The TBA Creditors Practice Section Executive Council will hold a section social event at Noble's Central, 2292 Rosa L Parks Blvd., Nashville 37228 on April 30 from 5:30-8 p.m. CDT. Section members are invited to join colleagues for drinks, appetizers and opportunities to network with the executive council and fellow section members. Get more information and RSVP here.

A new Marquette Law School Poll national survey shows strong support for the judiciary. The survey found that 70% of adults agreed that judges should not be impeached for ruling against elected leaders, while 83% of respondents said that presidents must obey a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. And while the Supreme Court has reached its highest approval rating in three years at 54%, many are still concerned about the influence of partisan politics, with 50% of respondents believing that the justices’ decisions are influenced by politics. Read the full survey results in a press release from the school.

Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, is sponsoring SR120, urging the Tennessee Supreme Court to create a disciplinary body explicitly for elected district attorneys, similar to the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct, which oversees judges in in the state. Taylor told the Commercial Appeal, "If you have a complaint with a judge, you can file that complaint with the Board of Judicial Conduct. If you have a complaint with the district attorney, you have two options. You can either live with it or you can take the nuclear option and try to remove them. There's nothing in the middle." Taylor notes that the Board of Professional Responsibility (BPR) deals with "transgressions as it relates to being a licensed attorney" but the new board would focus "on the actions of performing their job as a district attorney or a public defender." Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, who has been a target of Taylor's was asked about the need for such a disciplinary body. He tells the paper, "It's too early to answer that question, because there have been no details worked out. One thing I can say is that the process should not be duplicated: either a person should be investigated by the BPR or by some new body, but not both."

A bill proposed by Rep. Shaundelle Brooks, D-Nashville, would hold responsible those who knowingly provide firearms to those who are not allowed to possess them. HB0947/SB1191, which is named "Akilah's Law" for Brooks' son who was killed in the shooting at an Antioch Waffle House in 2018, passed the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on March 26 with bipartisan support and no substantive debate. The bill would create a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a sentence of imprisonment not greater than 11 months, 29 days, or a fine not to exceed $2,500, or both, for those who sell, offer to sell, deliver, or transfer a firearm to a person knowing that the person has, within the previous five years, been admitted, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to a mental institution unless the treatment was voluntary and solely for an alcohol abuse disorder and no other secondary substance abuse disorder or mental illness. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider the bill tomorrow. The Nashville Banner has more on the proposal.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is terminating parole protections for roughly 985,000 people who entered the United States through the CBP One app during the Biden administration. The app allowed individuals to make appointments at ports of entry to then seek asylum. The Hill reports that DHS has begun sending email notices to affected migrants telling them to self-deport through the Trump administration’s version of the app, now called CBP Home. Those who entered the country as part of the Uniting for Ukraine program and Afghans who entered under Operation Allies Welcome were not impacted by the action.

TBA General, Solo, & Small Firm Section members are invited to a section networking happy hour event at East Nashville Beer Works in Nashville on April 22 from 5-7 p.m. CDT. While an RSVP is not required to attend, it does help to better track the expected number of guests. Thank you to Emma Elliott with Peregrine Law for sponsoring this event!

The Tennessee General Assembly is projected to adjourn for the year in mid- to late April, given that most legislative committees have already closed or are set to close within the week. The House and Senate Finance Ways and Means committees are meeting this week and next week to determine whether legislation that has been voted out of other committees with a fiscal note will be funded. Because the governor included $17 million for a new indigent representation plan in his budget amendment, the committees do not have to vote on whether to add that funding. However, at the end of session, the House and Senate leadership will meet and determine exactly which measures will be included in the final budget and how much the funding will be. The budget is the one piece of legislation that lawmakers constitutionally are required to pass before adjournment. Once the budget is approved, lawmakers will consider matters “behind the budget” that received funding, as well as other priority items. It is anticipated the session will adjourn a few days after that.

Rocky McElhaney Law Firm has opened an office on Music Row at 1102 17th Ave. S., Nashville 37212. The opening of the office marks a return to Music Row for the Hendersonville-based firm after it ceased operations in 2017 on 16th Ave. S. after McElhaney’s Rock-N-Row Express LLC sold the building on that site for $3 million to First Citizens Bank and relocated its main office to Hendersonville. The firm specializes in legal work involving personal injury and wrongful death often related to vehicular incidences, and will continue to operate offices in Hendersonville, Murfreesboro and Clarksville. Read more from the Nashville Post.

Following recent severe weather across the state, the Tennessee Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Affairs offers tips for those impacted by the storms, including addressing financial obligations, filing insurance claims, hiring contractors, tips for flooded vehicles, avoiding scams and how to report misconduct around price gouging. Read more in a press release.

Vanderbilt University Law School has moved up five spots from 19 to 14 in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings released Tuesday. New rankings for other Tennessee law schools include the University of Tennessee College of Law at 55 (down from 52 from last year), Belmont University College of Law at 84 (up from 91 last year), University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at 146 (down from 140 last year), and Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law at 169 (down from 165 last year). According to Reuters, the U.S. News rankings have traditionally been viewed as the single-most influential measure of the law schools among prospective students, but that may be on the decline. In a new survey of law school admissions officers by test prep company Kaplan, 62% said they believe the rankings “have lost some of their prestige over the last couple of years.” View the full list of rankings.