Outgoing Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich will this week join the 25th Judicial District Attorney General’s Office as special counsel, the Daily Memphian reports. Weirich, a Republican, who lost to Democrat Steve Mulroy in August, will work in areas including litigation support and training, victim/witness services, legislative affairs, media relations, policy and procedure, community outreach and public awareness campaigns. She’ll be sworn in on Thursday at 10 a.m. CDT at the Fayette County Circuit Court Room in the Fayette County Justice Complex, 705 Justice Drive in Somerville. The 25th Judicial District includes Hardeman, Fayette, Lauderdale, McNairy and Tipton counties.

After serving nearly eight years as the state’s top lawyer, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery is set to retire. WBIR has an interview with Slatery from May in which he discusses his greatest accomplishments as AG, how his office has balanced federal mandates versus states’ rights and advice for his successor. Slatery said he decided to retire now because he felt “like this was a natural time to pass the baton.” Slatery intends to return to Knoxville after retirement.

Cook Tillman Law Group is now accepting applications for an estate planning associate attorney in the firm’s Brentwood office. Cook Tillman is a boutique firm that exclusively handles estate planning, estate and trust administration, and business planning matters. The new attorney will join the firm’s Estate Planning practice group and will participate in consultation meetings, formulate and customize estate plans for clients, draft a wide range of estate planning documents and conduct document execution meetings. Read more on how to apply from the TBA’s JobLink site or browse all available jobs.  

The August episode of the TBA’s BarBuzz podcast is now streaming with co-host Isaac Kimes of Nashville’s Branstetter Stranch & Jennings! Kimes helps round up top legal news and bar association happenings, details Branstetter’s work on opioids and tells the story of how his mother escaped North Korea during the Korean War and later immigrated to the U.S. BarBuzz is part of the TBA Podcast Network and can be found on the TBA’s website or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Courtney Leyes, a partner in the Nashville office of Fisher Phillips, was voted this year’s recipient of the Larry Dean Wilks Leadership Award by fellow members of 2022 TBA Leadership Law (TBALL) class. All 34 members of the leadership training program met for their final session last week in Franklin. The class heard from a Diversity in Leadership panel before completing a service project with Tennessee Free Legal Answers where they answered 36 legal questions submitted by the public. Leyes was presented with the award during the group’s graduation ceremony on Friday. The award is named for former TBA president, Larry D. Wilks, and recognizes a TBALL class member who exhibits exceptional leadership qualities. Read more on all of this year’s TBALL graduates.

Meet TBA Human Resources and Administrative Coordinator Tanja Trezise! Tanja is responsible for all human resource functions at TBA as well as assisting with other administrative tasks such as membership dues, CLEs and meetings. Tanja enjoys traveling and her trip to Egypt (seen here) was a check off her bucket list! Most recently she’s been to Arizona and Mexico and will be traveling to Michigan in the fall for the birth of her first grandbaby!

The #TeamTBA series offers members a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the TBA and how each staff members makes the association run. Check back every Wednesday for a new staff profile in TBA Today and on the TBA's Facebook, Twitter Instagram accounts.

The Tennessee Department of Revenue will host a free webinar on Aug. 30 at 9 a.m. CDT to discuss liquor-by-the-drink tax. Participants will learn about registration, price schedules, filing and payment, inventory deductions and exemptions, record keeping requirements and more. Register for the program here or check out more free webinars in the series.

Mark Chalos, managing partner of Lieff Cabraser’s Nashville office, has been elected co-chair of the Class Action Litigation Section of the American Association for Justice (AAJ). The section creates a forum for attorneys to share ideas, discovery, and litigation strategies and allows AAJ members to network and work collaboratively on class action cases. Read more from Lieff Cabraser.

Two Patterson IP attorneys, Ed Lanquist and Scott Douglass, have joined Baker Donelson as shareholders in the firm’s intellectual property group, the Nashville Post reports. Lanquist, who will be president of the TBA in 2024, is a longtime leader at Patterson, where he was named president and managing partner in 2009 and served in those positions nearly 10 year. He will be based in Baker’s Nashville office. Douglass, a former shareholder at Patterson, will join Baker’s Memphis office.   

Eighteen attorneys have been selected to participate in the 2023 class of the Nashville Bar Foundation Leadership Forum. Participants will take part in monthly workshops for nine months to help them realize their potential and to benefit the legal profession and local community. The forum was created in 2014. Class members must have three to eight years of experience to be considered. Read NBF’s press release for a full list of class members.