Memphis nonprofit Just City has released a 76-page report on the state of youth justice in Shelby County, the Commercial Appeal reports. The organization commissioned Joshua Perry, former executive director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, to research and create the report, which tracked changes in the system during and after the six years that the U.S. Department of Justice monitored the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County. Among the key findings in Perry’s report were a lack of transparency in the county’s juvenile system and a vast racial disparity among youth transferred to adult court. According to the report, from 2012-2021 93.9% of youth transferred in the county were Black, while in 2020 only 60.2% of the under-20 population was Black. Read the report and its recommendations here.

Save the date for a networking event hosted by the Tennessee Stonewall Bar Association and the Tennessee Lawyer’s Association for Women. The event will take place on Aug. 11 at 5:30 p.m. CDT at Pins Mechanical, 1102 Grundy St., Nashville. More information will be released soon.

West Tennessee Legal Services Inc. (WTLS) has two immediate openings in its Jackson office for a staff attorney and a VOCA attorney. The staff attorney position will work in WTLS’ Housing Unit under a new HUD-funded grant aimed at providing comprehensive eviction prevention legal services to families living at or below 80% of the area AMI. The VOCA attorney position participates with staff in its legal, advocacy, collaboration and outreach efforts and directly represents clients.  Get details on the TBA's JobLink platform.

Mark your calendars for TBA CLE’s 2022 Environmental Law Forum, scheduled for Dec. 2 in Nashville. Details on the program’s agenda and speakers will be forthcoming.

More than one month after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade abortion rights case, Tennessee officials are still unclear on when the state’s anti-abortion “trigger ban” will take effect, the Associated Press reports. The ban, which would restrict abortion almost entirely, cannot be enacted until within 30 days after the Supreme Court enters a judgement on the Roe ruling. Attorney General Herbert Slatery said in June that the state could enforce the law by mid-August, but a spokesperson for the office yesterday said they were “not sure” if that timeline was still in place. State Democrats have already said they’ll introduce legislation to expand the list of exemptions under the law. Sen. Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City, who was a co-sponsor of the 2019 trigger ban legislation, told a legislative panel last week that he’d spoken with groups who think lawmakers should “fine-tune the trigger bill somewhat to make sure that we don’t get our docs in trouble when they’re trying to follow the law.”

Tennessee experienced a slight dip in major crimes in 2021, Axios Nashville reports. The Tennesse Bureau of Investigation’s annual crime analysis found 502,706 serious crimes, like murder, arson and theft, were reported in 2021. That’s down by 1% from 2020. While overall crime fell, DUI arrests climbed by 3% to nearly 18,760 and meth offenses rose by roughly 20% to 19,726, which is higher than the two previous years. The TBI tracks crime using a large database that allows law enforcement to analyze specific details such as the time of day when more serious crimes take place.

Metro Nashville on Tuesday filed suit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) over more than $11 million in denied reimbursement claims stemming from the 2010 Nashville flood, the Nashville Post reports. Metro says it spent the money on repairs to the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Facility and Metro Transit Authority facilities following the flood. Reimbursement requests for the repairs have been denied several times by FEMA. Metro claims reimbursements were denied once due to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency failing to timely forward its appeal request on to the federal government. Another denial, Metro alleges, was due to “a typographic error.” Baker Donelson is representing Metro in the case.

Nashville attorney Daniel Horwitz, who is suing CoreCivic over the death of an inmate at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, has been ordered by a federal magistrate judge to delete certain tweets about the private prison firm. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffery Frensley ordered Horwitz to remove some of his tweets, including one that described CoreCivic as a “death factory,” and limit his public commentary going forward. Frensley’s order was in response to CoreCivic’s arguments that the public posts put the company’s right to a fair trial at risk. Horwitz argued his tweets amounted to constitutionally protected free speech and that he has “ethical duties and affirmative obligations” to his clients to speak publicly about the case. He also maintained that while CoreCivic has a public relations team, he is the only advocate for his deceased client. The Associated Press has the full story.

The Napier-Looby Bar Foundation will host its 16th Annual Scholarship and Awards Ceremony July 28 at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville. The event will begin with a reception at 6 p.m. CDT and the scholarship and awards program will follow at 7 p.m. CDT. This year’s honorees include Davidson County Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway, Legal Aid of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands Executive Director Darkenya Waller and YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee President and CEO Sharon Roberson. To purchase tickets or for more information on sponsorship opportunities, visit www.napierloobyfoundation.org or contact Chicoya Gallman or Simone Marshall.

Richard Manson, founder of Nashville law firm Manson Johnson Conner, has been elected to serve as 2023 board chair of the Metro Hospital Authority Board, the Nashville Post reports. Manson, who is also president of Sourcemark surgical products wholesaler, was first appointed to the board by former Mayor Megan Barry in 2017. Manson expressed his support for Nashville General Hospital in a press release. “An investment in the city hospital is important as we continue attracting corporations and individuals based on Nashville’s commitment to serving all its citizens,” Manson said.