Tennessee Republican Rep. Mark Green on Monday announced that he would resign his position in Congress after a final passage vote on the party's "Big, Beautiful Bill." Green said he was leaving for a position in the private sector that "was too exciting to pass up." The Hill reports that Green's decision to stay until the House gives the GOP’s tax cuts and spending package a final stamp of approval is a relief for Republican leadership, who are contending with a razor-thin majority and passed the same bill by a single vote last month. This is the second time Green has announced his resignation from Congress. His departure will open a seat on the House Homeland Security Committee. Green represents Tennessee's 7th Congressional District, which encompasses parts of Davidson, Montgomery and Williamson counties.

Retired Nashville attorney Dot Dobbins, age 77, died Monday after being struck by a vehicle while walking her dog in Nashville's Germantown neighborhood. Dobbins, a leader in the legal aid and family law communities, practiced law for over 40 years. She began working at the Legal Aid Society (LAS) as a law clerk while at Vanderbilt Law School. After graduation, she stayed on at LAS, practicing at the Matthew Walker Health Center office in North Nashville. According to a Facebook post from LAS, while in law school, Dobbins helped start a women’s center at Scarritt-Bennett and joined the YWCA Board where she helped to raise awareness of domestic violence, including playing a foundational role in opening Nashville’s first domestic violence shelter through the YWCA. She wrote the first order of protection legislation for Tennessee and worked with the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS) to get the legislation passed. When LAS founder and former Executive Director Ashley Wiltshire created the Nashville Family Law Unit, Dobbins became its lead attorney, a position she held for 11 years before leaving LAS to become general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Human Services. Prior to retiring, Dobbins practiced family law, including collaborative divorce. Dobbins was featured in a May 2021 video interview as part of the Nashville Bar Association's Historical Committee. Service information is pending.

Commentators have offered vastly different approaches to the issue of whether arbitrators can and should perform independent legal research apart from the briefs submitted to them by the parties. With the growth of arbitration, it is prudent to reexamine those approaches to the extent they have limited arbitrators’ ability to conduct fulsome legal analysis. In this webcast, Gail Vaughn Ashworth and Chris Sabis will review different approaches to independent legal research, the applicable ethical rules and how courts have approached these issues. The speakers propose an approach that balances accuracy and efficiency with the quality of arbitration rulings and awards. Register for the June 25 webcast.

The Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has provided a notice of intent to release a request for proposal (RFP) for a statewide court case management system and efiling solution for all of the state’s trial courts. According to the AOC, this initiative is a critical element of its strategic vision to modernize court technology and enhance data accessibility across the state's judicial system. The notice, which can be found here, provides early awareness of the RFP to "support broad and fair competition for this procurement and to allow vendors, including those who may desire to partner, adequate time to respond." Interested vendors are encouraged to monitor this link for the full RFP document and submission details, which is expected to be released in July.

A Tennessee law that requires some convicted felons to provide documentation proving they are eligible to vote can stand for now, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has said. The court found that the NAACP did not prove it had standing to bring the suit, Bloomberg Law reports. The group had argued that a state rule requiring some felons to file additional records with their voter registration form violated the National Voter Registration Act. The district court had agreed and blocked the policy. The appellate decision reversed that ruling and remanded the case for proceedings consistent with its opinion. Read the opinion.

Each year the Tennessee Bar Association recognizes outstanding service by attorneys, law students and legal advocates who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to increasing access to justice for underserved individuals and communities in Tennessee. This year, TBA will honor public service award recipients at the Public Service Breakfast set for Thursday as part of the TBA’s Annual Convention in Franklin.

The Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award will be presented to a group of private attorneys who are serving as the legal team representing families from Nashville's Covenant School related to writings left behind by a former student who shot and killed three students and three adults before being killed by the police. Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison member Eric Osborne assembled and continues to lead the team, which has contributed over 1,350 hours to date. The Ashley T. Wiltshire Public Service Attorney of the Year Award will be presented to the executive directors of the state's three Legal Services Corporation (LSC) funded organizations: Ashley Holliday with West Tennessee Legal Services, DarKenya W. Waller with Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands and Deb House with Legal Aid of East Tennessee. The Law Student of the Year Award will be presented to Belmont University College of Law graduate David "Lee" Myers for his extensive pro bono service and dedication to housing justice. Finally, the TBA Young Lawyers Division (YLD) has selected Amy Dorman as the 2025 CASA Volunteer of the Year. Dorman has served CASA Works Inc. in Tullahoma for the past 10 years, working tirelessly with 55 families and advocated for over 113 children. Read more about these award winners in the TBA's press release and in an upcoming issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal. Watch a video of the awards breakfast.

A Chattanooga attorney pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to sexually exploiting a 14-year-old Pennsylvania girl. Patrick Bryant Hawley, 43, coerced the girl into engaging in sexually explicit acts for the purpose of producing images and videos from September to November 2024, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The move comes after Hawley reached a plea deal that includes registering as a sex offender. The charge carries a minimum sentence of 15 years and up to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors dismissed six other criminal counts involving animal crushing, coercion, enticement and child pornography. Hawley was temporarily suspended from the practice of law in November 2024.

Maury County’s 9th Annual Juneteenth Celebration will take place June 21 at Riverwalk Park, 102 Riverside Dr., Columbia. The free event will include live music, food and local vendors. The same day, Cultural Arts Murfreesboro will hold an event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. CDT at Bradley Academy Museum and Cultural Center along South Academy Street. This year’s festival will include a Kids’ Zone with free games and activities, food vendors, artists and live music with dancing. Get details in this article from Williamson Source.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on June 9 issued an order granting permission for the Board of Professional Responsibility to file a response to Brian Kirk Kelsey’s filing seeking immediate reinstatement. It also allowed Kelsey to file a response to the board’s response if he chooses to do so. The court suspended Kelsey from the practice of law in 2022 after he pleaded guilty to an illegal campaign finance scheme. President Donald Trump pardoned Kelsey in March.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on June 3 directed Davidson County attorney Carrie Archie Russell to complete outstanding requirements with the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education (CLE) after she filed a petition for reinstatement. The court ruled that if the outstanding obligations are not satisfied by July 17, it will dismiss the petition for reinstatement.