The Tennessee Bar Association’s online renewal for 2023-2024 is now open! Renew your membership to continue your access to CLE programming with three pre-paid credits, TBA’s Practice Management Center, free online legal research through Fastcase, and timely information through TBA Today, TBA Podcasts and the Tennessee Bar Journal. Be sure to check out the new career center and watch this fall for TBA’s Group Health Insurance enrollment. Attorneys not participating in the TBA's firm billing program can login and access renewal information through their MyTBA dashboard.

Join the TBA YLD's Civil Rights Walking Tour on April 14 in downtown Nashville. Learn about the impact that legal history has had in making the city of Nashville a more inclusive place to thrive. This CLE will offer a uniquely interactive historical perspective regarding the role Nashville played in the civil rights movement, women’s right to vote, enactment of disability laws and changes to access for public education. It will end with a panel discussion on the future of civil rights litigation and how attorneys can incorporate it into their practice. For more information, including tour stops, and to register, click here.

Multiple sources, including the Associated Press, are reporting that former President Donald J. Trump has been indicted on criminal charges in New York on Thursday for his role in organizing hush money payments to an adult film star during his 2016 campaign. The indictment, which remains under seal, follows an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that centered on a $130,000 payment that attorney Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels shortly before the election.

The University of Tennessee College of Law has announced winners of recent legal competitions designed to help law students improve their advocacy skills. Max Williams won the law school’s 2023 1L Advocacy Competition, in which he and the 23 other students who competed with him were introduced to the facts of their case and had just 15 minutes to prepare their strategy before they appeared before judges to make their best opening statement. UT Law also announced that Chad Taylor finished first in the school’s Jenkins Trial Competition earlier this week and was named outstanding oralist. Alex Allen and Kyle Mangrum were second-place finishers and Grant Peterson was named best witness. U.S. Magistrate Judge and former TBA President Cynthia Wyrick gave feedback to the student participants in the trial competition.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that Angel Bumpass — the Chattanooga woman convicted in a murder committed when she was 13 — has begun talks with the prosecution in efforts to resolve the case. Bumpass was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder at age 24, almost 10 years after the slaying of Franklin Bonner. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole at age 84. Former Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz, who presided over Bumpass' original trial, granted her a new trial a few weeks before his appointment to the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals last year. Her attorney, William Massey, said he is trying to come to a resolution for his client without going back to trial. 

Senate Judiciary Chair Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, said Wednesday that no gun-related bills will be taken up the rest of this legislative session, the Tennessee Lookout reports. “We will not hear any gun bills, anything related to gun bills this year. If they want to take them up next year, that’ll be fine,” Gardenhire said. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which already passed legislation to lower the gun carry age to 18 in Tennessee, will hold its final meeting next week, Gardenhire said. He noted Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti reached an agreement with a California group to drop the age to 18 from 21 after Skrmetti determined he could not defend the state in court. A federal judge in the eastern district of Tennessee signed the order Monday, the same day three students and three staff members at The Covenant School in Nashville were killed.

Popular legal thriller writer John Grisham continues the story of Mitch McDeere in "The Exchange," the sequel to his breakout novel from 32 years ago, "The Firm." According to the Associated Press, Doubleday announced Wednesday that Grisham’s newest book will be published Oct. 17. The new novel takes place 15 years after McDeere and his wife, Abby, helped expose underworld ties at a Memphis firm and fled for their lives.

The Food and Drug Administration Wednesday approved the overdose medication naloxone (Narcan) for over-the-counter use, reports the Daily Memphian. Tennessee has been disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis, and residents could soon find Narcan at drug stores, convenience stores, grocery stores and gas stations, as well as online. For more than a decade, Tennessee has ranked in the top five states nationally for opioid prescription rates per person and was among the top five states for overdose rates in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wednesday’s FDA decision clears the way for naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray, which rapidly reverses the effects of opioid overdose, to be sold directly to consumers.

More than a thousand people protested at the Tennessee State Capitol today in favor of tighter gun controls, urging the legislature to take action following this week’s mass shooting at Covenant Christian School in Nashville in which three children and three adults were killed, the Tennessean reported. The protests followed a Wednesday night candlelight vigil in Nashville where lawmakers stood alongside First Lady Jill Biden and musicians, including Sheryl Crow, who has called for stricter gun controls since the attack. The Tennessee Journal reports that in a letter to Gov. Bill Lee, Republican Lt. Gov. Randy McNally called for securing windows and glass in school buildings, adding magnetic locks on doors, modernizing camera systems and increasing armed guards.

Circuit Court Judge Michael E. Spitzer of Hohenwald was presented with the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP) Volunteer of the Year Award at TLAP’s Annual Camp TLAP, held March 25 at Montgomery Bell State Park near Dickson. Spitzer currently serves as chair of the TLAP Commission. According to the organization, his leadership over several years has been instrumental in supporting TLAP’s “gold standard” programming and monitoring support that rendered an 85% no-relapse rate in addiction cases last year. Camp TLAP included presentations by nationally recognized addiction doctors and leaders in the realm of supporting the recovery of licensed professionals and monitoring fitness to practice, all of whom joined the TLAP community in honoring Spitzer.