Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy tackles the complex issue of affirmative action in his book “For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law.” According to Kennedy, affirmative action needs to stay in place in order to rectify, at least partially, the continued injuries that put certain racial minorities at a competitive disadvantage with their white peers. “Despite wide-ranging attacks against affirmative action,” Kennedy writes, “it has, remarkably, continued to survive.” That may be, arguably, because it’s sometimes “justified as a means” of reparation, diversity and integration, and “countering ongoing racial prejudice.” The Nashville Ledger has more.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee will host four Open-Door Rural Intake and Advice Clinics in rural areas of state this Thursday and Friday. The Oct. 3 clinics will be held in Dunlap at the Sequatchie County Justice Center at 9 a.m. central and Pikeville at the Beldsoe County Courthouse at 12:30 p.m.. On Oct. 4, the events will take place in Jasper at the Marionm County Justcie Center at 1 p.m. and in Cleveland at the Blythe Center at 9 a.m. For more information, contact Pro Bono Project Director Charlie McDaniel or visit the LAET website.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee will host four Open-Door Rural Intake and Advice Clinics in rural areas of the state this Thursday and Friday. The Oct. 3 clinics will be held in Dunlap at the Sequatchie County Justice Center at 9 a.m. Central and Pikeville at the Beldsoe County Courthouse at 12:30 p.m. On Oct. 4, the events will take place in Jasper at the Marion County Justice Center at 1 p.m. and in Cleveland at the Blythe Center at 9 a.m. For more information, contact Pro Bono Project Director Charlie McDaniel or visit the Celebrate Pro Bono website.

The Black Law Student Association at Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law will host “Pushing Progress through the Pipeline” an academic retreat Oct. 18-19 at the DSOL Campus in Knoxville. Pre-law students, current and graduating students, as well as recent graduates are encouraged to attend. For more information, download the retreat schedule or contact Aisha DeBerry.

The seven candidates in the Democratic primary for state House District 91 spoke during a forum at Magnolia First Baptist Church in South Memphis Monday night, the Memphis Daily News reports. The forum was the first time during the shortened campaign season that all the candidates shared the same stage. Early voting ends tomorrow.

Memphis lawyer Christopher Lee Brown was suspended by the state Supreme Court on Sept. 27 for failing to act diligently and failing to communicate adequately with five clients. The court also found that he accepted referrals from an unregistered intermediary organization, and failed to comply with an order from and made a false statement to a hearing panel of the Board of Professional Responsibility. The court directed Brown to make restitution to two clients and consult with the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program. Download the BPR notice.

Angry and entitled clients can set the tone for a toxic work environment within law firms, business psychiatrist and consultant Mark Goulston writes in the Harvard Business Review Blog Network. Goulston says he sees an increasing amount of toxicity in law firms and offers advice on how to handle rude clients. The Careerist, however, takes issue with many of Goulston's suggestions. The blog notes some of the suggested comebacks to client outbursts could "inflame the guy further," and it is often better to say nothing. The ABA Journal has more.

As law school enrollment continues to decline nationally, the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law enrollment is holding steady with 112 first-year students, the same number as last fall, the Memphis Daily News reports. Prior to 2008 and its economic slump, however, that number might have been as high as 150 students. “I think we did a little better enrollment than most did," said Peter Letsou, dean of the law school, "but it’s very much a national tidal wave that’s hitting all of us.”

According to a new report, Yale Law School edges slightly past Harvard Law School in producing the most law school deans: Yale has educated 26 deans serving now compared to the 23 from Harvard. Mississippi College School of Law Dean Jim Rosenblatt created Rosenblatt’s Deans Database, which allows users to search in a variety of ways and includes some presorted data points, like which schools have produced the most sitting deans. Vanderbilt University Law School made this list with three alumni serving as law school deans. Read more in the National Law Journal. 

With just one percent of all federal cases reaching the Supreme Court of the United States, the decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit “by and large” govern those within its domain, District Judge Curtis L. Collier tells the Hamilton County Herald. For this reason, Judge Collier believes every attorney practicing in the Greater Chattanooga area should consider attending “The Sixth Circuit: A Year in Review,” a conference the Chattanooga Chapter of the Federal Bar Association is hosting next Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. at the Chattanoogan Hotel. The cost is $200 for FBA members and $250 for non-members. Lunch and the reception are included. For registration information, email Crews Townsend. The conference is limited to 100 participants.