The TBA yesterday made a trip to Clarksville during its 2022 Court Square Series. Event attendees participated in a networking session with TBA President-elect Jim Barry, heard a Legislative Update from the TBA’s Berkley Schwarz and listened to Clarksville attorney Ray Runyon discuss surviving spousal rights. The event wrapped up with a judicial panel featuring Chancellor Ben Dean and Judges Kathryn Wall Olita, Reid Poland and Joel Wallace. The next stop in the Court Square Series will be in Savannah on Nov. 16.

Memphis Area Legal Services is looking to hire two staff attorneys who will provide high quality legal services to survivors of domestic violence. The staff attorneys will provide a full range of legal services to clients, including advice, negotiations, representation in state and federal court, and administrative advocacy. Litigation experience is preferred and demonstrated interest in assisting low-income people and conducting aggressive advocacy is required. For more information about the role and instructions on how to apply, visit the TBA’s JobLink site.

The TBA Construction Law Section will host a three-hour program on construction law basics in Memphis next month. The program will cover the prompt pay act, contractor licensing, lien law, and construction contracts. The event will kick off on Dec. 2 with registration and a light breakfast at 8:30 a.m. CST at Glankler Brown in Memphis. Get more information and register for the program here.

Witness an all-star lineup of women attorneys discuss resiliency in our profession during times of change, nontraditional legal careers, women supporting other women and much more during the “Raising the Bar” program next Thursday. Produced by the TBA Women in the Profession Committee, the in-person event will kick off with a keynote address from retired Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle, now with JAMS: Mediation, Arbitration and ADR Service, on withstanding career adversity, overcoming challenges and growing from those experiences. Programming will run from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. CST at Baker Donelson’s Nashville office and will be immediately followed by a networking reception. Learn more and register for the program.

The October episode of the TBA's BarBuzz podcast is now streaming. This month, the new TBA YLD and Law School Development Coordinator Laura Labenberg joins the show to discuss legal news and bar association events for the upcoming month and beyond. BarBuzz is part of the TBA Podcast Network and can be found on the TBA's website or anywhere you listen to podcasts. 

Shaterra Marion was yesterday sworn in as Tennessee’s newest Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims judge. Chief Judge Kenneth M. Switzer administered the judicial oath to Marion, who will sit in the Memphis office. Marion thanked her family for teaching her the value of hard work and acknowledged “standing on the shoulders of others.” Her first settlement approvals took place today. The Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims has more.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon and District Attorney General Steve Mulroy are asking the state to reestablish a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation crime lab in the county, the Commercial Appeal reports. The ask comes after the issue of backlogged rape kits fell under fresh scrutiny after the suspect in the killing of Eliza Fletcher was linked to a 2021 rape via a kit that was untested for nearly a year. Shelby County must send its sex offense evidence to a TBI lab in Jackson for testing. That lab was staffed by just three scientists this summer and the average turnaround time was nearly 49 weeks in July and August. Officials also asked the state to pass a blended sentencing solution to allow Shelby County leaders to expand juvenile supervision.

The TBA Leadership Law (TBALL) Alumni Association this week concluded its annual statewide fall reception series. TBALL is a six-month leadership training program for attorneys with five to 15 years of practice experience. The receptions allow new nominees of the program to mix and mingle with alumni members to get an inside track on the benefits of the program. The series kicked off last week in Nashville at Baker Donelson and continued this week with stops on Monday at Butler Snow in Memphis, Tuesday at Best and Brock in Chattanooga and Wednesday at Egerton McAfee in Knoxville. More than 200 Tennessee attorneys have been nominated for the 2023 program and a class of 35 will be selected in the coming weeks. This year’s program is co-chaired by attorneys Terica Smith of Jackson and Jeffrey Maddux of Chattanooga.

Andrew Delke, a former Nashville police officer convicted of manslaughter after fatally shooting Daniel Hambrick in 2018, was released from jail today, the Tennessean reports. Delke, who is white, fatally shot Hambrick, who is Black, in the back three times as he ran away during a traffic stop. Delke was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting. Under a plea agreement, he was sentenced to three years in prison in July 2021. The agreement allowed him to serve his time in a facility run by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and allowed him to be released in less time with standard jail credits. His release date was previously set for Dec. 3. Delke’s attorney, David Raybin, said his client was released today due to earning jail credits.  

Longtime Lewisburg attorney Walter Woods Bussart died peacefully on Tuesday. He was 80. Upon graduating from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1966, Bussart clerked for Justice Thomas Dyer of the Tennessee Supreme Court. He later founded the Bussart Law Firm in Lewisburg. During his distinguished career, Bussart partnered in law practice with notable lawyers, including Fred Thompson, Barbara Medley, and his daughter, Judge Lee Bussart. He was a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, speaker of the House of Delegates for the TBA and was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, serving in the 90th General Assembly. He was chosen as the Marshall County General Sessions Judge in 1972 and later appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals in 1997. Bussart was featured in an episode of the TBA YLD Presents: War Stories podcast in 2020, when he discussed some of his top cases and his 1994 gubernatorial primary run. Visitation will be held tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT at Bills-McGaugh Hamilton Funeral Home in Lewisburg. Funeral services will begin at 2 p.m. with interment at Round Hill Cemetery in Belfast.