| Tennessee Bar Association

January, 2012

Cover Story

Pro Bono from Home ... and Other Unlikely Places

You are a good person who wants to help. But you can’t get to the pro bono clinic because of your daughter’s soccer practice; you don’t want or have time to get involved in an ongoing issue; you don’t know anything about landlord/client issues so you imagine your services are not needed; or you can’t drive anymore. You would help if you could. Really.

Feature Story

What My Trip to Cuba Taught Me about Access to Justice

Imagine a beautiful, lush island with a city full of magnificent architecture. The citizens are friendly and the country boasts a society where illiteracy has decreased, discrimination has been outlawed and the price of rent has been slashed. And, in this country, citizens don’t have to pay for utilities, health care or legal representation.

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Feature Story

Four Honored for Public Service

Each year the Tennessee Bar Association recognizes outstanding service by attorneys who have donated their time to help others. The four awards given are the Ashley T. Wiltshire Public Service Attorney of the Year, the Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year, the Law Student Volunteer of the Year...

Feature Story

2011 Pro Bono Honor Roll

The Tennessee Bar Association is pleased to have this opportunity to join the pro bono programs in honoring those lawyers who participated in pro bono activities during the past year. More than any other profession lawyers give of their time and talents to serve those who need their services.

Feature Story

Tennessee’s Confederate Courts

The years 2011-2015 mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Numerous state and local governments, as well as private organizations, are commemorating the great events of 150 years ago with markers, books, and countless events. Lawyers, too, can look back on significant legal issues that arose out of the war, such as the suspension of habeus corpus,...

Feature Story

Minding the Gap in Washington County

There are guardian angels at work in Washington County, Tenn., court rooms — at least according to county resident Mary Lee Baker. When Baker stepped into the Washington County General Sessions Court, she was confronted with an unfamiliar scene that both frightened and intimidated her. She was there as a defendant in a lawsuit, having recently been...

President's Perspective

Time for a New Year’s Resolution

As the calendar turns to 2012, many of us will be making New Year’s resolutions. Experience shows that few of us will be keeping those resolutions by the time March gets here. I am asking you to consider adding one resolution to your list and doing your dead-level best to keep this one: become and stay informed about what is going on in the legislature,...

People

The Nashville law firm of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis has hired a number of new lawyers. TBA members among the group include Carol Brass, a graduate of Columbia Law School, who will practice in the area of health care regulatory law; Brian Clifford, a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, who will...

But Seriously, Folks

Is there an App that Will Shut Off My Phone?

Like most lawyers, I’m addicted to my phone. Almost every waking moment of my day, my phone is either pressed against the side of my head or being held in the palms of my hands.

My phone and I are virtual Siamese twins. We are attached wherever I am, in the office or at home or in church or at a restaurant. You name the place, and my buddy “Cell”...

Book Review

Green Fields: Crime, Punishment & a Boyhood Between

By Bob Cowser Jr. | University of New Orleans Publishing | $15.95 | 178 pages | 2009

Four decades passed between the execution of William James Tines and Robert Glen Coe on April 19, 2000. This book details the crime and trial that culminated in Coe’s death by lethal injection.

Greenfield is a small town in the southwest corner of Weakley...

Day on Torts

Retailers Escape Responsibility for Dangerous Foreign-Made Products

One of the little-discussed changes to Tennessee tort law contained in the Tennessee Civil Justice Act of 2011 is a change of the law concerning the liability of sellers of defective or unreasonably dangerous products.

Under the previous version of Tenn. Code Ann. §29-28-106, a seller of a product could be sued for strict liability under...

Family Matters

The Pitfalls of Romantic Involvement During Divorce Proceedings

Ask nearly any Tennessee divorce attorney whether he or she recommends having a client date or become otherwise romantically involved prior to the conclusion of divorce proceedings. The universal answer should be a resounding no. Until the divorce decree is signed by the judge, a party is still married in the eyes of the law and technically not free to...

News

Group Addresses Court on Code of Judicial Conduct

On Dec. 2, 2011, the Tennessee Supreme Court devoted more than three and a half hours to what the court characterized as a “discussion” of the Tennessee Bar Association’s petition to update the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct and adopt new procedural rules to address disqualification of judges.

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:
Richard Alan Arnold, Rogersville
Ted Austin Burkhalter, Nashville
Charles Philip Carter, Knoxville...

Paine on Procedure

Listening to Clients

What may be the most important procedure in civil or criminal practice is not written in the rules. It occurs at the outset of litigation during the initial client interview. The procedural principle is simple: listen to the client!

Have you ever encountered a member of our sister profession — medicine — who insisted on talking rather than...