U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw has granted Brian Kelsey’s request to stay out of prison on bail while he appeals a 21-month sentence for directing a scheme to violate federal campaign finance laws, Tennessee Lookout reports. The former state Republican senator was to report to prison in mid-October. In a court hearing last week, Kelsey’s lawyer argued that federal prosecutors violated a plea agreement after Kelsey reneged on a guilty plea. Prosecutors countered that Kelsey broke the agreement first by trying to take back his guilty plea, which caused him to commit perjury. In November 2022, Kelsey pleaded guilty to directing a secret plan to funnel about $109,000 from his state campaign through two political action committees to the American Conservative Union, which bought ads for his failed 2016 congressional campaign.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has approved $3.5 million in federal grant money for Memphis and Shelby County, Action 5 News reports. The city of Memphis will receive $2 million to equip 2,200 sworn officers with body-worn cameras and to establish a comprehensive camera-use policy to enhance transparency and accountability in policing. Shelby County will receive $1.5 million to strengthen its rape kit initiative, including investigating the backlog in testing and using genealogy in John Doe cases. “The grants announced today will improve accountability in policing in Memphis and bring to justice perpetrators of sexual assault in our community,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, who announced the funding.

Consulting firm McKinsey & Co has agreed to pay $230 million to resolve lawsuits by hundreds of local governments and school districts that accused the firm of fueling the opioid epidemic by advising drugmakers how to successfully sell the painkillers. According to the lawsuit, McKinsey provided sales analysis and marketing advice to manufacturers to help them sell the highly addictive drug and convince doctors to prescribe them. McKinsey already has paid out more than $640 million to resolve suits over its opioid work, including a suit brought by 50 state attorneys general. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco must approve the settlement. Read more from Fortune.

Make plans now to join colleagues on Nov. 30 for the second annual "Raising the Bar" program. Produced by the TBA Women in the Profession Committee, this year’s program will focus on advocating for one’s own and others’ career growth. Sessions will cover how to effectively solicit raises and project assignments, receive credit for work done, and make partner. A second session will explore the barriers impacting diverse women in the legal industry and best practices for overcoming those challenges. And for those on the back end of their career, the program will wrap up with a session on the financial aspects of preparing for retirement and maintaining work-life balance while transitioning to retirement. A networking reception will follow the program from 4:15-6 p.m. CST.

Georgia lawyer Kara Elizabeth Phillips was reinstated to the practice of law in Tennessee on Sept. 18. She had been on inactive status since May 15, 2015. Phillips filed a petition for reinstatement and the Board of Professional Responsibility found it to be satisfactory. The court issued the order today.

The Tennessee Supreme Court suspended 17 attorneys today for failure to pay the annual registration fee; 11 of them also failed to file proof that client funds are held in an IOLTA-compliant account. View the fee suspension order and IOLTA suspension order. See the list of all lawyers suspended and reinstated for fee and IOLTA violations in 2023 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

The Hawkins County Commission has voted to appoint Amy Skelton as a temporary replacement for Juvenile Court Judge Daniel Boyd, who is currently suspended with pay while facing bribery and forgery charges. Skelton, a 2014 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, is an associate attorney with the Law Office of Mark Skelton and a municipal court judge for Church Hill, Rogersville and Surgoinsville. She will remain in the position until Boyd’s suspension is lifted or through the end of the 2024 election cycle. Hamblen County Juvenile Court and General Sessions Court Judge Janice Snider has been filling in since Boyd was suspended. Boyd was charged with three counts of forgery, one count of criminal simulation and one count of bribery. He turned himself into authorities on Aug. 15. WCYB.com has news of the appointment while the Times News has more about Skelton.

This year’s Tennessee Supreme Court Boot Camp set for Oct. 4 will include two special elements not to be missed! As in past years, attendees will observe oral arguments in real cases and then engage in a discussion about the preparation and considerations for deciding to seek review in the court. But this year, attendees also are invited to see Justice Holly Kirby sworn in as the court’s newest chief justice prior to the CLE at the state capitol, and then hear former TBA president Bill Harbison present a special program on the history of the court at Holland & Knight after the Boot Camp. The TBA's Boot Camp program will kick off at 9:30 a.m. CDT at the Tennessee Supreme Court building in Nashville with oral arguments before the full court. An analysis and discussion will follow with Chattanooga lawyer Robert Parsley with Miller & Martin, and Nashville lawyers Donald Capparella with Dodson Parker Behm & Capparella, and Edmund Sauer with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings. The program will wrap up at 4:30 p.m. CDT.

The state’s indigent defense system is at a “breaking point,” a story in the Tennessean suggests. With the lowest indigent defense reimbursement rate in the nation ($50 an hour for non-capital cases), the paper says the funding is “so paltry it amounts to a theft of services from attorneys, who are at regular risk of losing money when appointed to the cases.” The reimbursement rate has only been raised $20 in the last 42 years, despite widespread calls for increases and a 2017 task force recommendation to pay between $75 and $125 per hour. Attorneys and judges interviewed for the story say the low rate is “squeezing the state’s judicial system” leading judges to increasingly rely on less experienced lawyers to handle cases. But even that pool of willing attorneys appears to be shrinking, judges say. Dawn Deaner, former Nashville public defender and current executive director at the Choosing Justice Initiative, says the system is in the worse shape "it's ever been."

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said on Friday it would “be a good thing” for the court to adopt a code of ethics, even if it had to be slightly different than the one for lower court judges, Courthouse News Service reports. Speaking at Notre Dame Law School, Kagan said ethics guidelines would “help in our own compliance with the rules, and it would, I think, go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct.” She went on to say there are legitimate concerns with the court just adopting the code of ethics applicable to lower courts but said the rules could be adapted to reflect certain differences.