The Chattanooga Bar Association (CBA) will hold a memorial service on March 7 at 11 a.m. in the Hamilton County Courthouse. Those remembered will include the Hon. Edward A. “Butch” Synder, Ralph Russell Armstrong, former Tennessee Bar Association President Charles Gearhiser, Allan Geschwind, John Lee III, Ben Haden and J. Guy Beatty Jr.

Tennesseans for Independent Courts, a new nonprofit political action committee, has announced it will educate the public on the “dangers of partisan political pressures on judicial elections and appointments.” The group, formed Jan. 10 by former personnel commissioner Randy Camp, who served in Gov. Phil Bredesen’s cabinet, will also provide support to judicial candidates who want to run for office without political affiliations, and back legislative and gubernatorial candidates who want the same. Camp states that the non-profit corporation has filed for 501 (c) designation with the IRS, and will be dedicated to informing, educating, engaging and involving the citizens of Tennessee in ensuring that the judicial branch of Tennessee’s government remains free and independent of partisan political pressures from any group or organization. KnoxBlogs has more.

The law license of John Albert Walker Jr. was transferred to disability inactive status on Jan. 30. Walker may return to the practice of law after reinstatement by the Tennessee Supreme Court upon showing of clear and convincing evidence that the disability has been removed and he is fit to resume. Download the BPR notice.

The TBA and several of Tennessee's law schools will host a reception during the annual ABA Midyear Meeting next week to honor TBA Executive Director Allan Ramsaur. The "Tennessee Reception" has become a mainstay of ABA meetings and provides an opportunity to recognize Tennessee lawyers serving in the ABA. The winter reception will be held Feb. 8 at the Hyatt Regency Plaza Ballroom in Chicago from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Download the invitation for more information. 

The U.S. Justice Department is seeking $2.1 billion in fines from Bank of America. The charges stem from mortgage fraud perpetrated by Countrywide Financials in 2007 and 2008 before that company was purchased by the bank. A jury in federal court found Bank of America guilty last October in a civil case involving Countrywide’s actions. In the motion filed late Wednesday, the government argues that Countrywide's gross proceeds from the sale of mortgage loans topped $5 billion and 43 percent of those loans were "defective and sold with misrepresentations." A hearing on the fines is set for March, WCYB reports.

The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week in the Supreme Court Chambers of the Tennessee State Capitol, the Administrative Office of the Courts reports. The court regularly hears cases in the Supreme Court buildings in Jackson, Knoxville and Nashville, but an invitation from Gov. Bill Haslam will bring it back to the place where it heard oral arguments in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Haslam is scheduled to welcome the court to the chambers after the session opens at 8:55 a.m. on Thursday. The court has six cases on the docket for oral arguments that day. All five state Supreme Court justices -- Chief Justice Gary R. Wade, Cornelia A. Clark, Janice M. Holder, William C. Koch Jr. and Sharon G. Lee -- will sit on the panel.

Clerk of the Appellate Courts Mike Catalano announced today he will retire in June to become an ordained deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, pursuing his ministry on a full-time basis. Catalano has served the state of Tennessee for more than 35 years in a variety of roles. He was appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court to be the appellate court clerk for a six-year term starting in January 2004 and was reappointed for a second term starting in January 2010. “Mike Catalano is the consummate professional -- a public servant of the first order. As a valued leader within the office of the attorney general and as clerk of all of our appellate courts, he has performed his duties in an exemplary fashion -- with class, dignity, and courtesy," Chief Justice Gary R. Wade said in a press release. “That he has chosen to spend the balance of his career in service to the highest authority is the best reflection of his true character. Our courts will sincerely miss this good man.”

The Nashville Business Journal recently asked area law firms to predict when a national Top 25 law firm might set up office in Nashville, and what might be the catalyst for such an entrance into the market. Most agreed that it would happen within five to 10 years due to the millions of dollars of investment money that has flooded the city and created new opportunities for businesses. “Law firms expand into areas where there is opportunity,” said Scott Carey, managing shareholder for Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz. “Nashville is certainly a city on the rise…” he said. Larry Papel, managing partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough had less than optimistic views, however. “The ‘Top 25’ U.S. law firms...are not likely to open offices in Nashville in the near future,” he said. “Those firms play on the global stage...work on a 24-hour basis and are involved in transactions that most local, statewide or regional firms do not have the resources to lead or manage.” Read more here (subscription required).

Other than Washington, D.C., the Nashville metro area has the nation's highest per capita rate of Republican campaign contributions for the 2014 U.S. midterm elections, with GOP candidates receiving 83 percent of party-specific funding, the Nashville Business Journal reports. The Republican contribution rate in the Nashville metro region is $1.65 per capita, second only to Washington's $2.06 per capita contribution to Republican candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Tennessee Supreme Court building was one of eight sites nominated from across the state this year to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 77-page application celebrates the court’s important civic standing and its significance as a New Deal project partially funded by the Public Works Administration. The Tennessean notes that four-story building, completed in 1937, is an architectural example of “stripped classicism” and features limestone mined in quarries near Knoxville that is known as “Tennessee Marble” because of how it can be polished.