Campbell County lawyer Eric John Montierth was temporarily suspended from the practice of law today after the Tennessee Supreme Court found he failed to respond to the Board of Professional Responsibility about three complaints of misconduct. Supreme Court Rule 9 Section 12.3 provides for the immediate suspension of an attorney’s license for failure to respond to a complaint. Montierth is immediately precluded from accepting any new cases, and must cease representing existing clients by Oct. 23.

Young lawyers from across the southeast are gathering in Orlando, Florida, this weekend for the first Southeastern States Young Lawyers Regional Summit. Tennessee is one of three host states of the event. Today’s programming featured five educational sessions, including a panel on young lawyers seeking judgeships, which included Tennessee’s youngest and newly elected Eighth Judicial District Criminal Court Judge Zack Walden; a session on diversity, featuring TBA Young Lawyers Division President-Elect Quinton Thompson of Memphis; a discussion of trust accounting with Jackson lawyer Kortney Simmons; and a session on managing non-attorney staff with Chattanooga attorney Claire Tuley. The TBA Young Lawyers Division is holding its Fall Board Meeting sessions tomorrow. See photos from the event.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee, the Chattanooga Bar Association YLD and the TBA YLD are hosting an expungement clinic workday on Sept. 30 from 2:30-4:30 p.m. EDT at the Edney Innovation Center in Chattanooga. Volunteer attorneys will gather and work together to review client records for expungement eligibility. To volunteer sign up online or email mdevoe@laet.org.

The Tennessee Department of Revenue will host a free webinar on Tuesday at 9 a.m. CDT to discuss out-of-state companies and nexus in Tennessee. Participants will learn about sales tax, business tax and Tennessee’s franchise and excise taxes. Register for the program here.

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands will hold a veterans clinic next Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT at Operation Stand Down, 1125 12th Ave. S., Nashville 37203. To volunteer for the clinic, contact Kendra Cheek, 615-780-7131. See all September clinics.

Members of the TBA Book Club met virtually on Sept. 19 to hear from Law Professor Derrick Beetso, director of Indian gaming and tribal self-governance programs at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Beetso, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, previously served as the general counsel for the National Congress of American Indians and as an attorney-advisor for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He shared his insights about David Grann’s book “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which chronicles a string of murders that plagued the Osage Indian nation of Oklahoma in the 1920s, shortly after oil was discovered on their land. The murders became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations.

Florida lawyer Kathleen Elizabeth Dyer and Montana lawyer Melissa Ann Edwards-Smith recently were reinstated to the practice of law in Tennessee. Dyer was reinstated on Sept. 1 after having been on inactive status since June 26, 2015. Edwards-Smith was reinstated on Sept. 6 after having been on inactive status since May 31, 2013. The Tennessee Supreme Court issued the order on Sept. 12. 

Shelby County lawyer Johnnie Louis Johnson II was disbarred by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on May 25. The Tennessee Supreme Court issued an order on Sept. 12 asking Johnson to respond as to why imposition of identical discipline in Tennessee should not be imposed. Johnson has 30 days from the issuance of the court’s order to respond.

The Tennessee Supreme Court earlier this month suspended 20 attorneys for failure to pay the annual registration fee; seven of them also failed to file proof that client funds are held in an IOLTA-compliant account. View the Sept. 13 fee suspension order and Sept. 15 IOLTA suspension order. Six lawyers have since been reinstated. See the list of all lawyers suspended and reinstated for fee and IOLTA violations in 2022 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

Members of the TBA Book Club met virtually today to hear from Law Professor Derrick Beetso, director of Indian gaming and tribal self-governance programs at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Beetso, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, previously served as the general counsel for the National Congress of American Indians and as an attorney-advisor for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He shared his insights about David Grann’s book “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which chronicles a string of murders that plagued the Osage Indian nation of Oklahoma in the 1920s, shortly after oil was discovered on their land. The murders became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations.