Nashville lawyer Lorne Hiller has been selected as the recipient of this year’s Larry Dean Wilks Leadership Award. Hiller was chosen for the award by fellow members of the Tennessee Bar Association’s 2024 Leadership Law class and was honored during the group’s graduation ceremonies in Memphis last week. He is the 12th recipient of the award. Hiller and his Leadership Law classmates have spent the last six months learning about leadership in the legal profession, issues in the courts, policymaking in state government and the importance of community service. The class of 35 attorneys completed the program this month. Read more about Hiller and the Wilks Award in this press release.

During its first meeting of the new bar year last Friday, the TBA Board of Governors selected two lawyers to fill vacancies that occurred when no election petitions were filed for the seats this past spring. Franklin trial attorney David Veile, who recently won the Republican primary for the 21st Judicial District Circuit Court, will serve as middle Tennessee governor. Germantown lawyer Cheryl White Patterson with the Carpenter Law Firm will serve as west Tennessee governor. Both will serve a term of one year. Veile is a graduate of Nashville School of Law and a former Metro Nashville Police officer. He has been active with the TBA, serving on the board previously and holding a range of positions on the Young Lawyers Division Board, including as president from 2012-2013. Patterson graduated from Harvard Law School and has focused her practice on public finance and compliance, serving as vice president and general counsel for Memphis Light, Gas & Water from 2008-2023.

A panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a bid by President Joe Biden's administration to revive its directive that schools allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms and join sports teams that align with their gender, Reuters reports. Friday’s 2-1 ruling found that the U.S. Department of Education did not follow proper procedure when it imposed new legal duties on public schools. It also rejected the administration’s arguments that the states lacked standing to sue, saying the guidance exposes states to lawsuits and loss of federal funding, which is sufficient to provide standing. The panel did not address the underlying question of whether a federal law banning sex discrimination in education extends to LGBTQ students.

The TBA’s Court Square Series is back with a program planned in Jackson on June 28. Come hear from General Sessions Judge Christy Little, Nashville-area lawyer John Day, and Jackson lawyers Nancy Choate and Kortney Simmons. The Court Square Series is intended to bring top speakers to local legal communities and foster relationships and collegiality among lawyers across the state.

The U.S. Supreme Court justices added four new cases to the 2024-2025 term, which will begin in October, SCOTUSblog reports. The cases will tackle issues ranging from the burden of proof for an employer hoping to rely on an exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act, to the pleading standards for cases under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. The additional cases bring to 16 the number of cases to be considered in the next term. The court did not act on a group of petitions testing the constitutionality of bans on gender-affirming care for minors in Tennessee and Kentucky.

A trial date of Feb. 10, 2025, has been set for the man accused of killing Memphis teacher Eliza Fletcher in 2022. The Daily Memphian reports that Cleotha Abston, also known by the surname Henderson, will face two counts of first-degree murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, unlawful possession of a weapon and tampering with evidence in the Fletcher case. In May, Abston was sentenced to 80 years in prison for the 2021 rape of Alicia Franklin.

Following plans by Republican state legislators to seek the removal of Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy from office, Mulroy has abandoned his plans for a gun crime diversion program. The Commercial Appeal reports that Mulroy made the decision after studying the number of cases that would be affected by the program, which he announced last week as a way to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system. "After taking a look at the actual number of cases which would qualify, I realize it would only be a handful of cases ― not enough to really help with racial disparities," Mulroy said in a news release today. The move comes after House Speaker Cameron Sexton said last week he was in conversations with Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to consider seeking Mulroy's removal and news today that Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, plans to pursue legislation to remove Mulroy later in the year. Local Memphis has that news.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that bankrupt companies are not entitled to be reimbursed to make up for a disparity in bankruptcy fees that lasted from 2018 to 2020, saying that U.S. taxpayers should not be on the hook for refunds that would add up to hundreds of millions of dollars. The court ruled in a 6-3 opinion that Congress had intended to raise rates uniformly, and had already addressed the disparity by raising rates in two states that briefly charged lower fees, SCOTUSblog reports.

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) effort to broadly ban noncompete agreements faces its first big legal test July 3, the Business Journal reports. A Texas judge is expected to rule then on a preliminary injunction against the ban. If the injunction is approved, the FTC will have to halt implementation of the new rule until the legal process concludes. The new rule would impact 30 million Americans and thousands of businesses, releasing a multitude of workers from existing clauses. The FTC contends the agreements, which limit how and when a worker can find a new job within their industry, are burdensome for workers and stifle economic mobility. Business groups contend noncompete agreements are necessary to protect trade secrets, to encourage investment in research and development, and to foster business growth.

A federal judge today temporarily blocked a Biden administration rule expanding federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ students in six states, including Tennessee. The decision by U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves halts enforcement of changes to Title IX — the federal civil rights law preventing sex discrimination in schools and education programs that receive government funding — that were finalized in April by the Education Department. The other affected states are Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, The Hill reports. Just a few days ago, another federal judge temporarily blocked the rule from taking effect in Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Montana. Other challenges are still pending. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti released this statement after the ruling. He joined a suit challenging the rule earlier this month.