The Knoxville Bar Association is planning a Bench & Bar Celebration for Sept. 8 on the outdoor patio of the Knoxville Convention Center. The event is designed to recognize the many challenges lawyers and judges have experienced over the past year and celebrate local judges for their dedicated service to the community. Watch for more details coming soon.

The U.S. Supreme Court late yesterday left intact a nationwide pause on evictions put in place amid the coronavirus pandemic. The 5-4 vote rejected an emergency request from a group of landlords asking the court to effectively end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) moratorium, which was recently extended through July. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined with the court’s three liberals to keep the stay in place, The Hill reports. Kavanaugh said though he believed the CDC had exceeded its authority in enacting the moratorium, the few weeks left would allow for a “more orderly distribution” of rental assistance funds approved by Congress.

As previously reported, as of July 1 the Knox County Circuit, Chancery, Probate, Juvenile and General Civil Sessions Courts will be using the schedule of fees included in T.C.A. 8-21-401 for all fees and court costs. The attachments included in the previous TBA Today story have been revised. New schedules are now available for the Circuit Court, Chancery Court, General Sessions Court and probate fees.

A new series on how busy lawyers can find more work-life balance is running in Above the Law. In the first installment, Paragon Legal noted how lawyers can audit, guard and schedule their time. The second installment includes four additional tips to manage the workday. (1) Try “time blocking,” which means divvying up the day into blocks of time during which specific tasks are handled. Also schedule tasks that require more concentration when you have better focus. (2) Reduce multitasking by turning off chat and social media notifications or silencing your cell phone. To protect your focus, minimize switching between tasks as much as possible. (3) Use a timer to stay focused and encourage short breaks. The article suggests several products on the market. (4) Finally, sometimes the best way to find more time is to get rid of a task altogether by outsourcing, delegating or just saying “no.” Learn more here.

Associate professor of law and associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University Sara Mayeux has won the 2020 David J. Langum Sr. Prize in American Legal History for her book, Free Justice: A History of the Public Defender in Twentieth Century America. The book chronicles debates about the role and funding of public defenders from the establishment of the first public defender’s office in Los Angeles in 1914 through the 1970s, when public defender’s offices existed throughout the nation and the right to representation for those charged with criminal offenses was widely accepted. The complex history of public defenders in America created an uneven patchwork of funding sources and institutional arrangements for indigent defense, a pattern that persists to the present day. In Free Justice, Mayeux reveals that the nationwide “crisis” of underfunded public defenders providing inadequate representation due to heavy caseloads and limited resources has existed throughout the history of public defense. 

The Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse is projected to be complete later this summer, reports Main Street Nashville. Named for the late actor and U.S. senator, the six-story complex is located on nearly three acres on Church Street in downtown Nashville. The complex will house the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Probation, the U.S. attorney’s office, the General Services Administration and U.S. Senate offices. Construction on the building began in June 2018.

Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Alexander McVeagh has been recognized with the American Bar Association’s 2021 On the Rise Award. Each year, the ABA recognizes 40 of the nation’s young lawyers who exemplify a broad range of high achievement, innovation, vision, leadership and legal and community service. McVeagh was first appointed as general sessions judge in 2017. One of the youngest judges in Tennessee history, McVeagh founded Hamilton County’s first misdemeanor drug recovery court in 2019. He previously practiced with Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, the Tennessee Public Defenders Conference and the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee. He currently serves on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission, Technology Oversight Committee and on the Governor’s Criminal Justice Reform Task Force. McVeagh also serves as the president of the Chattanooga Bar Association Young Lawyer Division, as the East Tennessee governor on the TBA YLD Board, and as the state's Young Lawyer Delegate to the American Bar Association House of Delegates. 

Three attorneys have applied to be considered for the circuit court vacancy in the 24th Judicial District, which includes Benton, Carroll, Decatur, Hardin and Henry counties. J. Brent Bradberry, Vance Walker Dennis and Charles L. Trotter Jr. have applied for the vacancy. The Trial Court Vacancy Commission will hold a public hearing with the candidates on Aug. 3 at 9 a.m. CDT at the Benton County Courthouse located at 1 Courthouse Square in Camden. The commission is expected to vote immediately following the interviews and forward three names to Gov. Bill Lee for his consideration. The Administrative Office of the Courts has more on each candidate.

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Bernice Donald has broken barriers at every court she joined, becoming the first African American woman to serve as a Tennessee judge, the first African American woman in the country to serve as a bankruptcy judge, the first African American woman to serve on the District Court for the Western District of Tennessee and the first African American to serve on the 6th Circuit. In a recent interview with Law360 Pulse, Donald spoke about her experiences as a lawyer, judge and teacher, and why diversity among judges is so significant. She talks about diversity broadly, including “diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, but it's also socioeconomic diversity and it's professional or experiential diversity that become important… . If everybody shares the same perspective and comes from the same background or the same school, you're going to miss something. There's going to be nobody in that group who's going to be able to guard against the blind spots that are a part of each and every one of us.” In May, Judge Donald notified President Joe Biden of her intent to take senior status upon confirmation of a successor. 

Several new state laws intended to protect children are set to take effect on Thursday, including sentencing legislation to prevent parole and probation for those found guilty of certain violent crimes, including child abuse, child sexual abuse, felony solicitation of a minor and producing child pornography, reports The Chattanoogan.com. Also going into effect is Eli’s Law, which allows the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) to investigate the birth of subsequent children born to parents who have had a previous child removed from their custody, as well as Evelyn Boswell’s Law, which provides that parents who do not report children missing to law enforcement within 24 hours could face Class A misdemeanor charges. Other new laws aimed at child protection provide for more DCS oversight of adoptive families receiving subsidies, remove the statute of limitations for commercial sex trafficking of a child and expand the definitions of child neglect and endangerment and severe child abuse to include exposure to certain drugs such as methamphetamines.