Frederick H. Agee, a Milan attorney currently serving an active duty tour in Kuwait with the Army Reserve, was this week appointed district attorney for the 28th Judicial District by Gov. Bill Lee, the Jackson Sun reports. Agee will be released from active duty later this month and will quarantine for two weeks in Texas before being sworn in to begin serving the district, which covers Gibson, Haywood and Crockett counties. Agee, who has been a defense attorney in Milan his entire career, will be the only veteran currently serving as a DA in the state’s 31 districts. “That’s not necessarily something I set out for, but I’m proud of my military service and I’m proud to represent veterans in this capacity,” he said. Agee will fill the vacancy created by former DA Garry Brown’s retirement. The position will be up for election in August 2022.

Eighteen students from Tennessee law schools have completed the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Summer Fellows Program, which connected the students with a dozen organizations dedicated to expanding justice. In addition to their pro bono work with the organizations, students also remotely attended a weekly professional development, led by leading legal figures like Supreme Court Justice Connie Clark, who spoke on the importance of pro bono and civil justice work. During the program, students remotely helped to develop tools to mitigate unnecessary denials of social security disability benefit claims, worked with the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic & Sexual Violence to help judges presiding over domestic violence cases and much more. Read more on the program from the Administrative Office of the Courts website.

The Nashville School of Law Habitat for Humanity Wills Clinic works directly with NSL students and licensed attorney volunteers to produce wills for new Habitat homeowners each month using an approved will form. Attorney volunteers are needed for approximately two hours via Zoom to oversee upper-level law students as they go through the intake process with clients. No further time commitment is needed and an attorney-client relationship will not be established. Volunteer for just one session or sign up for as many as you’d like. The next three clinics will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. CDT on Oct. 20, Nov. 17 and Dec. 15. If you are able to help, email Ryan Harris or call at 615-942-1262.

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee & the Cumberlands will hold three phone clinics next week for members of the public with questions about housing and renters’ rights, bankruptcy, medical bills, debt collection, domestic violence, SNAP benefits and unemployment benefits. Clinics will take place Tuesday from 3 to 4 p.m., Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Saturday from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. All times central. LAS is looking for attorneys to help answer questions. To volunteer contact Andrae Crismon or Kendra Cheek or call 615-780-7131. See all clinics for the month.

Join Mac Bailey, founding member of The Bailey Law Firm and Darlene Kemp and Theresa Law of Vista Points Special Needs Trusts & Resource Center as they walk you through the complex world of special needs trusts during the ABCs of SNTS program. Topics will include drafting tips, ethical considerations, types and specific purposes of special needs trusts and more. The program will take place virtually on Oct. 29 from 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. CDT and is worth 2.5 general CLE credits. Immediately following the program, there will be a live 30-minute Q&A time with all speakers.

The National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts will host its 2020 Symposium on Racial Equity over the course of two-days, beginning tomorrow from noon until 4 p.m. EDT. The program is free and open to the public and will look at critically important issues in the context of advancing racial equity and equal justice under the law. Tomorrow’s program will include a session on examining barriers to civic engagement for people with a felony, followed by a roundtable on ensuring equal access to justice through the courts. The program will continue on Nov. 13 with sessions on reimagining policing and removing confederate statues from public squares. The program is free, but attendees must register in advance.

 The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned the convictions of former Pilot Flying J President Mark Hazelwood and two of his former staffers, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. In a two-to-one decision, the federal appellate court ruled that U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier was wrong to allow prosecutors at the 2018 trial to play secret recordings of Hazelwood making racist comments and singing along to a racist song. The 6th Circuit ruled Collier’s decision to allow the tapes was legally flawed and his instruction to the jury inadequate, stating in their opinion that the “inflammatory nature of Hazelwood’s comments created a strong risk that the jury would convict him based on factors other than the charged conduct.” Hazelwood was convicted in 2018 after a four-month trial of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and witness tampering. It was not immediately known if the U.S. Attorney’s office will seek to appeal the decision.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, a record-breaking 273,325 Tennesseans have cast their ballot by voting early or absentee voting—a 91% increase from the first day of early voting in 2016 and a 120% increase over 2012. Early voting for the state and federal primary and county general election runs Monday to Saturday until Oct. 29. Election Day is Nov. 3.Voting and election day hours, polling locations and more can be found at GoVoteTN.com or with the GoVoteTN app.

The number of Tennesseans who cannot vote due to a felony conviction has risen since 2016, despite a national trend in the opposite direction, WPLN reports. That data comes from a new report from the Sentencing Project, which found that 5.2 million Americans cannot vote because of a criminal record. Tennessee, which has some of the strictest voter restoration rules in the country, accounts for more than 456,000 of that number. The report found that Tennessee has the highest rate of disenfranchised Latino voters in the country, at over 10%. The state also ranks second for the overall percentage of voting age residents who can’t vote due to a felony conviction, as well as for the percentage of Black voters banned from the polls. In the past four years, an additional 35,000 Tennesseans with felony convictions have lost the right to vote. Meanwhile, just 35 have restored their right to vote.

Wade Hinton, vice president of diversity and inclusion for Unum and former attorney for the city of Chattanooga, today announced he will run for mayor of Chattanooga, the Times Free Press reports. Hinton was Chattanooga’s first African American city attorney from 2013- 2018. Prior to that he served as deputy general counsel for Volkswagen Group of America's Chattanooga operations after having worked at Miller & Martin, Snipes Roberson and Hinton and Shumacker & Thompson. Hinton was also a former director of the Hamilton County Title 6 program and served as a consultant to County Mayor Claude Ramsey on issues related to diversity and minority business programs. He served on the TBA Young Lawyers Division Board and was a member of the TBA Leadership Law Class of 2006. Hinton said he wants to lead Chattanooga as a city that doesn't just recover "but becomes a model for equity and diversity and inclusion in city government."