Due to inclement weather, Tennessee Supreme Court Buildings in Nashville, Knoxville and Jackson, as well as the Administrative Office of the Courts will be closed today. Oral arguments scheduled in Knoxville for today have been postponed. Visit https://www.tncourts.gov/ for more information. According to the Memphis Bar Association, local, state and federal courts are closed today in Memphis, as is the Shelby County Circuit Court Clerks Office and the federal courthouse in Jackson. The Knoxville Bar Association reports that the U.S district courts in the Eastern Grand Division determine closings and delays on a case-by-case basis, but make every effort to contact attorneys with matters before the court that will be affected. The Chattanoogan reports that multiple Hamilton County government offices will be closed today due to the severe weather. Most local government offices in Nashville are closed today, according to the Nashville Post, as are state offices across the state, according to Gov. Bill Lee.

A federal judge in Florida on Friday ruled that a law barring people from possessing firearms in U.S. post offices is unconstitutional, reports Reuters. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled the law violated defendant Emmanuel Ayala's right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution. Ayala, a postal service driver in Tampa, had a concealed weapons permit and was indicted after he brought his gun onto postal service property. Ayala fled federal agents who tried to detain him. Mizelle did not dismiss a separate charge for forcibly resisting arrest.

Legal artificial intelligence (AI) startup Harvey has successfully garnered funding that brings the company’s valuation to $700 million, BNN reports. The surprise infusion of cash for the fledgling startup “signals a positive shift in the sector” according to the international news source. Harvey, named for a character on the popular legal-themed television show “Suits,” says it plans to use the latest investment to expand its custom model building, scale its team and build out its suite of product features. Other AI-based legal tech companies like Robin AI are also gaining ground, BNN says. In related news, AI chatbots from OpenAI, Google and Meta are particularly likely to provide false or misleading information when answering legal questions, according to new research. A study by Stanford University found that “large language models hallucinate at least 75% of the time when answering questions about a court’s core ruling.” The study looked at 200,000 legal questions, Bloomberg Law reports.

The U.S. Department of Education today said it would fast-track loan forgiveness for low-balance borrowers, implementing a plan to start forgiving loans next month instead of in July as planned. According to Nashville Public Radio, the change will benefit undergraduate and graduate students who borrowed $12,000 or less in federal student loans and have been in repayment for at least 10 years. These loans will be automatically erased in February, so long as borrowers are actively repaying their loans and are enrolled in the Biden administration's income-based repayment plan known as SAVE. For every additional $1,000 in debt, the repayment window increases by a one year. For example, a student who took out $13,000 in loans will have their debts erased if they have been in repayment for 11 years.

A three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Appeals last week ruled that a challenge to the state’s pilot school voucher program in Davidson County can move forward, Chalkbeat reports. The court found that the trial court erred when it decided factual disputes during the dismissal stage of the proceeding and when it ruled that plainfiffs lacked standing to challenge the program. The appeals court sent the case back to the trial court for review. Tennessee Lookout has a history of the voucher program and the legal challenges that have played out since it launched in 2019. Read the court's opinion.

Memphis and Nashville based attorneys Anne Hamer and Dan Taylor have opened Hamer & Taylor in Nashville. They will be joined by John N. Bean, Andrew Z. Graham and retired judge Dan Michael. The firm will focus on family law matters, including divorce proceedings, child custody disputes and post-divorce issues. The firm is located at 222 2nd Ave., Ste. 1700, Nashville 37201. It can be reached at 615-723-5650 or online at hamertaylor.com. Read more in a press release from the group.

On Feb. 1, Memphis-based Farris Bobango will combine with New Orleans-based Phelps Dunbar and operate under the Phelps Dunbar name, the Memphis Business Journal reports. In addition to Louisiana, Phelps has more than 400 lawyers in 15 cities in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas, and overseas in London. Farris Bobango will continue to provide clients assistance with mergers and acquisitions, government relations and tax incentive financing, as well as environmental, construction, and commercial litigation matters. The combined firms will bring cybersecurity, intellectual property and health care legal practice to Memphis. Read more in a press release from the firms.

Law School Admission Council Inc. (LSAC) President Kellye Testy will step down this summer to become executive director of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), Reuters reports. The move follows the retirement of Judy Areen, who served as AALS’ executive director for the last decade. Testy has led LSAC since 2017 and overseen a number of key changes to the law school admission test.

The TBA will be closed Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The office will reopen Tuesday at 8 a.m. CST. Visit the TBA.org website for information on CLE or other TBA programs and for staff contact information.

For the first time, women made up the majority of associates at U.S. law firms last year, according to National Association for Law Placement. In a major shift, new figures show that more women — 50.3% — were employed as associates at U.S. law firms than men in 2023. The number of women enrolled in U.S. law schools overtook men eight years ago, and that gap has widened over time. Nearly 56% of law students currently enrolled at American Bar Association-accredited law schools are women. The ABA Journal reports on the development. In related news, another study found that women are slightly more likely to be identified as a general counsel’s successor than men, especially at non-profits and private companies. Read more about that study from executive search firm Barker Gilmore.