Former Tennessee Solicitor General Bill Young has started work as Administrative Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, the AOC reports. Young was appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court in September to succeed Libby Sykes, who held the position for seven years before retiring. “I appreciate the tremendous opportunity provided to me by the Supreme Court and look forward to serving in this capacity,” Young said. He will direct an office of about 75 people who provide administrative support to the trial and appellate judges and courts across the state.

Pop star Ariana Grande, her publishing company and record label were named in a copyright infringement lawsuit in federal court today, the Tennessean reports. Minder Music claims Grande and producer/writer/co-performer Mac Miller copied from its 1972 disco song “Troglodyte” for her hit song, “The Way.” Minder Music is represented by Nashville entertainment law attorney Richard Busch of King & Ballow.

Tennessee’s Court of Appeals has reversed a 225-year sentence for a former youth pastor convicted of raping three boys when he was 17 years old. Two members of a three-member panel ruled that the original sentence was excessive and that the 225-year sentence failed to reflect the potential for rehabilitation. The court ordered the defendant be resentenced to 50 years in prison, Knoxnews reports.

Ryan Loskam, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander’s chief of staff for his Washington office, has been placed on leave without pay as a result of a child pornography investigation, the Tennessean reports. In a statement, Alexander said he was “stunned, shocked and disappointed by what I have learned. Based on this information, I immediately placed Mr. Loskarn on administrative leave without pay. The office is fully cooperating with the investigation.” David Cleary, former legislative director, has been named new chief of staff.

The legal profession lags behind other professions in diversity, according to two studies released this week. The percentage of African Americans and Hispanics is greater among financial managers (18.9 percent), physicians and surgeons (12.3 percent), and accountants and auditors (16.5 percent), than lawyers (8.4 percent) the Microsoft survey found. New statistics by the National Association for Law Placement show women and minorities made slight gains overall in representation in 2013, compared to 2012, though the gain for women was due to increases in the partnership ranks. The ABA Journal has the story.

According to prognostications from legal analyst Jeff Toobins, there won’t be a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy in 2014, there won’t be a U.S. prosecution of Edward Snowden and there won't be much court scrutiny of U.S. surveillance. Writing in the New Yorker, Toobins also asserts that legal momentum is on the side of same-sex marriage supporters and that court challenges will force consideration of new abortion restrictions and voting rights. The ABA Journal has more.

On Dec. 9, attorney David Gregory Hays was temporarily suspended from the practice of law for failing to respond to the Board of Professional Responsibility regarding a complaint of misconduct. Download the BPR notice.

The Madison County Republican and Democratic parties have called for primary elections to be held in May for many local offices, the Jackson Sun reports. The Republican Party has called a local primary election to be held on May 6 for the following offices: county mayor, county commissioner for all seats, trustee, Circuit Court clerk, Juvenile Court clerk, county clerk, register, sheriff, and constable for all seats. The Republican judicial nominating committee for the 26th Judicial District — which serves Madison, Henderson and Chester counties — also has called a primary for Circuit Court judges in Divisions 1, 2 and 3. The Madison County Democratic Party has called a local primary election to be held on May 6 for county mayor, county commissioner for all seats, trustee, Circuit Court clerk, Juvenile Court clerk, county clerk, sheriff, register, constable for all seats, and General Sessions judges for Divisions 1 and 2, district attorney general, public defender, chancellor and Circuit Court judges for Divisions 1, 2 and 3.The qualifying deadline for all candidates to run in these primaries will be Feb. 20.

Rutgers School of Law at Camden has been publicly censured and fined $25,000 by the ABA for violating an accrediting standard that requires law schools to use the LSAT to evaluate an applicant’s prospects of graduating, the ABA Journal reports. Rutgers-Camden operated an admissions program without first obtaining a required variance from the section that allowed some applicants to use a standardized graduate admissions test score such as the GRE, GMAT or MCAT instead of the LSAT to be admitted. The censure has raised questions about how often other qualification tests are chosen in lieu of the exam. The ABA declined to disclose how many schools have applied for a variance or how many have been approved, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. That information is confidential, according to Barry Currier, the ABA’s managing director of accreditation and legal education.

State officials have requested the Supreme Court to set execution dates for 10 death row inmates, the Tennessean reports. The state has executed six death row inmates since 1960 and none since 2009. Some, like attorney David Raybin, believe the push was caused in part by public backlash after mass murderer Paul Dennis Reid Jr. died of natural causes in a hospital. He had been on death row for over 15 years. Sharon Curtis-Flair, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, said “We filed all 10 motions at the same time because they were all ready to be set for execution, and TDOC was in a position to carry them out under a new protocol.”