Brad Jones and Mark Strange were sworn in Tuesday in Cocke County as Assistant District Attorneys for the Fourth Judicial District by Circuit Court Judge Ben W. Hooper II. They both were appointed by the Fourth Judicial District Attorney General James B. Dunn to serve Sevier, Cocke, Jefferson and Grainger counties. The Citizen Tribune has more.

The 2015 board for the Association for Women Attorneys was inducted last night at the annual AWA Banquet. Keating Lowry will lead the association as president. An associate with Lawrence & Russell PLC, Lowry’s practice is focused on litigating Employee Retirement Income Security Act matters on behalf of employers, plan fiduciaries and third-party administrators. The Memphis Business Journal has more.

The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments will consider seven applicants when it meets Feb. 11 to select nominees for the Third Judicial District Circuit Court opening. Kenneth Newton Bailey Jr., Douglas R. Beier, Beth Boniface, Daniel Graham Boyd, Link A. Gibbons, William Erwin Phillips II and Linda Thomas Woosley will be considered when the council meets in Greeneville. The district, which includes Greene, Hamblen, Hancock and Hawkins counties, had been served by the Hon. Michael Faulk, who died in November.

Harry Ward Camp died Tuesday (Jan. 27) at 83. A graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, Camp practiced law for more than 50 years. Visitation will be at the Outreach Building of First United Methodist Church in McMinnville tonight from 6 - 8 p.m. and tomorrow from 12:30 - 2 p.m. The Celebration of Life Service will begin at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family would welcome donations to the Good Neighbors Food Ministry of First United Methodist Church, 200 W. Main St.

Howard Gentry has decided to enter the Nashville mayor’s race, the Tennessean reports. Gentry, Nashville’s former vice mayor and current Davidson County Criminal Court clerk, confirmed late Thursday that he had appointed a treasurer that day to begin raising money for a mayoral run. It marks a return to the mayoral campaign circuit after coming up just 405 votes shy of making the runoff in the 2007 election, which Karl Dean ultimately won. Gentry enters the race as the lone African-American candidate in a field that had consisted of six candidates.

Jonathan A. Garner will serve as the new president of the Robertson County Bar Association. Garner is with Walker & Garner, formerly Goodman & Walker, located in Springfield.

Attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch picked up her first Republican endorsement Thursday en route to likely confirmation as the first black woman in the nation's top law enforcement job. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated that Lynch was an “exceptionally well-qualified candidate and a very good person, to boot.” Republican senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona also said they were likely to support her. Lynch needs only two Republican votes on the panel if all Democrats back her. From there, her nomination would move to the full Senate, where she also is likely to win approval. WRCB has more from the Associated Press.

Vanderbilt Law School has launched a new Program on Law and Innovation to train students to succeed in a legal profession that is changing rapidly due to globalization, technological advancement, cost pressures and other factors. J.B. Ruhl, who holds a David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law, will direct the program. “The Program on Law and Innovation is designed to equip Vanderbilt Law students to become successful innovators who know how to navigate and influence the directions in which these changes take law and the legal industry,” he said.

Knox County Criminal Court Clerk Mike Hammond cut two positions and created a new one this week, laying off two longtime supervisors in the Fourth Circuit Court. The changes are expected to save the clerk’s office more than $157,000 in salary expenses. The staff reductions had nothing to do with the employees’ performance but are part of an ongoing reorganization, Hammond told Knoxnews.  He had earlier released six other employees from the office.

Former President Bill Clinton will be in Nashville in June to speak at a conference for health insurance professionals, the Tennessean reports. Nashville politicos are questioning whether he will also use the trip to offer a hand to Nashville mayoral candidate Jeremy Kane, a friend of Clinton’s who will be entering the homestretch of his race.