Zipper Law, a boutique law firm in Franklin, is seeking an associate attorney with up to five years experience. Previous family law and/or litigation experience is preferred but not required. Applicants must be currently licensed in Tennessee or a recent successful Tennessee bar applicant. The firm focuses on family law and simple estate planning. Read the full job description and get instructions for applying on TBA’s JobLink platform.

Shaterra Marion was yesterday sworn in as Tennessee’s newest Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims judge. Chief Judge Kenneth M. Switzer administered the judicial oath to Marion, who will sit in the Memphis office. Marion thanked her family for teaching her the value of hard work and acknowledged “standing on the shoulders of others.” Her first settlement approvals took place today. The Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims has more.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon and District Attorney General Steve Mulroy are asking the state to reestablish a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation crime lab in the county, the Commercial Appeal reports. The ask comes after the issue of backlogged rape kits fell under fresh scrutiny after the suspect in the killing of Eliza Fletcher was linked to a 2021 rape via a kit that was untested for nearly a year. Shelby County must send its sex offense evidence to a TBI lab in Jackson for testing. That lab was staffed by just three scientists this summer and the average turnaround time was nearly 49 weeks in July and August. Officials also asked the state to pass a blended sentencing solution to allow Shelby County leaders to expand juvenile supervision.

The TBA Leadership Law (TBALL) Alumni Association this week concluded its annual statewide fall reception series. TBALL is a six-month leadership training program for attorneys with five to 15 years of practice experience. The receptions allow new nominees of the program to mix and mingle with alumni members to get an inside track on the benefits of the program. The series kicked off last week in Nashville at Baker Donelson and continued this week with stops on Monday at Butler Snow in Memphis, Tuesday at Best and Brock in Chattanooga and Wednesday at Egerton McAfee in Knoxville. More than 200 Tennessee attorneys have been nominated for the 2023 program and a class of 35 will be selected in the coming weeks. This year’s program is co-chaired by attorneys Terica Smith of Jackson and Jeffrey Maddux of Chattanooga.

Andrew Delke, a former Nashville police officer convicted of manslaughter after fatally shooting Daniel Hambrick in 2018, was released from jail today, the Tennessean reports. Delke, who is white, fatally shot Hambrick, who is Black, in the back three times as he ran away during a traffic stop. Delke was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting. Under a plea agreement, he was sentenced to three years in prison in July 2021. The agreement allowed him to serve his time in a facility run by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and allowed him to be released in less time with standard jail credits. His release date was previously set for Dec. 3. Delke’s attorney, David Raybin, said his client was released today due to earning jail credits.  

Longtime Lewisburg attorney Walter Woods Bussart died peacefully on Tuesday. He was 80. Upon graduating from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1966, Bussart clerked for Justice Thomas Dyer of the Tennessee Supreme Court. He later founded the Bussart Law Firm in Lewisburg. During his distinguished career, Bussart partnered in law practice with notable lawyers, including Fred Thompson, Barbara Medley, and his daughter, Judge Lee Bussart. He was a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, speaker of the House of Delegates for the TBA and was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, serving in the 90th General Assembly. He was chosen as the Marshall County General Sessions Judge in 1972 and later appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals in 1997. Bussart was featured in an episode of the TBA YLD Presents: War Stories podcast in 2020, when he discussed some of his top cases and his 1994 gubernatorial primary run. Visitation will be held tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT at Bills-McGaugh Hamilton Funeral Home in Lewisburg. Funeral services will begin at 2 p.m. with interment at Round Hill Cemetery in Belfast.

State Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, and his legal team have filed a motion to change his plea of not guilty in his federal campaign finance case, the Tennessean reports. The motion doesn’t say what plea Kelsey would like instead, but the move could signal he’s reached an agreement to avoid his upcoming trial. Kelsey and Nashville club owner Joshua Smith were indicted after federal prosecutors said they illegally shuffled money from Kelsey’s state Senate campaign to his authorized federal campaign committee. Smith last week pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced in June. Kelsey is not seeking reelection.

Law firm Peppel & Palazzolo P.C. is seeking an attorney, or possibly two, to join its office located in east Memphis. Those with an established practice or who want to start a private practice in any legal discipline are encouraged to apply. The TBA’s JobLink site has more on the opening and information on how to apply.

A legal tech company founded by Siskind Susser co-founder Greg Siskind and several of his colleagues was recently featured in the Memphis Business Journal’s MemphisInno. The company, Visalaw.AI, began as an effort by staffers of the Memphis-based immigration law firm to standardize processes across the business and is now its own separate company with significant growth potential. “The products we’re developing are specifically looking for pain points immigration lawyers face in the work they do,” Siskind says. The business has several products on the market, including public access file manager that helps with the complicated process of H-1B visa filings. That tool is currently being used by 400 companies. Visalaw.AI is also working on a 50-state tool to help rural and inner-city employers recruit foreign doctors to underserved areas.

Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) students recently prevailed at two national high school mock trial competitions. The team defended its 2021 first-place win at the Empire Eclipse Virtual Mock Trial Competition last week with a win over United World College (UWC) of Changshu, China. The online field consisted of 24 teams from the United States, Canada, South Korea and China. This week, the team took first place in the Empire Chicago Mock Trial Competition, which involved 32 teams from the United States and Canada. The championship round was held at the Chicago-Kent Law School. MBA student Frank Pierce was recognized as an outstanding witness for the defense while team co-captain Chanden Climaco was recognized as an outstanding attorney for both the prosecution and defense. See photos of the team.