TBA Law Blog


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Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on May 20, 2020
News Type: Your Career

Legal Aid of East Tennessee is seeking a full-time staff attorney to work in each of its offices in Chattanooga, Johnson City and Knoxville. The position in Chattanooga will focus on general litigation, with a special emphasis on housing. Candidates for the Johnson City office must have three to five years of experience in general litigation. A focus on family law and debtor/creditor law is preferred. Candidates for the Knoxville position, which will focus on housing and consumer law, must have a minimum of three years of experience. Applicants interested in any of these positions should submit a letter of interest, resume, writing sample, and three references to Human Resources Specialist Crystal Lugo by email or by mail to Legal Aid of East Tennessee, 535 Chestnut Street, Suite 360 Chattanooga, TN 37405. Read more about the positions in a post from the Washington County Bar Association.

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on May 20, 2020
News Type: Legal News

The Nashville Bar Association has named Patrick T. McNally as its 2020 Jack Norman Sr. Award recipient. McNally, a 1982 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, practices criminal defense law at Weatherly, McNally & Dixon. He was recognized for his efforts representing the criminally accused and for his contributions to the improvement of the legal profession and criminal justice system. A highlight of his career, the NBA reports, is a case that culminated in a trip to the U. S. Supreme Court and a reversal of his client’s drug conviction, which kept him from being deported. The award is not given every year but only when a deserving individual is to be recognized. Read more in this release.

Posted by: Suzanne Craig Robertson on May 20, 2020
News Type: Legal News

Belmont University College of Law recently announced the winner of its inaugural Legal Fiction Workshop. Freya Cartwright, a rising 3L, wrote the winning entry, “I Know She Tried.” The contest was judged by David Joffe and John Winston Heacock. Belmont’s Legal Fiction Workshop is conducted over the Spring semester as an extracurricular activity for a limited number of 2Ls and 3Ls in good standing. It is taught by Professor Kristi Arth, who designed the workshop as an incubator and space for students to produce creative work worthy of publication. Arth was the first place winner in the Tennessee Bar Journal's Fiction Contest in 2017. Watch for Cartwright's fiction in an upcoming issue of the Journal

Posted by: Kate Prince on May 19, 2020
News Type: Legal News

The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled today that Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program cannot be implemented until the state’s appeal is resolved, WPLN reports. That ruling comes in response to an emergency motion filed by two libertarian groups, the Beacon Center of Tennessee and the Institute for Justice, that asked the court to allow the voucher program to move forward with its rollout deadline while the court decided on its constitutionality. Chancellor Anne Martin earlier this month deemed the program unconstitutional because it violated the state’s “home rule” amendment since it only applied to two counties without their consent. The appeals court upheld that order, but allowed the state to appeal the Chancery Court’s order on an expedited basis.

Posted by: Barry Kolar on May 19, 2020

Tennessee's Supreme Court held its first live-streamed oral arguments today, with the five justices donning their robes and logging in to the Zoom platform to hear three cases, WPLN reports. The high court began video recording proceedings nearly two years ago. And last month, the justices held arguments by video conference which were later posted online. “So today, we take the next natural step,” Chief Justice Jeffrey Bivins said. “We feel like this is a very important step from the standpoint of showing our citizens and having them grow in confidence in our system by showing our courts are open and accessible.”

Posted by: Kate Prince on May 19, 2020
News Type: Legal News

A “pared-down” version of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) was administered online yesterday for the first time in history, Law.com reports. The virtual version of the entrance exam did encounter a few technical problems, however, with some reportedly waiting an hour or more for an online proctor to give them access to the exam, while others were mistakenly told by proctors that they could not use scratch paper during the test. The Law School Admission Council, which administers the test, remained positive about the overall results. About 10,000 people took the virtual exam.

Posted by: Kate Prince on May 19, 2020

U.S. Attorney J. Douglas Overbey of the Eastern District of Tennessee announced yesterday that the Bradley County Sheriff’s office received $41,405 in Department of Justice grants to respond to the public safety challenges posed by the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chattanoogan reports. The grant is available through the Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding, a program authorized by the recent stimulus legislation. The law gives jurisdictions considerable latitude using these funds for dealing with COVID-19.  Potential uses include hiring personnel, paying overtime, purchasing protective equipment, distributing resources to hard-hit areas and addressing inmates’ medical needs.  

Posted by: Kate Prince on May 19, 2020
News Type: Legal News

A lawsuit brought by two students and a teacher against the merger of Belmont University and Watkins College of Art now questions the foundations of the deal, the Tennessee Lookout reports. Last month, the plaintiffs amended their complaint after Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal ruled they lacked standing to stop the merger, and the suit now centers on whether procedure was followed in order to dissolve a trust left by Watkins founder, Samuel Watkins. Attorneys Kevin Teets and Jonathan Fagan, who represent the plaintiffs, question the validity of a 1974 motion that dissolved the original trust. The schools announced in January that Watkins students would begin taking classes at Belmont in the fall and the Watkins campus would be sold, with proceeds going to an endowment for scholarships for its students. The “Save Watkins” Facebook page says the case will be back in court tomorrow.

Posted by: Kate Prince on May 19, 2020
News Type: Legal News

Attorney General Herbert Slatery announced his office has reached a settlement with Santander Consumer USA Inc. after a five-year, multi-state investigation into the auto financing company’s subprime lending practices. Slatery joined a coalition of 34 attorneys general who alleged Santander violated consumer protection laws by exposing subprime consumers to unnecessarily high levels of risk and knowingly placing these consumers into auto loans with a high probability of default. The settlement includes approximately $550 million in relief for consumers with more relief in additional deficiency waivers expected. Santander has also agreed to waive balances for certain defaulted consumers, with approximately $433 million in immediate loan forgiveness. Consumers can find updated information on restitution here

Posted by: Kate Prince on May 19, 2020
News Type: Legal News

The University of Tennessee College of Law will offer a Master of Legal Studies degree beginning in the summer of 2021, officials announced today. The 30-credit-hour degree was approved by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission last week after having been approved by the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees in February. Those who need to be conversant in the law, but do not wish to practice, like enforcement officers, paralegals, cybersecurity experts and others, are the program’s targeted demographic. “We are incredibly excited to be able to offer this degree option to the community,” College of Law Dean Melanie Wilson said. “Our Master of Legal Studies program will offer students an opportunity to gain meaningful knowledge of the law that they can apply to their careers that regularly intersect with the law – without committing to a full J.D. degree.” UT will be the only law school in the state to offer the degree.


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