Johnson City commissioners last week approved a recommendation to close the city’s half-century old jail, which houses a declining number of incarcerated females, News Channel 11 reports. The city began housing women serving jail sentences in 2002 through a contract with the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC), which paid $40.75 per day for each incarcerated woman. However, as the number of those incarcerated has declined – the jail averaged a census of just 48 as of June – the cost to house them has remained the same. “It does not serve a purpose for us to be in this space, especially when local taxpayers are no longer in a net gain position,” said Johnson City Mayor Joe Wise. In the recently ended fiscal year, expenses were roughly $36,000 higher than revenues. The jail is now set to close within weeks.

After 40 years of service, Germantown Municipal Court Judge Raymond Clift Jr. has announced he’ll be retiring from the bench effective Sept. 1, the Commercial Appeal reports. Clift became Germantown judge in 1982. Prior to that he was a public defender for Shelby County and was later Tennessee's assistant district attorney until 1972. He was Germantown alderman from 1978-1980. Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo said Clift’s legacy as judge “will be one of a deep commitment to the justice system, honor and the unparalleled ability to serve others with balance and fairness.” The Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen will appoint Clift's replacement to serve two years until the next election in 2024. The board will interview candidates for the position and hold a formal vote at a later date for the new judge.

Nineteen female judges will be sworn into office next week by Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee during an event hosted by the Women’s Political Collaborative of Tennessee (WPC). The event will take place on Aug. 30 at 5 p.m. CDT at Nashville’s Hermitage Hotel – the site where much of the behind-the-scenes work to ratify the 19th Amendment in Tennessee happened. Admission is free and tickets can be reserved on WPC’s website. While Davidson County saw a historic number of female judges elected this year, Knox County female candidates did not fare as well. The Knoxville News Sentinel has more on that story.   

The TBA is headed to Greeneville on Sept. 7 as part of its annual Court Square Series! Start the afternoon with a lunch and learn networking session with TBA leadership, followed by an ethics update from the Board of Professional Responsibility Disciplinary Counsel for Litigation Eric Fuller, and later a judicial panel featuring Greene County General Sessions and Juvenile Judge Kenneth Bailey and Jefferson County General Sessions Judge Will Roach. Finally, end the day with Bristol Motor Speedway's Vice President & Legal Counsel Julie Bennett who will give an intro to sports betting following the 2020 passage of the Tennessee Sports Gaming Act. Learn more and get registered here. Not going to be in Greeneville on Sept. 7? Head over to the TBA CLE website to find other stops in the 2022 Court Square Series!

Two former Pennsylvania judges convicted of orchestrating a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks have been ordered to pay more than $200 million to the hundreds of victims impacted by the scandal, the Associated Press reports. Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were convicted in what came to be known as the “kids-for-cash” scandal. The judges shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Ciavarella ordered children as young as eight to detention for petty theft, jaywalking, truancy, smoking on school grounds and other minor infractions. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out some 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300 kids after the scheme was uncovered. The two must pay $106 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages to nearly 300 people in the long-running civil suit.

Roy Octavius Parker, a Mississippi attorney and TBA senior counselor, died on July 25. He was 91. Parker earned his law degree from the University of Mississippi’s School of Law in 1959. During his career as a trial lawyer, Parker was a lifetime member and past president of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association, which honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Parker was licensed in Tennessee in 1997. Graveside services with military honors for Parker were held on July 28 in Mississippi. Memorials may be made to First Presbyterian Church P.O. Box 1725, Tupelo, MS 38802.

According to the ABA Journal, Lex Machina’s 2022 Employment Litigation Report shows a total of $1.17 billion in damages were awarded in 1,016 employment cases in 2021—the highest amount of damages in nearly a decade. The report focuses on the three-year period from 2019 to 2021, examining cases that were filed under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Additional data shows that 73% of employment cases in district courts settled between 2019 and 2021, while only 10% of claim defendants and 3% of claimants won. In the appellate courts, appellees won in 51% of employment cases during the three-year period. Appellants won in 13% of cases, while 15% of cases settled. Read highlights from the report.

The Tennessee Department of Health this week appointed two Nashville attorneys to serve as its chief of staff and general counsel, the Nashville Post reports. Elizabeth Foy will serve as the department’s chief of staff. Foy served as legislative liaison for the department since 2021 and was appointed assistant commissioner earlier this year. She also served as an assistant district attorney in Nashville for more than 10 years. The department also appointed Mary Katherine Bratton as general counsel. Bratton originally started with TDH as assistant general counsel in 2012, and most recently served in the office of general counsel at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

The American Bar Association has appointed Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP) Executive Director Buddy Stockwell to its Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP). CoLAP is instrumental in supporting all state LAPs in the development and delivery of top-tier clinical support and monitoring services to judges, lawyers, and law students who are confronting alcoholism, substance use disorders, or any other type of mental health issue such as depression. The Tennessee Supreme Court appointed Stockwell as TLAP executive director in July 2020. Now into his 40th year of recovery from alcoholism, Stockwell has been personally involved in lawyer assistance for 30 years.

A retirement celebration for Davidson County Seventh Circuit Probate Court Judge Randy Kennedy will be held on Aug. 23 from 2- 4 p.m. CDT, on the Sixth floor of the Historic Davidson County Courthouse. Notes and well wishes for Kennedy can be left here. RSVPs are not required, but questions can be directed to Adam Hill.