Two former Memphis police officers are joining the City of Memphis' motion to dismiss the $550 million civil lawsuit brought against the city and others in the wake of Tyre Nichols' death, reports the Commercial Appeal. Attorneys for the officers argue that the lawsuit cites an incorrect constitutional amendment violation, that they are protected from the suit by the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act and that Nichols' mother does not have standing to sue on Nichols' behalf. Nichols was pulled over by Memphis police officers for reckless driving on Jan. 7 and was subsequently tased and beaten. He died three days later due to blunt-force trauma. The lawsuit was filed in late April and cites negligence and accuses MPD of having policies in place that would violate the civil rights of Memphians.

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) announced in an email to U.S. law schools that it will delete the “logic games” section of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) exam in 2024, reports Reuters. The analytical reasoning section known as logic games will be replaced with an additional logical reasoning section in August 2024, the LSAC said. Logic games are viewed by many as the most difficult section of the LSAT to master. The elimination comes after the LSAC entered into a 2019 settlement with two blind LSAT takers who claimed the section violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because they could not draw the diagrams used to complete that portion of the test. The council had four years to replace the logic games with a new analytical reasoning section under the settlement.

U.S. law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell rescinded job offers today to law students who signed on to public statements condemning Israel in the wake of Hamas’ deadly attacks, Reuters reports. The announcement follows a similar move by law firm Winston & Strawn last week. Davis Polk's managing partner, Neil Barr, told firm members today that it had revoked job offers to three law students in leadership positions in Harvard and Columbia university groups that issued statements regarding to the latest wave of violence in the Middle East, according to an internal email obtained by Reuters. “These statements are simply contrary to our firm’s values,” wrote Barr, “and we thus concluded that rescinding these offers was appropriate in upholding our responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive work environment for all Davis Polk employees.” Barr’s email said the firm is remaining “in dialogue” with two of the students to consider any additional information they may offer.

A federal judicial rules-making panel agreed today to examine whether to curtail "judge shopping" by state attorneys general and activists who file lawsuits challenging government policies in courthouses where a single, sympathetic judge hears most cases, reports Reuters. At a meeting in Washington, D.C., members of the U.S. Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on Civil Rules grappled with whether it could or should craft nationwide rules to ensure such cases are randomly assigned a judge. U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg, the panel's chair, said it was a "highly important" issue that the committee needed to at least study given that "people outside the judiciary are watching to see what, if anything, we do."

District 4 Commissioner Kyle Ward, who represents over 50,000 residents from Knox County, has missed at least eight committee meetings since the county commission met Sept. 1 to select a new chair and committee assignments, reports KnoxNews. Ward’s absences began shortly after the county ethics committee considered whether to investigate a claim Ward violated a county ethics code. Ward also missed the Oct. 16 presentation about options for a new contract for ambulance service after KnoxNews reported county residents have waited an hour or more for EMTs to respond to a medical emergency. Ward was elected in 2020 and is not seeking reelection.

Five community mediation centers from across the state recently gathered for a three-day conference in Nashville. Attendees discussed ways to expand access to remote mediation for pro se and low-income litigants in underserved judicial districts. The conference was an extension of an innovative push for remote mediation started prior to the pandemic by Nashville Conflict Resolution Center and supported by funding from the Tennessee Bar Foundation and AAA-ICDR Foundation. Staff from centers in Chattanooga, Columbia, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville heard from Dr. Lorig Charkoudian, delegate in the Maryland General Assembly and executive director of Community Mediation Maryland. The centers collectively provided 976 mediations last year. Read more in this news release.

The University of Tennessee College of Law has named Carol Anne Long as the new director of the Bettye B. Lewis Career Center. Long has been a member of the career services team since March 2022, spending the past 10 months as interim director. A 2000 graduate of the law school, Long first was named associate director of the center. Long previously practiced civil and criminal defense litigation with two Knoxville law firms and worked as a judicial clerk for Judge Charles D. Susano Jr. of the Tennessee Court of Appeals and Judge James Curwood Witt Jr. of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. She was active in the TBA Young Lawyers Division and is married to former TBA President Jason Long.

Brent Easley, who recently concluded a stint as Gov. Bill Lee's legislative director, has been named president of BHA Strategy, the Nashville Post reports. The lobbying and public relations firm was founded by former Lee aides Blake Harris and Laine Arnold. Harris was Lee's chief of staff, while Arnold was communications director. Easley worked for TennesseeCAN, StudentsFirstTN and state House Republicans before joining the Lee administration. He is also an adjunct professor at Lipscomb University.

Defense lawyers and major corporations are urging a U.S. judicial panel to strengthen a proposed rule that would for the first time govern federal mass torts cases. Reuters reports that the group says the draft rule does not go far enough to weed out "meritless" lawsuits. They are calling on the panel to strengthen the language to include a directive that plaintiffs’ counsel demonstrate “basic due diligence into plaintiffs’ claims, such as evidence of exposure to the alleged cause and a resulting injury, early in the case.”

The Shelby County Sheriff's Office is investigating an "apparent suicide attempt" of an inmate at the Shelby County Division of Corrections, the Commercial Appeal reports. According to the sheriff’s office, 41-year-old Terrence Boyd was "reportedly found hanging in a cell.” Boyd was taken to Baptist Memphis Hospital in critical condition last Thursday and died Saturday morning. Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy was notified of the event and requested the sheriff investigate the incident. Unlike area jails, the sheriff’s office does not operate this facility.