The Miami-Dade chapter of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers has asked NBC to cancel a new comedy series about a hard-drinking, hard-partying female judge —  appropriately titled "Bad Judge." "Our organization understands that 'Bad Judge' may be intended to be hyperbole, but we nonetheless find it damaging to women in the legal profession,” Deborah Baker, president of the Miami-Dade chapter, wrote in an Oct. 16 letter to Steve Burke, NBC’s CEO. The ABA Journal has more.

Miller & Martin last week announced the formation of a crisis management practice at the firm to serve the needs of businesses and organizations throughout all of its markets, the Hamilton County Herald reports. The new practice will involve 13 Miller & Martin attorneys, and will focus on crisis management from preventative planning to management of actual crises. In creating this new practice, Miller & Martin is including Atlanta-based Jackson Spalding, a marketing communications firm with a specialty in crisis management, to add public relations and media relations resources for its clients’ crisis management needs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher D. Poole received the National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys (NAFUSA) Exceptional Service Award for his work with the Chattanooga Violence Reduction Act. U.S. Attorney William C. Killian presented the award on behalf of NAFUSA to Poole at an office ceremony on Oct. 15. The Chattanooga Violence Reduction Initiative was begun by the City of Chattanooga in 2013 and aims to reduce violent crime through a multistep approach. The Hamilton County Herald has more.

Hamilton County election officials say confusing ballot language has been the only hiccup during early voting for the Nov. 4 election. Hamilton County Election Administrator Kerry Steelman said while confusion about the four amendments on the ballot is "not pervasive," it has been "the most common concern vocalized this election." According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the amendments include arcane legal language and reference changing parts of the constitution without saying what is being replaced, and, in the case of Amendment 4, don't give voters any indication of what the amendment aims to accomplish.

Having at least one daughter affects how liberal a judge rules on gender issues, says a Harvard/Emory study. To see how children affect judicial rulings, researchers examined about 1,000 U.S. Court of Appeals cases from 1996 to 2002. The cases were gender-based and dealt with employment discrimination, reproductive rights and Title IX. Then they dug up personal data on the 224 ruling judges to find out about their families. The researchers determined that having at least one girl influenced the male judges and most of the shift was seen among the conservative ones. Knoxnews has more.

The employee filed a workers= compensation action alleging that she suffered a lower back injury in the course of her employment as a school counselor. Her employer denied the claim. The trial court found that the employee failed to prove that the injury had occurred in the course and scope of her employment and dismissed the case. Judgment was entered accordingly, and the employee appealed. The appeal was referred to the Special Workers= Compensation Appeals Panel for a hearing and a report of findings of fact and conclusions of law. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee will host two free legal advice clinics this Saturday. One clinic will be in Knoxville from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Helen Ross McNabb Center on Sutherland Avenue, in partnership with volunteer attorneys from the Knox County Bar Association. Another clinic will be in Maryville at the Blount County Public Library from 9 a.m. to noon and is part of LAET’s collaborative efforts with area libraries. Volunteers are needed for both events, which will provide general advice on various civil legal matters. For more information or to volunteer, contact LAET Pro Bono Project Director Terry Woods at twoods@laet.org.

Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Lee today issued a letter to Tennessee Bar Association members urging them to consider the importance of the judicial selection amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot. “Amendment 2 strikes the right balance between preserving an independent, diverse, and qualified judiciary, while ensuring it is accountable to the people it serves,“ Justice Lee writes. The TBA supports Amendment 2. "When adopting the resolution in support of Amendment 2, the board recognized that the decision to support the amendment would not be an easy one for everyone," TBA President Jonathan Steen said. "And we are gratified by the level of interest." Visit the TBA website for more information about Amendment 2.

The YWCA of Nashville & Middle Tennessee is partnering with the Marion Griffin Chapter of the Lawyers’ Association for Women (LAW) to engage the broader legal community in Nashville to become more aware of the epidemic of violence against women during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The second annual Legal Challenge seeks to engage attorneys who are not normally on the front-lines of domestic violence issues to learn more and become involved in solving the problem. “Being able to understand the complexities of domestic violence situations is the first step any attorney can take toward assisting the victims,” said Davidson County District Attorney General and YWCA Board Member Glenn Funk.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today issued a revised version of her dissent in the Texas voting rights case to fix an error about one kind of ID card that voters can use to qualify to vote. In ticking off her objections, Ginsburg wrote that Texas would not even accept “photo ID cards issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs.” On Wednesday, the Justice conceded that that comment was incorrect and that kind of ID card, issued through the Court’s public information office, is an acceptable form of photo identification for voting in Texas. SCOTUSblog has more.