Professor and Director of Vanderbilt Law School’s Criminal Justice Program Chris Slobogin is one of the speakers in the just released line up for TEDx Nashville, Aug. 27-28. Slobogin is one of the top five most frequently cited criminal law and procedure authors in recent years, and has authored more than 200 articles, books and chapters on criminal law and procedure topics as well as mental health law and evidence. See the complete list of speakers and get ticket information.

The roof of the new Sumner County Courthouse in Gallatin caught fire Sunday night. The local fire department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) are investigating. The cause is still unknown, though Sumner County Mayor Andy Holt speculated that the fire was caused by a lightning strike during Sunday night's storms. It is estimated that 30% of the roof will need to be replaced, likely delaying the 2023 opening of the building. Nashville's NPR station WPLN and Nashville's Fox affiliate have more information.

The Shelby County Commission voted 13-0 Monday to approve $3.45 million in operating and capital spending for a new bail courtroom. Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich and Shelby County District Attorney-elect Steve Mulroy were both in attendance to advocate for a fully-staffed courtroom to hear bail requests 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Daily Memphian reports that Weirich favors the new courtroom if it is fully staffed with a chance for prosecutors and the victims of crime to also be present for bail determinations currently not made in such a formal setting by judicial commissioners. "Victims have the right to be present," she told the Memphian. "That is the driving force behind my recommendation that we needed additional staff and resources." Some bail bond companies are questioning the commission's authority to set up such a courtroom.

The Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law Alumni Chapter at the University of Memphis will host its Pillars of Excellence Law Alumni Chapter Awards on Aug. 20 at FedExForum. Cocktail hour begins at 6 p.m., followed by the dinner and program at 7 p.m., and an after-party at 9 p.m. CDT. The 2022 Pillars of Excellence honorees are Lee J. Chase III of Glankler Brown PLLC; David J. Harris of Burch, Porter & Johnson PLLC; the Hon. Janice M. Holder, retired chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court; Allie J. Prescott III, senior vice president at Waddell & Associates; and the Hon. Diane K. Vescovo, retired chief magistrate judge for the Western District of Tennessee. The Law Alumni Chapter will also bestow the honor of 2022 Friend of the Law School to Bill Nixon, retired architect at Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects. Make reservations or get more information online or by emailing alumniassociation@memphis.edu.

Tennessee Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty are working with their Democratic counterparts to move separate bills through Congress. Blackburn and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, saw their Kids Online Safety Act pass through the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously this week. It will now head to the Senate floor for consideration and likely passage. The bill seeks to "provide kids and parents with tools, safeguards and transparency they need to protect against threats to children’s health and well-being online," according to Blackburn's office. Hagerty brokered a deal with House Democrats last week to pass companion legislation to a $280 billion package to accelerate U.S. chip production, streamlining the permitting process for manufacturing technologies impacting national security. 

A new American Bar Association analysis confirms President Joe Biden has far outpaced his Oval Office predecessors in nominating women and racially diverse attorneys to the federal bench. Reuters reports that the ABA found as of July 1, 68% of the 68 federal judges nominated by Biden and confirmed by the Senate are Black, Hispanic or Asian American, and just three are white men. By contrast, 16% of the judges installed on the federal bench by former President Donald Trump are non-white, according to the organization's 2022 Profile of the Legal Profession. The report, released Thursday, details how diversity within the federal judiciary is slowly increasing. Read the full story.

Nashville law firm Cornelius & Collins LLP, has relocated from downtown to MetroCenter. “Our new location in the Tennessee Bankers Association building on Athens Way is much more convenient for many of our clients and allows them to avoid the difficulties of traveling into and parking downtown,” said Brian Holmes, the firm's managing partner. Read the full press release.

The Tennessee Bar Journal accepts submissions for publication on an ongoing basis, so consider writing an article for the TBA’s bi-monthly magazine. Articles should be of interest to Tennessee attorneys — you could detail a new state law or a complicated area of law, or take a larger issue and connect it to what it means for Tennessee attorneys and the justice system. Find a global issue within your particular experience or knowledge and tell about it and how it affects Tennessee law. Take a look at the writer’s guidelines and email editor@tnbar.org with questions! We are especially looking for diverse voices — from BIPOC writers, from our friends in the LGBTQ+ community and from attorneys who have had diverse life and legal experiences. 

The American Bar Association’s policymaking body, the House of Delegates (HOD), convenes next month to conclude the ABA 2022 Annual Meeting with more than 30 items on the agenda, including several resolutions that address the country’s incarceration challenges and other criminal justice issues. Also, the HOD will host a roundtable discussion “Democracy in Peril: How Can We Change the Course for America?” on Aug. 8, at 11 a.m. CDT. The program will explore the causes of concern about the future of U.S. democracy and of those around the world. 

When attendance declined at Graceland in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID pandemic, it also caused the venue to miss payments for bonds issued by the Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis and Shelby County. While attendance has rebounded some, bond payments have still lagged causing the legislature this past year to pass a law change that will help avoid nonpayment of the bonds in the future. The Commercial Appeal has the full story.