Former University of Memphis football player Ernest Suttles' rape case will head to a grand jury after his accuser testified in a hearing on Tuesday, The Commercial Appeal reports. The alleged attack took place on Oct. 12, after which the victim went home to Murfreesboro to be examined in a hospital. She was told there that she needed to return to the city where the assault occurred, so she went back to a Memphis hospital where she reported the crime to the police. Suttles was arrested two days later.

The Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville Bar Associations will each host annual meetings this week. Knoxville’s will be held on Friday at 8:30 a.m. at the Main Assembly Room of the City County Building, 400 Main Street SW, and will include annual elections. The Memphis meeting will be held Thursday at the Guest House at Graceland, and will include a salute to Judge Robert L. Childers. The Nashville Bar event will also take place Thursday at the Music City Center, 201 5th Ave S., starting at 5:30 p.m. with a reception to be followed by dinner and awards.

Knoxville Judge Richard R. Vance died on Dec. 3. He was 76. Vance was a Knoxville native and graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1966. He volunteered for service in the U.S. Air Force after law school, serving four years active duty and attaining the rank of Captain in the Judge Advocate General’s Department. He also served as a Military Judge, presiding over court martial cases. Judge Vance was first appointed Circuit Court Judge, Part II, by Governor Sundquist in 1997 to fill the vacancy after Judge William R. Holt Jr. retired. He was re-elected in 1998, 2006 and 2014. The family will receive friends 3 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. on Thursday with a funeral service to immediately follow at 6 p.m. at First Baptist Church in Sevierville. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you make memorial contributions to the American Lung Association or to a local charity of your choice.

With a planned gift from the estate of Larry Wilks, the University of Tennessee College of Law was able to create the Institute for Professional Leadership. Wilks’ $100,000 undesignated gift was used as seed money for the Lawyers as Leaders program, which later developed into the institute. Now the school is encouraging others to follow in Wilks’ footsteps, and some, like Memphis lawyer George T. “Buck” Lewis, have already done so. Lewis and his wife, Malinda, made a gift through their estate, and Lewis’ firm, Baker Donelson, also made a $200,000 commitment to the institute.

A  judge has ruled the state must pay more than $80,000 to an employee forced to teach an overly religious program to inmates, WSMV reports. According to his lawsuit, the program, which cost $300,000 to implement, contained overly religious messages that amounted to the government being “excessively entangled” in one religion. The program has been canceled and the Tennessee Rehabilitative Initiative in Correction has confirmed that a new program will correct the problem.

Timothy Huebner, a professor at Rhodes College, has published a new article about former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, a graduate of Rhodes (when it was still called Southwestern) and a somewhat controversial figure. Huebner said that despite Fortas’ unceremonious resignation from the court, his legacy, which includes writing much of the legislation that built President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, should be given another look. Read more on DefendShelbyCo.org.

Former state representative and lawyer Franklin Delano Cochran has died. He was 80. Cochran was originally from Tiptonville and earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law. He served as a judge, a city and county attorney, a state representative from 1962 to 1970 and as the Public Service Commissioner for the western half of Tennessee from 1976 to 1994. The family will receive friends in Nashville on Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. at Forest Hills Baptist Church, 2101 Old Hickory Blvd. Visitation prior to the funeral will be held on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Dyersburg Funeral Home Tiptonville location, with the funeral at 2 p.m.

Gov. Bill Haslam said his administration is reviewing information about possible clemency for Cyntoia Brown, a victim of sex trafficking who killed a man who picked her up when she was 14-years-old, WPLN reports. Brown, who was convicted at 16, is now 29 and has seen her case recently brought into the public eye by celebrities and human rights organizations. Haslam said that the process could take more than a year, however. As governor, Haslam has yet to release anyone from prison.

Nashville School of Law professor and attorney Patrick Joseph McHale died on Nov. 20. He was 66. Prior to his four-decade career in law, McHale graduated of Vanderbilt School of Law. During his career he worked at a private practice in Murfreesboro, served as managing attorney at USF&G, and worked at the Tennessee Department of Labor. He served as professor of Conflicts of Law at Nashville School of Law. A memorial service will be held on Dec. 12 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Nashville School of Law. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Nashville School of Law or the Nashville Symphony. The family would appreciate receiving remembrances, photos and antidotes by email at memoriesofbigpapi@gmail.com.

Attorneys Lee Popkin and Thomas Norris Jr. address the Tennessee Uniform Limited Partnership Act of 2017, which will apply to all new limited partnerships formed on or after Jan. 1, 2018, and limited partnerships created before Jan. 1, 2018, that elected to be covered under the new Act. This one-hour webcast will be replayed Dec. 22 at 3 p.m. and is also available on demand.