Knoxville attorney Heidi Barcus, a shareholder at Lewis Thomason, will serve as president of the Tennessee Bar Association in 2025-2026. No other candidate filed for the vice president position by the Feb. 15 deadline. Barcus will take office as vice president this summer at the TBA Convention and then automatically advance to president-elect in June 2024 and then president in June 2025. In addition to Barcus, several other key positions for the 2023-2024 bar year were certified yesterday via uncontested election results. Contested elections include two positions on the Board of Governors (second district governor and East Tennessee Grand Division governor) and three positions in the House of Delegates (District 4, District 16 and District 30). Electronic voting will begin March 1 for contested races. There are also several vacancies that will need to be filled after no candidate qualified. Vacancies on the TBA Board of Governors include a second West Tennessee Grand Division governor and a second Middle Tennessee Grand Division governor. Contested seats in the House of Delegates include District 4, District 16 and District 30. For complete election information visit the TBA’s election webpage.

The U.S. Supreme Court today removed from its calendar the March 1 oral argument about Title 42, which limits migrants’ ability to seek asylum amid the coronavirus pandemic, The Hill reports. The justices were set to consider 19 GOP-led states’ attempt to intervene in the case and maintain the policy, which was first implemented under former President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden’s administration last week filed a brief suggesting the case will become moot once the administration revokes the public health emergency on May 11. In April, the Biden administration moved to revoke Title 42, but the decision quickly came under legal challenges that led lower courts to reinstate the policy.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today reversed a decision of the Court of Appeals that had allowed a plaintiff to proceed with her claims of gross negligence and recklessness against governmental entities under the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act. The high court held that the act’s waiver of sovereign immunity for “negligent” acts removes immunity only for ordinary negligence, not gross negligence or recklessness. Justice Holly Kirby concurred with the majority but wrote a  separate opinion, in which she discusses the “Rubik’s cube effect” caused by the court’s earlier decision to retain the public-duty doctrine and its related exceptions following enactment of the law. She also writes that she would be willing to reconsider that decision in a future case. Read more on the case and the unanimous opinion authored by Justice Sarah K. Campbell from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

A press release this afternoon from Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy could signal that new information has come to light in the fatal 2015 shooting of Darrius Stewart by Memphis police, the Commercial Appeal reports. The release stated that, during a meeting, Stewart’s father and his attorney informed Mulroy of information the DA’s office “may have not been privy to that was uncovered during the civil investigation.” Mulroy's office will review the unspecified information, the release said. It's unclear how new the information is, what it is, and whether former District Attorney General Amy Weirich's office was aware of it. Stewart was killed by MPD officer Connor Schilling after a confrontation in 2015. Weirich recommended indicting Schilling on two charges, but a grand jury declined to indict Schilling on either charge. Stewart’s mother filed a wrongful death suit in federal civil court in 2020.

A bill that would allow voters to recall Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert more easily has cleared a state House subcommittee, the Daily Memphian reports.  The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, reduces the number of signatures needed to hold a recall election from 15% of registered county voters to 1%. White presented the bill last fall amid the controversy over a backlog of car titles and other work in Halbert’s office. Twice in a month, Halbert closed the office for a week to catch up on that work. She received harsh criticism after she vacationed to Jamaica during the first of those shutdowns. The measure cleared the House Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee this week and goes next to the House Local Government Committee.

Two Shelby County Sheriff's deputies seen on body camera footage arriving at the scene of the traffic stop that preceded Tyre Nichols' beating have been suspended without pay, the Commercial Appeal reports. According to officials, Jeremy Watkins, a deputy since 2021, violated radio communication procedures, mobile video recording system procedures, patrol field duties and responsibilities, and operational responsibility of daily activity log. Johntavious Bowers, also a deputy since 2021, violated the radio communication procedures, mobile video recording system procedures, and patrol field job duties and responsibilities. Both have been suspended for five days without pay. All five former Memphis police officers charged in Nichols’ murder are set to make first appearances in court tomorrow.  

The TBA’s Litigation Section will host its annual forum on May 4 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT as a live virtual event. This year’s forum will offer essential and useful material for litigators and will be produced by Litigation Section Chair Tannera Gibson of Memphis law firm Burch, Porter & Johnson. Mark your calendars and check back soon for additional program information.

London-founded law firm Allen & Overy has partnered with artificial intelligence startup Harvey AI to automate some legal document drafting and research in what the company says could be the first of more such deals. "I think over time it will be a serious competitive disadvantage" for law firms that do not adopt generative AI, said David Wakeling, an Allen & Overy partner who heads the firm's markets innovation group. "We're seeing it as a way of saving our people a couple hours a week-plus" on the time it takes to perform client work, he said, adding that the technology serves as a starting point and a human lawyer will always check any AI-assisted work. Reuters has more on the story.

Legislation that would allow the state’s school voucher program to expand beyond Davidson and Shelby counties passed the Tennessee Senate last week, the Tennessean reports. Sponsored by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, SB12/HB433 expands the program to include school districts that have five schools identified in the bottom 10% of schools in the state. The law currently includes districts with 10 schools in the bottom 10%. Gardenhire said today he wanted to exclude Hamilton County from the program in 2019, but the county now has eight "failing" schools. "I want to give the parents and the students the opportunity to have a choice and not be trapped in failing schools," Gardenhire said.

TBA’s Legislative Updates podcast is new with TBA Director of Public Policy & Government Affairs Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorney and TBA lobbyist Ashley Harbin. Schwarz and Harbin discuss HB176/SB124, which would require all documents recorded with the Register of Deeds to be in 12-point font size, and SB528/HB551, a measure that would make a variety of changes to adoption law. Legislative Updates airs each week on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts.