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Monday, April 25, 2011

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Survey: Nearly 10,000 lawyer jobs lost in last 2 years

The NLJ 250, The National Law Journal's annual survey of the nation's largest law firms, shows that Big Law continued to shed lawyers at a brisk pace in 2010. Nearly 2,900 fewer lawyers worked for the 250 top firms last year. That's in addition to the approximately 6,600 attorneys who departed in 2009. In the 34 years the NLJ has been surveying large firms to gather headcount numbers, there have never been multi-year declines of this magnitude.

Study the survey in The National Law Journal

TODAY'S OPINIONS
Click on the category of your choice to view summaries of today’s opinions from that court, or other body. A link at the end of each case summary will let you download the full opinion in PDF format. To search all opinions in the TBALink database or to obtain a text version of each opinion, go to our OpinionSearch page. If you have forgotten your password or need to obtain a password, you can look it up on TBALink at the TBA's Membership Central.

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00 - Formal Ethics Opinions - BPR
00 - TN Supreme Court - Disciplinary Orders

You can obtain full-text versions of the opinions two ways. We recommend that you download the Opinions to your computer and then open them from there. 1) Click the URL at end of each Opinion paragraph below. This should give you the option to download the original document. If not, you may need to right-click on the URL to get the option to save the file to your computer. 2) Do a key word search in the Search Link area of TBALink. This option will allow you to view and save a plain-text version of the opinion.

SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE SUPREME COURT DISCRETIONARY APPEALS Grants & Denials List

Court: TSC

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TSC/2011/certlist_042511.pdf

EVEREST NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY v. RESTAURANT MANAGEMENT GROUP, LLC ET AL.

Court: TCA

Attorneys:

Russell W. Adkins, Kingsport, Tennessee, for the appellant, Restaurant Management Group, LLC.

Parks T. Chastain and Gordon C. Aulgur, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellee, Everest National Insurance Company.

Judge: SUSANO

This is a declaratory judgment action filed by an insurance company against its insured and the insured's customer who allegedly was injured from a fall after stepping in a hole in the insured's parking lot. The insurance company asked for a declaration that it was not obligated to defend and indemnify the insured against the customer's personal injury claim. The insured filed a counterclaim asking for a declaration that the insurer was required to defend the claim and indemnify the insured against liability to the customer. On dueling motions for summary judgment, the trial court held that the insurance company was relieved of its obligation to defend and indemnify the insured because the insured waited five months before notifying the insurance company of the claim and that, as a consequence of the insured's delay, the insurer was prejudiced. During that five months, the insured repaired cracks in the parking lot where the fall allegedly occurred. The insured appeals. We affirm.

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2011/everest_042511.pdf

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. ROBERT LYNN HUNT, JR.

Court: TCCA

Attorneys:

Clifford K. McGown, Jr., Waverly, Tennessee, and James E. Lanier and H. Tod Taylor, Dyersburg, Tennessee, for the appellant, Robert Lynn Hunt, Jr.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Matthew Bryant Haskell, Assistant Attorney General; C. Phillip Bivens; District Attorney General; and Karen W. Burns, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge: OGLE

The appellant, Robert Lynn Hunt, Jr., pled nolo contendere in the Dyer County Circuit Court to abuse and neglect of a child under six years of age, a Class D felony, and received a four-year sentence. At some point, the appellant was placed on probation. On appeal, he contends that the trial court erred by revoking his probation and ordering him to serve his original sentence in confinement. Based upon the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/huntr_042511.pdf

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. ANTHONY W. HUTCHINSON

Court: TCCA

Attorneys:

Raymond Mack Garner, District Public Defender (at trial); and J. Liddell Kirk, Knoxville, Tennessee (on appeal), for the appellant, Anthony W. Hutchinson.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Lacy Wilber, Assistant Attorney General; Michael L. Flynn, District Attorney General; and Clinton E. Frazier, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge: THOMAS

The Defendant, Anthony W. Hutchinson, was convicted of one count of theft of property valued at $1,000 or more, a Class D felony. See Tenn. Code Ann. sections 39-14-103, 105. In this appeal as of right, the Defendant contends that (1) the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction and (2) the trial court erred by denying alternative sentencing. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/hutchinsona_042511.pdf

CHRISTA GAIL PIKE v. STATE OF TENNESSEE

Court: TCCA

Attorneys:

