By Alison A. Cave

Many different ethical issues can arise when a lawyer is an estate planning practitioner. Generally, clients tend to be older, financially established and perhaps have a blended family. Clients will often request the lawyer to prepare documents for multiple members of the family or even a family business. Sometimes, the clients rely heavily on someone else to communicate information to the lawyer. These types of scenarios lead to numerous ethical issues.

How Is a Suicide Determination Made?

By Dr. Amy Hawes and Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan

Medical examiners understand that a family may disagree with a manner of death determination.1 We are also acutely aware of the perceived stigma of a suicide manner of death determination.  Some medical examiners may allow a suspicion of suicide to be overridden by reluctance to impose that stigma.2 However, it is important to emphasize that cause and manner of death opinions are best offered in an unbiased manner free of undue influence from societal, legal or political pressures.3 This article addresses the need to balance medical examiner investigative independence with a family’s right to due process in challenging a manner of death.

TBA Board Adopts Changes to Bylaws

Pursuant to the notice provided Dec. 19, 2018, the Tennessee Bar Association Board of Governors held a specially set meeting on Jan. 2 to vote on the proposed changes to the bylaws as published on Nov. 7, 2018. The Board rejected the proposed change to Section 38 related to the term of the TBA treasurer and voted to leave that section unchanged. All other changes published in the Nov. 7 notice were approved. Pursuant to the bylaw change, the individuals appointed to positions in Districts 7 and 8 shall serve the remainder of the terms to which they were appointed and will not run in 2019 to retain those seats. Thus, only Districts 1 and 4 will be subject to election this year and petitions for these positions are still due no later than Feb. 15, 2019. Learn more at www.tba.org/node/105100.

More than Half Tennessee Attorneys Report Providing Pro Bono  

More than half of Tennessee attorneys reported providing pro bono legal services during 2016, according to the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission. The 2017 Pro Bono Report1 showed that nearly 9,000 practicing Tennessee attorneys provided more than 650,000 hours of pro bono service, with an estimated value of more than $130 million, based on data reported by individual attorneys, bar associations, law firms, law schools, legal service providers mediators and other organizations.

Legal News You Can Use

Student's Murder is Subject of YLD's High School Mock Trial Case

This year’s problem for the 2019 Tennessee State High School Mock Trial competition is a criminal case, involving the murder of a college student and the arrest of the student's best friend, who was accused of the crime. The competition will be held in Nashville on March 22-23, following regional competitions across Tennessee. Chairing the YLD Mock Trial Committee this year is Rob Sands, with Vice Chair Kati Goodner.

Follow developments on Twitter using the hashtag #tnmock19.

Read everything about the hallowed competition, including the case itself, at www.tba.org/info/tennessee-high-school-mock-trial-0.

Thank You for Writing about Lutie Lytle

This letter was written to our columnist, Russell Fowler, about his article, “Tennessee’s Lutie Lytle: A Woman of Many Firsts,” which was published in the October 2018 Tennessee Bar Journal.
 
Thank you in general for your many contributions to the Tennessee Bar Journal. I always enjoy reading your articles, and  I especially enjoyed reading the October 2018 article on the trailblazing attorney Lutie Lytle.  I learned of her long ago (just how I don’t recall) and had intended to conduct some research on her. You can imagine my pleasant surprise to read that she was the subject of one of your articles.

As the current president of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee, I also want to thank you for your work on behalf of Legal Aid.
— Charles K. Grant, Nashville

Celebrating the Intrepid Volunteer Lawyers of Tennessee

Compiled by the TBA Access to Justice Committee

Tennessee attorneys have a solid record of commitment to pro bono service, among the highest in the country. Attorneys in the state reported performing an average of 53.1 hours of pro bono in 2016 — the second highest rate among all states taking part in an American Bar Association survey.[1] The report also found that just shy of 67 percent of attorneys in the state reported having done at least some pro bono in 2016, and Tennessee was a leader in the proportion of attorneys offering reduced fee services. Tennessee also had the second lowest percent of attorneys who had never performed pro bono among the 24 states that participated in the survey. Results also showed that four out of five attorneys believe that pro bono services are important, although finding the time to provide free or low-cost legal services to the needy and charitable groups remains the biggest challenge for many.

There is not a lot of time left to meet your CLE requirements this year, so take a look at what the Tennessee Bar Association has to offer in the Course Catalog. Start with the Ethics Roadshow, which will be stopping in Chattanooga on Dec. 4, Knoxville on Dec. 5, Nashville on Dec. 11, Memphis on Dec. 12, Jackson on Dec. 18 and Johnson City on Dec. 18. But if you miss that, we have you covered right up to the end of the year, with our CLE Blast Dec. 11 in Johnson City and Dec. 17, 26-28 and 31 in Nashville.

Georgetown Law Dean William Treanor, ABA President Bob Carlson, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, ABA President-elect Judy Perry Martinez and past TBA President Buck Lewis gathered at Georgetown Law Center in Washington, D.C., in honor of the 10th anniversary of Celebrate Pro Bono Month. Justice Kagan served as the honorary chair this year and spoke at an event at Georgetown Law Center.

Reminder of TBA Elections

(NOTE: This item has been updated) This is a reminder that petitions for the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) elections are due on February 15. During 2019, the following officers, governors and delegates of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) will be elected as set forth in the association’s bylaws:

TBA Officers and Board of Governors