Judge Walter Kurtz heard motions today on whether Christian Newsom murder defendants LaMaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins and George Thomas will get new trials as granted by recused Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood, WATE Knoxville News Channel 6 reports. Vanessa Coleman, the fourth defendant in the case, was granted a new trial late last moth and was found guilty of 13 of 17 counts. Judge Kurtz said the motions for re-trial would be decided by mid-January by written order.

The Knoxville Bar Association Young Lawyer Division elected 2013 officers yesterday at the Barristers’ Annual Meeting. Katrina Atchley Arbogast of Lewis, King, Krieg & Waldrop became president. Others elected include: Vice President James (Jay) P. Moneyhin Jr., Secretary/Treasurer Baily Perry Bwowers and Members-At-Large Melissa C. Reinders and Matt W. Sherrod.

The U.S. law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has found that former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko may have been unfairly imprisoned before her conviction and faced other rights violations, but that there was no proven evidence of political motivation behind Tymoshenko’s arrest on charges of abuse of office. WRCP Chattanooga Channel 3 reports that the firm had been commissioned by the Ukrainian Justice Ministry to look into allegations that Tymoshenko was prosecuted for political reasons.

Chattanooga City Judge Sherry Paty said she and Judge Russell Bean were left out of the loop by city officials during the process of revising a section of the city charter on the city court, the Chattanoogan reports. The section will be altered significantly since the city judges no longer have “Sessions Court jurisdiction,” according to city attorney Mike McMahan . He said the judges were asked for input, but they did not respond.

At least 50 lawsuits in nine states have been filed against the New England Compounding Center, (NECC) the Massachusetts pharmacy that supplied tainted steroid injections resulting in more than 500 illnesses and 37 deaths from fungal meningitis. To streamline the process, attorneys on both sides are asking for multidistrict legislation in which a single judge will preside over the pretrial and discovery phases for all of the federal lawsuits, but the each suit would eventually be returned to judges in their original district for trial. The Jackson Sun has the story.

Knox County Trustee John Duncan III said he has accepted the resignations of his Chief of Staff Josh Burnett and Delinquent Tax Attorney Chad Tindell after both entered guilty please to facilitation of official misconduct, a “Class A” misdemeanor. The decision follows an investigation into bonuses that Duncan gave himself and six other employees in 2010 and 2011 for online courses they did not complete. Tindell and Burnett’s attorneys have applied for judicial diversion, and will be sentenced in the upcoming months. WATE News Channel 6 has the story.

Although the number of women attorneys and doctors has risen significantly within the last 40 years, the percentage of female associates in law firms has fallen slightly for the third year in a row, according to the NALP. The ABA Journal reports that women make up 40.05 percent of associates, an incremental but steady decrease from 45.66 percent in 2009. The percentage of women partners decreased from 19.54 percent in 2011 to 19.91 percent in 2012. Minority women are the most dramatically underrepresented group at the partner level, comprising just 2.16 percent of law firm partners in 2012.

Mississippi-based government relations and lobbying firm Capitol Resources is opening an office in Nashville, the Nashville Post reports. Established in 2001, the firm has a strong foothold in the South with offices in Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, and Washington D.C. Former Tennessee Republican Party Executive Director Adam Nickas has been hired to oversee operations.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paulette Delk will receive the Marion Griffin-Frances Loring Award for outstanding achievement in the legal profession at the Association for Women Attorneys’ annual banquet. The event will be held on Jan. 17 and will include a silent auction, cocktail reception, dinner and program. The Memphis Daily News has more.

The jury in former Unicoi County sheriff Kent Harris’ retrial was set Monday in Unucoi Criminal Court, the Johnson City Press reports. The jury consists of 12 members with two alternates. Harris’s first trial in August on charges of theft over $4,500 and criminal simulation was declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.