The American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has released Formal Opinion 514 to provide guidance on a lawyer’s obligations when advising an organization about conduct that may create legal risks for the organization’s constituents. According to the opinion, lawyers should advise organizations’ constituents — employees, officers or board members — about the lawyer’s role early and often during the relationship. “When an organization’s lawyer provides advice to the organization about proposed conduct that may have legal implications for individual constituents, the constituents through whom the lawyer conveys advice may misperceive the lawyer’s role and mistakenly believe that they can rely personally on the lawyer’s advice,” according to the opinion. It cites Rules 4.1, 4.3 and 1.13(f) that require an organization’s lawyer to take reasonable measures to avoid or dispel constituents’ misunderstandings about the lawyer’s role. Read more in a release from the association.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky has found that the U.S. Department of Education exceeded its constitutional authority when it adopted changes to Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972. The Biden administration had sought to expand the law’s prohibition of sex discrimination in education programs to LGBTQ+ students. U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves scrapped the entire regulation after deciding it was “fatally” tainted by legal shortcomings, the Associated Press reports. A suit against the rules was brought by Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. Reeves had temporarily blocked the regulations last summer. In a statement after the ruling, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called the decision “a nationwide win” against rules that would have “compromised girls' privacy in locker rooms and bathrooms and required teachers and administrators to use pronouns that do not align with students’ biological sex.”

McGlinchey Stafford has announced the appointment of Will Wojcik as the new managing member of its Nashville office. Wojcik replaces Shaun Ramey, who opened McGlinchey’s Nashville office and had served as office managing member since 2018. Ramey will continue his role as chair of the firm’s national financial services litigation practice. Wojcik, who joined McGlinchey in 2023, focuses his practice on corporate, transactional, governance and tax matters, as well as construction defect, real estate, contract and zoning disputes. He earned his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School and a master of laws in taxation from New York University School of Law.

Strong demand across practice areas, higher billing rates and the expansion of non-equity partner tiers helped bolster law firm profits in 2024 according to the 2025 State of the Legal Market report from Thomson Reuters. The report found that law firms' average hourly rates shot up 6.5%, the biggest jump since the financial crisis nearly two decades ago. According to Law.com, the report characterized the increase as "defying gravity," The annual report also looks at significant shifts in law firm business models and the challenges firms will face in the coming year, including retaining talent and reacting to technological advancements that could impact legal services, client expectations and pricing models. Law firms this year will need to "navigate a complex landscape shaped by shifting demand and expense dynamics,” according to the study. Learn more in this news article or this press release.

Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin heard arguments this week in a legal challenge to the $3.1 billion transit referendum approved by Nashville voters in November. The Committee to Stop an Unfair Tax claims that the inclusion of sidewalks and traffic signals in the plan exceeds the scope allowed under the state’s Improve Act and argues that voters were misled about the project's costs. Metro attorneys countered that the plaintiffs should have raised their concerns before the election, emphasizing that there have been no allegations of illegal voting or widespread confusion. Martin said a decision would be forthcoming, according to the Nashville Post.

Gov. Bill Lee told reporters yesterday that he is considering calling for a special legislative session to consider a statewide private school voucher program and storm relief for areas hard hit by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Nashville Public Radio reports that Lee said he had not determined if or when the special session would take place, but indicated it would be sooner than later if held. Democratic lawmakers responded, criticizing the idea of combining disaster relief with the voucher program, the Nashville Banner reports. Also, during the press conference, Lee reiterated his commitment to help President-elect Donald Trump with planned deportations, including deploying the Tennessee National Guard if requested. Lee joined other governors in signing a letter to the effect in December, according to Axios Nashville. Tennessee’s 114th General Assembly is scheduled to convene next Tuesday.

A consumer lawsuit accusing Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster of charging artificially high ticket prices will proceed alongside a parallel antitrust case filed by the U.S. government and 39 states, including Tennessee. A federal judge on Monday rejected Live Nation's request to pause the class action during the government's suit, which seeks to break up the two companies, Reuters reports. Live Nation argued that allowing both lawsuits to move forward at the same time could waste resources and lead to conflicting rulings. Both cases claim Live Nation limits competition for live event ticketing through exclusive deal arrangements and other barriers. The consumer case was brought on behalf of a potential class of millions of ticket purchasers. The court also rejected Live Nation's argument that the government case, which is scheduled for trial in 2026, was significantly more advanced than the consumer lawsuit.

After Gov. Bill Lee announced last month that the state has new guidelines for executing death row inmates, top prison officials say they will not release the protocols manual to the public. According to the Associated Press, a public records request filed to obtain a copy of the manual has been denied by the Tennessee Department of Correction. In denying the request, the department said it must keep the document secret to protect the identities of the executioner and others involved. In an email Monday, a department spokesperson told AP that the “protocol is not a public record” and cited state law that protects the identities of those carrying out executions. AP argues that the cited statute anticipates the existence of confidential information and provides for redactions rather than denials of access.

Susan Logan, a veteran criminal defense attorney with the Office of the Public Defender for Tennessee’s 21st Judicial District, has been named the recipient of the 2024 Vanessa Pettigrew Bryan Equal Justice Award, the Williamson County Source reports. The award recognizes Logan’s dedication to the relentless pursuit of justice. The award honors Vanessa Pettigrew Bryan, a retired public defender whose career spanned more than 30 years in the judicial system, starting as a magistrate and later serving as public defender for a four-county district that included Hickman, Lewis, Perry and Williamson counties.

In 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) changed its policy regarding who is allowed to mail books to incarcerated individuals, removing a number of books-to-prisons nonprofits from its list of approved book vendors, according to WPLN News. Now, prisoners who want a specific book must buy it, or have someone else buy it for them, from a more limited number of authorized booksellers and publishers. A TDOC spokesperson said the change was made “to mitigate the introduction of contraband through mail.” The director of the Prison Book Program said the policy will significantly reduce the number of prisoners who can access books. “You need a loved one on the outside with both the connectivity and the disposable income to order books directly from one of those sources. And that’s almost nobody in prison,” she says.