The Tennessee Bar Association welcomes Sheree Wright as she begins her service as executive director tomorrow. Wright has been active in the TBA as well as the Nashville and national legal communities throughout her career. “We are extremely excited to have Sheree join the Tennessee Bar Association as our new executive director,” former TBA President Tasha Blakney said in announcing the appointment earlier this summer. Read more about Wright.

Retired federal judge H. Bruce Guyton will join the Knoxville Police Department’s executive leadership team as the interim deputy chief of professional standards, KnoxNews reports. Guyton’s appointment comes after the abrupt resignation of Brooklyn Sawyers Belk, who held the position for four months. The Knoxville City Council next week will review and vote on a proposed agreement for Guyton to serve on a month-to-month contract basis until the next full-time deputy chief can be selected. Guyton previously served as a U.S. magistrate judge in the Eastern District of Tennessee for nearly 20 years until retiring in 2022.

The Nashville airport board appointed by Mayor John Cooper met at the Metro Courthouse Tuesday and voted to seek outside counsel in its lawsuit against the state over who controls the Nashville International Airport and the smaller John Tune Airport, the Nashville Post reports. The board also approved a resolution authorizing Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz to choose the counsel. Metro has sued the state seeking to overturn the new airport board which took effect June 30. A three-judge state court panel will meet July 28 in Davidson County Chancery Court and is expected to rule on which version of the board is in charge until the full lawsuit is resolved. The Federal Aviation Authority has said it will recognize the old board until a court rules on Nashville’s lawsuit against the state.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti recently announced a partnership with the Federal Trade Commission and other law enforcement agencies nationwide to crackdown on illegal telemarketing operations responsible for billions of calls to U.S. consumers. The joint state and federal “Operation Stop Scam Calls” initiative targets telemarketers, the companies that hire them, lead generators and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers, who facilitate illegal robocalls, which often originate from overseas. The effort includes law enforcement actions as well as an educational campaign.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners released a selection of sample questions for the so-called NextGen bar exam, which is set to debut in July 2026, and the reaction has been “lukewarm,” Reuters reports. Comments range from concerns that the questions are too easy to complaints that the revamped test will not be significantly different from the current one. The bar exam group began developing the new test in early 2021, partially in response to criticism that the existing exam does not reflect the actual practice of law. This fall's incoming class of law students will be the first to take the new exam when they graduate.

Vanderbilt University Law School has named Jennifer Safstrom as the new director of its Stanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic. Safstrom previously taught at the clinic as a visiting assistant clinical professor of law. Before joining Vanderbilt, Safstrom was the Dunn Legal Fellow at the ACLU of Virginia, where she litigated in federal and state court. Following her fellowship, she served as counsel to the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law Center and as supervising attorney and clinical teaching fellow in the school’s Civil Rights Clinic.

Rachel Bloomekatz, an Ohio litigator whose work on gun control drew Republican scrutiny, was narrowly confirmed to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Appeals Court yesterday, Bloomberg Law reports. Bloomekatz, once a clerk to former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, has been a solo practitioner in Columbus since 2019. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on a vote of 50-48 more than a year after being nominated. She will fill the Ohio seat being vacated by Judge Ransey Guy Cole. Read past coverage of her confirmation journey from TBA Today.

The Trial Court Vacancy Commission on Tuesday sent three individuals to Gov. Bill Lee for his consideration in filling a criminal court judge vacancy in the 13th judicial district, which includes Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Overton, Pickett, Putnam and White counties. Meeting in Crossville, the commission advanced Shawn C. Fry and Benjamin Marsee of Cookeville and Brandon S. Griffin of Sparta.

Hawkins County Commissioners will choose among three nominees to be the next county attorney at their July meeting. The Kingsport Times News reports that the replacement comes after the county’s previous attorney, Jim Philips, died unexpectedly in April. The three candidates are Allen Coup, Jefferson B. Fairchild and Crystal Jessee.

A Nashville law firm has filed a lawsuit against a landlord and tenant for their alleged responsibility in the November 2022 fentanyl overdose death of an infant. Stranch, Jennings & Garvey PLLC is representing Mickey Rose, the grandfather of Ariel Rose, a one-year-old who was exposed to a lethal dose of fentanyl while at Nashville's Highroad Transitional Housing Facility. Rose is also seeking damages under Tennessee’s Drug Dealer Liability Act (DDLA), which provides a civil remedy to persons damaged in a community as a result of illegal drug use.