Belmont University College of Law has issued a statement following an article from the University’s student-run newspaper, the Vision, featuring the stories of four past and present female students who say they were treated unfairly by the law school during pregnancy. In the statement published on the Vision's website, Belmont says certain allegations made in the original article don’t “align with the student-centered values with which our law school strives to operate.” The school also referred to its handbook, which states that any pregnant student or new mother with health issues should contact the associate dean for academic affairs who, if possible, will work with them on making up missed classroom time. The Vision spoke again with the women interviewed and all four stood by their stories.

Attorney Bill Haltom will sign copies of his new book Why Can’t Mother Vote? Joseph Hanover and the Unfinished Business of Democracy during a special event on Jan. 7 in Memphis. Haltom’s book, which will be available on Dec. 23, tells the story of Rep. Joseph Hanover of Memphis and his role in the fight for woman suffrage and the passage of the 19th Amendment. The event will take place at Bounty on Broad from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Get more information on the event or reserve your signed copy now.

It's the holidays, so maybe you're feeling tired and a little overwhelmed? Maybe work and family demands are too much, but you feel like you just have to "soldier on"? Here's something that will help you reclaim your moxie to battle stressful events like personal and family illness that knock your work and life out of balance. Earn one dual (online) CLE hour.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee will hold a legal clinic Dec. 14 from 9 a.m. to noon at its office in Blount County. The event will take place at 307 Ellis Ave., Maryville 37804. For more information call LAET at 865-951-1818.

Are you dreaming of a white Christmas? Well, maybe not in Tennessee. But you can take a trip with the TBA, Jan. 25-30, to a snowy paradise just minutes from Aspen and earn 15 hours of CLE! The annual CLE Ski program is in its 35th year with dynamic speakers and a CLE schedule designed to make the most of your ski experience.

What is it about forgiveness and understanding that is so hard to do for ourselves? Attorneys are known for being task masters and critical of themselves and others. On the one hand, it makes us good at what we do but on the other hand it can be self-destructive. Sometimes things don’t work out as well as we would like or don’t work out at all. If you have done your best, knowing that your best changes from day to day and situation to situation, then think about giving yourself some grace. How does that work? It can be as simple as saying to yourself, “I give you grace.” Or it can be slowing down to do something relaxing if you have been running at full speed. Or it can be giving yourself permission not to load the dishwasher when you are exhausted. Basically, it’s cutting yourself some slack.

Legal groups have two clinics planned for tomorrow. In Nashville, Legal Aid of Middle Tennessee & the Cumberlands will hold its McHugh Legal Help Clinic at the Belmont Ministry Center, 2005 12th Ave. S. (the former home of the Bass Street Baptist Church) from 8:30 to 11 a.m. For more information call 615-244-6610. In Murfreesboro, the Rutherford/Cannon County Bar Association will hold a free legal clinic beginning at 3 p.m. at Greenhouse Ministries, 309 S. Spring St., Murfreesboro 37130. No appointments are needed.

Seventeen candidates have pulled election petitions for the Shelby County General Sessions clerk race, the Daily Memphian reports. The political scramble for the office began in November when incumbent clerk Ed Stanton Jr. told his staff he would not be seeking a third full term. The filing deadline for the March 3 primary is noon tomorrow.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today stayed the execution of death row inmate Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, the Tennessean reports. Abdur'Rahman was to have been executed in April 2020 but the court allowed additional time for the lower courts to consider whether his death sentence should be converted to life in prison given prosecutorial misconduct that occurred in his case. In August, Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk acknowledged that racial discrimination occurred during jury selection. Funk negotiated a deal that would have replaced the death sentence with life in prison, but Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery said that deal was improper and appealed the decision.

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday heard arguments in another case regarding the Affordable Care Act, the fifth time the justices have reviewed the law, Nashville Public Radio reports. The suit, brought by insurance companies participating in the program, claims that the law’s requirement that the government reimburse insurers that lose money from covering preexisting conditions was violated when Congress barred use of federal funds for that purpose. The companies claim that the government has cheated them out of $12 billion.