The Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville (ABC) will host two legal clinics this month. The Black-Owned Small Business and Nonprofit Legal Clinic occurs every third Thursday of the month and is a joint effort from ABC and the Bradley Law Firm to provide free legal services for Black-owned small businesses and nonprofits. It is held virtually and the next clinic will be held on June 17. Ask the Experts: Pro Bono Business & Legal Clinic will be held on June 30 and offers 30-minutes of one-on-one time with an industry expert on topics including legal issues, marketing and accounting. Interested attorneys can register to volunteer with ABC here.

The TBA’s travel, hotel and car rental discount provider has expanded its offerings to now include entertainment. Members are now able to receive discounts for theme parks, movie theaters, events, shows, sporting events, water parks and concerts. Other savings include Sam’s Club, ADT Security and Calm, a sleep and meditation app. Start saving today. 

The Tennessee Supreme Court today suspended Sumner County lawyer John T. Harding from the practice of law for one year, with 30 days being on active suspension and the remainder served on probation. Harding executed a conditional guilty plea to the Board of Professional Responsibility’s filing that he failed to reasonably communicate with his client regarding the status of a case and failed to act in a diligent manner and expedite the client’s litigation. He must pay fees to the BPR and comply with the Supreme Court’s rules for suspended attorneys and the procedure for reinstatement.  

Nashville attorney James Crumlin has finished eight full and seven half Ironman races—a triathlon competition with a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride an a 26.22-mile run. Crumlin, an attorney at Bone McAllester Norton, details his journey to becoming a triathlete for a recent article in the Tennessean, telling the paper his road to becoming an Ironman competitor actually began with a bet he made with a good friend. Crumlin eventually became known as a Nashville fitness guru after launching the Capitol Steps Workouts, where he leads two free, hour-long workouts each week, running up and down the Capitol steps among other exercises. Crumlin practices in labor and employment and business and corporate law at Bone McAllester, as well as litigation and dispute resolution, and entertainment and media law. He is a TBA member and a 2006 graduate of the TBA’s Leadership Law program.

Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk released a letter yesterday confirming his decision to not enforce a new state law that requires businesses to post signs outside of bathrooms that are transgender-friendly, the Tennessean reports.  "My office is devoted to public safety, prosecuting violent crimes and supporting victims,” Funk said in the letter. “However, this law does not accomplish those goals.” The response came after state Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, issued a second request on Monday for Funk to explain his position. Though Ragan acknowledged district attorneys can exercise prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases in his letter to Funk, he wrote that “such discretion is not totally without limits.” Funk disagreed, noting the power each branch of government has to ‘check’ the other branches and “act as a ‘balance’ to prevent any one branch of government from having too much power over the people or over another governmental branch.”

Attorneys for Metro Nashville and the Davidson County Election Commission were back in court yesterday, debating whether the commission acted in bad faith in its decision to block a Metro-supported proposal from being placed on the same ballot as the property tax referendum, the Tennessean reports. The property tax referendum seeks to limit the city’s power over property tax increases and recall elections, among other things, while the Metro-backed proposal would preserve the current Metro Charter. The commission voted 3-2 last month to let the court decide on the proposal, a decision that Metro attorneys yesterday deemed “action by inaction.” Metro attorney Cate Pham claimed the commission “slow walked” its decision, deliberately delaying approval so that the measure wouldn’t appear on the July 27 ballot. Representing the commission, attorney Jim Blumstein of Vanderbilt and Austin McMullen of Bradley Law Firm, defended the decision to send the resolution to the court due to the lack of clarity on Metro’s proposal and the “self-destructive” provision written into it that demanded it be put on the July 27 ballot.

Brandon O. Gibson, chief operating officer for the state, will give a keynote address during the 2021 Bench Bar Luncheon. She will join Gov. Bill Lee’s deputy chief counsel, Lang Wiseman, for the presentation. Gibson was appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals by former Gov. Bill Haslam where she served for more than four years before joining Lee’s team as senior advisor, focusing primarily on rural and criminal justice initiatives. She was named COO of the state in May 2020. Gibson has served as the chair of the Board of Judicial Conduct and is a former co-chair of the TBA’s Public Service Academy and Leadership Law programs. The Bench Bar Luncheon will take place live in Memphis during the TBA’s annual convention and can be livestreamed for virtual convention registrants. Virtual registration is still open.  

Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle announced this week that she will not seek re-election after more than three decades on the bench, the Tennessean reports. Lyle confirmed the decision in a letter to the Nashville Bar Association, stating that she’d made plans to retire last fall before a failed attempt by Republican state lawmakers to remove her. House Resolution 23 was filed by Rep. Tim Rudd, R-Murfreesboro, and took issue with Lyle’s 2020 ruling to expand absentee voting. Lyle was appointed in 1995 during Republican Gov. Don Sundquist’s administration. In 2015, the state Supreme Court chose Lyle to run the state's first business court pilot project. “As has always been the case with me, life is unpredictable, and 2021 has been true to form," she said in her letter.

Sports law leaders from across the state will assemble for a virtual presentation on June 29 from 3 to 4 p.m. CDT during the Sports Law Panel: At the Intersection of Diversity and Sports program. The panel will be moderated by Luther Wright Jr. from the Nashville office of Ogletree Deakins and will feature Adolpho Birch from the Tennessee Titans, Heidi Bundren with the Nashville Predators and Joe Kennedy with the Nashville Soccer Club. Panelists will discuss the role of diversity, equity and inclusion in sports law, how organizations are responding and how lawyers can serve as leaders and be a part of this change. Entertainment & Sports Law members will receive special pricing for the program. Not a member? Join the section for additional savings and benefits.

A Tennessee court will soon decide whether it will set an execution date for Christa Pike, one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death and the only woman on the state’s death row, the Nashville Scene reports. Pike’s attorneys yesterday filed arguments against scheduling their client’s execution, clearing the way for the court to make the final decision. Pike was 19 when she was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer during a youth job-training program in Knoxville both women were attending. Her attorneys argue that a history of mental illness, brain damage, abuse and multiple rapes led Pike to becoming the “the teenager who committed a terrible crime.” State and federal governments have executed only 17 women since 1976. If the court decides to set a date, Pike would be the first female executed in Tennessee in roughly 200 years.