Tennessee businesses are beginning to seek exemptions from the vaccine mandate ban passed by the state legislature in the COVID special session, WKRN reports. Under the new law, entities looking to maintain or implement a vaccine requirement must be granted permission from the comptroller’s office. More than 10 businesses have been approved so far, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, the University of Tennessee system, Vanderbilt University and Crockett County Ambulance Services. To qualify for an exemption, businesses must have received a federal contract, be a federal subcontractor or have a post-secondary education grant. According to reporting, state leaders are estimating up to 7,000 businesses or entities could apply for the exemption.

The state of Tennessee has agreed to pay five abortion providers $249,000 to cover legal fees associated with their challenge of an executive order that would have temporarily banned most abortions, Tennessee Lookout reports. Executive Order 25 suspended most surgical abortions and all other elective medical procedures, in part — Lee said at the time — to conserve personal protective equipment during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. A federal court put a stay on the order and an appellate court refused to remove it or hear an appeal. The order expired on April 30, 2020. The settlement was negotiated by the office of Attorney General Herbert Slatery,

President Joe Biden sent the nomination of Andre Mathis for the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to the Senate today. Yesterday, the president announced his intention to nominate Mathis for the seat currently held by Bernice Bouie Donald, who plans to take senior status when a replacement is confirmed.

President Biden announced today that he will nominate Memphis attorney Andre B. Mathis to replace Judge Bernice Bouie Donald on the U.S. 6th Court of Appeals. Donald said in May that she intends to take senior status as soon as a replacement is confirmed. Mathis is a member of Butler Snow’s Commercial Litigation and Labor & Employment groups where he focuses on contract disputes, internal investigations, premises liability, education law, and employment, transportation and financial services litigation. He is a past president of the National Bar Association Ben F. Jones Chapter, member of the TBA’s Leadership Law 2014 class and member of the TBA’s Diversity Task Force. If confirmed, he would become the first Black man from Tennessee on the court.

Former police officer, prosecuting attorney, and now assistant public defender Joseph “Joe” Lodato announced today that he is running for judge on the Hamilton County General Sessions Court, Fourth Division. Lodato worked for 12 years with the Morris County Sheriff’s Office and Morristown Police Department in New Jersey, as an assistant district attorney general in Knox County, and in private practice for six years before joining the Hamilton County Public Defender’s Office. Lodato lives in Ooltewah. He is an avid outdoors enthusiast and cyclist, and the past president and current member/ride leader with the Chattanooga Bicycle Club. Learn more on his campaign's Facebook account.

Sevierville Municipal Court Judge Lanning P. Wynn retired yesterday after 43 years of service as the city’s first and only judge, the Administrative Office of the Courts reports. Wynn was appointed to the position in 1979 by then Mayor Gary Wade, who also was his law partner at the time. Wynn has served on a part-time basis while maintaining a real estate law practice. He says he is retiring now to spend more time with his daughter and grandchildren who live in Atlanta, but will continue to practice law when he is in town. Jeff Murrell, who has been a practicing attorney with the Sevierville firm Johnson, Murrell, & Associates for 28 years, will take over as municipal judge, the Mountain Press reports.

The U.S. government has reached a tentative agreement to resolve a class action lawsuit brought by a group of nonprofits alleging the federal judiciary overcharged the public for access to court documents through its PACER system, Reuters reports. The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, comes a little more than a year after the federal circuit upheld a ruling that the judiciary had improperly used PACER fees to cover some of its expenses.

As the Tennessee Bar Association prepares to move to new offices, it has a few surplus office desk sets available. If you are interested in any of these desks or desk sets, please contact TBA Assistant Executive Director Barry Kolar at bkolar@tnbar.org. The furniture is available at no cost, however, desks must be spoken for by Nov. 24 and moved from the Tennessee Bar Center by Nov. 29.

The TBA Mentoring Committee will host a free virtual event from 3-4 p.m. CST on Dec. 2. The program will feature guest speakers J. E. "Buddy" Stockwell III, executive director of the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP), and Rachel Rosenblatt, employment counsel with Zillow, who will talk about burnout, stress and services provided by TLAP. To RSVP for the event, email Ateia Aldridge.

The Biden administration this afternoon suspended Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) enforcement of its COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandate for large private businesses, The Hill reports. OSHA said in a statement on its website that while it is confident in its power to protect workers amid the pandemic, it is suspending activities related to the mandate based on a stay and directive from the 5th Circuit of Appeals to “take no steps to implement or enforce” the rule until further notice.