Nashville-based immigration attorneys Milen Saev and Rose Hernandez have announced the opening of Saev Hernandez Immigration Practice PLLC, the Nashville Post reports. The two partners, who previously practiced immigration law at Rose Immigration Law Firm, focus on employment-based, family-based and humanitarian immigration law.

Students can now earn a law degree concurrently with master's in finance degree through a new program offered this fall by Vanderbilt Law School and the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. “For lawyers heading to Wall Street, understanding markets is critical to building a successful career in financial service,” said M. Eric Johnson, the Ralph Owen Dean of Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Prospective students should apply for admission to the J.D. and M.S.F. programs simultaneously. Spaces in this three-year joint degree program are limited.

Not every candidate who claimed the Democratic nomination in the May county primaries is on the Shelby County Democratic Party’s endorsement ballot, Memphis Daily News reports. The sample ballot does not include Juvenile Court clerk candidate Henri Brooks, Circuit Court clerk nominee Rhonda Banks, Probate Court clerk candidate William Chism and County Clerk nominee Charlotte Draper. It also lists Wanda Halbert, the Democratic nominee for Criminal Court clerk, and Coleman Thompson, the Democratic nominee for register, in much smaller type than the other candidates, all suggesting questions of party unity continue to be an issue for Shelby Democrats.

Shelby County Democrats are threatened with the prospect of being overtaken again by Republicans in the Aug. 7 elections due to a series of Democratic misadventures and GOP's substantial edge in financial resources, the Memphis Flyer reports. The publication profiles the candidates of key state and county races including the District Attorney race between incumbent Amy Weirich and former Criminal Court Judge Joe Brown.

In a New York Times opinion piece, attorney Dorothy J. Samuels ponders whether we can have impartial courts if judges campaign like ordinary politicians. Expensive state judicial elections are “destined to undermine the core American principle of fair and impartial courts,” she states. Samuels worries that if the campaign to oust Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Gary Wade and Justices Cornelia Clark and Sharon Lee is successful, it may send an intimidating message to elected judges nationwide, who may hesitate to render correct but controversial rulings, especially near an election.

A series of botched executions, shortages of drugs for lethal injections and moves in several states to abandon execution have reignited the debate in the U.S. about the death penalty. The most recent report of an Arizona inmate who gasped for more than an hour and a half during his execution is sure to add to the scrutiny surrounding the death penalty, WATE notes. In a BBC radio program, correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan travels across Tennessee speaking with people on both sides of the debate about the legislature’s recently passed law re-introducing the electric chair if drugs for lethal injection become unavailable.

Ashley L. Ownby has been elected as the new president of the Bradley County Bar Association. Joining Ownby in leading the association are Vice President and President-elect Jerry Hoffer, Secretary Daniel Clanton and Treasurer Rex Wagner. The Cleveland Banner has the story.

Gov. Bill Haslam has appointed three Workers’ Compensations Appeals Board judges, all effective Aug. 1. Marshall Davidson of Goodlettsville will have a six-year initial term, David Hensley of Chattanooga will have a four-year term and Tim Conner of Knoxville will have a two-year term. The workers’ compensation appeals board reviews interlocutory and final orders entered by workers compensation judges. The Administrative Office of the Courts has more.

The Tennessee Conservative Union announced yesterday it is supporting Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Gary Wade for retention in the Aug. 7 election, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. The group, which led the move to reject former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White in 1996, issued a statement decrying partisan politics in the court system and praising Wade for upholding the Constitution. The statement said nothing about Justices Cornelia Clark or Sharon Lee.

The 15th Judicial District Bar Association hosted a rally in support of a YES retention vote for Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Connie Clark Tuesday at Cumberland University in Lebanon, the Lebanon Democrat and Wilson County News reports. Attendees included Retired Justice William Koch and members of the local bench, bar and public. Justice Clark’s stop in Lebanon is one of many such rallies being held across the state in support of retaining Chief Justice Gary Wade, Justice Sharon Lee and Justice Clark.