The 2021 TBA Annual Convention is being presented this year as both an in-person and virtual event. For those not yet ready to travel, the virtual option includes all the same CLE and key programs as the in-person option but at a significant savings. Programming will be offered each day the week of June 14. Early in the week, Tennessee law school alumni will gather for virtual mixers, while virtual programs will focus on civility, the TBA’s Practice Management Center and legal trends beyond COVID. On Thursday, join colleagues gathered in Memphis for the annual Bench Bar program and popular Better Right Now CLE via Zoom. And on Friday, don’t miss the annual Legislative Update CLE and Lawyers Luncheon, where colleagues will be honored for their service to the bar and the profession, and Nashville lawyer Sherie Edwards will be sworn in as TBA's 142nd president. Register here for the virtual option.

Former State Rep. Joe Carr, R-Lascassas, has announced that he will run for Rutherford County mayor, TNJ: On the Hill reports. Incumbent Bill Ketron has encountered several legal problems pertaining to his former insurance business and most recently received a $135,000 civil penalty for questionable campaign contributions and expenditures. Carr served as a state representative from 2008 until 2014 when he launched an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate in the Republican primary against Lamar Alexander. He also ran unsuccessfully for two different U.S. House seats and the state Republican Party chair. He was hired to work in Gov. Bill Lee’s administration in 2018, but left after roughly a year.

Davidson County lawyer Mark Christopher Scruggs was today censured by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Scruggs represented a client against criminal charges alleging rape of a child. The victim in the case had been removed from the home and removed from the mother’s custodial rights. Scruggs arranged with the mother for the victim to be interviewed by a private investigator but failed to seek and obtain permission from the court-appointed custodian prior to the interview. A public censure is a rebuke and warning to the attorney, but it does not affect the attorney’s ability to practice law.

U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough in Knoxville has denied a temporary restraining order that would have stopped the priority status for restaurants and bars owned by women and certain minorities in President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief package, the Associated Press reports. The complaint targets the three-week period from May 3 until Monday when only funding requests from businesses owned by women, veterans or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals will be processed. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty brought the lawsuit for a restaurant owner in Harriman, Tennessee. It claims the program pushes white males “to the back of the line” and puts them “at significant risk” of missing out on funding. McDonough was not swayed by the argument, citing data from the federal government that shows how businesses owned by women and some minorities “have suffered more severely” than others during the pandemic.

Gov. Bill Lee this week signed two criminal justice reform bills into law, predicting that the measures would break cycles of crime and punishment and keep families intact, the Tennessean reports. The new laws are intended to divert more people away from state prisons and to expand support services for people who are leaving prisons after serving their sentences. The administration is expected to push for broader sentencing reform next year. Lee is also expected to sign legislation that creates harsher penalties for several crimes, including drag racing, farm vandalism and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. After the bill signing, Lee told reporters that his criminal justice work would pair “smart” reforms with some tougher penalties.

The Administrative Office of the Court, in partnership with the Department of Children’s Services, Metro Nashville Public Schools and the Davidson County Juvenile Court, has created a pilot program with the goal of increasing on-time graduation rates for students in foster care. Project Wrap Around hopes to achieve its goal by facilitating improved communication among stakeholders like DCS and MNPS and through Wrap Around Meetings, which will be attended by students in foster care, school administrators, counselors, teachers, MNPS and DCS, guardians ad litem and CASA advocates when appropriate. The project’s stakeholders hope to have conversations about expanding beyond Davidson County after the next school year. The AOC’s website has more on its efforts to make Project Wrap Around successful.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III has joined 47 attorneys general in calling on congressional leaders to pass the Fraud and Scam Reduction Act —a resolution aimed at fighting scams that target seniors. The act would establish an advisory group to collect data from retailers, financial services and wire-transfer companies and use it to educate employees on how to identify and prevent scams against seniors. It would also create the Office for the Prevention of Fraud Targeting Seniors to help monitor emerging scams, disseminate information on common fraud schemes and more. Read more from the AG’s office.  

Save the date for this year’s Animal Law Forum, taking place live and in-person at the Nashville Zoo on Sept. 24. Programming will run from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. CDT and will provide attendees with a unique opportunity to brush up on trends and advancements in animal law, while networking and enjoying the fun and activities the zoo offers. The zoo’s president and CEO and the board’s general counsel will discuss conservation efforts and laws affecting procurement and care for zoo animals. Other topics include ethical considerations for animals and the law, legislative updates, laws governing farm animals and more. Zoo admission, breakfast and lunch are included with the program.

The TBA Litigation Law Section will host a roundtable discussion tomorrow, featuring panelists who will provide present-day insights of judicial independence in the shadows of our separation-of-powers history. In the Shadow of History: Separation of Powers and Tennessee Courts will take place on May 26 from 3 until 4 p.m. CDT. Todd Presnell of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings will moderate a panel that will include Nashville School of Law Dean William C. Koch Jr., University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law professor Steven J. Mulroy and former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice and University of Tennessee College of Law professor Penny J. White. The roundtable is free and open to the public, with optional CLE credit for a fee of $45.

Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk has said that the city will not be enforcing Tennessee’s controversial transgender bathroom law, The Tennessean reports. The bill, HB1182/SB1224, as enacted requires “a public or private entity or business that operates a building or facility open to the general public to post a notice at the entrance of each public restroom of the entity's or business's policy of allowing a member of either biological sex to use any public restroom.” Funk in a statement said “I believe every person is welcome and valued in Nashville. Enforcement of transphobic or homophobic laws is contrary to those values." When asked about Funk's statement, Gov. Bill Lee told the paper: “his decision will be his own … I signed the law and it'll be his decision how he wants to respond to it.” Funk is not the only city official voicing opposition to the legislation. Nashville Mayor John Cooper says such measures are tantamount to a "do not come here" sign, and that a “platform of hate and division” could have a negative impact on the state’s economy.