Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell has hired Nashville attorney Masami Tyson to be his new chief of staff. Tyson will succeed Marjorie Pomeroy-Wallace, who ran O'Connell's 2023 campaign and has been his only chief of staff. Pomeroy-Wallace will remain with the O'Connell administration in the newly created position of chief strategy officer. Nashville Business Journal reports that Tyson is a former senior counsel at Franklin-based Nissan Americas who then spent almost four years as Tennessee’s top official recruiting business investments from foreign companies. Most recently, Tyson opened a Nashville office for Womble Bond Dickinson, where she was a partner. A native of Yokohama, Japan, Tyson received her law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2000. Read more in a press release from the mayor's office.

The Knox County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) has agreed to delete the booking photo of a Muslim woman, photographed without her hijab, from its database in response to a pending lawsuit. In May 2024, Layla Soliz was arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on the campus of the University of Tennessee College of Law. She filed a lawsuit in October claiming that her religious freedoms had been violated because KCSO took the photo of her and published it, violating KCSO policy. In March, she settled the monetary damages portion of the lawsuit. On June 3, KCSO certified that it had expunged the uncovered booking photo of Soliz and all videos from its internal database. On July 7, the office moved to dismiss the case. Knox News has the story.

The Mid-South Commercial Law Institute recently named new officers and five new directors to its 25-member board. Officers are President Cara Alday Patrick with Beard, Schulman & Jacoway in Chattanooga; Vice President/President-Elect Wendy Geurin Smith of Memphis with Evans Petree; Secretary Maggie Reidy, a staff attorney in the Chapter 13 Trustee's office in Nashville; Treasurer R. Bradley Banks of Cleveland with Richard Banks & Associates; and Immediate Past President Paul Jennings with Bass, Berry & Sims in Nashville. New directors, elected to five year terms, are: Wes R. Bulgarella with Maynard Nexsen in Birmingham, Alabama; Ryan E. Jarrard of Quist, Fitzpatrick & Jarrard in Knoxville; Tyler Layne of Nashville with Holland & Knight; R. Lee Webber with Martin, Tate, Morrow & Marston in Memphis; and Robert “Jay” Wilkinson with Baker Donelson in Chattanooga. See the list of the full 2025 board.

Teresa Carey, a longtime employee in the Hamblen County Clerk & Master's Office, was sworn in as clerk and master of the county's chancery and probate courts on June 30. She succeeds the retiring Kathy Jones-Terry. Chancellor Doug Jenkins, who handles cases for the 3rd Judicial District and swore in Carey, told the Citizen Tribune, “I have all the confidence in the world in her; Teresa’s been around the court system for probably 40 years, and for much of that time she’s been second-in-command. She definitely paid her dues and deserves this well-earned chance to do this. I think she’s going to do great.”

Nashville School of Law (NSL) recently hosted its Annual Recognition Dinner to honor the recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award, 1996 graduate Cindy Jones. “When I think back to those years — working full-time, raising two little ones and going to law school at night — I remember how hard it was. But it was also one of the most defining chapters of my life. It shaped in me a discipline and a work ethic that served me throughout my entire career,” Jones said. The dinner also recognized Clark Spoden as this year's faculty honoree. He is a professor of civil procedure and remedies and a partner at Gullett Sanford Robinson & Martin in Nashville. NSL Dean Bill Koch said, “Clark exemplifies our faculty’s commitment to our students, not only in his enthusiastic approach to teaching but also in the way he models professionalism and competence.” Read more in a press release from the school and see photos from the event.

Gov. Bill Lee on July 2 announced the appointment of Will Reid as commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), effective July 10. Reid will succeed TDOT Commissioner Butch Eley, who will step down from his role as commissioner but remain as deputy governor, continuing to advise Lee on long-term statewide projects until his departure later this year. Reid has served as TDOT’s chief engineer and deputy commissioner since August 2022. A native of Bartlett, Reid began his career with TDOT in 2014 as director of construction and since has held a number of key leadership positions. Lee said that Reid's "deep understanding of our state’s infrastructure needs, coupled with a track record of driving efficiency and transparency, makes him the right person to lead TDOT into its next chapter of service to Tennesseans." Read more in a press release from the governor's office.

The family of Josselin Corea Escalante, the 16-year-old killed in the Jan. 22 Antioch High School shooting, on June 23 filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Circuit Court against Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and Metro Nashville Government (Metro). The Nashville Post reports that the lawsuit claims MNPS and Metro failed to protect students from harm and should have taken steps to further create a safe environment, citing negligence by MNPS based on the shooter’s history of violent behavior and the failure of the school’s weapon detection system to identify the firearm used during the shooting. The family is suing for $700,000 in damages, the maximum amount allowed under Tennessee’s Governmental Tort Liability Act. The Nashville Banner has additional reporting.

Nashville entertainment lawyer Rachel Guttman recently opened Gutt Law PLLC which will focus its practice on the music industry. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and Tulane University Law School. According to Music Row, Guttman began her career clerking for Judge Dee D. Drell in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana before transitioning into litigation defense and entertainment law in New Orleans. In 2018, she returned to Nashville to focus exclusively on the music and entertainment industry. She is joined by entertainment attorney Victoria Powell, a graduate of Belmont University College of Law, and Morgan Brasfield as head of operations. Gutt Law can be reached at gutt.law.

The July/August issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal is now available online and arriving in mailboxes next week. This issue's cover story by Travis Vest is an in depth look at metadata: what it is and how you can use it in building a case. Feature stories include a trademark fight between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Cheatham Middle School Bearcats by Andrew Coffman and a primer on Tennessee's construction payment retainage law from Phillip Byron Jones. New TBA President Heidi Barcus shares her vision for the 2025-2026 bar year in her first President's Perspective, Buddy Stockwell explains the significance of the ABA's new Model Rule on conditional admission, Wade Davies breaks down the factors involved in calculating sentencing and Russell Fowler looks back 100 years to the Scopes Trial in Dayton. Read updates from TBA's Annual Convention, a book review, a legislative update and more!

Tennessee Attorney General (AG) Jonathan Skrmetti recently announced the opening of the new Civil Rights Enforcement Division (CRED), which is now accepting discrimination complaints under the Tennessee Human Rights Act and Tennessee Disability Act. This past legislative session, the Tennessee General Assembly approved SB861/HB910 to dissolve the Tennessee Human Rights Commission and create the Civil Rights Enforcement Division within the AG's office to provide civil rights enforcement. The division will serve as a specialized unit combating illegal discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and education in Tennessee. Tennesseans who believe they have experienced unlawful discrimination can file complaints with CRED here. Read more in a press release from the office. Any complaints pending with the commission must be filed again with CRED within 90 days according to The Tennessean.