The TBA Environmental Law Section has agreed to help me promote a Green Initiative for members, law firms and offices in all practice settings throughout this bar year. As part of the Green Initiative, the TBA will provide information in upcoming issues of the Tennessee Bar Journal and other TBA publications on ways that you, your firm or your office can implement conservation practices that will help make a significant impact on the environment.

 

Please let me know if you would like t

I am writing in response to the article in the September issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal by Bill Redick [“Is Tennessee Going to Fix Its Death Penalty?, vol. 45, no. 9, Tenn. B.J. (2009)] on the work of the legislature’s death penalty study committee. I served as the representative of the Attorney General’s Office on the committee.

 

While Mr. Redick’s article contains several unfounded generalizations about this office, I wo

Discovery of insurance coverage and changes to rules on providing that inadvertent disclosure does not waive a privilege are among those being considered in more than a dozen amendments to the Rules of Appellate, Civil and Criminal Procedure and Rules of Evidence published by the Tennessee Supreme Court. The court is inviting public comment on the proposals from its advisory commission, not later than Nov. 30. Various s

Chattanooga lawyer Max Bahner, a shareholder at the law firm of Chambliss, Bahner and Stophel PC, has been named chair of the TBA Task Force on Judicial Conduct Rules. The task force and its members were appointed by TBA President Gail Vaughn Ashworth to study Tennessee’s judicial ethics rules, last amended in 1997, to consider whether revisions are needed. Bahner, a senior member at the firm, practices in the litigation section. He is also an AAA

Knoxville attorney Steven Lee Williams was reinstated to the practice of law by order of the Tennessee Supreme Court on Aug. 25. He was temporarily suspended on July 31 for failing to respond to a complaint of misconduct. 

The following attorneys have been reinstated to the practice of law after complying with Section 20 of Supreme Court Rule 9, which requires the payment of annual registration fees:

Le’Dell Sanders Joiner, Las Vegas, Nev.

Ungyong Kim, St. Louis, Mo.

Heather Kirksey, Me

Litigation in a world of comparative fault and several liability involves party planning. Planning a party is hard work. One essential component of the party planning process is determining who to invite, and party planning by committee presents a whole new set of challenges. Everyone agrees that some people must be at the party. Everyone agrees that certain people should not be there. And, while everyone agrees that the party should occur on the selected date, the

On Dec. 1, 2009, significant amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will take effect. Most important is elimination of current Rule 6(a)(2), which excludes intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays when the period is less than 11 days.

 

This change came about because of an opinion from our own Sixth Circuit, Miltimore Sales Inc. v. International Rectifier Inc., 412 F.3d 685 (2005). The timeliness of an attorney fee a

Is it just me, or is everyone in America suddenly spring-loaded in the hacked-off position? Unfortunately, we lawyers see it every day. Walk in to any courthouse in the Volunteer State, and you will hear lawyers calling each other liars or horse thieves or no-count scoundrels and seeking sanctions for discovery disputes that ought to be resolved in a phone call. And it’s not just lawyers who are downright rude. You see it these days in politics, sp