Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III recently joined a bipartisan coalition of all 56 attorneys general calling on Congress to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs. Such drugs are defined as having a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. The Drug Enforcement Administration issued a temporary scheduling order in 2018 but that action is set to expire in February 2020. Legislation pending in Congress would make the Schedule I classification permanent. Read the letter sent to legislators.

The law license of Davidson County lawyer Michael Leonard Underhill was transferred from disability inactive status to active status on Dec. 10. Underhill was placed on disability inactive status in September 2018. He filed a petition for transfer to active status on Nov. 15.

The Memphis Bar Association, along with its Access to Justice Committee and Young Lawyers Division, will hold a legal clinic Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ben Hooks Public Library, 3030 Poplar Ave., Memphis 38111. Typical issues handled at this clinic include family law, landlord/tenant, expungement, wills/POAs, bankruptcy, debt, employment and consumer claims. For more information, email Anne Fritz or arrive a little before 10 a.m. that morning for a brief training session.

“The Art of Arbitration: From A to Z” is the theme of the TBA’s Construction Law Forum 2020. During this full-day program, participants will hear speakers from across the state cover all aspects of arbitration. The program will provide a total of 6.25 CLE hours, including one hour of ethics credit. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. CST at the Tennessee Bar Center in Nashville with programming running from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Find out more and register now.

The Supreme Court today appointed three new members to serve on the Access to Justice Commission. Amber D. Floyd, Professor Joy Radice and Monty Burks, Ph.D will begin their terms on April 1. Floyd is the senior assistant city attorney in Memphis and has worked with the ATJ Commission in the past to develop expungement clinics across the state. Radice is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Programs at the University of Tennessee College of Law and facilitated the first multi-county expungement clinic in the 10th Judicial District in 2018. Burks is the Director of Faith-Based Initiatives for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. The new appointees will replace Gail Ashworth, Ann Pruitt, and Sharon Ryan, whose second three-year terms expire on March 31.

The Knox County Board of Education voted down a controversial policy on Wednesday night that would have allowed schools to have a “Released Time Religious Instruction” program, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The program would have excused students from school for one hour to attend a course in “religious moral instruction." The vote was five against adopting the policy and four in favor.

The fourth and final juvenile to escape from Nashville’s Juvenile Justice Center has been captured, the Tennessean reports. Brandon Caruthers, 17, who is facing charges in an armed robbery case that has been transferred to adult court, was arrested today at an apartment complex in Antioch. Caruthers was one of four teens on work detail who exited the detention center after their supervisor left them to address a fight. That supervisor, and one other employee, have been fired and charged with facilitating the escape through recklessness, a class C felony.

The Tennessee Law Lab Inc., an ABA-recognized law incubator, recently celebrated its first year in business. The Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with offices in downtown Knoxville and a goal "to provide new attorneys and solo practitioners a solid foundation for practicing law." That includes offering mentorship, office space, conference room space, a receptionist, phone forwarding, unlimited commercial copying/ printing, shredding and other amenities. In its inaugural year, the Lab helped 15 attorneys jumpstart their law practices, 11 of whom were newly licensed attorneys, three were experienced attorneys looking for office space solutions, and one was a law student. Read all about it in the December issue of Dicta. Contact chair and president Michael J. Stanuszek for more information.

The Memphis Bar Association has honored Burch Porter & Johnson attorney Charlie Newman with the Judge Jerome Turner Lawyer’s Lawyer Award. That award is voted on by MBA membership and given to an attorney who has been practicing for at least 15 years and has exemplified the aims and aspirations embodied in the Guidelines for Professional Courtesy and Conduct during that time. The Daily Memphian has more on Newman’s award and his remarkable history in Memphis, including his help representing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the sanitation workers’ strike, his role in the creation of the Big River Crossing and more.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris will honor retired Environmental Court Judge Larry Potter and departing General Sessions Court Clerk Ed Stanton Jr. with Lifetime Achievement Awards tomorrow, the Daily Memphian reports. Potter established the county’s environmental court and retired in 2018. Stanton was appointed as clerk in 2011, elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2016. The awards presentation will take place tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. in the criminal justice auditorium of the Walter L. Bailey Jr. Criminal Justice Center at 201 Poplar Ave.