The KBA New Lawyers Section is for attorneys within their first three years of practice. Those interested in helping to plan section activities should contact chairs Courteney Barnes-Anderson at 803-341-0196 or Sanjay Raman at 607-972-6140.

Investing in Your Future — The section will sponsor a “Borrow Smart and Investing in Yourself for Retirement” program on Sept. 21 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. EDT. Register here for the program.

Field Day — The section also will host a field day on Sept. 25. This family-friendly event will offer activities for kids of all ages. Register for the event here.

Monthly Meeting — The Barristers will hold its monthly meeting on Sept. 14, starting at 5:15 p.m. EDT at The Marble City Kitchen, inside the bar at the Hilton Knoxville, 501 West Church Ave., Knoxville 37902. Social time starts at 5 p.m. EDT. Register here.

Constitution Day 2022 — Volunteers are needed to visit local elementary schools on Sept. 9 to speak to a class about the Constitution, and then return on Sept. 16 with a local judge to observe a class project related to the Constitution. Interested lawyers should contact Richard Graves and Christine Knott.

Volunteer Breakfast — The Barristers is looking for volunteers to serve food or sponsor the monthly Volunteer Breakfast. The breakfast serves the unhoused in Knoxville and takes place from 6:15 to 7:15 a.m. EDT on the fourth Thursday of each month at the Volunteer Ministry Center, 511 N. Broadway, Knoxville 37917. The cost is $150 to sponsor and four to five volunteers are needed for each breakfast. Contact Matt Knable at 865-360-5044 or Laura Wyrick at 865-297-5511 with any questions and/or about volunteering. Sign up to sponsor a breakfast.

The TBA Young Lawyers Division will host a one-hour CLE next week in Chattanooga on how to avoid committing malpractice when providing estate planning and probate advice to friends and relatives. We have all been confronted with that question from an acquaintance, a first cousin or a spouse’s coworker: “You’re a lawyer, right?” And you can almost guarantee that the follow up is about estate planning. “Do I need a will?” “If my grandmother wrote on a napkin that I get her house when she dies when she was drunk at my sister’s wedding, does that count as a will?" This CLE will cover the fundamentals of estate planning, including wills, powers of attorney and advance directives, as well as common questions that you, your family members and friends may have. “You’re a Lawyer, Right?” Estate Planning and Probate 101 to Avoid Committing Malpractice” will take place Sept. 15 from 4-5 p.m. EDT, followed by a networking reception co-sponsored by the Chattanooga Bar Association Young Lawyers Division.

Starting your own business can be simultaneously exciting and nerve-racking. It requires careful planning and commitment to get off to a good start. However, the prospect of being your own boss and carving your own path in the legal world has a lot of appeal for many attorneys and can be extremely rewarding. In LawPay’s “Going Off On Your Own” e-book, we’ll walk you step by step through all the essential steps to launch a successful law firm in the Digital Age. Download your free resource.

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands will hold three clinics next week. On Wednesday, a clinic will be held from 4-6 p.m. CDT at the downtown Nashville Public Library. On Thursday, the group will hold its Greenhouse Ministries clinic in Murfreesboro from 3-4:30 p.m. Then on Saturday, it will hold the McHugh Clinic at Belmont from 8:30-10:30 a.m. All times are central. To volunteer for a clinic, contact Kendra Cheek, 615-780-7131. Get more details and see all September clinics.

In a lengthy piece recently published, the Commercial Appeal explores the recent deportations of women and children by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office in Memphis. According to the paper, women and their children, who have been arriving at the office for routine check ins, have been detained and taken to the airport for deportation. In one case, a woman from Honduras, married to a naturalized U.S. citizen who had filed an immigration application on her behalf, was set to be deported with her son, a patient at St. Jude. When her husband learned of the plan, he worked with a lawyer to halt the action. Others have not been as fortunate. A woman from Mexico was deported with her three U.S. citizen children. The American Immigration Lawyers Association says it is looking into these cases. ICE would not comment beyond saying that local offices can set their own deportation priorities.

The National Judicial College announced this week that it will present its highest award, the Sandra Day O’Connor Award, to 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Bernice B. Donald. The presentation will take place on Nov. 10 at the Heard Museum of American Indian art in Phoenix during the Appellate Judges Education Institute’s annual summit. Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Rynette Hurd nominated Donald for the award, which honors a judge or former judge who demonstrates extraordinary service, an absolute commitment to justice, excellence and innovation in one’s work, integrity and leadership. In her nomination, Hurd wrote that Donald is a “true trailblazer" who prepares "the way for others to come after her and to enjoy the success she has been blessed with.”

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) cannot escape a judicial injunction by rebranding a controversial tree-cutting policy. The court had previously barred TVA from carrying out its “15-foot rule,” a policy that allowed the utility to cut down private landowners’ trees simply because those trees might one day grow tall enough to interfere with power lines. TVA claimed the injunction was no longer necessary because it had scrapped the rule and replaced it with a new policy — dubbed “alternative C Condition-based Control Strategy.” The court rejected that argument. “A closer look … reveals that Alternative C is likely just a differently packaged version of the 15-foot rule,” the court stated. Tennessee Lookout has the story.

Law firm Lewis Thomason has named Timothy Downard as its new chief financial officer. Downard was most recently controller and finance director at Vericom Global Solutions. Previously, he was CFO at SoZu Solution and owned his own CPA firm. At the firm, Downard will be responsible for financial strategy, planning and analysis, the firm reports.

The requirement that at least 75% of a law school’s graduates pass the bar exam within a two-year period is being examined again by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. The move comes as some jurisdictions are considering alternative paths to licensure, the ABA Journal reports. The section also announced it will be reviewing how transfer students affect law school bar passage rates, whether required hours of experiential learning should be increased, and whether the standards for academic advising should be revised. In related news, public responses to a proposal to make the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) optional appear to be evenly split between those who want to retain the requirement and those who want it eliminated. Reuters has more on that story.