Nashville attorney and former General Sessions Judge William Joseph Faimon passed away on Jan. 23. After graduating from Vanderbilt Law School, Faimon served in the CIA for 12 years. He began his law practice in 1959 and was elected a Nashville General Sessions Judge in 1982, where he served until 2006. Due to pandemic restrictions, a private service will be held by family. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Room in the Inn, P.O. Box 25309, Nashville, TN, 37202, or to the charity of your choice.

Nashville lawyer David Young Parker Sr. passed away on Jan. 23 after contracting the COVID-19 virus. He was 79. After earning his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School in 1966, Parker practiced law for 53 years, working for Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company, the State of Tennessee and GENESCO before entering private practice in 1975. Parker was also an adjunct professor at David Lipscomb College and served as a judge in Vanderbilt's Moot Court. He sat on the board of directors for the Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society and was chairman emeritus of the Historical Committee and the Memorial Service Committee of the Nashville Bar Association. Donations in his memory can be made to the Second Harvest Food Bank or the Nashville Inner City Ministry. A private memorial service will be held for the family and a celebration of life will be held for the public in the future.

The TBA’s Tort and Insurance Law Section will host its 2021 Winter Forum on Feb. 3 from 9 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. CST. The forum will provide an overview of the ethical issues that attorneys face in conducting investigations and interviewing current and former employees of an opposing corporate litigant. The program will also feature a discussion of emerging legal issues on the enforceability of arbitration agreements and provide recent legal developments involving claims for health care liability actions. Members of the Tort and Insurance Law Section receive special pricing for the program, so join the section today!

Rep. London Lamar, D-Memphis, has filed a bill that would allow the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana without prosecution, Nashville’s NewsChannel5 reports. Two cities in the state have already agreed not to prosecute people caught with small amounts of drugs, but Lamar is calling for a statewide standard. "What we want to do is make sure there's a unified standard across Tennessee where no matter what county you're in, there's the same standard around criminalization and having the possession of marijuana," she said. HB0413 would not allow for the sale of marijuana.

One of the Republican legislators whose home and office were searched by FBI agents earlier this month says that agents confiscated all files and documents related to his campaign, the Associated Press reports. Rep. Todd Warner, R-Chapel Hill, divulged that information to the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance Ethics Commission in an email last week to explain why he couldn’t complete his latest campaign finance report on time. His correspondence gives the clearest indication to date that the federal investigation is at least partly campaign finance-focused. Federal authorities have not indicated what they are investigating after showing up to search the homes and legislative offices of Warner, former House Speaker Glen Casada, R-Franklin, Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, and former Casada chief of staff Cade Cothren. Agents visited Warner’s business address as well.

Some operational changes within the state’s court system made to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic may become permanent, the Nashville Post reports. Appearing before the House Finance Committee this week, Administrative Office of the Courts Director Deborah Taylor Tate said the adoption of teleconferencing technology could continue even after the spread of the disease diminishes. Tate agreed with Rep. John Mark Windle, D-Livingston, when he said "the current court structure is from the time of Andrew Jackson,” adding that there must “be a better way to queue people and not take up all their time.” Asked by another committee member whether continuing to hold court virtually after the state of emergency ends is a possibility, Taylor admitted it was an open question. “These are issues that are going to be litigated,” she said.

Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins has denied a change of venue request in the murder trial of Metro Nashville Police Officer Andrew Delke, the Tennessean reports. Delke, who is white, is charged with premeditated first-degree murder after shooting Daniel Hambrick, who is Black, in the back following a foot chase in 2018. His defense team argued yesterday that anti-police sentiments in Nashville have tainted the jury pool. "Although the case has received extensive pretrial publicity, this Court is of the opinion that jurors can be fair and impartial," Watkins wrote in his order. Delke has pleaded not guilty to the charge and claims he was acting in self-defense. Jury selection in the case is set to begin in in early July.  

Longtime Vanderbilt Law School professor and Nashville resident Allaire Urban Karzon died Sunday. She was 95. Karzon earned her law degree from Yale Law School before working as an attorney with the Office of Alien Property at the U.S. Department of Justice and in the legal department of RCA Corp. After moving to Nashville, Karzon served as counsel to Performance Systems Inc. and Aladdin Industries and practiced as a partner in Neal Karzon and Harwell. She joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty as a lecturer in 1971 and taught tax law until her retirement in 1995, in the process becoming Vanderbilt’s first tenured female law professor. Contributions in her memory may be made to the Visiting Nursing Association of Western New York Inc., 650 Airborne Parkway, Cheektowaga, N.Y. 14225.

The University of Tennessee College of Law's Legal Clinic is connecting its students with entrepreneurs and community members to provide them with the legal assistance needed to launch their start-ups and more. Professor Brian Krum spearheaded a collaboration between his Business Clinic law students and aspiring Knoxville entrepreneurial fellows. In this partnership, students advise entrepreneurs on intellectual property issues, types of legal entities they should form and financial options. Students in Professor Eric Amarante’s Community Economic Development Clinic are also getting hands-on experience through assistance they’ve offered a fellow student in forming non-profit foundation that helps those in Uganda refugee camps. The College of Law’s website has more on the work students are doing through both clinics.

Maryville attorney Charles David Deas on Tuesday received a public censure from the Board of Professional Responsibility. Deas deposited his own funds in his trust account in order to issue a cashier’s check from that account. He also failed to adequately protect the bank checks for his trust account, and he failed to have proper procedures in place to make sure his assistant was in compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct. These acts were found to violate Rules of Professional Conduct 1.15 and 5.3. A public censure is a rebuke and warning to the attorney, but it does not affect the attorney’s ability to practice law.