Butler Snow, a law firm with offices in Memphis and Nashville, announced it has opened its first office in Asia in Singapore. The office will deliver U.S. tax and estate-planning advice to ultra-high net worth families and family-controlled businesses. “We are especially grateful to the Singapore government and the attorney general’s chambers for granting Butler Snow a license to operate,” said Donald Clark Jr., Butler Snow chairman. The firm has also opened a virtual office in Hong Kong.

The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and YP Nashville is currently accepting nominations of young professionals for the Nashville Emerging Leader Awards program. NELAs are given in 15 categories including Legal Services, Business Services, and Community Service and Nonprofit. Applications are available online and are due Feb. 2.

January kicks off law school acceptance season, but some lucky pre-law students received acceptance letters before they even applied to the school. Above The Law reports Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, located in New York, mistakenly sent congratulatory e-mails to more than 17,000 prospective students on New Year’s Eve. The law school later withdrew the offer, and says it has “put safeguards in place to ensure this will not happen again.”

The Petitioner, Cory Shane Rollins, appeals from the denial of his petition for post conviction relief, wherein he challenged his jury convictions for aggravated robbery, evading arrest, and driving under the influence. On appeal, the Petitioner raises the following ineffective assistance of counsel claims: (1) whether trial counsel failed to convey a plea offer made by the State; and (2) whether trial counsel failed to adequately apprise him of his right to testify. After a thorough review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

The defendant, William Franklin Robinette, appeals from his Greene County Criminal Court jury convictions of solicitation to commit first degree murder, claiming that the sentence imposed by the trial court was excessive. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today suspended Sumner County lawyer Garry Christopher Forsythe. The court took the action after Forsythe pleaded guilty to wire fraud and the court ordered the Board of Professional Responsibility to institute a formal proceeding to determine the extent of final discipline to be imposed. Read the BPR release.

Because the order appealed is not a final judgment, this appeal must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

Petitioner, Mario Hawkins, was convicted of first degree murder in 1996. On December 31, 2014, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, alleging that his judgment was void because he was not granted pretrial jail credits. The habeas corpus court summarily dismissed the petition based on petitioner?s failure to follow the documentary requirements of the habeas corpus statutes. Following our review, we affirm the summary dismissal of the petition.

The petitioner, George Harvey, appeals the denial of post-conviction relief from his 2013 Shelby County Criminal Court guilty-pleaded conviction of second degree murder, for which he received a sentence of 15 years. In this appeal, the petitioner contends that his guilty plea was not knowingly and voluntarily entered and that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel. Discerning no error, we affirm.

Aggrieved of his Shelby County Criminal Court jury convictions of first degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping, the defendant, David Burrows, appeals, claiming that the trial court erred by refusing to remove a juror for cause, by admitting autopsy photographs of the victim, and by admitting evidence of the defendant?s 2008 domestic assault of the victim and that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions. Discerning no error, we affirm.