The Journal’s “back page” content looks a little different in 2025! Introducing “Closing Statements.” We’ll post a question here in each issue and invite you to submit your answer. Perhaps you’ll see your closing statement in the next issue! To get us started, we asked some of our TBA leadership "Why did you become a lawyer?"

The relationship between lawyers and whiskey is one steeped in tradition, craftsmanship and community. TBA President Ed Lanquist Jr. reminds readers to embrace the opportunities that whiskey presents — not just as a beverage, but as a symbol of connection and camaraderie, while approaching it with responsibility and mindfulness.

Read news from the TBA, including an announcement of both the Leadership Law (TBALL) and YLD Diversity Leadership Institute (DLI) classes for 2025, awards received, disaster recovery efforts and more!

Read about the lawyers who have recently been reinstated, disbarred, suspended, censured or transferred their licenses to disability inactive status.

Tennessee Bar Association members who have died recently are memorialized.

The right to seek post-conviction relief is “use it or lose it.” Post-conviction claims are rarely successful, but there are multiple courses of action to consider. Amye Tankersley King and Jake Arning tackle the ins and outs of the process in this issue's cover story.

There are many ways to waive issues before an appellate court; the most common is the failure to include it in the “statement of the issues” section of an appellate brief. Donald Capparella and Jacob Vanzin break down the Tennessee Supreme Court's clarification of this rule and what it means for appellate practitioners.

Memphis attorney Charles Newman was the keynote speaker during the Bench Bar Luncheon at TBA’s Annual Convention in June 2024. These are his remarks as delivered, lightly edited for print.

Tennessee has its version of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. John Day unpacks negligence, gross negligence and the right to bring a claim against the state in this "Day on Torts" column.

Arbitration can provide a more efficient venue to resolve disputes, and it can keep particularly sensitive disputes out of the public record. In this installment of "The Law at Work," Edward Phillips and Brandon Morrow caution that just because an employee signs an agreement with an arbitration provision does not mean that the employee’s claims are subject to the provision.