Donald E. Dawson and Avram Frey, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Christa Gail Pike.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General & Reporter; Michael Moore, Solicitor General; Frank Borger-Gilligan, Assistant Attorney General; Randall Eugene Nichols, District Attorney General; and Leland Price and S. Jo Helm, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge: WILLIAMS

The Petitioner, Christa Gail Pike, appeals as of right the judgment of the Knox County Criminal Court denying her petition for post-conviction relief. A Knox County jury found the Petitioner guilty of premeditated first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder. The jury further found two statutory aggravating circumstances: (1) "[t]he murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death"; and (2) "[t]he murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution of the defendant or another." T.C.A. section 39-13-204(i)(5), (6) (2006). The jury further found that these two aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury then sentenced the Petitioner to death. The Petitioner's conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal by the Tennessee Supreme Court. State v. Pike, 978 S.W.2d 904 (Tenn. 1998), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1147 (1999). On June 3, 1999, the Petitioner timely filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief. In 2001, the Petitioner advised the trial court that she desired to withdraw her post-conviction petition. In 2002, the lower court dismissed the petition for post-conviction relief. The Petitioner then sought to reinstate her post-conviction petition. Litigation ensued, after which the Tennessee Supreme Court ultimately determined that the motion to vacate the dismissal order should be granted and remanded the matter to the lower court to reinstate the Petitioner's post-conviction petition. Pike v. State, 164 S.W.3d 257 (Tenn. 2005). Evidentiary hearings were conducted in January 2007, July 2007, and August 2008. On December 10, 2008, the post-conviction court entered an order denying the Petitioner post-conviction relief. On appeal to this court, the Petitioner presents a number of claims that can be characterized in the following categories: (1) the post- conviction court should have recused itself; (2) the Petitioner's trial and appellate counsel were ineffective; (3) the Petitioner is ineligible for the death penalty; and (4) the death penalty is unconstitutional. Following a thorough review of the record and the applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/pikec_042511.pdf

TODAY'S NEWS

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Legal News

Belmont's first law class nearly full

More than 100 students have registered to join Belmont University's inaugural law school class, with just a few spots left, says College of Law Dean Jeffrey Kinsler. Most of the first class, to start this fall, is coming from within 150 miles of Nashville, but some are from as far away as Massachusetts and Kansas.

Learn more about it from The Tennessean

Prostitute rehab program is national model

Nashville is home to a unique rehab program that is getting national attention. Magdalene is a two-year private residential rehab center for women with criminal histories of prostitution and drug addiction. Over the years, Magdalene has graduated more than 150 women with a 72 percent success rate. The program also helps run "john schools," which educate those arrested for hiring prostitutes about the impact of their actions. Each john pays about $300, and then gets his record expunged if it's a first-time offense. All proceeds go to Magdalene, which last year received $100,000 from the program.

National Public radio airs the first of this three-part series

Coyote Ugly uses Facebook pages in suit

Facebook comments and pictures of a 21-year-old's birthday party at Coyote Ugly Saloon are part of a lawsuit that will provide the latest example of the growing presence of social media in the courtroom and the limits of privacy in a wired world. U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe B. Brown ordered the social networking website to produce photographs, messages, wall posts and other information on the profiles of Brittany Barnes and a friend who witnessed Barnes falling from the bar and hitting her head. Coyote Ugly's defense team has reviewed more than 2,000 photographs from Facebook, according to court records.

WBIR carried this story

Rhea County jail faces decertification

Rhea County's jail failed its annual state inspection recently and the inspector put county commissioners on notice the facility faces decertification unless the county puts some money toward the project soon.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports

General Assembly News

Changing access to open records among proposals

Several pieces of proposed legislation are being decried as trying to curtail public access to information. "We have seen an array of legislative items in this session, the thrust of which, in my opinion, is aimed at restricting public awareness and limiting public access to government information," said Rick Hollow, general counsel for the Tennessee Press Association. But state Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, says he just wants "to strike the right balance, but not tie the hands of local governments if they have a good prospect and that prospect has limitations on what they are willing to disclose." In an editorial, the Daily News Journal says "legislation that would maintain public access to 911 calls but prohibit their broadcast or republication should be defeated" because it "throws unnecessary hurdles in front of public records and smacks of prior restraint on the part of government."