The Tennessee Bar Association's office will be closed tomorrow for an offsite staff retreat. The office will re-open Thursday.

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee has announced a new partnership with the Nashville office of the Bradley law firm and Metro Nashville’s Office of Family Safety. Participating Bradley attorneys will accept order of protection cases free of charge in an effort to address the overwhelming need for qualified legal help for low-income residents seeking such orders in Davidson County. Bradley attorneys will be trained to work with victims of trauma by Metro’s Office of Family Safety. The program is expected to launch in early January. Read the full press release here.

The attendance policy at Belmont University College of Law is drawing complaints from pregnant law students, the university's student-run newspaper reports. The Vision interviewed four past and present female law students who claimed the policy discriminates against pregnant women by not allowing them additional absences for hospitalizations or giving birth. The students say they sought help from law school Dean Alberto Gonzales, the university’s former Title IX director and others in the administration, but were not given disability accommodations during pregnancy, even when offering up doctor’s notes, written requests or having, in some cases, life-threatening conditions. Gonzales told the paper the school’s policy was strict, but had never prevented a pregnant student from finishing law school. Read the full article from the Vision.

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Legal groups in Knoxville and Nashville will hold Veterans Clinics tomorrow. In Knoxville, the event will run from noon to 2 p.m. at the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office. In Nashville, the clinic will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Operation Stand Down Tennessee.

Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin yesterday dismissed a petition that would bar Loews Hotels from receiving public incentives for its planned convention center hotel in Memphis, the Daily Memphian reports. The petition was brought by the owners of the Sheraton Downtown Memphis Hotel, who claimed such incentives would give unfair advantage to a competitor. The Sheraton originally filed a separate suite in Shelby County, challenging the legality of actions by the Memphis City Council that sent the project to the State Building Commission for final approval. That petition was dismissed, but lawyers for the Sheraton filed a second suit in Davidson County, challenging the state’s actions. Martin ruled the commission and state’s actions that made the Loews project eligible for the incentives were properly handled.

The state Supreme Court ruled today that nonpublic, one-on-one conversations between a newspaper reporter and sheriff’s department detective are not covered by the fair report privilege. That privilege shields persons and organizations that report on official acts from defamation claims, if the reports are fair and accurate. The decision arose from a defamation suit brought by Jeffrey Todd Burke against Sparta Newspapers. The newspaper published what Burke claimed were defamatory statements made by a sheriff’s department detective during a nonpublic, one-on-one conversation with a reporter. A trial court sided with the Sparta Newspapers and granted summary judgement based on the fair report privilege. The Court of Appeals reversed that decision and held that the conversation did not fall within the scope of the privilege. The Supreme Court sided with the appeals court, but granted Sparta Newspapers permission to appeal to define the scope of the privilege. The case was sent back to the trial court for further proceedings.

Gov. Bill Lee’s office is now accepting applications to fill the seat of workers’ compensation Judge Marshall L. Davidson III ahead of his upcoming retirement on Jan. 2, 2020. The chosen candidate will serve the remainder of Judge Davidson’s term, set to expire on July 31, 2020. Interested attorneys should mail 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. Blvd., Nashville 37243. Application materials may also be emailed to Rebecca.Kaunisto@tn.gov by 3 p.m. on Dec. 12. Read more about the position here.

The out-of-state tuition rate at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law will be reduced for the 2020-2021 academic year after receiving approval from the university’s Board of Trustees. The proposal would cap tuition for non-residents at 11-credit hours, resulting in a 25% reduction for non-resident tuition and fees for 15 credit hours. The change will be offset by reductions in out-of-state scholarships and waivers. Read more on the UofM website or download this press release with additional details.

Law students from Memphis and Knoxville have advanced to the National Moot Court Competition finals. The University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, represented by students Steve Liening, Joseph Patterson and Hannah Strong, were named champions of the Region VII competition last month with the University of Tennessee College of Law team led by Andrew Cox, Kayla Rask and Regan Sherrell placing second. Also competing were law students from Vanderbilt, Faulkner University, the University of Mississippi and more. The national event will be held Feb. 10 through Feb. 13 in New York.