Franklin-based law firm Thompson Burton has announced that veteran health care and regulatory attorney Jerry Taylor is joining the firm as a partner, the Nashville Post reports. Taylor was most recently a partner at Burr & Forman and is the 23rd attorney to join Thompson Burton since its founding in 2012. Taylor earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law and, before practicing in the private sector, held several legal positions in state government, including at the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission. He has also served on the board of directors for the Nashville Health Care Council and held a board position with the Tennessee Justice Center. Taylor will continue to focus his practice on health care and regulatory compliance.

Country music group Lady A, formerly Lady Antebellum, has filed a trademark lawsuit against a Seattle-based singer by the same name, the Tennessean reports. Last month, the band renounced the name Antebellum, citing “associations that weigh down this word,” including ties to slavery. Soon after the change, singer Anita White, who also goes by Lady A, took to social media to express her anger over the name change and vow to never give up her name. The next week, both Lady As announced they’d talked privately and come to an agreement to share the moniker. However, White reversed course soon after and asked the band for a $10 million payment, prompting them to file a trademark lawsuit against her in a federal district court in Nashville. The band isn’t asking for monetary damages, but are asking the court for a declaratory judgment that their trademarked uses of Lady A "do not infringe any of White's alleged trademark rights in "Lady A." 

Nashville attorney and newly appointed Young Lawyers Division President-Elect Billy Leslie joins the TBA’s BarBuzz podcast this week to talk about legal news, upcoming events for the month of July and special recognition of lawyers across the state. This month’s episode marks the one-year anniversary of BarBuzz and the entire TBA Podcast Network! Catch this show, and all others in the network, on the TBA’s website or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Gov. Bill Lee has made two appointments to the Tennessee Historical Commission ahead of the group’s vote on the fate of the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust at the state Capitol, WPLN reports. Doris McMillan, who works at a private Christian school in Franklin, and Memphis healthcare executive and chairman of the TennCare Advisory Committee, Cato Johnson, are the new appointees. McMillan and Johnson are both Black and, while there is also a Native American member of the commission, the remaining 25 appointees and automatic slots from the Lee administration are white. The State Capitol Commission voted yesterday to remove three busts of military figures, including Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, out of the Capitol and into the Tennessee State Museum. The vote now goes to the Tennessee Historical Commission for the final decision on what will be done with the busts, but that meeting may not happen until October.  

The 2020 Corporate Counsel Knowledge Nibbles is now available online and worth one-hour of general credit CLE. This virtual program will provide an overview of the information blocking rules and interoperability rules, the impact those rules have on providers, practical tips for outside counsel and relationships with third party health information management vendors. Watch remotely on your phone or laptop as Nashville attorneys Nesrin Tift and Elizabeth Warren of Bass, Berry & Sims cover these topics.

Williamson County attorney Eric Trygve Olson on Wednesday received a public censure from the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Olson was hired in September 2016 as in-house counsel, but did not complete his registration with the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners within 180 days of the start of his employment. In January 2019, on his application for comity admission to the Board of Law Examiners, Olson incorrectly stated that he had never registered as in-house counsel. In April 2019, he went to work as in-house counsel for a different company, but did not notify the BLE of his termination with the first company and did not register as in-house counsel within 180 days of the date the second employment began. A Public Censure is a rebuke and warning to the attorney, but it does not affect the attorney’s ability to practice law.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued a statewide order requiring all those entering a courthouse for court-related business to wear a face covering over the nose and mouth. That covering should be worn at all times while in the building. “The recent uptick in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths required the Court to reconsider how to best keep the public, court staff, and judiciary safe while keeping courts as open and accessible as possible,” Chief Justice Jeff Bivins said. The requirement is consistent with directives from the Centers for Disease Control, the Tennessee Department of Health and several Tennessee county mayors. Exceptions to the order include those under the age of 12 and those with a bona fide medical reason. Courthouses are also coordinating with local Tennessee Emergency Management Agency offices to have masks available.

A book co-authored by Knoxville attorney Jack H. “Nick” McCall titled The East Tennessee Veterans Memorial, A Pictorial History of the Names on the Wall, Their Service, and Their Sacrifice has recently been published by the University of Tennessee Press. The book tells the stories of more than 300 service members whose names are among the 6,200 inscribed on 32 markers that serve to commemorate the tradition of military service in East Tennessee. Readers will find the accounts of each of East Tennessee’s 14 Medal of Honor recipients, along with tales of a variety of other veterans from World War I to the present, people whose lives and deaths together form a microcosm of the armed forces. Illustrated with historical photographs, the book gives a compelling history of individual lives, but also a broader sense of military history in the region and a contribution to the scholarship on the value of monuments as a means to honor the past.

Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northeastern University are suing the Trump administration over an order that would force international students to transfer or leave the U.S. if their courses are taught only online, Business Insider reports. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday morning against the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and comes after new guidance from ICE that says students on F-1 visas cannot stay in the U.S. unless they have in-person classes to attend. Many college campuses are not planning a mass return of students in the fall due the COVID-19 pandemic. Among its arguments, Harvard said attending online classes would be impossible for many students, including those who live in countries like Syria, where there is a civil war, or Ethiopia, which is under an internet blackout.

Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins confirmed yesterday that all 95 counties in the state have updated their websites or written materials to reflect a judge’s order to expand absentee voting, the Associated Press reports. Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle last month ordered Goins to tell counties to update their information after plaintiffs attorneys named 20 counties with absentee request forms or other website mentions that didn’t correctly reference COVID-19 as a reason to vote absentee.  Earlier this week, Lyle said it was “still unknown” whether counties were complying and ordered an update from Goins, which he provided in a court filing on Wednesday.