Ten attorneys from Tennessee were yesterday admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court during the 37th annual TBA Academy. TBA President Tasha Blakney moved for admission of the members during a private ceremony at the court in Washington, D.C. Some in the group rounded out the day with a tour of the White House. Attorneys admitted before the high court were Terry Adkins, Brittany Bartkowiak, Kurt W. Bartlett, James Edwards, Tera Hambrick, Chris Holder, Charlotte Mattingly, Robin Moore, Marie Scott and Brandy Spurgin. See more pictures from the event.

Five current or former IRS employees have been charged with defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program. According to court documents, the defendants submitted fraudulent loan applications to both programs that collectively sought more than $1 million and used the funds for cars, luxury goods and personal travel. The defendants each face wire fraud charges, with one defendant facing both wire fraud and money laundering charges. Read the release from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District.  

Forty people became U.S. citizens yesterday during the Middle District of Tennessee’s first in-person naturalization ceremony since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tennessean reports. The ceremony was held at Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage and included an address from Chief District Court Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. “We are Americans because our citizenship is grounded on a foundation of shared ideas brought from many countries, many races and many cultures,” Crenshaw told the crowd. He also emphasized responsibilities that come with citizenship, including voting and jury duty. There were 4,456 citizens naturalized in 2019 before COVID-19. That dropped to 932 in 2020 and 431 in 2021. So far this year, there have been 538, according to the Middle District of Tennessee.

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in its legal battle to have a third party review the thousands of pages of government records he stored at his Florida home. The filing asks SCOTUS to lift a stay granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that allowed the Justice Department to review more than 100 classified records taken from Mar-a-Lago during its August search. Trump’s legal team argues the federal appeals court erred by allowing the Justice Department to appeal a move that was procedural in nature. Read the full story from The Hill.

Witness an all-star lineup of women attorneys discuss resiliency in our profession during times of change, nontraditional legal careers, women supporting other women and much more during the “Raising the Bar” program on Nov. 10. Produced by the TBA Women in the Profession Committee, the in-person event will kick off with a keynote address from retired Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle on withstanding career adversity, overcoming challenges and growing from those experiences. Programming will run from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. CST at Baker Donelson’s Nashville office and will be immediately followed by a networking reception. Learn more and register for the program.

An amended lawsuit claims Memphis police failed to arrest Cleotha Henderson for a 2021 rape even after a second witness implicated him in the crime, the Daily Memphian reports. Alicia Franklin, who sued the city last month for failing to properly investigate her case, claims the Memphis Police Department’s inaction played a role in the kidnapping and murder of Memphis jogger Eliza Fletcher. Henderson was charged in Fletcher’s case in September and days later charged with Franklin’s rape. The amended lawsuit claims MPD detectives questioned an unnamed woman described as Henderson’s girlfriend shortly after Franklin reported her rape to police and that the girlfriend gave evidence to the police that implicated Henderson in the crime. The suit states that, if the police had acted then, “the abduction and murder of Eliza Fletcher would not have occurred.”

Prison reform advocate Alex Friedmann has agreed to a settlement with the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) over its use of solitary confinement for pretrial detainees, the Associated Press reports. Friedmann sued TDOC last year for the restrictive conditions of the “hardened” cell at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution he was housed in for nearly two years before he’d been convicted of a crime. He was at the facility under a “safekeeper” order, which allows some pretrial inmates to be housed in a state prison instead of local jail. According to the settlement, TDOC agreed to a series of changes to safekeeper policies. Friedmann says he waived all monetary damages in favor of the policy changes. He was arrested in 2020 for hiding three handguns, ammunition, handcuff keys and hacksaw blades inside the walls of Nashville’s new jail during construction. Friedmann was convicted in July and is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.

Five cases are set for the Tennessee Supreme Court’s October docket. The high court will hear four cases in Nashville beginning at 9 a.m. CDT, with the final case to be submitted on briefs. Oral arguments will be livestreamed on the TNCourts YouTube page. Cases will include Kenneth J. Mynatt v. National Treasury Employees Union, Chapter 39 et al.; Emergency Medical Care Facilities, P.C. v. Division of TennCare et al.; Ernest Falls et al. v. Mark Goins et al.; Robert Crotty, et al. v. Mark Flora, M.D.; and Brian Philip Manookian v. Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. The Administrative Office of the Courts has more details on each case.

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has announced three new additions to his office, the Daily Memphian reports. Gerald Skahan will serve as special assistant for post-conviction litigation, Haden Lawyer will be an assistant district attorney and Nicole Harris is the office’s new senior adviser for communications and community engagement. “These additions to our team represent diversity, experience and above all, an abiding interest in delivering equal justice under the law for everyone in Shelby County,” Mulroy said. The DA’s office is seeking to fill additional attorney and non-attorney roles. Email info@scdag.com for more information.

Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp has announced five new leadership positions in her office, the Chattanoogan reports.  The leadership team includes Executive Assistant District Attorney Kevin L. Loper, Deputy Assistant District Attorney Steven Moore, Gang and Violent Crime Prosecutor Austin Scofield, Chief Homicide Prosecutor Michael Dowd and Child Sex Abuse Prosecutor Stephani Brown. “These prosecutors reflect my priorities,” Wamp said. “To say I am proud of my office would be an understatement. Wamp was elected to her position in August and took office on Sept. 1.