U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman yesterday denied a motion from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office to end the consent decree between the county jail and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) regarding COVID-19 prevention. The Sheriff’s Office asked Lipman last month to terminate the agreement, claiming it had satisfied the terms of the decree. According to the Memphis Flyer, Lipman rejected that claim, finding that all detainees had not been offered the COVID-19 vaccine, nor had they all been given the educational materials and incentives to take the vaccine. “The consent decree did not enshrine mere box-checking. It enshrined meaningful protection for plaintiffs, a medically vulnerable group,” Lipman said.  

Logicforce, a Nashville-based law firm IT company, has been aquired by Frontline Managed Services of Atlanta, the Nashville Business Journal reports. Logicforce, which offers e-discovery, IT and cybersecurity and digital forensics services, was founded in 1995 by Phillip Hampton. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Frontline said in its announcement that it will gain more than 100 new law firm clients in the acquisition. Frontline has hundreds of employees in seven states, Washington D.C., Toronto, London and India. Logicforce has 50 employees. Nashville attorney and Logicforce CEO Gulam Zade will join Frontline's management team.

A federal judge this week heard arguments in a lawsuit seeking to block Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order that allows parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates, the Commercial Appeal reports. The plaintiffs, two Shelby County families with immunocompromised children, told U.S. District Judge Sheryl Halle Lipman that Lee’s order creates an “unreasonably dangerous environment” for medically vulnerable children and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Jim Newsom with the attorney general’s office argued the parents had not yet exhausted the appeal process available for families of children with disabilities. He added the proper route would be to file a complaint with school and district officials and then with the State Department of Education. The state did not call any witnesses. The plaintiffs, represented by Donati Law, brought in two medical experts who spoke of the “higher burden” an unmasked child puts on other kids in the classroom. 

Chancellor Jim Kyle today begins a one-year term as presiding judge for the 30th Judicial District. Prior to joining the judiciary, Kyle represented parts of Shelby County in the Tennessee Senate from 1982 to 2014. The 30th Judicial District covers all of Shelby County.

The TBA Litigation Law Section's annual forum will take place virtually on Sept. 16. The program, produced by Todd Presnell with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Nashville, will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT and offer four general CLE credits. Speakers include Tennessee Supreme Court justices Holly Kirby, Sharon Lee and Roger A. Page; Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge W. McBrayer; 30th Judicial District Chancellor Gadson “Will” Perry; and former TBA president and Baker Donelson shareholder George T. “Buck” Lewis III.

Mississippi attorney Phillip Gregory Meek was yesterday disbarred by the Tennessee Supreme Court. He had been disbarred in 2013 by the Supreme Court of Mississippi. In July, the high court entered a notice of reciprocal discipline ordering Meek to inform the court why the discipline imposed in Mississippi should not also be imposed in Tennessee. Meek did not file a response with the court. He must pay court costs and expenses of the Board of Professional Responsibility within 90 days of the order.  

In the September/October TBJ out today, Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee shares her secrets and best practices for being present on Twitter — which can be a fine line for judges and lawyers using the platform. But Lee is a master at doing it right. You'll enjoy seeing some of her Tweets and how she uses them to inform (and entertain) the Twittersphere. In contrast, the story by Russell Fowler of how in the 1940s Memphis Judge Camille Kelley helped a major child trafficking operation is so horrifying you will not be able to look away. Read this issue for these stories and more, including the latest on trusts, bail hearings post-Torres, employment law, torts and same-sex divorce.

The TBA’s annual Health Law Forum is moving to an all-virtual format due to the resurgence of COVID-19 and the delta variant. Concerns of TBA members, the health care community and an examination of CDC recommendations and safety protocols all factored into this decision. Originally scheduled as a hybrid event at the Music City Center in Nashville on Oct. 21-22, the Health Law Forum will now feature programming streamed live to all registrants. Please note that the in-person CLE requirement has been waived by the Tennessee Supreme Court for 2021, and this event will still qualify for all 15 hours of CLE, including three ethics hours. 

The Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) will pay a $103,000 civil penalty to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after an audit uncovered a series of financial reporting issues from the 2016 election cycle, the Nashville Post reports. Regulators found that TNDP improperly reported millions of dollars in contributions and kept lax records on employee time. The FEC accepted a conciliation agreement last month, in which the state party agreed to pay $103,000 over the next eight months. The first proposed fine was $352,000. TNDP Chair Hendrell Remus, who was not head of the party in 2016, said a former compliance contractor was at fault for the issues and that he is putting “processes in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

A new report from Goldman Sachs estimates 750,000 U.S. households will face eviction in the coming months if Congress does not act to address the issue. The report says between 2.5 million and 3.5 million households are delinquent on rent and owe a combined $12 billion to $17 billion to landlords. "The end of the eviction moratorium is likely to result in a sharp and rapid increase in eviction rates in coming months unless Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) funding is distributed at a much faster pace or Congress addresses the issue," the report said. About $25 billion in federal aid has been dispersed to state and local governments, but only $4.5 billion has been distributed, according to the report. Nashville’s WSMV has the full story from CNN.