Tennessee Bar Journal

May 2013

Cover Story

By: Suzanne Robertson

Everyone and everything are telling you to get healthy. But they don’t understand the pressures you are under as a lawyer. Your job is hard and the stakes are high. There is no time. You are s-t-r-e-s-s-e-d. You think it’s just the way it has to be — and there’s research to back you up:

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Better Next Year Extras

By: Suzanne Robertson

Contributing Authors

Read personal stories from these lawyers, with tips about what has helped them.

Thanks to the Tennessee Bar Association’s Attorney Well-Being Committee, Kay Caudle, chair.

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Put Yourself on Your Own Priority List

By: Lisa Cole

When I entered the University of Tennessee College of Law in May 1990, my physical well-being was the last thing on my mind. The institution where I studied law is not the opulent building of today. Most of my exercise in law school consisted of climbing the submarine-like steps in the library. But 22 years have passed, and focus on my physical well-...

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Adventures in Eating Clean

By: Sherie Edwards

Age is not kind.

I can remember a time, not that long ago, when I could eat anything (in just about any quantity) and not gain an ounce. Or if I did gain weight, all I needed to do was watch what I ate and I could drop the extra weight with no problem. I gained 60 pounds when I was pregnant with my first child and dropped it within 12 months....

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Random Acts of Kindness

By: Mary Griffin

Last August, in the middle of a surgery I was having, I woke up. I was at an outpatient surgery center, under anesthesia when I opened my eyes and saw blurry blue lights and faces leaning over me. “Hey, everybody! What’s going on?” I said in my perkiest voice. Then I heard someone say an expletive, followed by, “She’s awake!” and I was out again. Fade to...

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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

By: Linda Warren Seely

Hopefully every lawyer will recognize the words from the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence credited as being penned by the esteemed Thomas Jefferson along with help from other founding fathers as our country was on the verge of breaking free of the motherland.

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Why Thriving Is Hard for Lawyers

By: David Shearon

Thriving — achieving personally meaningful goals in multiple areas of life despite significant challenges — is tough for lawyers because we face a uniquely tough set of challenges. Everyone faces challenges, but lawyers face a unique configuration of five challenges and, unfortunately, law school not only did not prepare us for these challenges, it...

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Nine Pathways to Lawyering (and Living) in the Thriving Zone

By: David Shearon

Thriving, both in the law and in other areas of our lives, requires commitment, energy, and engagement. As the flowchart shows, failure is part of thriving.

Feature Story

Richard III: Champion of Equal Access to Justice

By: Russell Fowler

Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile, …

And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,

And frame my face for all occasions.

I can add colours to the chameleon, ….

And set the murderous Machiavel to school.

Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?

Tut, were it farther off, I’ll pluck it down.[1...

President's Perspective

The Pursuit of Happiness Has Many Avenues

By: Jacqueline Dixon

Our founding fathers stated in the Declaration of Independence that one of our unalienable rights is the pursuit of happiness. Fast forward to the present time and happiness is a hot topic with books such as former lawyer Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project becoming best sellers. In a recent ABA Journal article, “Hunting Happy,” the authors...

Letters of the Law

By: Letters of the Law

So Did He Tie the Knot or Not?

I read with great interest the article authored by Monica J. Franklin, which appeared in the February 2013 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal, entitled, “To Tie the Knot or Not, Part II.”

The well-written and informative article was of particular interest to me because I have found a late in life...

Book Review

The Treason Trial of Aaron Burr: Law, Politics, and the Character Wars of the New Nation

By: Donald Paine

By R. Kent Newmyer | Cambridge University Press | $28.99 | 226 pages | 2012

Much has been written about Aaron Burr’s 1807 trial in Richmond (including my July 2003 column in the Journal). Burr was charged with treason for allegedly leading an expedition to establish a separate government in the lands west of the...

Paine on Procedure

The Impeachment Trial of President Andrew Johnson

By: Donald Paine

Our own Andy Johnson missed conviction by one vote in his Senate trial. How did that come about?

President Johnson had a fractious relationship with radical Republicans in Congress. Heated exchanges reached the boiling point under the Tenure of Office Act. It forbade the president from firing certain cabinet members without Senate consent. Johnson...

Day on Torts

Of Tulip Trees and Common Law

By: John Day

The roots of the Tennessee state tree, the tulip poplar, grow into the earth in search of water and minerals. When confronting poor soil conditions or physical impediments, the roots typically change direction to accomplish their mission of absorbing and storing nutrients and providing a solid anchor for the tree. The above-ground result: trees of 10...

People

The Knoxville law firm of Holbrook Peterson Smith PLLC recently announced that J. Scott Griswold has joined the firm as an associate attorney. He will help the firm’s expansion of its estate and trust litigation practice. Griswold also will practice in the areas of trust and estate planning and administration along with business...

News

Harbison to Lead TBA in 2015

Nashville attorney William L. “Bill” Harbison has been elected the Tennessee Bar Association’s vice president, a position that will lead to president-elect next year, followed by the presidency in 2015.

Licensure & Discipline

REINSTATED

James Holt Walker was reinstated to the practice of law on March 19 after complying with Supreme Court Rule 21, which requires mandatory continuing legal education. Walker, a lawyer in Hixson, was suspended on Jan. 29, 2002.

Membership Maven

Ask the TBA Membership Maven

By: Kelly Stosik

DEAR M,
I’ve been kind of … uuummm … under-motivated lately. I have the … aaaaawaaaaawh …doldrums and some bad habits. I mean my practice is doing fine and my life is OK, but I’m feeling stuck, in a rut, a productivity vacuum. I want to upgrade myself! What should I do?
Signed,
Fabulous on the Inside

Family Matters

Modification of Permanent Parenting Plans in Tennessee

By: Marlene Moses

I worry when a client appears to be on the verge of giving up on getting the terms of an initial Permanent Parenting Plan just right. Whether they are in the throes of active blood-bath litigation or even just negotiating amicably in a mediation session, parties often will do just about anything to move forward quickly, including settling on a parenting...

But Seriously, Folks

The Constitutional Right to a Big Gulp

By: William Haltom

I was a fan of the late, great Andy Griffith, long before he became Sheriff Andy Taylor, and even decades before he left Mayberry, attended law school, moved to Atlanta, and changed his name to Ben Matlock.

I was a fan of Andy Griffith even before he was Private Will Stockdale in No Time for Sergeants. (“I ain’t never had R.O.T.C., but...