President Biden announced today that he will nominate Memphis attorney Andre B. Mathis to replace Judge Bernice Bouie Donald on the U.S. 6th Court of Appeals. Donald said in May that she intends to take senior status as soon as a replacement is confirmed. Mathis is a member of Butler Snow’s Commercial Litigation and Labor & Employment groups where he focuses on contract disputes, internal investigations, premises liability, education law, and employment, transportation and financial services litigation. He is a past president of the National Bar Association Ben F. Jones Chapter, member of the TBA’s Leadership Law 2014 class and member of the TBA’s Diversity Task Force. If confirmed, he would become the first Black man from Tennessee on the court.

Former police officer, prosecuting attorney, and now assistant public defender Joseph “Joe” Lodato announced today that he is running for judge on the Hamilton County General Sessions Court, Fourth Division. Lodato worked for 12 years with the Morris County Sheriff’s Office and Morristown Police Department in New Jersey, as an assistant district attorney general in Knox County, and in private practice for six years before joining the Hamilton County Public Defender’s Office. Lodato lives in Ooltewah. He is an avid outdoors enthusiast and cyclist, and the past president and current member/ride leader with the Chattanooga Bicycle Club. Learn more on his campaign's Facebook account.

Sevierville Municipal Court Judge Lanning P. Wynn retired yesterday after 43 years of service as the city’s first and only judge, the Administrative Office of the Courts reports. Wynn was appointed to the position in 1979 by then Mayor Gary Wade, who also was his law partner at the time. Wynn has served on a part-time basis while maintaining a real estate law practice. He says he is retiring now to spend more time with his daughter and grandchildren who live in Atlanta, but will continue to practice law when he is in town. Jeff Murrell, who has been a practicing attorney with the Sevierville firm Johnson, Murrell, & Associates for 28 years, will take over as municipal judge, the Mountain Press reports.

The U.S. government has reached a tentative agreement to resolve a class action lawsuit brought by a group of nonprofits alleging the federal judiciary overcharged the public for access to court documents through its PACER system, Reuters reports. The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, comes a little more than a year after the federal circuit upheld a ruling that the judiciary had improperly used PACER fees to cover some of its expenses.

As the Tennessee Bar Association prepares to move to new offices, it has a few surplus office desk sets available. If you are interested in any of these desks or desk sets, please contact TBA Assistant Executive Director Barry Kolar at bkolar@tnbar.org. The furniture is available at no cost, however, desks must be spoken for by Nov. 24 and moved from the Tennessee Bar Center by Nov. 29.

The TBA Mentoring Committee will host a free virtual event from 3-4 p.m. CST on Dec. 2. The program will feature guest speakers J. E. "Buddy" Stockwell III, executive director of the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP), and Rachel Rosenblatt, employment counsel with Zillow, who will talk about burnout, stress and services provided by TLAP. To RSVP for the event, email Ateia Aldridge.

The Biden administration this afternoon suspended Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) enforcement of its COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandate for large private businesses, The Hill reports. OSHA said in a statement on its website that while it is confident in its power to protect workers amid the pandemic, it is suspending activities related to the mandate based on a stay and directive from the 5th Circuit of Appeals to “take no steps to implement or enforce” the rule until further notice.

Over the last few weeks, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board has issued guidance on a number of issues. In October, the board ruled that a medical case manager’s notes are discoverable by an employee, rejecting the employer’s arguments that the notes were protected by the common interest doctrine, attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine. At the end of the month, the board clarified the term “incapacity for work” in occupational disease cases, ruling that an employee may file for benefits even if the worker remained on the job full-time since the alleged injury. On Nov. 1, the board announced it adopted new Telehealth for Workers’ Compensation Rules and a new C-42 Choice of Physicians form, both of which took effect on Oct. 19. And on Nov. 8, it provided guidance on the credibility of an employee’s statement, awarding benefits despite inconsistencies in the worker’s account of how he became injured.

The Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Claims this month raised more than $12,500 for Kids’ Chance, an organization that supports children whose parents die on the job. The Nashville law firm of Manier & Herod sponsored the auction event at the bureau's annual conference. According to Kids’ Chance, 120 Tennesseans died on the job in 2019. Nationwide, there were 5,333 fatal occupational injuries that year. The Kids’ Chance non-profit provides educational opportunities and scholarships for the children of these workers.

Hawkins County lawyer Whitney Suzanne Bailey was reinstated to the practice of law today. Bailey was suspended by the Tennessee Supreme Court on Jan. 20, 2020, for two years, with 45 days to be served on active suspension and the remainder on probation. After filing a petition for reinstatement, a hearing panel of the Board of Professional Responsibility found that she had complied with the terms and conditions of her suspension. In addition to reinstating her law license, the court directed her to engage a practice monitor for the remainder of her probation period.