A Franklin businessman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud in a 13-year bribery scheme, the Nashville Post reports. Gerard Francis “Jerry” Boyle admitted to engaging in the scheme during his time as chief executive officer of Nashville-based Correct Care Solutions, a health care company that operates inside correctional facilities. Boyle provided things of value (gifts, cash, entertainment, travel and campaign contributions) to Robert McCabe, the former sheriff of Norfolk, Virginia, who was been convicted of charges, in exchange for McCabe’s support for the company’s medical services. Boyle is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2022. He faces a maximum of five years in prison. McCabe will be sentenced in January and faces a maximum of 20 years.

A bipartisan committee assembled by President Joe Biden to study potential reforms to the high court released its preliminary findings yesterday, The Hill reports. The committee noted “considerable” risks to court expansion, including the potential to undermine the high court’s legitimacy. The lengthy “discussion materials,” which are broken up into five sections, explore the arguments for and against adding justices to the high court, as well as other potential reforms. The committee met again today to discuss the preliminary findings, which were criticized by some liberal members for its treatment of the court expansion proposal. Two conservative members today resigned from the committee, but did not publicly give a reason for their departure.

The federal judiciary is reviewing its conflict screening process following a Wall Street Journal report that 131 judges failed to recuse themselves from cases involving companies in which they or their family members owned stock, Reuters reports. According to a memo from U.S. District Judge Roslynn Mauskopf, who serves as director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, committee staff for the Judicial Conference, the judiciary's policymaking body, will be directed to eview the judiciary's processes to submit recommendations on ways to "clarify or improve" the conflict screening process. Mauskopf also reiterated the importance of complying with existing financial conflict of interest policies.

Attorneys for death row inmate Pervis Payne are asking a judge to disqualify the Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office from working their client’s case due to a conflict of interest, the Commercial Appeal reports. Payne’s attorney, Kelly Henry, claimed that Assistant District Attorney Steve Jones worked as a capital case staff attorney from 1996 through 1998, providing legal guidance to judges regarding death penalty matters at the same time as Payne's post-conviction and other proceedings were pending in the court. Jones said he did not work on the Payne case as a capital case attorney. The District Attorney General’s Office asked the court to deny the motion to disqualify it. An evidentiary hearing in Payne’s case is set for Dec. 13 to determine whether he is intellectually disabled, which would make him ineligible for the death penalty.

Lawyers Bobby Bramhall and Melia Jones are hoping to help college athletes secure endorsement deals with their new Nashville firm Athlete Licensing Company. The venture comes after changes to NCAA rules, which now allow college athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness (NIL). Bramhall, who serves as president of the company, played baseball professionally for seven years and later served as an assistant athletic director at Texas A&M University. Jones, the group’s executive vice president and general counsel, most recently worked in the Texas A&M University System Office of General Counsel and advised the Texas legislature on the state’s own NIL legislation. Other firms in the NIL space include Burr & Forman, which also launched an NIL practice group that includes two attorneys in Nashville.

Following a report by WPLN and ProPublica, the office of Gov. Bill Lee says judicial authorities should review the actions of Rutherford County Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport. “We are concerned about the recent reports and believe the appropriate judicial authorities should issue a full review,” Lee’s press secretary, Casey Black, said in an email. The report, published last week, found that under Davenport’s lead, Rutherford County jailed nearly half of the children whose cases were referred to the juvenile court. It further claimed that many of the kids had been jailed illegally. WPLN has more on the story.

The Tennessee Supreme Court suspended 11 attorneys today for failure to pay the annual registration fee. Two of them also failed to file proof that client funds are held in an IOLTA-compliant account. View the Oct. 15 fee suspension order and IOLTA suspension order. See the list of all lawyers suspended for fee and IOLTA violations in 2021 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

The Sports Wagering Advisory Council has tapped Nashville attorney Mary Beth Thomas as its new executive director, the Tennessee Journal reports. Thomas has served as general counsel in Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office since 2013. Prior to that, she spent seven years with Nashville’s Waller law firm. The 2019 law legalizing sports betting in Tennessee placed the panel within the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp, but an amendment to the law made it an independent entity in January. The panel voted 9-0 in Thomas’ favor. The other finalists were Scott Sloan, the chief of staff and general counsel to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, and Roger Guillemette, the director of sports betting and casino compliance for the Rhode Island Lottery.

This month on the TBA’s BarBuzz podcast, guest co-host John Wilks of the Nashville law firm Martin, Heller, Potempa & Sheppard PLLC, helps deliver the latest in Tennessee legal news bar association events and happenings. Wilks serves as a TBA Young Lawyers Division board member,  a member of the TBA Leadership Law (TBALL) program’s steering committee and was part of the TBALL Class of 2020. BarBuzz is part of the TBA Podcast Network and can be found online and anywhere you listen to podcasts.

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands will hold three clinics next week. A phone clinic will be held on Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. CDT to provide general advice. The first 15 callers will be accepted. On Oct. 20, LAS will hold a clinic specifically for veterans from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT at Operation Stand Down, 1125 12th Ave. S. Nashville 37203. Finally, on Oct. 23 at 8:30 a.m. CDT, a general advice clinic will be held at the Belmont Clinic, 2005 12th Ave. S., Nashville 37204. To volunteer for any of these clinics, contact Kendra Cheek, 615-780-7131. See all October clinics.