The Tennessee Bar Association will be closed on Monday following our week-long virtual convention. The TBA staff continues to work remotely, but you can find contact information for each of them on the TBA.org website. Full listings of continuing legal education courses are also available online.

An event tomorrow will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the murder of Elbert Williams. The program will be live streamed on the Tennesseans for Historical Justice’s Facebook page at 10 a.m. CDT. Williams was a civil rights activist and an NAACP president who was murdered in Brownsville in 1940. Lawyer Jim Emison, who previously practiced in Crockett and Haywood counties, has worked to honor Williams, including writing a book on his life titled “Elbert Williams: First To Die.” Learn more about the case.

The Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services has moved its annual Equal Justice University conference to a virtual event due to health concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The event will take place Sept. 9-10. TALS also is accepting nominations for its Access to Justice awards: the Janice M. Holder Award, B. Riney Green Award and New Advocate of the Year Award. Nominations should be submitted by July 20. Questions should be directed to Joy Reed.

Since the Entertainment and Sports Law Section could not hold its annual forum this past spring, the section executive council has planned a series of webcasts for the summer. The first installment "Busy is a Bad Word" will take place June 30 at 1 p.m. CDT and will look at how society’s definition of success can lead to stress, illness and dissatisfaction. The one-hour program will explore how to detach from the addiction of being busy, what self-care means, and how to create and maintain lifestyle changes to improve well-being without damaging productivity.

A joint research effort from the National Association of Law Placement Foundation and the University of Texas School of Law’s Center for Women in Law claims to be the first in-depth look at how law experience of minority women differs from that of their white and minority male classmates, Law.com reports. “Women of Color-A Study of Law School Experiences,” found that while 70% of white male students gave race relations on their campuses a positive review, only 40% of minority women agreed. The overarching takeaway from the extensive study is that minority women are less satisfied with their law school experience than their white peers. Among minority women, 82% reported that they were “satisfied” with their law school experience, compared with 89% of white women. Just 30% of minority women said they were “extremely satisfied” with their law school experience, compared with 44% of white men. 

Davidson County lawyer Newton S. Holiday was today temporarily suspended from the practice of law by the Supreme Court of Tennessee. The court found that Holiday did not respond to a disciplinary complaint from the Board of Professional Responsibility, an action that, under Section 12.3 of Supreme Court Rule 9, provides for the immediate temporary suspension of an attorney’s license. This suspension remains in effect until dissolution or modification by the Supreme Court. 

Outgoing Tennessee Judicial Conference President Judge Don Elledge today announced results from the conference’s election of new officers, the Tennessee State Courts website reports. 26th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Roy B. Morgan Jr. will succeed Judge Elledge as president of the conference, 14th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge L. Craig Johnson moves into the role of president-elect, 25th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge J. Weber McGraw is now vice-president, 11th Judicial District Chancellor Pamela A. Fleenor is the new moving vice-president, 30th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Mary Wagner becomes the new secretary and 24th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Donald E. Parish is treasurer. President Judge Morgan also appointed 30th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Valerie L. Smith and 30th Judicial District Criminal Court Judge J. Robert Carter Jr. as convention co-chairs and 17th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge M. Wyatt Burk and 12th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Justin C. Angel as hospitality co-chairs. Judge Morgan also appointed new members to the TJC Executive Committee: 11th Judicial District Criminal Court Judge Barry A. Steelman, Eastern Section; 19th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Jill Bartee Ayers, Middle Section; and 30th Judicial District Criminal Court Judge Jennifer Johnson Mitchell, Western Section.

After a second round of testing for the COVID-19 virus, eight staff members and six inmates at the Hamilton County Jail have tested positive, the Chattanoogan reports. All inmates who tested positive are reported to have been asymptomatic at the time of testing. Employees who tested positive are under isolation at home, while inmates who tested positive have been quarantined in a separate area of the jail and are receiving medical treatment and review from Erlanger Health System. Sheriff Jim Hammond said that jail personnel are “going to great lengths” to follow CDC guidelines and keep the facility sanitized. The jail has a capacity of 505 beds and there are currently 358 inmates housed at the facility.

 The co-directors of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and its affiliated political organization TIRCC Votes are stepping down and will be replaced by an internal candidate, the Nashville Post reports. Lindsey Harris joined TIRCC in 2008 and Stephanie Teatro in 2012 and together have led TIRCC since 2014. The organization’s current policy director, Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, is set to succeed the two as executive director. Under the leadership of Harris and Teatro, TIRCC nearly tripled its staff to 24 and established TIRRC Votes in 2018. Sherman-Nikolaus moved to Nashville from Guatemala in high school and is the first person of color to lead TIRRC, which was founded in 2003. She previously worked for the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict and Amnesty International, and she holds a master’s degree in conflict, security and development from King’s College London. 

Michelle Greenway Sellers started her year as TBA president on Thursday when she was sworn in by Justice Roger Page during the Lawyers Luncheon program. Greenway Sellers takes the reins from now Immediate Past President Sarah Sheppeard, who, before passing the gavel, handed out President’s Awards to TBA general counsel, Ed Lanquist, the entire TBA staff and TBA Executive Director Joycelyn Stevenson. After being sworn in, Greenway Sellers spoke on the initiatives she has planned for the 2020-2021 bar year, including plans to highlight lawyers in the state who have gone above and beyond in their communities and in the legal profession. She made a push for members to send her the names of those attorneys who have made an impact in both areas. You can watch Greenway Sellers’ swearing-in and speech on the TBA’s YouTube page.