Columbia lawyer Patrick Carter has been named city attorney for the city of Fairview. He will begin serving in that role on Feb. 2. Carter is a principal at the Columbia law firm of Wolaver, Carter & Heffington. He will continue working at the firm and as the city attorney for the city of Spring Hill as he takes on this new role. Carter is a past member of the TBA Board of Governors and a member of the 2005 TBA Leadership Law class.

The Knoxville Bar Foundation is seeking funding proposals for projects that enhance the public’s understanding of and confidence in the legal system, improve the administration of justice, and serve the legal profession. Applications are due by March 3. Awards will be announced in May. Individual grant awards are usually $5,000 or less. Funding is not available for operating costs or endowments and multiple grant applications are discouraged. Apply here. The foundation was established in 1992 and has awarded $535,000 since its inception.

Nashville Metro Law Director Wallace Dietz is warning that a plan being considered by the state legislature to cut the Metro Council would “create chaos” and trigger a possible legal battle, the Tennessean reports. Dietz has said that that the proposal “poses an existential threat not just to Nashville’s self-governance but to the constitutional rights of all local governments across the state.” He also argues that the large council “protects minority representation in government.” House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland and Sen. Bo Watson of Hixson, both Republicans, have filed legislation that would cap the size of metropolitan legislative bodies in the state at 20. The only government that would be affected by the proposal is Nashville’s Metro Council, which has had 40 members.

A coalition of 20 Republican-led states filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to end a new Biden administration program that would allow up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to apply for temporary immigration status in the United States. As part of the plan, Biden also authorized authorities to expel the same number of migrants from those countries if they cross the border without authorization. The suit alleges that the Department of Homeland Security exceeded its legal authority when it rolled out the initiative earlier this month. Roll Call has more on the story. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined the suit. Read his statement.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota recently put the popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT up against actual students in a blind comparison of their performance on law school exams in four courses. The ChatGPT's grades ranged from a B to C- with an average of a C+. The human tests resulted in a B+ average. The good news? ChatGPT cannot yet outscore most law students on exams. The bad news? It can pass. Read more about the study from Reuters.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti says that he has joined the Department of Justice and seven state attorneys general in filing a civil antitrust suit against Google. The complaint alleges Google has monopolized multiple key digital advertising technologies, collectively referred to as the “ad tech stack.” Website publishers and advertisers depend on this technology to sell and buy ads, thus reaching potential customers. Publishers generate advertising revenue through ad tech tools that support the creation and maintenance of an open web. The plaintiffs allege Google’s actions are in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. Read more from the AG’s office.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee Kevin G. Ritz is holding a press conference concerning the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. Nichols, who was Black, died on Jan. 10 after being stopped by Memphis police for reckless driving three days earlier. Police said they had two confrontations with Nichols after he fled the scene of the traffic stop. According to the Daily Memphian, Nichols’ family and their lawyer, notable civil rights attorney Ben Crump, viewed video footage of the incident, which Crump called “appalling” and “deplorable.” The video shows Nichols being kicked and other “multiple uses of force” being used against him. All five of the officers involved have been fired.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Ticketmaster and its parent company LiveNation during a hearing on competition in the live entertainment industry. The meeting comes after the debacle caused by the company’s handling of ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour. Senators were critical of Ticketmaster’s “monopolistic control” of the concert ticket system and questioned the Department of Justice’s enforcement of antitrust laws. LiveNation’s CFO argued that “the ticketing business has never been more competitive” and said the problem with Swift ticket sales was due to an unprecendented wave of bots targeting the sale website. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, grilled the company on whether it had done enough to identify and stop bots. The Tennessean has the story.  

Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s latest spending proposal sets aside $92 million for a new juvenile justice campus that would include an expanded courthouse and space for family support services, the Tennessean reports. Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway been pushing for more space since at least 2015. She says the court and its accompanying services have outgrown the current justice center, which has had routine plumbing issues that have resulted in sewage overflow into the staff’s basement workspaces. The new 14-acre "Nashville Youth Campus for Empowerment" would be located on Brick Church Pike and would include larger courtrooms, space for Court Appointed Special Advocates support services, a Metro Nashville Schools student attendance center and private meeting rooms for mediation, attorney-client meetings and therapy sessions. The proposal will need the approval from Metro Council before any money can be spent.

Being a lawyer is the most stressful occupation in the U.S. according to a new analysis from the Washington Post. The Post, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, looked at a subset of well-being data collected in four American Time Use Surveys between 2010 and 2021. The surveys asked respondents how meaningful their activities were or how happy, sad, stressed, pained and tired they felt on a six-point scale. The industry with the lowest self-reported levels of stress and the highest levels of self-reported happiness was agriculture, logging and forestry. The ABA Journal has a full breakdown of the findings.