The May/June 2023 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal is available online and will begin arriving in mailboxes later this week! This issue focuses on Access to Justice efforts across the state, including the cover story by Joy Radice that explores the relief offered by Tennessee's expungement statute, describes pro bono models that have been used statewide and highlights institutional expungement innovations. Linda Warren Seely's feature story covers how courts are addressing landlord/tenant or eviction cases in a more systemic way, and TBA's Public Service Award winners are profiled. Columnists Edward G. Phillips and Brandon Morrow take a look at the National Labor Relations Board's recent decision on severance agreements and John A. Day considers the principal tool used by the Tennessee General Assembly to enforce the prohibition of gender-affirming care — the tort system. A review of Keel Hunt's new book about Judge Gilbert Merritt and Tasha C. Blakney's final column as TBA president help round out the issue, plus we remember two pro bono giants we've said goodbye to in the last year.

The Metro Nashville Office of Conservatorship Management (OCM) is seeking volunteers for its Conservatorship Assistance Program. A joint venture with the TBA Public Education Committee and state legal aid organizations, the program serves to assist applicants in obtaining conservatorship for their special needs children upon turning 18. The goal is to obtain a list of lawyers across the state willing to assist when needed. Learn more on the TBA Public Education portal.

The Chattanoogan reports that Hamilton County Public Defender Steve Smith asked the county commission for $741,423 in salaries for 22 lawyers. Smith said the starting salary for a Hamilton County assistant public defender (APD) is about $55,000, about the same as a jailer’s salary, and he noted that starting salaries at local private law firms are six figures. Smith outlined the heavy caseload of the public defenders, which he said is only getting heavier as law enforcement is reformed with better structure and better pay, resulting in more cases for the APDs.

Prominent Nashville attorney Ward DeWitt Jr. died Tuesday at age 97. A Nashville native, he entered the Navy's V-12 program for officer training at Tulane University in 1943, and was later training for the invasion of Japan when the Japanese surrendered in August 1945. After the war, he remained in the Navy and in July 1946 witnessed test explosions of two atomic bombs at Bikini Island in the Pacific. After leaving the Navy, DeWitt returned to Nashville, graduating from Vanderbilt University in 1948 and Vanderbilt Law School in 1951. He was a partner in the firm of Trabue, Minick, Sturdivant and Harbison, which became Trabue, Sturdivant and DeWitt, and later merged with Miller and Martin. DeWitt also served a term in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1955-1956. A memorial service will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 West End Ave., Nashville, this Saturday at 1 p.m. CDT. Visitation is from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Memorial contributions can be made to Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Memphis attorney Brenda Oats-Williams died April 24. She graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 1994 and the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 1997. She worked at Memphis Area Legal Services and in private practice focusing on consumer protection and landlord tenant law. She was co-owner of the Lady Lawyers Law Firm in downtown Memphis. Funeral services will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. CDT at Greater Middle Baptist Church, 4982 Knight Arnold Rd., Memphis 38118. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. at the church.

The Tennessean reports that three U.S. Supreme Court justices penned a dissent on Monday after the court declined to hear the case of Kevin B. Burns, a Tennessee man who was convicted of murder and is currently awaiting execution. Burns argued that counsel at his 1995 trial and sentencing were ineffective and that they failed to introduce key facts and challenge the state’s narrative that Burns himself pulled the trigger of the gun that killed two men.

The Justice Department on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s new law that bans transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care. According to the Associated Press, the federal government is seeking to invalidate the statute because “no person should be denied access to necessary medical care just because of their transgender status,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. The DOJ said the law violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause by discriminating on the basis of both sex and transgender status. The federal lawsuit comes after Clarke sent a letter to all state attorneys general last month warning them that federal law protects transgender youth against discrimination. The Justice Department also intervened last year in a lawsuit challenging a similar ban on transgender medical care for young people.

The Tennessee Lookout reports that special elections to fill three seats in the Tennessee Legislature could cost taxpayers up to $570,000 after the resignation of Rep. Scotty Campbell, R-Mountain City, and the expulsion of Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin J. Person, D-Memphis. The Metro Council and Shelby County Commission voted to reappoint Jones and Pearson respectively, just days after their expulsion, but a special election must be held to fill all three seats because the two-year terms have more than a year remaining.

The American Bar Association (ABA) published the 2023 ABA Survey of Civic Literacy, which is released annually to mark Law Day, observed on May 1. The survey finds that social media and the media generally are to blame for the nation’s growing incivility. The survey also asks what issues respondents would be willing to compromise on and how much they know about how American government works.

The American Bar Association (ABA) Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section announced today that it will honor Nashville attorney Sam H. Poteet with the James K. Carroll Leadership Award on May 4. The award recognizes an attorney or judge who has demonstrated leadership qualities in service to the section. Poteet is a principal at Manier & Herod.