The 2023 Equal Justice University (EJU) kicks off this week in Murfreesboro, starting with a meeting of the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS) board Tuesday evening. Wednesday's opening plenary speaker is Rachel Rossi, director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice, followed by Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Bivins speaking at the Welcome Luncheon. Wednesday afternoon, the Tennessee Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission meets and breakout sessions continue. The evening concludes with the annual Access to Justice Awards Dinner. On Thursday, the TBA Access to Justice Committee meets and TBA President Jim Barry speaks at lunch. The event wraps up Friday morning with a keynote address by Legal Services Corporation President Ron Flagg. The conference is presented by TALS and co-sponsored by the TBA and others.

The investiture ceremony for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rachel Ralston Mancl will be held Sept. 29 at 1:30 p.m. EDT with a reception to follow. The events will take place at the James H. Quillen United States Courthouse, 220 West Depot St., Greenville 37743. View the invitation and RSVP to manclinvestiture@gmail.com by Aug. 30 to attend. Mancl was sworn in at a private ceremony in April 2022. She succeeds Chief Judge Shelley D. Rucker who had been the acting bankruptcy judge in Greeneville since former Chief Bankruptcy Judge Marcia Phillips Parsons retired in September 2020.

Trial judges in the 20th Judicial District have re-elected Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton as the courts’ presiding judge. Her new term will begin on Sept. 1. Dalton replaced Judge Phil Smith in the role after his death in September 2022. She earned her law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law and began practicing law with the Davidson County District Attorney General’s Office in 1997. In 2006, she was elected to the Davidson County General Sessions Court and then in 2017, Gov. Bill Haslam appointed Dalton to the Davidson County Criminal Court. Dalton also serves as the presiding judge of the Tennessee Women’s Residential Recovery Court. Read more in a release from the court.

On Aug. 28, 1963, more than a quarter million people walked in the historic “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” — the same march that saw the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. give his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Now, 60 years later, the march was recreated Saturday to highlight the fight still ahead for equality. The 1963 march helped lead to a host of new laws, including the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Read more about the genesis of the march and its legacy from The Hill, and what current day organizers hoped to achieve with Saturday’s event from the Associated Press.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has announced creation of the Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence to examine the impact of AI on law practice and the ethical implications for lawyers. The task force will explore emergent issues including use in legal education, utilization to increase access to justice, risks posed by the technology and ways to mitigate risks. The goal of the effort is to provide practical information that lawyers need to navigate this complex technology. Read more about the task force.

The U.S. Department of Justice will hold two public meetings this week in Memphis in connection with its pattern or practice investigation into the Memphis Police Department. The first event will take place Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. CDT at the National Civil Rights Museum, 450 Mulberry St., Memphis 38103. The second meeting will take place Thursday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. CDT at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, 70 N. Bellevue Blvd., Memphis 38104. Those planning to attend one of the events are asked to register online. Those unable to attend either of these forums, can speak to a DOJ team member on a walk-in basis at various public libraries throughout the city. See the attached event flyer for times and locations.

Longtime Memphis lawyer Odell Horton Jr. has been named general counsel and chief legal officer for Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the Tennessee Tribune reports. He replaces Kenneth M. Walker II, who has accepted a position with the Austin, Texas, Independent School District. Horton previously served as assistant attorney general for the state; chancellor for university relations and associate general counsel at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center; vice president and general counsel for Memphis Light, Gas and Water; and a partner with Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs.

National law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough plans to relocate its Nashville office to Gulch Union, a new office building at 1222 Demonbreun, the Nashville Business Journal reports. The firm previously was located in downtown’s One Nashville Building at 150 Fourth Ave N. Gulch Union offers 330,000 square feet of office and retail space. Nelson Mullins opened its Nashville office in 2012. Geof Vickers, managing partner of the office, says the move “reinforces the firm’s presence in Nashville" as well as in "Tennessee and the southeastern United States.”

Law firms are “once again snapping up office space at the highest clip in years,” Law.com reports. Building off a strong first quarter, U.S. law firm leasing activity remained robust in the second quarter, resulting in the strongest period on record since the start of the pandemic, according to real estate services company Savills. In all, the 3.3 million square feet leased in the first half of the year was up 22.3% compared to the same period in 2022. Tom Fulcher, chair of the Legal Tenant Practice Group at Savills suggests that leasing will continue at a more stable pace as law firms settle into a “new normal.” Read more from the company's U.S. Law Firm Activity Report Q2 2023.

The American Bar Association (ABA) released a statement today from President Mary Smith in response to "recent efforts of some elected officials and advocacy groups to attack diversity programs at law firms." Smith argues that, "Diversity, equity and inclusion programs help remove the barriers that block the recruitment and retention of legal talent from underrepresented groups" and that efforts to expand the legal field would be "significantly damaged by the loss of diversity and pipeline programs." Forbes has a breakdown of two lawsuits challenging corporate diversity programs at law firms in Dallas and Miami.