The Governor’s Office is now accepting applications to fill the office of district attorney general for the 15th Judicial District. The position would be filled until the next biennial election in August 2022. Applicants must have been a resident of the state for five years and the judicial district for one year. The 15th Judicial District includes Jackson, Smith, Macon, Trousdale and Wilson counties. Interested attorneys should submit a resume and cover letter to Lang Wiseman, Deputy and Chief Counsel to the Governor, State Capitol, First Floor, 600 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Nashville, Tennessee 37243, or by emailing Rebecca Kaunisto. The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. CDT on March 15.

In preparation for the upcoming TBA Elections, profiles of the two candidates competing for the Sixth District House of Delegates seat will be emailed to members in the district on Thursday. Voting begins on Monday, and members should receive an email then with voting instructions. Ballots will come from the TBA.Election@intelliscanvotes.com email address, so please check your spam filters if you do not receive the email. Please feel free to reach out to elections@tnbar.org if you have any questions or concerns.

Distance communication is here to stay for a while, meaning new issues with both competence and communication. The CLE Performer Stuart Teicher is here to walk you through What to Watch Out For in a Post-COVID World Part 1: The 3 C's: Competence, Communication, and COVID. Don’t miss this webcast replay on March 4 from noon until 1 p.m. CST, worth one dual credit hour of CLE.  

Before she was known as a civil rights pioneer, Ida B. Wells was a plaintiff before the Tennessee Supreme Court in Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern Railroad Co. v. Wells, an 1884 case over discrimination on railroads. Wells sued the railroad after being violently forced to give up her seat in the first-class ladies car and was awarded $500 after a Memphis jury returned a verdict in her favor. The case made headlines, but after the railroad appealed to the state Supreme Court, the justices unanimously reversed the decision and assessed $200 in court costs against Wells. Wells then “turned her disappointment into determination” and soon after purchased a Memphis newspaper and began a new career as a journalist. As one historian wrote, “despite the setbacks, the resistance initiated by Wells became a symbol of African-American resistance to the Jim Crow laws of the South.” Wells would go on to fearlessly investigate and expose lynching, advocate for education and women’s suffrage and battle against segregation laws. Read more on Wells’ case in Russell Fowler’s article, “Ida B. Wells at the Tennessee Supreme Court,” from the November 2015 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal and more about her life and upbringing in “Ida B. Wells,” by David Hudson from the August 2018 issue.

The American Bar Association is asking leaders of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees to support key legal reforms involving the federal courts, access to legal services, the criminal justice system and immigration. ABA President Patricia Lee Refo sent a second letter to leaders of the Senate and House Appropriations Committee urging them to support more money for the federal courts, Legal Services Corporation and rural broadband. Here is the letter to the Judiciary Committee and the letter to the Appropriations Committee.  

A U.S. House subcommittee yesterday heard from three federal judges who spoke about case delays and high workloads as lawmakers considered whether to expand the number of federal judgeships, the ABA Journal reports. Judges and law professors said they feared litigants may think they can’t get their day in court as cases are delayed and oral arguments are curbed due to increased filings that don’t match increases in federal judgeships. The last time Congress increased the number of judgeships was in 2002, and then only a handful were added. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle showed interest in expanding judgeships, but there were disagreements over timing and whether to split the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco.

A new report from practice management company Clio has found that solo practitioners struggled more significantly than larger law firms in adapting to remote work throughout the pandemic, Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites reports. The report also found that solos who harnessed modern legal technologies fared significantly better during 2020 than those who did not — bringing in $50,000 more in revenue on average — and solos who continue to adapt and innovate are most likely to do well both in the immediate future and in years to come. Clio’s Legal Trends for Solo Law Firms, published earlier this week, used data from its annual Legal Trends Report, which is based on analysis of data from tens of thousands of legal professionals and surveys of legal professionals and legal consumers.

Vanderbilt Law School’s director of diversity, equity and community will have a new title after anonymous donors committed to fund an endowed directorship in honor of longtime law professor Robert Belton, the Nashville Post reports. Professor Yesha Yadav has overseen the office since its creation last summer and her new title is associate dean and Robert Belton Director of Diversity, Equity and Community. Belton was the first Black professor to gain tenure at Vanderbilt Law School and was an expert in labor and employment law. He joined the faculty in 1975 after five years as an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a stint in private practice. Belton retired in 2009 and died in 2012 at the age of 76.

The TBA Young Lawyers Division concluded its leadership application process for the 2021-2022 bar year with eight new officers and district representatives deemed to be elected. The new officers are: Treasurer, Justin Faith; East Tennessee Governor, Alex McVeagh; Middle Tennessee Governor, Sean Aiello; West Tennessee Governor, Kortney Simmons. The new district representatives are: District 1, Hunter Shelton; District 5, Logan Threadgill; District 7, Kelly Gray; District 9, Rachel Bishop. A number of board vacancies remain, including vice president and secretary. Any member of the YLD interested in filling a vacant position or wishing to nominate someone for the position has until March 5 to email their statement of interest or nomination to Stephanie Vonnahme. A full list of remaining vacancies can be found here. 

A proposed constitutional amendment that would allow voters to change the way Tennessee’s Attorney General is selected cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, the Chattanoogan reports. Senate Joint Resolution 0001 (SJR0001) calls for a transparent nomination process by the Tennessee Supreme Court in selecting the State Attorney General, followed by a confirmation vote of the nominee by a majority of both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly. The TBA has expressed its opposition to the resolution, a decision that is detailed in today’s episode of the TBA Legislative Updates podcast. In addition, TBA Public Policy and Government Affairs Director Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorney and TBA lobbyist Brad Lampley cover SB0633/HB0385, a proposal that would make it a criminal offense if a bystander witnesses a medical emergency and fails to report it to emergency services immediately. You can watch the full video of Legislative Updates on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also available as a podcast on the TBA’s website or anywhere you listen to podcasts.