The Tennessee Bar Association Board of Governors announces that it will conduct a selection process to nominate three candidates to the Tennessee Judicial Selection Commission. From those three candidates, the speaker of the Tennessee General Assembly will choose a TBA member to replace Nashville lawyer Margaret Behm, who has served on the selection commission for the past 10 years. The nominees must come from the Middle and East Grand Divisions, since the other TBA appointee, Jeff Feibleman of Memphis, was selected from the West Tennessee Grand Division, by the Speaker of the House. The TBA will make its selections at its June board meeting.
Any member of the Tennessee Bar Association who wishes to be a candidate for one of the nominations must communicate by letter of intent including a résumé or curriculum vitae to Tennessee Bar Association Executive Director Allan F. Ramsaur at the Tennessee Bar Center, not later than close of business May 31.
Under the statute creating the Judicial Selection Commission, the nominees submitted by the TBA "shall not include attorneys whose principal practice area is either plaintiff's personal injury work or criminal defense" Tenn. Code Ann. §17-4-102(a). The statute also specifies that neither of the two TBA appointees can come from the same Grand Division.
The groups making nominations are also admonished to nominate with a "conscious intention" of selecting a body which represents the diversity of the state with respect to race and gender.
TBA President John R. Tarpley will make the determination whether any candidate is qualified by domicile in Middle and East Grand Divisions and whether they meet the statutory practice standards.
The name of each qualified candidate will be placed into nomination and the Board will proceed by secret ballot to select candidates by majority vote. The names of the three TBA nominees will be submitted to House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, for appointment with a term beginning Sept. 1.
The Tennessee Judicial Selection Commission plays an important role in the quality of Tennessee's judiciary by submitting the names of three nominees for any vacancy on the trial or appellate bench.
For more information please see http://www.tba.org/news/elexhandbook.html.