Attorneys Gena Lewis and Michael Bernard this week filed a civil-rights lawsuit against the Blount County Sheriff's Office and former Investigator Scott Carpenter. The suit is on behalf of Douglas F. Jordan Jr., who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2002 in a 1998 killing. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals later ruled that Carpenter withheld evidence in the case, which resulted in the court overturning the conviction. A jury last year acquitted Jordan during his retrial in Blount Country Criminal Court. Read more from the Knoxville News Sentinel.

The Associated Press reports that a federal appeals court will decide whether to overturn a Federal Communications Commission ruling allowing city-owned broadband services to expand. The FCC last year voted to override a Tennessee law that prevented the expansion of broadband service in Chattanooga. Joshua Turner, a private attorney representing Tennessee, argued Thursday that Congress hasn't given the FCC any special authority to promulgate broadband.

In all law-related jobs, median pay for female workers in 2014 was 51.6 percent of the pay received by male workers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The data also revealed median pay for full-time female lawyers was 77.4 percent of the pay earned by their male counterparts, and female judges, magistrates and other judicial workers earned 71.8 percent of men’s pay in those occupations. “…Women are often labeled as greedy and aggressive and not team driven when asking for a well-deserved raise and bonus,” said ABA President Laurel Bellows. Read more from the ABA Journal.

Knoxville attorney Jack W. Piper Jr. died Wednesday (March 16), according to the Knoxville Bar Association. Piper, who graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1984, practiced with Piper, Ramsey & Hill. He also practiced with O'Connor, Petty, Child and Piper. The family will receive friends from 4-7 p.m. tomorrow at Grace Baptist Church, 7171 Oak Ridge Highway in Knoxville. A service will follow at 7 p.m.

Registration is still available for the Tennessee Faith and Justice Alliance Attorney Training on March 31, 10 a.m. – 4:15 p.m., at the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville. The training will focus on debt collection, expungements, landlord/tenant law, family law and civil general session issues in an effort to help attorneys offer free legal support to low income Tennesseans. Lunch will be provided.

An administrative judge ruled this week in favor of a Chipotle employee who was fired last year after criticizing the fast-food chain on Twitter. The ruling said the company’s social media rules violated labor laws and ordered the restaurant to post signs acknowledging some of its employee policies were illegal. Chipotle is also required to rehire the Philadelphia-based employee and pay him for lost wages, the Associated Press reports.

High school teams from across Tennessee will put their legal skills to the test during the TBA's 36th annual mock trial championship in Nashville this weekend. About 200 volunteers – mostly judges, lawyers, paralegals and law students – will lend their time and expertise to the competition. To reach the state championship, the 16 teams had to win district competitions by playing the roles of attorneys and witnesses in a fictitious case developed by the TBA’s Young Lawyers Division.

William Hubbard, former president of the American Bar Association, shared at the ABA Techshow how technology can help close the access-to-justice gap in the United States. Online dispute resolution, do-it-yourself court kiosks and virtual courthouses are some of the ways Hubbard mentioned technology is currently being used to help millions of Americans who cannot afford representation. Read more from the ABA Journal.

The Chattanoogan reports the Hamilton County Criminal Court Clerk’s office celebrated the anniversary of its longest running employee, Edna Camp, who began working in the court in 1961. "Ms. Edna is known as the First Lady of the courthouse,” Criminal Court Clerk Vince Dean said.

“Beyond Peyton, the Tennessee Title IX lawsuit is a massive deal.” The Legal Reader reasons why it is important to separate fact from speculation in a sexual assault suit filed against the school last month by anonymous women. “The lawsuit’s potential damage to Tennessee’s storied reputation should give major institutions pause to evaluate their administrative procedures regarding Title IX complaints in order to protect themselves from similar fallout,” the author writes.