The Judicial Conference of the United States has authorized the appointment of a full-time magistrate judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. Duties of the position include overseeing most preliminary proceedings in criminal cases; disposition of misdemeanor cases; various pretrial matters and evidentiary proceedings; and trial and disposition of civil cases with the consent of litigants. Applicants should have five years of experience, be younger than 70 years old and not be related to a judge of the district court. Application forms are on the court’s website. A Merit Selection Panel will review all applicants and recommend five to the district judges, who will then select the finalist. Tennessee lawyers serving on the panel are: Chair Wayne Ritchie, Vice Chair Maha Ayesh, Dwight Tarwater, Karmen Waters and Melanie Wilson. Community members are James Fowler and Tanya Ickowitz. For more information and instructions for applying view this announcement.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued an order taking action on several pandemic-related issues. First, the court will lift the current suspension of in-person court proceedings in termination of parental rights cases on March 1. Second, the court will lift the current suspension of all other in-person court proceedings in all state and local courts on March 15. Third, the court will maintain the current suspension of jury trials through March 31, though exceptions may be made by the chief justice. The order also directs all courts to follow the approved pandemic plan for their district, encourages remote proceedings to be used when possible, and limits who can be in the courtroom once in-person proceedings resume. In making these changes, the court cited the recent and continuing decline in the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state. Read more from the court.

Officials from the American Bar Association met with the Tennessee delegation today in advance of the ABA’s upcoming Midyear Meeting. ABA President Patricia “Trish” Refo updated the group of Tennessee lawyers meeting virtually on several initiatives underway at the organization, while ABA Treasurer Kevin Shepherd and Executive Director Jack Rives gave a nuts-and-bolts breakdown of ABA operations. President-elect Reginald Turner also addressed the gathering, as did Barbara Howard, chair of the ABA House of Delegates, who detailed several of the matters that will be coming before that body. The Midyear Meeting will be held virtually Feb. 17-22.

The Memphis Bar Association and the Center for Excellence in Decision-Making will host a webinar Thursday from noon to 1:30 p.m. CST on “Broken Policing and the Windows for Change.” Jeffery Robinson, deputy legal director and director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality, will discuss a century of racism in policing in America and the ethical obligations of law enforcement to render equitable service to all communities. The program is free but registration is required. Contact Lauren Gooch at the MBA for more information.

The Tennessee judiciary is mourning today’s death of retired Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Jerry L. Smith. A 1978 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, Smith was appointed to the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1995 by then-Gov. Don Sundquist. He was elected to a full term on the bench in 1996 and was reelected in 1998 and 2006. Prior to joining the bench, Smith worked for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office as an assistant attorney general and deputy attorney general. For many years, he was an instructor at the Nashville School of Law. After his retirement from the bench in 2014, he taught at the Belmont University College of Law as an adjunct faculty member. Read more about his career from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

A documentary about how the right to vote has evolved in the United States, specifically in Tennessee and the South, will air next week on Nashville Public Television. The program, "The Fight to Vote: Black Voter Suppression in Tennessee," will focus mainly on the challenges poor and Black people faced getting access to the ballot box in the decades after the Civil War, but also aims to spur discussion about voting rights today and why voter turnout remains low in some parts of the country. In Nashville, the show will air on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. CST. Check local listings for coverage in other cities.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III is advising consumers to look out for hidden charges on their credit card transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Merchants must not mislead customers by falsely advertising a lower price than they actually charge or hiding any differences between credit card, debit card and cash prices. A merchant’s failure to clearly and prominently disclose what it will charge for the item, including any additional fees, may violate Tennessee law prohibiting deceptive or false advertising. Consumers who think a seller is improperly charging customers or failing to disclose what it is charging should file a complaint with the Tennessee Attorney General's Office.

Chattanooga attorney Hugh Pierce Garner, a resident of Signal Mountain, died Wednesday at 87. A graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, Garner practiced law in Chattanooga for 62 years. While at the University of Tennessee as an undergraduate, Garner was a four-year starter on the football team, a member of the National Championship team of 1951 and recipient of the Roy N. Latspeich Memorial UT Scholastic Award. Following graduation he served in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Army Reserve. Due to pandemic restrictions, there will be no public funeral services. A private family graveside service will be held in Jasper, near to where Garner was born. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Lassiter Cemetery, c/o Mr. Jim Holtcamp, 411 Sawmill Branch Ln., Sequatchie, TN 37374 or a charity of the donor’s choice.

University of Tennessee College of Law professor Dwight Aarons wrote about some of the first black lawyers in Tennessee in the November 1999 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal. His piece acknowledged that while it is not entirely clear who was the first African-American lawyer in Tennessee, it is accepted that Horatio N. Rankin was the earliest documented Black lawyer admitted to any bar in the state. Rankin practiced law in Memphis, created the West Tennessee Colored University and advised Congress on the freedman’s laws. Other “firsts” Aarons covers in his article include Alfred Menefee, the first Black man admitted to the Nashville bar; Joseph H. Dismukes, the first graduate of Tennessee’s first law school for African Americans and the state’s first Black law professor; William Francis Yardley, who likely was the first Black judicial officer in the state; John Sinclair Lewis, the first African-American admitted to practice before the Tennessee Supreme Court; Samuel R. Lowery, the first southern Black man admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court; and Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Adolpho A. Birch Jr., who became the court’s first Black chief justice. Read more about these and other pioneers in this compelling historical review.

The Memphis Bar Foundation is accepting applications for its annual grant program. Nonprofit organizations may apply for a $2,000 grant to implement projects that further the mission of the foundation, including the promotion of philanthropy among Memphis Bar Association members, support for public awareness of the legal system, promotion of social justice and legal education, and encouragement of professionalism among association members. The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. on March 26. Questions about the grant application process should be directed to Interim Executive Director Maury Tower. The application and additional instructions are posted online.