This Saturday at 9 a.m., Metro Nashville Public Schools, the criminal court clerk and the public defender's office will host a forum titled “Bringing Justice to You” at Pearl Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School, 904 26th Ave. North. This general information session is free and open to the public but you must pre-register for individual consultations. Contact Robin Trollinger for more information.

View the full list of Celebrate Pro Bono Month events

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is seeking comments on the performance of Henry A. Martin, Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Tennessee. All comments must be received by Nov. 16.

Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will be the first speaker in this year’s SBA Speaker Series hosted by the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys Law School in conjunction with the University of Memphis International Law Students Association. Gonzales will speak on “Public Service and the Law.” The event will be held at noon Wednesday in the law school’s Historic Courtroom. Read the full press release here.

The Metro Nashville School Board will have a special meeting Tuesday to discuss legal action against the Tennessee Board of Education, which withheld $3.4 million as a penalty for Metro denying Great Heart’s charter school application last month. The school board will not use Department of Law attorneys however, opting to hire Chuck Cagle as outside legal consultant. The Tennessean has the story.

After weeks of debate, the Memphis City Council approved on third and final reading the non-discrimination city ordinance that includes an amendment prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the Daily News reports. The council also approved a resolution that the city’s personnel director cannot consider sexual orientation or gender identity in personnel decisions.

Hamilton County Commissioners voted to deny a request by Magistrate Larry Ables to cash out 787 hours of annual leave before moving to a lower paying position on Nov. 1, the Chattanoogan reports. Commissioners questioned if the hours had been verified, contained prior accumulated leave time transferred from the district attorney’s office, and the fairness of allowing the magistrates benefits other county employees do not receive. The Commissioners also passed a resolution requiring magistrates to be on a timeclock and check out each time they leave the premise to curb “three hour lunch breaks and going to civic club meetings” while on the clock.

Memphis lawyer Josh Spickler began his legal career at the Shelby County’s Office of Public Defender, and 12 years later he has come full circle. The Memphis Law grad left the public defender after a few years, started his own firm, then moved on to The Hardison Law Firm PC where he did defense work for hospitals, long-term care, nurses, and doctors instead of criminal cases. He took a break from the legal field for a while to serve as social media manager for a start-up company, but returned to his love of law when offered a position back at the public defender’s office. Spickler is now director of the nascent Defender’s Resource Network, a program that helps people in custody receive services if they are suffering from serious mental illness or substance abuse. Read the full feature on Spickler at the Daily News.

A 1976 Tennessee state farmland protection law originally intended to prevent farmers from being taxed off their land has become a tax loophole exploited by wealthy, urban, estate owners, business icons, and real estate developers, the Commercial Appeal reports. According to the newspaper’s investigation, the Agricultural, Forest and Open Space Land Act, or “Greenbelt Law,” is allegedly rife with abuse as the wealthy receive tax benefits by declaring a woods a timber preserve, a mansion’s manicured lawn a pasture, a future subdivision a farm, and a privately owned country club’s golf course an “open space.”

A Utah judge rejected claims that a company should not be tried for creating a hostile work enviornment because, its attorneys argued, racist jokes and repeated offensive racial epithets on its job sites were just jokes among friends. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) had filed a racial harassment suit against Holmes & Holmes Industrial Inc. after presenting undisputed evidence that white supervisors repeatedly used offensive racial epithets and told racists jokes to African American workers. Holmes & Holmes’ lawyers, however, asked Utah Federal Judge Dale Kimball to dismiss the case and sanction the EEOC on the grounds that the African American workers did not find the use of the slurs offensive and were friends with the supervisor. Judge Kimball rejected the motion and sanction request, and the case will go to trial. The National Law Journal has the story.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee will host an “Open Door” Intake this Friday at 1:30 p.m. for citizens to receive free legal counsel. The event will be held at the McMinn County Courthouse, 6 East Madison Avenue in Athens. Contact Charlie McDaniel for more information. View full list of Celebrate Pro Bono Month events.