U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama's choice for attorney general, answered questions regarding immigration policy and former AG Eric Holder’s legacy during her confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Panel today. Iowa Republican Charles Grassley, the first non-lawyer to head the Senate Judiciary Panel, led the hearings. Lynch is the first Obama cabinet nominee to go before the Senate since Republicans took control in the November election. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has more.

Belmont University Law School Dean Alberto Gonzales said the guilty verdict in the high-profile Vanderbilt University rape case against former football players Brandon Vandenburg and Cory Batey sends a message to three audiences: student-athletes, victims and universities. “We care about the safety of our students to the extent that if our students engage in conduct that is unlawful there have to be consequences,” Gonzales told WKRN.

Officials say nearly 5,000 of 12,000 backlogged rape evidence kits have been tested in Memphis, leading to dozens of indictments, Memphis Daily News reports. Mayor A C Wharton Jr.'s office says investigations have resulted in 52 indictments of known individuals or their DNA profiles. From those indictments, 19 alleged rapists have been identified, including 14 believed to be multi-case offenders. Experts say Memphis has one of the nation's largest known backlogs of rape kits. Rape victims have filed a lawsuit over the untested kits.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee recently celebrated the 225th birthday of the U.S. Attorney’s Office by holding a reception in Knoxville. The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the office, directing the President to appoint “a meet person learned in the law to act as an attorney for the United States” in each federal district. The Eastern District of Tennessee is the largest office in the state, encompassing 41 of the 95 counties, spanning 420 miles, and serving over 2.6 million people. The Hamilton County Herald has more.

Groups lobbying Tennessee lawmakers spent $725,000 last year on 96 events, the Nashville Business Journal reports. That is a record amount in Tennessee, according to reports from the Knoxville News Sentinel. For comparison, groups spent $650,000 in 2013 and $565,318 in 2012.

Williamson County Commissioners agreed to give the school board $30,000 for outside legal expenses to address a complaint filed by county commissioner Barbara Sturgeon. The board had requested $100,000. Sturgeon filed the complaint against Williamson County Director of Schools Mike Looney, the school board and one of the school district's attorneys alleging she was unjustly banned from school grounds after she allegedly brought a gun in her purse to a November school board work session. She also faces a felony charge for those actions, The Tennessean reports.

Baker Donelson has received a score of 85 in the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) 2015 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the Chattanoogan reports. The HRC's CEI report is a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workplace equality administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Baker Donelson was the only Tennessee-based law firm to participate in the 2015 survey.

Real estate default services law firm Wilson & Associates, which has two offices in Arkansas and three in Tennessee, has named three new shareholders and hired a new chief financial officer and chief operating officer, DSNews reports. Randy Bueter, Shellie Wallace and Aaron Squyres have been named shareholders in the firm. The three attorneys have combined for 45 years of service with Wilson & Associates.

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands has hired two people to work with immigrant and refugee outreach. Jarod Word joins Legal Aid Society's Volunteer Lawyers Program, where he will be tasked with building new community partnerships to expand the program’s immigrant and refugee outreach. Guadalupe Betanzos comes to Legal Aid Society's Nashville office as a bilingual victim advocate. Fluent in both English and Spanish, she will work with victims of domestic violence in a two-county territory with a focus on immigrant populations.

Carlton Tarkington died yesterday (Jan. 20) at the age of 78. A Nashville native, Tarkington applied to Vanderbilt Law School at the suggestion of family friend and mentor, Judge Benson Trimble of Davidson County’s Fourth Circuit Court. After law school, Tarkington had a successful sales career with West Publishing and then founded a boutique investment firm, Edinburgh Investments, at which he continued to work until shortly before his death. In the late 1990s, Tarkington played a significant role in Vanderbilt Law School’s renovation and expansion. The Tarkington Suite, a library study area that includes a computer lab, computer classroom, a reading room and a study lounge, is named in his honor. Services are pending.