In a Tennessean opinion piece, former state Supreme Court Justice William Koch writes that the 84 graduates of the Nashville School of Law’s spring term are uniquely prepared to serve Tennessee. Established in 1911 to provide legal education at night to men and women who work by day, the Nashville School of Law today remains private, nonprofit and affordable. “These new graduates are determined to help us solve difficult problems in the way a civil society most often looks to resolve them: with reliance on the rule of law,” said Koch, who is the current dean of the law school.

President Barack Obama has nominated U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton III to be a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. The nomination of Stanton, who has been the chief federal prosecutor for West Tennessee for five years, was announced yesterday by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis, who recommended Stanton to the White House after convening a screening committee of local attorneys. Memphis Daily News has more.

The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments is now accepting applications for a new circuit court judge in the 19th Judicial District, covering Montgomery and Robertson counties. The vacancy was created by the legislature this spring and signed by Gov. Bill Haslam. The position is effective Sept. 1. Interested applicants must submit an application to the Administrative Office of the Courts by noon June 12.

Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk has formed a human trafficking unit inside the DA's Office. Four assistant district attorneys have been assigned to the unit, led by lawyer Tammy Meade, and will ensure full prosecution of human sex trafficking cases in Nashville, a press release from the office read. The move comes as the TBI creates the Middle Tennessee Human Trafficking Task Force, which this week arrested about a dozen people as part of an operation in Nashville, according to Knoxnews.com. The task force, which will include the DA's Office, End Slavery Tennessee and several local law enforcement agencies, is currently working to secure a federal grant to assist in prosecution of offenders and services for victims. Fox 17 has the story. Earlier this week, Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill giving TBI jurisdiction over investigations of human trafficking. 

Criminal Court Judge E. Eugene Eblen of the Ninth District said Monday that he plans to retire at the end of the year. If that happens, it could trigger a chain of events that includes a gubernatorial appointment and a special election in August 2016 to fill out the term, according to the Roane County News. The ninth district covers Loudon, Meigs, Morgan and Roane counties.

Parts one and two of the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage oral arguments are now live. The case involves same-sex couples in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee who sued to challenge the constitutionality of states’ bans on same-sex marriage or refusal to recognize legal same-sex marriages that occurred in jurisdictions that provided for such marriages.

John Clark will be Kingsport’s next mayor, the Times News reports. Clark defeated four opponents during yesterday’s election. “I'm excited about it and I can't wait to get started,” Clark said.

While pop stars can look forward to Law Vegas residencies when their careers cool off, it is much tougher to predict how things will be for lawyers in five to 10 year. Speakers at the Avvo’s sixth annual Lawyernomics conference tried to look into the crystal ball and talk about where the legal profession is heading and how it might look in the not-so-distant future. F. Daniel Siciliano, a professor at Stanford Law School, argued that as law becomes more open-sourced and readily available to the general public, people will no longer need attorneys to tell them what the law is. “In 15 years, two-thirds of lawyers won’t practice law, at least not the way they practice now,” Siciliano said. “Many won’t be lawyers at all.” The ABA Journal has more.

The Senate has confirmed just two of President Barack Obama’s nominees to the federal courts in 2015, a remarkably slow pace even by the standards of Congress, the New York Times law blog reports. The minuscule number of confirmations this year follows a burst of Senate approvals in the back half of 2014, a moment when Democrats still controlled the Senate and were no longer hindered by the Republican power to filibuster after deploying the so-called “nuclear option.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee has dropped its lawsuit threat against Williamson County Schools after assurance that an investigation into a meeting involving school employees would not infringe on employee free speech rights. The ACLU threatened to sue the school district in April if it did not cease the investigation. The school district is investigating a September meeting where Hillsboro School employees expressed concern about the school board, the Tennessean reports.