Rutherford County lawyer Mark Stephen Moore received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court on Nov. 21. The court found that Moore entered the area of the Rutherford County Probate Court containing probate files and, without permission or authority from the clerk or court, removed one file and a portion of a second file. While the file was in his possession, he also placed two documents in the file not properly filed with the court. When the clerk contacted him later the same day to inquire about the removed file and documents, Moore initially denied his conduct. The following day, he admitted his conduct and returned all probate files or related documents in his possession. Neither removal of the files nor adding material to the files had any impact on any probate proceedings. Moore agreed to a conditional guilty plea acknowledging his conduct violated Rules of Professional Conduct 4.1 and 8.4(c).

Meta Platforms Inc. won a court ruling that its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp do not violate U.S. antitrust law, Bloomberg Law reports. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington D.C. ruled that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) failed to prove the deals allowed Meta to illegally monopolize the social networking market. “Whether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now. The court’s verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so,” Boasberg wrote. The decision is a setback for the FTC, which sued Meta for antitrust violations in 2020 during the first Trump administration.

On Dec. 3, the Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two cases at Bryan College in Dayton as part of the court’s Supreme Court Advancing Legal Education for Students (SCALES) program. SCALES is an initiative launched by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1995 that educates high school students about Tennessee’s legal system and the functions of the judicial branch of government, and provides them with the unique opportunity to hear oral arguments in actual cases in a local community. The court will hear State v. Baylis, involving the sufficiency of evidence for a trafficking for a commercial sex act conviction stemming from a Tennessee Bureau Investigation sting operation, and Lowe v. Bridgestone, a workers’ compensation and premises liability case examining whether Bridgestone qualified as a statutory employer and owed a duty of care to an independent contractor killed on-site. Proceedings will begin at 9 a.m. EST in Rudd Auditorium and will be livestreamed on the TNCourts YouTube page. Read more in a press release from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Former Lipscomb University professor Lauren Pinkston will run for governor as an independent candidate, the Tennessee Lookout reports. Pinkston, a first-time candidate from Columbia, has built her career researching human trafficking prevention and community development. Her campaign will focus on agriculture and education. She holds a doctorate from Clemson University and previously taught in the Lipscomb University College of Business. Pinkston will launch her campaign Saturday with events in Selmer, Columbia and Chattanooga. She joins a crowded field with 10 others vying for the office.

Harvard Law School Library announced Thursday it has released the first complete set of digitized evidentiary documents and trial transcripts from all 13 Nuremberg Trials, marking the 80th anniversary of the first tribunal’s start on Nov. 20, 1945, according to a press release from the law school. The collection, now fully available on the library’s Nuremberg Trials Project website, includes more than 140,000 documents totaling over 750,000 pages, surpassing the roughly 20% previously accessible to the public. The project, which began in 1998, involved years of digitizing, transcribing and cataloging materials that were deteriorating in storage. Harvard officials said the updated archive allows users worldwide to search transcripts, view document analyses and access images, with full keyword searchability expected soon. The Nuremberg Trials prosecuted top Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, creating a foundational historical record of the Holocaust and establishing principles for modern international law.

A coalition that includes a former Metro Nashville Public Schools administrator and parents of Tennessee public school students on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Gov. Bill Lee’s universal voucher law, arguing that the program violates the Tennessee Constitution. According to the Tennessee Lookout, the lawsuit seeks a judgment declaring the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship Act program is unconstitutional and violates the state constitution by shifting public funds to unaccountable private schools that “openly discriminate” against students. In its first year, the program has provided vouchers worth nearly $7,300 to 20,000 students, with lawmakers seeking to double participation next year. The plaintiffs say the law harms public education by funding schools outside the state system. State officials have defended the program as expanding educational options for families.

The Tennessee Department of Revenue will host a free webinar on refunds and penalty waivers on Nov. 25 at 9 a.m. CST. Staff will discuss the process for applying for refunds and penalty waivers, including approvals and denials, statutes of limitations, common issues and more. The webinar is part of a free series the department offers to the public. Registration is available on the department’s website.

Former Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Superintendent Marie Feagins is running in the Democratic primary for Shelby County mayor, The Daily Memphian reports. Records from the Shelby County Election Commission show Feagins has filed a form appointing a treasurer for her campaign. She joins six other contenders in the May primary, with the winner advancing to the August general election. Feagins came to Memphis in February 2024 as the district’s new superintendent. The school board fired her in January 2025, and she has since filed suit seeking to regain the position.

The TBA will host the "Crystal-Clear Communication: Five Techniques to Avoid Ambiguity" webcast on Dec. 18 offering practical guidance for lawyers seeking to improve clarity in their writing. Scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. CST, the program will feature instructor Ryan Standil of Write To Excite, who will use before-and-after examples to demonstrate how to simplify legal concepts, decide when to repeat terms, avoid ambiguous uses of “and,” and identify misplaced modifiers and unclear references. The session is designed to strengthen both email and document drafting, helping attorneys produce writing that is easy to understand, even for nonlawyers.

The American Bar Association (ABA) recently said it has documented more than a dozen reports nationwide of individuals fraudulently posing as immigration attorneys. The update follows an alert in August about an increase in the number of individuals impersonating ABA and U.S.-based attorneys to offer fake immigration legal services. According to the group, the scams typically involve unauthorized use of the ABA name or logo in email addresses, domain names and contracts. The scammers also provide fake immigration documents and bar licenses. The group recommends that those who have been victimized by such fraud contact their local law enforcement, state attorney general’s office, consumer protection agencies or state attorney licensing entity. Read more and get tips for avoiding scams in a recent news release.