The Tennessee Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Knox County Sheriff’s Office wrongly withheld public records from a University of Tennessee professor and should pay legal fees in the case, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. However, the court also ruled that the sheriff’s office won’t have to pay nearly as much as the $78,000 in fees originally ordered. According to the court, professor Meghan Conley was eligible only for attorney’s fees related to the records that were “willfully denied,” or two of the 12 she sought. The case will likely go back to Knox County Chancellor John Weaver who will determine the new amount of fees or double down on his decision and keep the fees where they are. Conley’s attorney Andrew Fels, who worked the case for free, was originally awarded $55,762.50; Dean Hill Rivkin was awarded $19,440 for arguing attorney fees on Conley’s behalf; and Conley was awarded an additional $2,805.25.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday unanimously recommended that Gov. Bill Lee’s Tennessee Supreme Court nominee, Sarah Campbell, be confirmed to the bench, the Daily Memphian reports.  Campbell, 39, is a lawyer in the state attorney general’s office where she has defended the executive branch in lawsuits since she took the job in 2015. She was appointed to the high court by Lee in January and would replace the late Justice Cornelia A. Clark, who died in September. When asked what she would do when the state attorney general argues cases before the Supreme Court, Campbell replied that she would recuse herself if it was a case in which she had “substantial personal involvement.” She said her ethical decisions about conflicts of interest would be guided by the Tennessee Code of Judicial Conduct. 

TBA Director of Public Policy & Government Affairs Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorneys and TBA lobbyists Brad Lampley and Ashley Harbin are back for another episode of TBA Legislative Updates. In this edition, Schwarz and Lampley review the governor’s State of the State address and give an update on the professional privilege tax. Harbin also details Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting at which Tennessee Supreme Court nominee Sarah Campbell was interviewed by state lawmakers. Legislative Updates airs every Thursday on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts.  

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has reinstated Professor Anming Hu two years after he was accused of espionage by the U.S. government, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The university terminated Hu after he was indicted in 2020 on three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements related to his interactions with a China-based university. Those charges were thrown out by a federal judge in 2021. Hu’s attorney, Phil Lomonaco, said his client, a nanotechnology expert, returned to UT this week with tenure. He received $300,000 worth of funding to restart his research program and has been provided similar lab space.

Do you know of an event or program taking place in honor of Black History Month? Email us with a link or description of the event for publication in an upcoming issue of TBA Today.  

TEDxNashville, an independently organized program from the TED Talks series, has curated a selection of talks in honor and celebration of Black History Month. See Tamar Smithers, senior director of education and exhibitions for The National Museum of African American Music, talk about breaking the barriers that exist between underprivileged children and access to museums. Watch Nashville Metro Councilwoman Zulfat Suara, an African Muslim woman who emigrated to Tennessee, discuss the unexpected champions she found during her campaign for council. Vanderbilt Professor David Ikard explains how we are all worse off when we whitewash black history. Finally, Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor discusses the often overlooked African origins of American country music, including the story of the now well-known song Wagon Wheel.

In a private ceremony yesterday, Jill E. McCook took her oath of office and became the newest U.S. magistrate judge in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the Chattanoogan reports. She succeeds Magistrate Judge H. Bruce Guyton, who retired after serving the court since 2003. McCook has worked as an attorney for the Tennessee Valley Authority for the past four years. Previously, she was in private practice, served as a law clerk to District Judge Thomas A. Varlan, and was an adjunct professor in legal process at the University of Tennessee College of Law. McCook is a TBA member and a 2018 graduate of the TBA Leadership Law program. A public investiture will take place in the coming months.

Retired Judge Russell Lee Moore Jr. died on Jan. 28. He was 76. Judge Moore served as a circuit court judge in the 29th Judicial District, which includes Dyer and Lake counties, from 1997 until his retirement in December 2021. Moore was a graduate of the Mississippi School of Law and began practicing in 1971. Moore was a past president of the Dyer County Bar Association, a TBA member and a member of the Mississippi State Bar. A private family service will be held, per Judge Moore’s request. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to the Shriners Hospital for Children, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the New Life Union Mission. Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Three attorneys with significant Metro Government experience have joined Nashville’s Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis, the Nashville Post reports. Doug Sloan, Jon Cooper and Quan Poole left Spencer Fane Bone McAllester to join with Waller’s real estate team where they will focus on land use and zoning, corporate relocation and expansion and public-private partnerships. Cooper is a former head of the Metro Council office and Metro legal director. Sloan was previously a Metro attorney, executive director of the Metro Planning Department and chief legal officer at the Nashville International Airport. Poole was from 2017-2020 a Metro attorney working with the city's board of zoning appeals, health department and codes department.

Gov. Bill Lee delivered his fourth annual State of the State address last night, promising to boost funding for education, infrastructure projects and law enforcement, the Associated Press reports. Lee outlined a $52.5 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2022-2023, up nearly 20% from last year’s proposal. The budget gives an additional $125 million to boosting teacher salaries, $356 million for a new multi-agency law enforcement training academy, $150 million to create a violent crime intervention grant and funding to hire 100 more state troopers. An additional $623 million has been allocated for road projects and $200 million has been set aside to help Tennessee’s Colleges of Applied Technology, designed to double the state’s skilled workforce by 2026. Read Lee’s entire address at the Tennessee Journal.