Gov. Bill Haslam hired attorney Bill Ramsey, of the Nashville firm Neal & Harwell, as "additional counsel to provide legal services" to the University of Tennessee months before a federal Title IX lawsuit was filed against the school. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the state has paid more than $100,000 to Neal & Harwell since Ramsey’s June hiring. Ramsey this month hired Tom Ingram, who was a paid consultant to Haslam, to help with communication to the media and university. 

The House State Government Subcommittee last week approved a bill (HB0876 / SB0910) that would prohibit public disclosure of most body camera recordings made by Tennessee law enforcement officers for at least a year, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, would allow the public release of the recordings after “any investigation” into the case, trial or disciplinary proceeding involving the recordings. Casada said he is currently working on revisions to the bill.

Russell Fowler was named director of litigation and advocacy for the Legal Aid of East Tennessee. Fowler teaches constitutional law at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and writes the “History’s Verdict” column for the Tennessee Bar Journal. He is a member of the executive council of the TBA Litigation Law Section.

Attorney Brian Trammell, who practiced with the Knoxville firm of Trammell, Adkins and Ward PC, has died. Trammell is the past president of the Tennessee Defense Lawyer Association. No funeral arrangements have been announced at this time.

It’s #MentalHealthDay, and Screening for Mental Health has partnered with the Dave Nee Foundation to provide free mental health screenings for law students. Last year, 72 percent of law students who took the screening scored positive for symptoms consistent with depression. The 3-5 min survey, shared by the ABA For Law Students, is available for a few weeks. 

The four-part Lead Law series covers leadership topics including leading your firm, clients and profession. The online courses, available now, are approved for from one to 1.75 hours of CLE.

Statistics show Tennessee has four of the top five counties in the United States for most traffic fatalities by depressant drug-impaired drivers. Judge Thomas Wright and District Attorney General Thomas Kimball address drugged driving, non-prescription drugs and DUI investigations in HIGHway Driving in Tennessee. The webcast, available March 30 and also in archived video, is approved for one credit of CLE.

The Tennessean reports a group of Old Hickory residents filed a lawsuit yesterday in an effort to stop Metro government from issuing future permits for a limestone rock quarry project. The suit points to legislation the Metro Council passed in November that created new buffer zones to prevent mineral extraction activity immediately near residential homes in Nashville. The suit also names Industrial Land Developers as a defendant.

The American Bar Association's Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is considering a proposal under which law schools that lose 20 percent or more of their first-year students to academic attrition will have to prove that they are meeting the existing admission standards. The New York Law Journal reports Lincoln Memorial University's Duncan School of Law in Knoxville had the nation's highest first-year attrition rate in 2015 at 48 percent. Gary Wade, dean of Lincoln Memorial, attributes the high attrition rate last year to having an incoming class of 25 students and a strict academic dismissal policy.

Attorney Claude Galbreath Swafford, one of the first 100 women lawyers in Tennessee, died today (March 25) at age 90. Swafford was one of two women in her class at the University of Tennessee College of Law, a class that included her husband, the late Howard Graham Swafford. A passionate advocate for education, she was a member of the Marion County School Board for 20 years and served as president of the Tennessee School Board Association. Swafford was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the board of the National Legal Services Corporation and was later appointed to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. A funeral is planned for Monday, 4 p.m., at the First Baptist Church of Jasper, 108 W 3rd St. The family requests no flowers, but contributions may be made to the Claude Galbreath Swafford and Howard G. Swafford Scholarship Endowment at UT College of Law. Read more about her life.