The city of Memphis reports that it spent nearly $50,000 for 15 employees to travel to Puerto Rico in July with the intent of recruiting for hard-to-fill jobs, like police officers. The trip did not result in a single applicant. The Daily Memphian reports that the employees — representatives of the public works, parks and police departments — spent hundreds of taxpayer dollars on meals, thousands on flights, more than $500 on tips and $13,566.06 on rooms at the Sheraton Hotel & Casino in San Juan. There was a $14,348.32 catering bill at the hotel for a job fair that 300 people attended. “It was a strategy used by some other cities — Louisville, Dallas and Baltimore — to recruit bilingual employees. It was not successful for us,” the city said in a statement.

Effective Jan. 18, the Supreme Court of Tennessee suspended Knox County lawyer Matthew David Barocas from the practice of law for one year, with three months to be served on active suspension and the remainder to be served on probation. The suspension is conditioned on Barocas incurring no new complaints of misconduct related to this suspension during the year, engagement of a practice monitor, completion of the Board of Professional Responsibility's Trust Account Workshop and additional continuing legal education hours, and payment of disciplinary costs. Barocas agreed to a conditional guilty plea, acknowledging his conduct violated Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.5(e), 1.15(a), (d) and (e), 3.3(a), 3.4(b), 3.5(e) and 8.4(a)-(d) and (g).

Davidson County attorney James Daniel Marshall was issued an order of temporary suspension by the Tennessee Supreme Court after the court found that he failed to respond to the Board of Professional Responsibility concerning a misconduct complaint.

Join your colleagues for a live webinar Tuesday at noon CST to learn about recent legislative and case law updates that affect Tennessee domestic lawyers. Lisa Gill of Gill Family Law will present a legislative update for the first hour, while Greg Smith of Stites & Harbison will provide a case law update during the second hour. Register here.

The U.S. Department of Justice and four additional jurisdictions have joined the multistate bipartisan antitrust lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which was filed in December by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and attorneys general in six other states. Skrmetti's office reports that the additional parties include the states of Minnesota, Mississippi and Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The lawsuit challenges the NCAA’s transfer eligibility rule as an illegal restraint on college athletes’ ability to sell their image and likeness and control their education. The rule requires that college athletes who transfer a second time among Division I schools must wait one year before competing in games.

The 23rd Judicial District Recovery Court will honor Paul Broome and William Wesley Knight at its 300th graduation ceremony Jan. 30 at 5:30 p.m. CST in Circuit Courtroom #3 in Charlotte, according to a press release from the court. The court serves Cheatham, Dickson, Houston, Humphreys and Stewart counties, promoting responsibility and accountability, and teaching participants to become productive members of the community. The program is an alternative to incarceration and integrates chemical dependency treatment and community resources with the criminal justice system. This year marks the 25th year of operation of the program, making it one of the oldest recovery courts in Tennessee.

Adam Johnson has been elected to serve as 2024 president of the Memphis Bar Association (MBA), which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Johnson is an associate attorney at Nahon, Saharovich & Trotz, where he practices civil litigation in the area of personal injury. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from UCLA in 2003 and he began practicing law in 2008 after obtaining his law degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. During law school, Johnson served as a judicial extern for Judge Bernice B. Donald, then of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, and as a member of both the University of Memphis Law Review and the University of Memphis Moot Court Board. Read more in a release from the association.

The Tennessee Bar Association has submitted a comment to the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance (TDCI) regarding the licensure of court reporters and the sunsetting of the Board of Court Reporting. Recently, the TDCI identified the Board of Court Reporting as a regulatory body that is no longer needed. Among other things, the TDCI noted that the board meets only twice a year and has relatively few complaints to deal with. Given that the purpose of most regulatory boards is to protect the public, in this instance the TDCI believes that the public is well protected, and there is no longer a need to have a regulatory board in place. The TBA earlier publicized the request for public comment, and also polled section members to determine their respective opinions on the issue. While some comments agreed with the TDCI’s position that the board is unnecessary and is not needed to protect the public, the majority of comments expressed support for the continued regulation of court reporters. The TBA has thoughtfully considered TDCI’s rationale in recommending to sunset the board, but respectfully believes that the very existence of the board serves the critical function of protecting the public, which is a paramount consideration for the creation or continuation of any state board. Read the full comment.

Perry Stout, former Johnson County Sessions Court Judge, and his wife Pamela Ann Stout, have been charged with various drug charges by the First District Attorney General Steve Finney’s office, reports WJHL. Stout has been charged with money laundering, possession of a weapon during commission of a dangerous felony, conspiracy to possess with intent to sell or deliver Schedule VI drugs, and maintaining a dwelling for the sale or use of narcotics. Stout resigned in June citing "immoral acts" and stated in July that he would not seek reelection to the bench.

Tennessee will participate in a federal program designed to give parents extra cash to buy food for their children during the summer months. The Tennessee Lookout reports that the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children, or Summer EBT, will provide $40 per month for each school-aged child living below the poverty line. The funds are loaded onto a debit card that may only be used to buy food. There are 644,000 Tennessee children who are eligible for Summer EBT — potentially drawing more than $77 million in funding for low-income families.