In March of 2023, the Tennessee state legislature passed the bipartisan Sexual Assault Response Team Act, which required all 95 counties in the state to establish trained sexual assault response teams by the beginning of this year. The teams would consist of multi-disciplinary professionals trained in victim advocacy, law enforcement, criminal prosecution, and health care and mental health services. Currently, only 15 counties have such teams in place. Jennifer Escue, executive director for the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, told the Tennessee Lookout that in some Tennessee counties, tensions between law enforcement and advocates have prevented the kind of collaborative team response to sexual violence that the law was intended to foster. The lack of coordinated response can result in fewer prosecutions of perpetrators and poorer outcomes for victims, she says. In related news, the Lookout also recently reported on how one rural community has become a model for managing domestic violence.

Join members of the TBA Attorney Well Being Committee for a live interactive roundtable on how best to manage work-life balance as a legal professional. This 45-minute Zoom event on Sept. 25 at 12:30 p.m. CDT will feature attorneys discussing their day-to-day practice, and provide effective tools for personal well-being. While geared toward law students and young lawyers, this free event is open to all TBA members, but registration is required. Questions and feedback are encouraged. Submit questions in advance to jword@tnbar.org.

Former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley will join part two of the TBA’s Mockingbirds and the Rest of Us series on Aug. 28. Beasley, a University of Tennessee Law School alumna and judge for nearly 25 years, was the first Black woman to serve as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. She also was the state's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate and served as a fall 2023 resident fellow at Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. Mockingbirds and the Rest of Us is a three-part discussion led by attorneys Buck Lewis and Doug Blaze, the founders of the Institute for Professional Leadership at the University of Tennessee Law School. The sessions examine the role lawyers play in leading their communities using the lens of the "To Kill a Mockingbird" book and recent screenplay adaptation by Aaron Sorkin. Learn more and register here.

Catch this ethics webcast replay of "Current Developments from the Board of Professional Responsibility" (BPR) as part of TBA's Beat the Heat Summer Series. Join colleagues on Aug. 22 at noon CDT to hear from BPR Ethics Counsel Laura Chastain, who will review the latest ethics updates. Register here.

Join colleagues tomorrow from 11 a.m. to noon CDT for a webcast with attorney Jim Romer as he discusses the process of opening a University of Tennessee Medical Center in Jamestown. Register here for this unique program.

A Kentucky woman, Alyssia Moulton, is suing Southern Health Partners, the medical provider for a lockup facility in Montgomery County after she was forced to give birth alone on a toilet while in solitary confinement during pretrial detention. According to Law & Crime, the federal lawsuit alleges that Southern Health Partners exhibited deliberate indifference to Moulton's medical needs, including ignoring her complaints of contractions and failing to provide adequate prenatal care. Moulton's attorney Christopher Smith commented on the suit saying, "Tennessee has one of the highest rates of female incarceration in the nation, which itself has one of the highest rates of female incarceration in the world. We hope this lawsuit shines a light on this often-overlooked social issue and raises awareness of the civil rights of pregnant inmates.”

A new congressionally directed study says the federal judiciary should consider awarding monetary damages to employees who are the victims of workplace misconduct at the hands of judges, and increase transparency about how courts address worker complaints, Reuters reports. The report by the judiciary's research arm and a congressionally chartered academic institution outlines a series of proposals. Federal courts nationally are inconsistent in how they address workplace complaints and lack a comprehensive system to collect and analyze data about those cases, according to the report. The study also found that nearly 25% of courts' websites are missing required information on how employment disputes are addressed. A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said the office is "committed to fostering an exemplary workplace," adding that a working group was assessing ways to build on recent reforms.

Personal information of hundreds of former Shelby County District Attorney’s Office employees was inadvertently distributed via email this past Monday to current employees of the office. The Daily Memphian reports that an emailed spreadsheet contained the names, birthdays and full Social Security numbers of nearly 300 former employees dating back to December 2013. It also included whether the employee was terminated and the cause for termination. The email allegedly came from someone outside of the human relations office. District Attorney General Steve Mulroy said in a statement that the technology department acted quickly to address the issue by recalling the email, identifying those who opened it and retrieving the spreadsheet. The office also is reaching out to former employees to alert them of the incident.

Tennessee-based law firm Bass, Berry & Sims has announced a delay in the start date for its incoming class of associates from September to January 2025. The firm is providing stipends to affected attorneys during this period. The decision, reported by Bloomberg Law, is attributed to an uptick in transactional work, and aims to enhance professional development opportunities for both current and incoming associates. The delay follows a similar trend among other law firms that implemented similar measures during the post-pandemic economic downturn. The firm has offices in Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville and Washington, D.C.

The Biden administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate its latest student loan forgiveness plan, known as the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan. The emergency appeal, filed on Tuesday, seeks to overturn the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals' extended block on the student debt relief plan. U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that the SAVE Plan, which aims to reduce monthly student loan payments for millions of borrowers, falls within the Department of Education’s established authority to regulate income-contingent repayment plans, The Hill reports.