The Nashville Bar Association (NBA) held a reception at Spencer Fane Bone McAllester Thursday to honor 2022 President Martesha L. Johnson, who serves as the Nashville Metropolitan Chief Public Defender. Those in attendance included TBA President Sherie Edwards and TBA Executive Director and former NBA president Joycelyn Stevenson.

Hedy Weinberg, the longtime executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, announced on Friday that she is stepping down at the end of June. Weinberg has led the civil rights organization for nearly four decades, having been named to the post in 1984, according to the Nashville Post. The organization moved its headquarters to Nashville early in Weinberg’s tenure in an effort to focus on state legislation and, under her watch, the staff has grown from two to 12. According to a release from the group, the board of directors will conduct a nationwide search for Weinberg’s successor.

The Tennessee State High School Mock Trial Competition wrapped up Saturday night with Montgomery Bell Academy of Nashville prevailing over Agathos Classical School of Columbia to become the 2022 state champion. New Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sarah Campbell presided over the round while members of the YLD Executive Committee and TBA Board of Governors — including President Sherie Edwards and President-elect Tasha Blakney — served as jurors. At an awards ceremony earlier in the day, Unicoi County High School received the competition’s Sportsmanship Award, the top eight teams were announced, and the top advocates and witnesses were recognized with individual awards. MBA will now represent Tennessee at the National High School Mock Trial Competition, which will be held virtually on May 5-7. The team is coached by attorneys Wade Cowan — who has coached mock trial teams for 38 years — and Tracy Hancock.

The Davidson County Election Commission suffered another legal defeat in its dispute with the city over a proposed charter referendum, the Nashville Post reports. A Nashville judge had earlier agreed with the city's argument that the proposal was not proper under the metro statutes. The commission's Republican majority appealed and now an appeals court also has found in favor of the city. The paper reports that the commission has spent more than $700,000 on the legal battle to put a referendum on the ballot that would roll back the city’s 2020 property tax increase and require voter approval of future increases.

A new Memphis Suffrage Monument, "Equality Trail Blazers,” was dedicated Saturday, the Commercial Appeal reports. Nashville sculptor Alan LeQuire created the monument to honor a number of individuals instrumental in the woman suffrage movement. Six are recognized with busts while seven are honored with etched portraits and narratives in glass. Among those included is journalist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Marion Griffin, Rep. Joe Hanover, Charl Ormond Williams and Lois DeBerry, the second Black woman elected to the state legislature and the first to be named speaker pro-tempore. The monument sits on the promenade behind the University of Memphis School of Law, facing the Mississippi River. The city also this week renamed a section of Fourth Street in the downtown in honor of Ida B. Wells. The Commercial Appeal has more on that story.

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands will hold a clinic on Wednesday specifically for veterans. The clinic will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT at Operation Stand Down, 1125 12th Ave. S. Nashville 37203. Masks are required. To volunteer contact Kendra Cheek, 615-780-7131.

The TBA’s 2022 Court Square series is now coming to two more cities: Kingsport on May 26 and Jackson on June 7. Each three-hour program is designed to provide attorneys with the latest developments in multiple areas of the law and to focus on the legal communities, needs and interests of each city. Each session will begin with lunch, a networking opportunity with TBA leadership and a wellness discussion with the TBA Attorney Well Being Committee. An ethics update also will be included. Check out all of this year’s locations.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held the third day of hearings and a second day of questioning today for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Questions from Republican senators continued to center on the judge’s track record on sentencing, especially in child pornography cases. Jackson pushed back on the questions saying, “no one case can stand in for my entire record.” When asked if she regretted some of the sentences, which fell below the sentencing guidelines, she said, “What I regret is that in a hearing about my qualifications to be a justice on the Supreme Court, we’ve spent a lot of time focusing on this small subset of my sentences.” Republicans on the committee also asked today to get copies of pre-sentencing reports related to the cases in question. Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said that move would be unprecedented and could negatively impact victims. The Hill has a wrap up of the day. Tomorrow, the committee will hear from a number of outside groups, including the ABA.

Williamson County lawyer Kathryn Goff Brinton was reinstated to the practice of law effective March 7 after being on inactive status since Nov. 15, 2006. The Tennessee Supreme Court issued the order this week after the Board of Professional Responsibility reported that Brinton’s reinstatement petition was satisfactory.

The Tennessee Department of Revenue will hold its next free webinar on state tax issues on March 29 at 9 a.m. CST. This session will focus on preparing a business tax return. Participants will learn how to file, determining gross sales, calculating deductions, filing for multiple locations and more. Register here.