What have the first 100 days under President Joe Biden’s administration looked like for immigration law? Find out during the 2021 Immigration Law Forum on May 6 from 9 a.m. until noon CDT. Bruce Buchanan of Sebelist Buchanan Law in Nashville also will tackle immigration cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, other pending litigation, ethics and more. Become a member of the Immigration Law Section today for discounted savings on the program.

Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. is being investigated by the District Attorneys General's Office for the 17th Judicial District. Attorney General Robert Carter was appointed by the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference as special prosecutor for the criminal investigation, the Daily Memphian reports. That decision was made after Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich recused herself from the case to avoid any appearance of impropriety due to funding her office receives from the County Commission. Carter will investigate whether Ford acted improperly when he allegedly proposed a grant for Junior Achievement of Memphis & the Mid-South in 2019. That organization later bought $45,000 worth of computers from Ford through a company called E&J Computers. In a report for the county, attorney Brian Faughnan concluded that Ford had violated the county’s code of ethics by not disclosing that the grant money would go to his company and him. He also said Ford’s conduct was “not just negligent but intentional.”

Gallatin law firm, Mason & Associates, has announced the opening of a Nashville office. The firm, formerly known as Heritage Law Group PLLC, focuses on elder law and estate planning. The Nashville branch may now be reached at 615-619-2791 or by email at info@planyourlegacy.com.

A state appellate court has reversed a sanctions order given by Williamson County Circuit Court Judge Michael Binkley and removed him from that case, the Tennessean reports. In July 2018, Binkley hit Nashville attorney Brian Manookian and his law partner with more than $700,000 in contempt sanctions in a lawsuit between warring lawyers. That ruling came after Binkley suspected Manookian of tipping off the press about a secret expungement of Binkley’s arrest in a 2010 prostitution sting. That expungement was handled by disgraced former judge, Casey Moreland. Before he handed down the sanctions order, Binkley made public statements to attorneys and in court vowing revenge against Manookian. “My day will come,” Binkley told a courtroom of attorneys weeks before his ruling against Manookian. Those statements, the appellate court said, would indicate “that the judge may have sought retribution against Mr. Manookian for a perceived wrongdoing unrelated to the contempt charges.” The appeals court struck down Binkley’s sanctions order and there will be a new hearing in the case before a new judge.

Attorney William Richard “Rick” Baker passed away suddenly at his Blount County home on March 3. He was 58. Baker earned his law degree from the University of Memphis in 1988 and practiced as a plaintiff’s attorney his entire career. He was a member of the American Association for Justice and the Tennessee Association for Justice. Memorial donations can be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. A private service will be held at a later date.

In honor of Women’s History Month, the TBA has rallied its past, current and future female presidents for a one-hour conversation on their experiences, influences and the impact women have made on the legal profession. The virtual panel will take place on March 24 from 3 to 4 p.m. CDT. TBA Executive Director Joycelyn Stevenson will moderate the panel, which will include: former TBA presidents Sarah Sheppeard, Cindy Wyrick, Jackie Dixon, Gail Ashworth, Marcy Eason and Kathryn Reed Edge; TBA Vice President Tasha Blakney; TBA President-elect Sherie Edwards; and current TBA President Michelle Greenway Sellers. Register now.

The legal profession in Tennessee has a storied history of strong women who broke down the barriers that stood between them and the practice of law. Early examples of those trailblazers include Lutie Lytle and Marion Griffin.

Lytle secured many “firsts” in her legal career: first Black woman to earn a law degree in the South; first woman, of any color, to be admitted to Tennessee’s bar; first African American female member of a national bar organization. Though Lytle was the first woman admitted to the state bar, she taught at Central Tennessee College’s law department instead of actively practicing. She later moved to Topeka, where she became the first Black woman admitted to the Kansas bar and became a dedicated pro bono lawyer whose practice was focused on fighting the oppression of women and African Americans. Russell Fowler’s 2018 article for the Tennessee Bar Journal, “A Woman of Many Firsts,” tells of how Lytle passed an oral bar exam and earned her admission to the state bar in a time when the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that women were not qualified to be lawyers.   

Several years after Lytle was admitted to practice, Marion Griffin began her seven-year battle for admission to the state’s bar. Her petition to be licensed, In Re Griffin, 71 S.W. 746 (Tenn. 1901), was dismissed 3-2 by the Tennessee Supreme Court on common law grounds. In 1907, Griffin persuaded the General Assembly and governor to pass a statute allowing women access to the bar. She would later become the first woman elected to the Tennessee House and she practiced law in Memphis for more than 40 years. Featured in the Tennessee Bar Journal’s January 2011 issue, Sam Elliott’s article, “The Progress of Women Lawyers,” has more on Griffin.

The good work of Lytle and Griffin opened the door for women to practice law in Tennessee and set the stage for more trailblazers to follow. Tennessee Bar Journal Editor Suzanne Craig Robertson details the lives and work of early women lawyers in the state in “It’s Not Just for White Men Anymore” from the TBJ April 2005 issue and in “50 Years of Pioneers: Early Women in Tennessee Law” from the July 2001 issue.

Jackson attorney David Hardee passed away on March 17 after a battle with the COVID-19 virus. He was 67. Hardee received his law degree from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University and went on to help form the law firm now known as Hardee, Martin & Owens in 1986. Hardee was admitted to practice in all Tennessee courts and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee and was a member of the state and American Associations for Justice and the Inns of Court. Hardee’s memorial service was held at Northside Church yesterday and a video of the service can be found on Northside’s Facebook page. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Women of Hope Recovery Center, P.O. Box 94, Medon, TN, 38356, or RIFA, P.O. Box 2301, Jackson, TN, 38302. 

Girls Preparatory School of Chattanooga won the 2021 Tennessee State High School Mock Trial Competition Saturday night, prevailing over Montgomery Bell Academy of Nashville in the state’s first virtual mock trial competition. It was also the first state competition win for the school. The team will now represent Tennessee in the virtual National Mock Trial Competition in May. The championship round was presided over by Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger A. Page and scored by a team of TBA and TBA Young Lawyers Division leaders. At a virtual awards ceremony earlier in the day, Coffee County Central High School won the Team Sportsmanship Award, which is chosen by all participating teams. A list of all award winners and team rankings is available here. Missed the live stream? Watch the awards ceremony or the championship round here.

TBA CLE will host Real Estate Concerns in Elder Law on March 23 from 11 a.m. until noon CDT. This live virtual event will be led by Barbara Moss from Elder Law of Nashville and George Mudter of Mudter, Patterson & Cox PLLC, who will discuss the intersection of elder and real estate laws, including, best practices, common concerns and more.