Sharon E. Guffee will be sworn in next Wednesday as Williamson County’s first Juvenile Court Judge, the Williamson Herald reports. In June, the Williamson County Commission voted unanimously to appoint Guffee to the position effective Jan. 1, 2013. Guffee is a graduate of the Nashville School of Law and previously worked as an Assistant District Attorney for the 21st Judicial Districts and in private practice.

Senior Judge Walter Kurtz denied accused Christian Newsom torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson’s bid to put a hold on a hearing next week on whether Davidson should have been granted a new trial, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Davidson’s attorneys sought a Tennessee Supreme Court review of a midlevel appellate court’s decision to recuse Senior Judge Job Kerry Blackwood who ordered a new trial. "The issue is no longer one of recusal," Kurtz wrote. "In (appointing Kurtz), the chief justice exercised his statutory and inherent authority. This trial court is not in a position to overturn or modify the chief justice's order."

Melinda Rigsby was sworn in this week as a new magistrate at Davidson County Juvenile Court, filling the vacancy created by the appointment of Sophia Brown Crawford as judge. Rigsby has worked as an assistant District Attorney since 1995 at Juvenile Court and later General Sessions Court. Read more at TN Courts.

Lewis Donelson of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC was honored yesterday at the Memphis Bar Association (MBA) Annual Meeting. He received the Judge Jerome Turner Lawyer’s Lawyer Award, which honors an MBA member who has practiced law for more than 15 years and who during that time, has exemplified the aims and aspirations embodied in the Guidelines for Professional Courtesy and Conduct. Also at the meeting, Ken Jones was honored with the W.J. Michael Cody Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award by Memphis Area Legal Services, Inc. and Marcy Magee was awarded the Sam A. Myar Jr. Memorial Award.

Linda Warren Seely of Memphis Area Legal Services today officially took reign as president of the Memphis Bar Association. At the MBA's annual meeting, Kirk A. Caraway and Tommy Parker automatically succeeded to the positions of Vice President and Secretary/Treasurer, respectively. New members of the MBA Board of Directors include David Harris, Jana Davis Lamanna, Emily Landry, Mike Robb, Abby Webb, Shea Wellford, and MBA YLD President Annie Christoff. Dean DeCandia and Clint Hermes are the newly elected section representatives.

Language in a bill aimed to simplify the city’s code to accommodate home recording studios has turned into a source of consternation for some Nashville musicians, the Tennessean reports. The legislation would add a new accessory use dubbed “home recoding studio” to the city’s home occupation code. Council members Megan Berry and Ronnie Steine proposed the ordinance in order to authorize a practice many are already doing, even though it technically violates Metro’s codes. However, the bill’s vague language and definitions of aspects such as “home studio” have drawn some concern.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Middle Tennessee filed a civil injunction suit in Nashville against Fields Mo' Money Taxes, making it the latest affiliate of the Memphis-based Mo' Money Taxes tax preparation firm to face legal action. The Justice Department issued a news release stating the suit alleges defendants Toney Fields and Trumekia Shaw “intentionally prepare and file fraudulent federal income tax returns to obtain improper tax refunds for customers.” It says the firm defrauded the federal government of more than $5million in 2011. The Nashville Business Journal has the story.

Samuel P. Funk has been named head of the litigation practice group at Sherrard & Roe, PLC, the Nashville Ledger reports. The group manages a wide range of commercial disputes in administrative agencies and state and federal courts, as well as all forms of alternative dispute resolution. Funk, a graduate of  Wake Forest University and the University of Maryland School of Law, was also an inaugural member of the Tennessee Bar Association Leadership Law program.

Attorneys for Lemaricus Davidson, the accused ringleader in the Christian Newsom torture slayings, have filed on his behalf a motion seeking a stay of any retrial hearing or decision by newly appointed Senior Judge Walter Kurtz, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Davidson’s defenders requested time to seek a Tennessee Supreme Court review of an order by a lower appellate court ousting from the case Senior Judge Job Kerry Blackwood, who ordered the new trial after it was discovered that disgraced former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner was abusing prescription drugs during the original trial.

Federal Judge Thomas Griffith expressed skepticism on weighing in on a dispute between Congress and the White House over the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this year. In a hearing yesterday to test the legality of Obama’s appointments, Judge Griffith stated that courts have assiduously refrained from stepping into political spats over recess appointments, and asked “Why drag us into it?”