Nominations Now Open for TBA's Fourth Estate Award - Articles

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Nominations Now Open for TBA's Fourth Estate Award

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin & Brooke Leeton on Mar 20, 2025

Nashville, March, 20, 2025 — The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) has opened the nomination period for its Fourth Estate Award, which honors courageous reporting on justice and the law. This year’s prize includes a $250 honorarium for the winner.

The TBA strongly supports freedom of expression under the First Amendment, as exercised by lawyers on behalf of their clients and by journalists on behalf of the public, and particularly wants to recognize and encourage journalists who promote public understanding of the rule of law and our system of justice through vigorous exercise of their First Amendment rights.

Prior winners include Meribah Knight from Nashville Public Radio, the WSMV News 4 I-Team, Steven Hale of the Nashville Scene, the Bristol Herald Courier, Marc Perrusquia’s work for the Daily Memphian and the Institute for Public Service Reporting, the Kingsport Times News, and two reporters with the Elk Valley Times. Read more about past recipients.

Nominees must be Tennessee-based journalists who have shown exemplary courage in exercising First Amendment rights in the promotion of public understanding of how the law and our legal system works, or how it should work, as demonstrated by a story or series of related stories published in 2024.

Nominees may be individuals or teams of journalists who worked on the published stories. Journalists may also self-nominate. The nominees may have published their story or stories online, in a newspaper or magazine, in a book, on a podcast, or on television or radio.

The nomination form is now available. The deadline for entry is April 30. Presentation of the award will be made during the Tennessee Bar Association’s Annual Convention set for June 11-14 in Franklin.

For questions about the award or the application process, please contact Program Coordinator Brooke Leeton at bleeton@tnbar.org. For general questions about the Tennessee Bar Association please contact Executive Director Sheree Wright at swright@tnbar.org.

The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) is the largest professional association in Tennessee with nearly 14,000 members. Founded in 1881, the TBA represents the entire spectrum of the legal profession in Tennessee and beyond, and is dedicated to enhancing fellowship and professionalism among the members of Tennessee’s legal community.