California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday signed a bill requiring legislative approval for regulatory sandbox spending, the ABA Journal reports. The legislation will limit proposals from the State Bar of California to explore law firm ownership by nonlawyers and allow paralegals to perform certain legal services. The new law also requires the bar to report how much it spent on a 2018 study on online legal services and delivery. Following the study, a bar-appointed task force released a report that recommended allowing qualified non-legal professionals to provide legal services under certain conditions and eliminating prohibitions against fee splitting and non-lawyer ownership of law firms. Chairs of California’s Senate and Assembly Judiciary committees criticized the proposals and raised concern about corporate interests and loosening prohibitions on non-lawyers owning law firms. California is one of the few states exploring attorney regulation changes.

Shaterra Reed Marion has been appointed as a judge on the Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims. Marion, who will serve in the court's Memphis office, has practiced law in Tennessee since 2012, serving as field counsel in Memphis for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company/Law Offices of Julie Bhattacharya Peak since 2014. “Shaterra Reed Marion will be a welcome addition to the Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims in Memphis," Court Administrator Troy Haley said of the appointment. "She has the heart of a public servant, and as a judge I know she will be fair to all parties and reflect the values for which the Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims is known.”

A woman who police now believe was raped last year by the man accused of killing Eliza Fletcher has filed suit against the Memphis Police Department for failing to properly investigate her case, the Daily Memphian reports. Alicia Franklin says in the lawsuit that if her September 2021 assault had been taken more seriously, Fletcher’s abduction and murder could have been prevented. The suit names the City of Memphis as the sole defendant and seeks an unspecified amount of compensation for pain and suffering and other damages. “I was just an average Black girl in the city of Memphis, you know,” said Franklin, who allowed her identity to be published. “I just think it wasn’t a priority.”

This year's Tax Law Forum makes its return as an in-person event, taking place at the Nashville headquarters of global asset management firm AllianceBernstein. Topics for this year's forum include SECURE Act updates; required minimum distributions state business, excise, sales and use taxes; ethics and more! Don't miss this chance to learn from top experts while meeting with other tax law experts and industry leaders. Visit cle.tba.org for more info and to register.

Nonprofit CEO Hal Cato will not be in the field competing to be Nashville’s next mayor, the Nashville Post and Nashville Banner report. Cato, who left his post at Thistle Farms to consider a challenge to Mayor John Cooper, said he had “decided that I am not the right next leader for our metropolitan government.” Still in the race are Council Member Freddie O’Connell and former investment banker and Economic Development leader Matt Wiltshire. Others said to be considering a run are State Rep. Bob Freeman, Council Member Sharon Hurt, former AllianceBernstein COO Jim Gingrich and entrepreneur Quincy McKnight.

Tennessee Freedom Circle, a newly formed nonprofit, held its first training last week to connect attorneys from a variety of practice areas and educate them on how to defend doctors on criminal abortion charges, WPLN reports. “The health care lawyers, with the expertise and regulatory compliance, will need to join with the criminal defense lawyers, who’ve been litigating in state court, who will need to join with the constitutional law experts who’ve been fighting the fights for many years in federal court,” says Nashville attorney and Freedom Circle President Tyler Yarbro. The training aims to educate attorneys on navigating affirmative defense and on how to show the doctor’s actions were justified.

Ted M. Winestone, born Moshe Tuvia Wajnsztejn in Baranowicze, Poland, in 1929 passed away on Sept. 17, one week short of his 93rd birthday. Winestone lost his parents, his younger brother and many extended family members during the Holocaust. Winestone survived the Holocaust after living in the woods with his father's brother and two cousins amongst the Partisans. When World War II ended, Winestone was 15 years old. He had survived typhus, bone-chilling winters, starvation and the ever-present threat of German bullets. In 1947, Winestone emigrated to America, learned English, and graduated from high school and college while working full time. He served in the U. S. Marine Corps (attaining the rank of staff sergeant) during the Korean War and subsequently became a certified public accountant, homebuilder and attorney, attending Southern Law University. He was a member of the Tennessee Bar Association, and his legal and accounting practice served the Mid-South community for more than 50 years. Funeral services were held Sept. 19 at the Sam Abraham Chapel in Baron Hirsch Cemetery.

Nine candidates will compete in a special election to become a Memphis City Court judge, the Daily Memphian reports. The contenders certified by the Election Commission for the nonpartisan judicial race are: former Assistant District Attorney Patience Missy Branham, attorney Latonya Burrow, Environmental Court referee John Cameron, attorney Varonica Cooper, Senior Assistant City Attorney Lynnette Hall-Lewis, attorney Latrena Ingram, attorney William Larsha, attorney Christine Stephens and Interim City Court Judge Carolyn Watkins, who was appointed to the Division 2 position after the resignation of Tarik Sugarmon. Sugarmon left the post after being elected as Shelby County Juvenile Court judge last month.

Hamilton County Commissioners voted Wednesday to name attorney Charles Paty as a magistrate, the Chattanoogan reports. He replaces Andrew Basler, who resigned effective Sept. 11 to join the district attorney's office. Six candidates had made presentations before the commission on Monday afternoon.

Lloyd Senter Adams Jr. died on Sept. 10 at 96. A 1946 graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, he served in the U.S. Army (Infantry) until 1950, mostly with the occupation forces in Austria. Following his Army service, he attended Vanderbilt University School of Law where he served as editor-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Adams practiced law in Humboldt until 1982 when he left his firm of Adams, Ryal & McLeary to join the Thomason Hendrix law firm in Memphis. He served as president of the Young Lawyers Conference of the Tennessee Bar Association in 1960-61 and was a member of the Tennessee Law Revision Commission from 1963-1967. At various times he served as a member of the Tennessee Appellate Court Nominating Commission and the Tennessee Supreme Court Advisory Commission on Rules of Civil Procedure. He became a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Bar Foundation and the Tennessee Bar Foundation, and was a member of the American and Tennessee Bar Associations. A memorial service will be held Sept. 24 at 3 p.m. in the chapel at The Lodge At Shannondale. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to Church Health, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 142, Memphis, TN 38104.