Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands announced today that attorney Russ Overby has retired from the firm. Overby, who joined the nonprofit law firm in 1974, specialized in poverty law, serving most recently as the lead attorney of the Health, Income and Education Practice Group. Highlights of his career include fighting for detention center reforms, resulting in the closure of several old correctional facilities; securing more than $500 million in retroactive Social Security benefits for some 70,000 disabled Tennesseans; and advocating for fair Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) policies. Overby worked in the firm’s Nashville and Murfreesboro offices. He also worked for a time at the Tennessee Justice Center. In 2008, he received the Ashley T. Wiltshire Public Service Attorney of the Year Award from the TBA.

Gary Wade, former chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court and dean of the Duncan School of Law at Lincoln Memorial University, has joined London Amburn as a shareholder. Wade retired from the law school on June 30 after serving as dean for five years. Prior to his academic post, he served more than nine years on the Tennessee Supreme Court, including two years as chief justice. He also served 19 years on the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, eight of those as the presiding judge. In a release from the Knoxville-based law firm announcing the news, Wade said he is excited to be joining a firm known for its “forward-thinking, multidisciplinary team approach,” commitment to clients and strong investment in continuing education and training. Knoxnews has more on the story.

A recent episode from Clio’s “Daily Matters” podcast pulls from a number of previous episodes to showcase multiple perspectives on mental wellness in the legal profession. From dealing with stress, anxiety or substance abuse, to managing yourself better and practicing mindfulness, there are many ways to protect overall well-being during this difficult time. Speakers include Jeena Cho, mindfulness educator with the “Resilient Lawyer” podcast; Paula Davis-Laack, founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute; and Allison Wolf, lawyer coach at ShiftWorks.

East Tennessee State University is seeking a compliance counsel to ensure that the university complies with relevant state and federal laws and regulations. Job responsibilities include staying up to date on legal and regulatory developments, interpreting laws and regulations in the context of the university’s operations, and ensuring that key personnel are informed of the laws and regulations applicable to their duties. Learn more about the position and how to apply on the school's website.

The U.S. Supreme Court released a statement today with news that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being treated for a possible infection and will spend several days in the hospital following a medical procedure, the Associated Press reports. The high court said Ginsburg went to a hospital in Washington on Monday evening after experiencing fever and chills. This afternoon, she underwent a procedure at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed last August when she was treated for a cancerous tumor on her pancreas. The statement said the justice “is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment.”

Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle on Tuesday denied an attempt by the American Civil Liberties Union and Memphis law firm Apperson Crump to hold the state in contempt for making first-time voters cast ballots in person, the Daily Memphian reports. The ACLU and Memphis attorneys argued the state was violating an order from Lyle to expand absentee voting by continuing to require first-time voters who registered by mail or online to vote in person the first time they vote. Lyle ruled that the groups had not explicitly asked her to block that law, but will allow them to request to amend her ruling. The first-time voter requirement is also being challenged in federal court, but time is running out to make a change before the July 30 deadline to request an absentee ballot for the Aug. 6 primary election.  

Davidson County Lawyer Newton S. Holiday was today reinstated to the active practice of law by order of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Newton received a temporary suspension on June 18 for failure to respond to the Board of Professional Responsibility’s request for information. Holiday then provided an appropriate response and on July 10 filed a motion to set aside order of temporary suspension. The Board filed a response yesterday acknowledging the sufficiency of Holiday’s response and had no objection to his motion.

The Office of the Post-Conviction Defender is now accepting applications for an assistant post-conviction defender and an investigator. As part of a team, both the assistant post-conviction defender and the investigator will work with one another and with paralegals on behalf of clients to develop both guilt and innocence and sentencing claims, as well as grounds for clemency. The assistant defender must have a law license or eligibility for admittance to the Tennessee State Bar within six months of being employed. A law license isn’t required for the investigator position and all levels of experience will be considered. Read more on both positions and learn how to apply here.  

Federal inmate Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday morning, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a federal judge’s last-minute injunction, the ABA Journal reports. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday blocked the Trump administration from resuming executions just hours before Lee was set to die, but in a 5-4 decision this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated that injunction, saying Lee and three other federal inmates had not made a showing that justified last-minute intervention. The inmates argued against the federal government’s plans to use the single drug pentobarbital sodium on the grounds that it could cause them to suffer respiratory distress called “flash pulmonary edema.” The court said the drug has been used in more than 100 executions without incident. Lee died two to three minutes after the drug was administered, and he reportedly did not appear to be suffering. Lee, who was on death row for murdering a family of three, is the first federal inmate to be executed since 2003.

The Court of Criminal Appeals will continue its livestream of oral arguments on Wednesday. According to the Tennessee State Courts website, four cases will be heard by Judge Thomas T. Woodall, Judge Robert L. Holloway Jr. and Judge Timothy L. Easter at 9 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. CDT. You can find the livestream on the TNCourts YouTube channel. Subscribers to the channel will receive notice when a case begins.