Vanderbilt University Law School has launched an AI Legal Lab (VAILL) to explore how artificial intelligence intersects with the delivery of legal services and access to justice. “AI has the potential to reshape the law and legal services in an unprecedented fashion,” said Dean Chris Guthrie. “Through this new lab, Vanderbilt Law has a unique opportunity to play a pivotal role in this transformative era.” VAILL plans to build coursework focused on both applications within the law and technological skill-building, with help from thought leaders across Vanderbilt. VAILL’s immediate plans also include co-development of service delivery solutions with legal aid organizations as well as law firms and legal departments, and the development of executive education programming focused on using AI in various practice settings. Read the full announcement.

Memphis Mayor-elect Paul Young on Friday named TBA member Tannera Gibson as his city attorney and Penelope Huston as his head of communications, reports the Daily Memphian. Gibson, a former president of the Memphis Bar Association, was the first Black female partner at Burch, Porter & Johnson and was named one of the country’s top lawyers. She has specialized in government relations, commercial litigation, personal injury and municipal law. Since 2016, Huston has led communications at the Downtown Memphis Commission after working at ALSAC, Memphis in May and Contemporary Media. The city attorney, also known as chief legal officer, is involved in most city contracts and serves as a key advisor to the mayor. The chief communications officer oversees how the city disseminates information and interacts with the media. 

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by President Biden's administration of a lower court's ruling in favor of a gun shop owner and gun rights advocate from Austin, Texas, who challenged a ban on "bump stock" devices that enable semiautomatic weapons to fire like machine guns. Reuters reports the ban was put in place during the Trump administration following a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas using weapons with bump stocks that killed 58 and wounded hundreds more. The case centers on whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives properly interpreted a law banning machine guns as extending to bump stocks.

A Tennessee haunted attraction billed as a “rough, intense and truly frightening experience” is being investigated by the Tennessee Attorney General's Office after it was featured on a recent Hulu documentary, reports the Tennessean. Assistant Attorney General Kristine Knowles sent a letter to McKamey Manor founder Russ McKamey on Oct. 31 expressing concern over the attraction's business practices of not honoring participants' wishes to stop during the tour. In addition, Knowles questioned whether a $20,000 prize offered to those who complete the tour exists. Located in Summertown, McKamey Manor warns participants that the attraction is not for those who are pregnant, claustrophobic, suffer from seizures, respiratory or heart conditions, or, as the company states, are "wimpy." Knowles said the attorney general's office will be requesting documents from McKamey in the coming weeks.

The deadline for applying to be part of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law 2024 class has been extended to Nov. 10. Contact Paul Burch if you have questions about the program or the application process.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a new court filing released yesterday, accused Amazon.com of using illegal strategies to boost profits, including an algorithm, “Project Nessie,” that earned the online retailer more than $1 billion, reports Reuters. Details of the lawsuit, filed in September, were withheld until yesterday when a version with fewer redactions was made public in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The FTC said the algorithm allowed the retailer “to extract more than a billion dollars directly from Americans' pocketbooks,” calling it an "unfair method of competition" because it manipulates other online stores into raising prices, allowing Amazon to do the same. The complaint also accuses Amazon of hiding operations from antitrust enforcers and destroying office communications. In a section of the lawsuit which remains heavily redacted, Amazon allegedly deterred Walmart from offering discounts to online shoppers who picked up their purchases from stores.

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Jones Jr. ordered the release of additional records in the Tyre Nichols state criminal case, the Commercial Appeal reports. The records were initially to be released by the city of Memphis in March, but Jones agreed to a motion to block the release until the defense attorneys had reviewed them. The records have been the subject of litigation from a coalition of news media outlets that asked for the records to be released quickly. According to the city of Memphis and the Shelby County District Attorney's Office, the records include more than 20 hours of additional audio and video footage from the night Nichols was beaten by now-former officers with the Memphis Police Department, as well as over 2,000 documents including personnel files and statements made during internal investigations.

The TBA Law Tech Lunch & Learn Series will hit the road this winter across Tennessee with a kick off session in Knoxville on Dec. 15 from noon to 2:15 p.m. EST at Lewis Thomason, 620 Market St., 5th Floor, Knoxville 37902. The program will feature discussions and presentations on the various types of cybersecurity attacks and how to respond to ransomware and data breaches. Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m. Make plans now to join us as the Lunch & Learn Series travels to Nashville in February and Memphis in March. Find out more about the Knoxville session and register.

The TBA’s 35th Annual Health Law Forum took place in downtown Nashville yesterday and today. Close to 300 attendees heard updates on regulatory fraud and abuse, antitrust, False Claims Act, the future of telehealth and privacy issues. The program also included a legislative update and ethics update. The keynote address was delivered by Dr. C. Buddy Creech with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who spoke about preparing for the next pandemic. Section Chair Mark Ison with Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison in Nashville moderated the event, and at a luncheon today, passed the Section Cup to incoming chair Ian Hennessey, general counsel for Alliance for Multispecialty Research in Knoxville. See photos from the event.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Wednesday sent a letter joined by 19 other state attorneys general commenting on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) “Proposed Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace.” The letter claims that the proposal "threatens the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans," according to a press release from the AG's office. The EEOC has suggested new guidance that would broaden Title VII's prohibition of "sex-based harassment" to include “intentional and repeated use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individual’s gender identity (misgendering)” and “the denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility consistent with the individual’s gender identity.” Read the letter.