Bernard E. Bernstein, 92, died this morning in Knoxville. A graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he attended New York University School of Law and received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law. Bernstein practiced law for 54 years with the firm he founded, which came to be known as Bernstein, Stair & McAdams. He was a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Tennessee Bar Foundation, as well as a past president of the Knoxville Bar Association and a recipient of its Governors Award. He was committed to the provision of legal assistance for those who could not afford to hire an attorney, and, early in his career, was one of the founders of the Legal Aid Clinic at the UT College of Law. Legal Aid of East Tennessee recognized his devotion to that cause by honoring him as the first member in the Donald F. Paine Memorial Pro Bono Hall of Fame. Funeral services will be held Monday at 2 p.m. EDT at Rose-Mann Funeral Home in Knoxville and will also be streamed on the funeral home's Facebook page. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Legal Aid of East Tennessee, The University of Tennessee Medical Center or Heska Amuna Synagogue.

Retired Carthage attorney and former Smith County General Sessions Judge Joe P. Lane Jr. died May 10. A 1968 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, Lane joined the Army and served in Vietnam followed by reserve duty until 1974. He then joined the law office of former Smith County judge and attorney Clint Beasley. Following the death of Beasley in 1979, Lane continued the law practice until 2000. Among his other accomplishments, Lane served as assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Securities and Commerce under former Gov. Ned Ray McWherter and served as Smith County General Sessions judge. A service was held Saturday with burial at Evergreen Cemetery in Murfreesboro. The family requests that memorial donations be made to the Carthage United Methodist Church Building Fund, 608 Main St. N. #1212, Carthage, TN 37030.

Steven Bebb, a former Bradley County Criminal Court judge, who later served as 10th Judicial district attorney, died April 29 at 82. A graduate of Tennessee Military Institute and Middle Tennessee State University, Bebb joined the Peace Corps and lived in West Cameroon, Africa, before returning to Knoxville to teach and enter law school. He received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1974. After starting his law career with Hodges, Doughty & Carson, Bebb later joined the 10th Judicial District Attorney's office. In 1982, he was elected criminal court judge and served in that capacity until 2005. After retiring from the bench, he was elected district attorney for the 10th district and served there until fully retiring in 2014. Per Bebb’s wishes, no funeral service will be held.

James "Jim" O. Phillips III of Rogersville died April 18 at the age of 78. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Phillips earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law. He opened a law office in Rogersville and also served as the Hawkins County attorney for 36 years, the longest serving in county history. Phillips served as president of the Rotary Club of Rogersville and was an elder at Rogersville Presbyterian Church. Memorials donations may be given to the Hawkins County Imagination Library, P.O. Box 512, Rogersville, TN 37857 or the Hawkins County Humane Society, 5180 US-11W, Rogersville, TN 37857.

Retired U.S. Magistrate Judge B. Waugh Crigler died April 26 at age 74. A resident of Charlottesville, Virginia, Waugh earned his law degree in 1973 from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he was a member of the Tennessee Law Review and was admitted to the Order of the Coif and the Legal Honor Society Phi Delta Phi. Waugh joined the chambers of the Hon. Robert Taylor in the Eastern District of Tennessee as a law clerk and later practiced in Culpeper, Virginia, in what became Davies, Crigler, Barrell and Will PC. In 1981, he was appointed U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Virginia, a position he held until his retirement in 2013.

Prominent Nashville attorney Ward DeWitt Jr. died Tuesday at age 97. A Nashville native, he entered the Navy's V-12 program for officer training at Tulane University in 1943, and was later training for the invasion of Japan when the Japanese surrendered in August 1945. After the war, he remained in the Navy and in July 1946 witnessed test explosions of two atomic bombs at Bikini Island in the Pacific. After leaving the Navy, DeWitt returned to Nashville, graduating from Vanderbilt University in 1948 and Vanderbilt Law School in 1951. He was a partner in the firm of Trabue, Minick, Sturdivant and Harbison, which became Trabue, Sturdivant and DeWitt, and later merged with Miller and Martin. DeWitt also served a term in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1955-1956. A memorial service will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 West End Ave., Nashville, this Saturday at 1 p.m. CDT. Visitation is from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Memorial contributions can be made to Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Memphis attorney Brenda Oats-Williams died April 24. She graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 1994 and the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 1997. She worked at Memphis Area Legal Services and in private practice focusing on consumer protection and landlord tenant law. She was co-owner of the Lady Lawyers Law Firm in downtown Memphis. Funeral services will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. CDT at Greater Middle Baptist Church, 4982 Knight Arnold Rd., Memphis 38118. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. at the church.

Knoxville lawyer Frank Henry Marsh Jr. died on April 21 at the age of 94. After serving in the Pacific Theatre and Korea as a member of the U.S. Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps, Marsh attended the University of Tennessee College of Law. Following graduation, he opened a law practice in Knoxville. In his early career, he also managed U.S. Sen. Estes Kefauver's campaigns in Knox County and was city trial attorney. After practicing law for 25 years, Marsh returned to the university and earned a doctor of philosophy with a focus in bioethics. He then began a second career as a professor at the University of Colorado and its school of medicine. He retired from the school in 1992 and joined the Department of Philosophy at UT Knoxville. Between the ages of 80 and 82, he wrote two fiction books. A private family service was held at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Memorial donations may be made to the church’s Habitat for Humanity program, 6500 Northshore Dr., Knoxville, TN 37919 or Doctors Without Borders.

Services for attorney Thomas Ivo Carlton Jr., 85, will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m., preceded by a visitation from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. at Saint Henry Church, 6401 Harding Road, Nashville, TN 37205. Carlton graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1960 and  the Nashville School of Law in 1965, where he later instructed Moot Court. Carlton was a partner at Cornelius & Collins, where he practiced until retiring in 2022. Read more about Carlton’s life and career.

Funeral services will be held Sunday for Arthur Massey Fowler Jr. at 2 p.m EDT at First Presbyterian Church, 105 South Boone St., Johnson City. Since 1973, Fowler practiced law in Memphis and Johnson City with a focus on civil litigation, business, estate and probate matters. The family will receive friends following the funeral service in the church fellowship hall. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to First Presbyterian Church or the Art Fowler Boys and Girls State Scholarship Fund, care of The American Legion, 409 E. Market St., Johnson City, TN 37601. Memories and condolences may be shared with the Fowler family via the Morris Baker Funeral Home. Read more about Fowler's life from the Johnson City Press.