart. In...

People

Davidson County General Sessions Judge Daniel B. Eisenstein was honored with the 2011 Friend of NAMI Tennessee award by the National Alliance on Mental Illness during the organization’s recent conference in Nashville. The award recognizes Eisenstein for his long career helping people with mental illness and providing diversion, treatment...

But Seriously, Folks

A Full-Court Press Beats John Calipari

College basketball season starts this month, and I already have some great news for round ball fans across the Volunteer State. It’s news you’re going to love whether you’re a fan of the Memphis Tigers, the Vanderbilt Commodores or the Tennessee Gentlemen Vols. (I refer to the Tennessee men’s basketball team as the “Gentlemen Vols” to distinguish them...

Book Review

Surviving Divorce: The Inside World of the Fishbowl Known as Divorce

By John Hollins Jr. | Eveready Press | $25 | 168 pages | 2011

John Hollins Jr.’s new book, Surviving Divorce, may become the divorce lawyer’s new mandatory handout for divorcing parties.

Motivated by H. Jackson Brown’s work, Life’s Little Instruction Book, Hollins delineates tidbits of wisdom on the divorce...

News

New GAVELS Program Offers Help Explaining Court System, Judiciary

Tennessee judges and attorneys have partnered to create a new program for educating students, community groups and business organizations about the legal system. The Tennessee Judicial Conference (TJC) and Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) developed the GAVELS program, which stands for Gaining Access to Valuable Education about the Legal System, to fill...

Letters of the Law

Seersucker Success

I have to thank my good friend Bill Haltom for his very kind comments in the “But Seriously, Folks” column for October 2011, commemorating the Knoxville Bar Association’s recent Seersucker Flashmob (“A Summer Celebration of Seersucker Sartorial Splendor”). Bill’s kindness to my sartorial sense was most greatly appreciated, but in all fairness, full...

Disciplinary Actions

Paine on Procedure

Hearsay Exceptions: It Ain’t Necessarily So

Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote that a “great princess” was heard to say about the hungry French peasants: “Let them eat cake.” Through the ages to the present day folks have taken as truth that Marie Antionette was the declarant.

But she never said it. She was notable for her compassion toward the masses. The legend is utterly false. See Antonia...