The Pro Bono Institute announced its founder, Esther F. Lardent, has died. Lardent established the PBI in 1996 as a nonprofit organization to administer the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge®, a peer-to-peer effort she launched to increase the amount of pro bono services to individuals of limited means and organizations serving them. There are now 137 law firm signatories to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® and 145 law department signatories to the initiative.

Sen. Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville wrote an op-ed for The Tennessean about his bill, SB 2342, which would preserve biologic evidence until the defendant is executed, dies or is released from prison. “…The cost and effort to maintain biologic evidence is minimal when compared with our duty to ensure that our criminal justice system provides every possible safeguard when dealing with issues of life and death," he writes. 

The Tennessee Bar Association's Online Express Renewal for 2016-2017 is underway. Renew your membership now and you won't have to mess with a paper statement or email reminders in your inbox. 

Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess and Recovery Court Program Director Trey King discuss the new county probation department with the Daily News Journal. The program, which opened its doors Friday, was created after a federal lawsuit challenged the county’s use of Pathways Community Corrections. “We want to be sure we are not charging excessively. We want these people to continue to have the opportunity to thrive in a personal way,” Burgess said.

A challenge to the 2014-voter-approved abortion measure will be heard tomorrow in court. Amendment 1, approved by 53 percent of the vote, adds these words to Tennessee’s constitution: "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion." The plaintiffs -- including Planned Parenthood of Middle & Eastern Tennessee -- are asking the federal court to order sate election officials to recount the vote, the Tennessean reports.

Sydney Rogers, executive director of Alignment Nashville, announced she will run as a Democrat to challenge House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, for her seat. “Representative Harwell is in a position to make a difference, and she has become the protector of the status quo,” said Rogers, who is also an administrator at Nashville State Community College. The Tennessean reports Rogers will run for the seat in House District 56, which contains some of Davidson County’s most conservative neighborhoods.

The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld that state and local governments can continue their longstanding method of drawing state and municipal election districts, USA Today reports. The unanimous decision denied an effort by conservatives in a Texas case that argued only eligible voters should be counted rather than drawing districts with roughly equal numbers of residents. "Adopting voter-eligible apportionment as constitutional command would upset a well-functioning approach to districting that all 50 states and countless local jurisdictions have followed for decades, even centuries," Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote.

“They all had a gentleman’s agreement — you don’t go after my guys, I won’t go after your guy.” That's how it used to be in Nashville's banking community, but that's not how it is anymore, the Tennessean reports in its coverage of the ongoing legal battle between the two largest Tennessee-based banks, Pinnacle Financial Partners and First Tennessee Bank. The battle is over Pinnacle’s recruitment of eight First Tennessee employees in 2015. Pinnacle denies allegations that a former First Tennessee employee recruited coworkers to work for Pinnacle before moving there himself. 

Knoxville attorney James (Jim) Thomas Shea IV died Wednesday (March 30) at the age of 58. Shea, a graduate of Vermont Law School, was licensed in Tennessee in 1983. The family will receive friends from 4-6 p.m. Sunday at Rose Mortuary Mann Heritage Chapel, 6200 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Condolences may be posted online. 

Legal Aid of East Tennessee staff attorney Kathryn Ellis was elected co-chair of the Blount County Task Force against Domestic Violence. The volunteer task force is an Action Team of the Blount County Community Health Initiative, focusing on domestic violence prevention and reduction, bullying prevention education in schools, and training for law enforcement.