Reuters reports that the United States and Taiwan reached agreement on the first part of their "21st Century" trade initiative this month, covering customs and border procedures, regulatory practices and small business. Taiwan's Office of Trade Negotiations called the agreement "historically significant" and said Taiwan aimed to finalize negotiations on all remaining issues by the end of the year. The pact is not expected to alter goods tariffs. The text on customs and trade facilitation is expected to reduce red tape for U.S. firms to export products to Taiwan, and the texts on good regulatory practices and services regulation seek to streamline operating licenses for firms seeking to operate across borders and promote fair competition opportunities.

Nashville residents will have an opportunity to meet the 12 candidates running for city mayor this summer at a series of forums to be held throughout Davidson County. Mayor John Cooper has decided not to seek reelection. The deadline to register to vote is July 5. Early voting begins July 14 and the general election will be held Aug. 3. All forums are open to the public but require prior registration. Visit the Nashville Banner for an updated schedule.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory last week warning organizations about BianLian ransomware. BianLian is a ransomware developer, deployer and data extortion cybercriminal group that has targeted organizations in the United States and Australia since June 2022. The group gains access to victim systems, exfiltrates victim data, then extorts money by threatening to release data if payment is not made. Access the full report here.

The TBA International Law Section included a course on ransomware (taught by Thomas Ritter of Maynard Cooper & Gale) as part of its virtual 2023 forum, which can be purchased on-demand here.

Attorneys for Kingston area coal workers and Jacobs Solutions have settled lawsuits related to the clean up of a coal ash spill in 2008 that released 5.4 million cubic yards of waste, reported KnoxNews. The spill engulfed area homes and surged into the Emory River Channel in Roane County. Jacobs Solutions, formerly known as Jacobs Engineering, had been contracted by TVA to manage sitewide safety and health. Former workers or their family members filed more than 300 lawsuits claiming health problems as a result of their work for Jacobs. The settlement came while both parties were waiting on a judgment from the Tennessee Supreme Court on whether workers could proceed to a second trial.

THAPAR, Circuit Judge. For nearly three years, seven sovereigns have been embroiled in negotiations over who gets to manage the Great Lakes fisheries. The merits of those negotiations aren’t before us, only an antecedent question of civil procedure: is the Coalition to Protect Michigan Resources (“the Coalition”) entitled to intervene in those negotiations just as the parties are approaching a deal? Under our precedent, the answer is no. Because the district court properly denied the Coalition’s motion to intervene, we affirm.

The Appellee, Joseph Lester Haven, Jr., was originally convicted of rape of a child and two counts of aggravated sexual battery for crimes committed against his stepchildren, for which he received an effective forty-year sentence. After his convictions were affirmed, State v. Joseph Lester Haven, No. W2018-01204-CCA-R3-CD, 2020 WL 3410242, at *1- 2 (Tenn. Crim. App. June 19, 2020), the Appellee filed a petition seeking post-conviction relief based on trial counsel’s failure to challenge the State’s compliance with the Tennessee Code Annotated section 24-7-123, the statute which authorizes a video recording of a child to a forensic interviewer to be introduced as evidence at trial, but only when certain requirements are met. The Obion County post-conviction court granted relief, and the State now appeals. Following our review, we reverse the judgment of the postconviction court, reinstate the Appellee’s convictions, and remand for execution of judgments consistent with this opinion.

This appeal primarily concerns the compulsion of a physician’s deposition testimony in a health care liability action. In 2014, a child was born via cesarean section and suffered permanent brain damage and severely debilitating injuries. By and through her next friend and mother Brittany Borngne (“Plaintiff”), the child sued the doctor who delivered her and the certified nurse midwife who was initially in charge of the birthing process, among other defendants. The trial court dismissed all claims of direct negligence against the defendant physician but allowed the plaintiff to proceed against the physician on a vicarious liability theory as the midwife’s supervising physician. However, during his deposition prior to trial, the physician refused to opine on the midwife’s performance outside of his presence. The trial court declined to require the physician to do so, and after a trial, the jury found in favor of the defendants. The Court of Appeals, in a divided opinion, partially reversed the judgment. The intermediate court concluded, among other things, that the trial court committed reversible error in declining to order the physician to answer the questions at issue in his deposition and remanded for a new trial. After review, we hold that a defendant healthcare provider cannot be compelled to provide expert opinion testimony about another defendant provider’s standard of care or deviation from that standard. We therefore conclude that the trial court here properly declined to compel the defendant physician’s testimony. Accordingly, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and affirm the trial court’s judgment.

The TBA Committee on Racial & Ethnic Diversity (CRED) will host "Overview of Landlord and Tenant Laws," a free webcast with committee member Christina Magrans-Tillery. Topics for the June 9 program include rights and obligations of parties, repairs, eviction process and discrimination issues. Learn more or register here.

Judge Camille R. McMullen has been reappointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court to another term as a member of the Board of Judicial Conduct, commencing on July 1 and expiring on June 30, 2026.

Don't miss the Policing in America CLE presentation from the TBA and Tennessee Alliance for Black Lawyers (TABL) at the TBA Convention in Knoxville. There are over 18,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, all with their own rules. Chief Paul Noel of the Knoxville Police Department, Chief Celeste Murphy from the Chattanooga Police Department and Assistant Chief Dwayne Greene of the Nashville Police Department, as well as federal public defender Dumaka Shabazz, will discuss how these differences impact the communities they serve. The panel will be moderated by Brooklyn Sawyers Belk, the Knoxville Police Department attorney and deputy chief. A reception will follow the program. Register for the convention now to take part in this and other programming.