In light of recent legal challenges, mentoring programs can be used by corporations and firms as an effective way to retain diverse legal professionals. Read more about this approach in a recent article from Bloomberg Law.

The November/December 2024 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal is now available online! This issue's cover story profiles recently retired Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger Page and his journey to the bench. Hillel Frankel explores how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in artistic creations has launched major rights questions across the artistic spectrum, and Colton Adams, Leah Bennion and Eric Lyons explain that as businesses adapt to the requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act, it is critical to understand its implications and take proactive steps to ensure compliance. President Ed Lanquist Jr. underscores TBA's commitment to access to justice, Buddy Stockwell tackles anxiety in the legal profession and John Williams reviews Judge Richard M. Gergel's "Unexampled Courage." Enjoy these and other articles covering a range of legal topics.

A majority of the Judges of this Court in regular active service has voted for rehearing en banc of this case. Under Sixth Circuit Rule 35(b), “[a] decision to grant rehearing en banc vacates the previous opinion and judgment of the court, stays the mandate, and restores the case on the docket as a pending appeal.” Accordingly, it is ORDERED that the previous decision and judgment of this court are vacated, the mandate is stayed, and this case is restored to the docket as a pending appeal. The Clerk will direct the parties to file supplemental briefs and will schedule this case for oral argument as soon as possible.

In this interlocutory appeal, the employer argues the trial court erred in denying its motion for partial summary judgment. The employee reported pain in his right shoulder while working on an assembly line for the employer. At an expedited hearing, the court determined the employee was likely to succeed at trial in proving his injury was primarily related to his work but denied the employee’s request for certain temporary benefits. Thereafter, the trial court entered a scheduling order with deadlines to identify expert witnesses and file expert proof. The employer then filed a motion for summary judgment, alleging the employee did not meet those deadlines, which supported dismissal of the claim. The trial court determined that the employee, acting in a self-represented capacity, disclosed his authorized treating physician as his expert witness, but it held the remainder of the motion in abeyance so the parties could obtain the expert’s opinions. The parties then deposed the expert, who testified the employee had sustained an injury arising primarily out of the employment and would need continued medical care but retained no permanent medical impairment. The employer renewed its motion for summary judgment, asserting it was now a motion for partial summary judgment in light of the physician’s testimony establishing the compensability of the claim but also negating an essential element of the employee’s claim given the lack of any evidence of permanent medical impairment. The trial court denied the motion, and the employer has appealed. After careful review of the record, we affirm the trial court’s order for reasons other than those stated by the court, and we remand the case.

Rideshare drivers in Tennessee are advocating for legislation to ban out-of-state drivers from operating within the state. Drivers have formed an organization to advocate for change and say they are in the process of working with an attorney to create a proposal to share with lawmakers next month, aiming for its introduction during the next legislative session, Fox Chattanooga reports. Drivers argue that the influx of out-of-state drivers, and a ban on out-of-state drivers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Kentucky, has oversaturated the market, leading to decreased earnings. The group will also be holding a strike regarding this issue on Nov. 20.

Dennis Bruce Francis, a Knoxville attorney and advocate for voting rights, died Tuesday at age 78. Francis received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1974 and went to work as general counsel at Eastern State Psychiatric Hospital (later Lakeshore Mental Health Institute). He was a member of the Knoxville Bar Association, served as chair of the Knox County Election Commission and was a member of the state Democratic Executive Committee. The family will receive friends on Nov. 4 from 5 to 7 p.m. EDT with a Rosary at 6:30 at Rose Funeral & Cremation, 6200 Kingston Pike, Knoxville 37919. A funeral mass will be held at noon EST on Nov. 5 at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 645 St. John Court, Farragut 37934.

Amazon asked a federal judge in Seattle to dismiss a multibillion-dollar consumer lawsuit case that claims the company’s cloud-based voice service Alexa illegally collected and recorded private conversations without consent. Amazon said in a federal court filing on Wednesday that after years of litigation, consumers had failed to show the company engaged in unfair or deceptive practices, Reuters reports. “Alexa recordings in fact contain none of the private, salacious or personal details they claimed in their complaint,” Amazon told the court. The plaintiff filings said the consumers “either knew or reasonably should have known how Alexa worked.” The lawsuit, filed in 2021, claimed Amazon violated state wiretap laws through its collection and storage of data from Alexa.

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday announced that three railroad projects in Tennessee will receive up to $25.7 million in federal infrastructure grants. Funded projects include upgrades to a railroad from Jackson to the northwest corner of the state, improvements to 13 miles of track between Manchester and Morrison, and a new rail yard in Watertown, east of Nashville, the Tennessee Lookout reports. The funds, distributed by the Federal Railroad Administration, are part funding dedicated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to 122 rail improvement projects across the country.

The November/December 2024 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal is now available online and arriving in mailboxes soon! This issue's cover story profiles recently retired Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger Page and his journey to the bench. Hillel Frankel explores how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in artistic creations has launched major rights questions across the artistic spectrum, and Colton Adams, Leah Bennion and Eric Lyons explain that as businesses adapt to the requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act, it is critical to understand its implications and take proactive steps to ensure compliance. President Ed Lanquist Jr. underscores TBA's commitment to access to justice, Buddy Stockwell tackles anxiety in the legal profession and John Williams reviews Judge Richard M. Gergel's "Unexampled Courage." Enjoy these and other articles covering a range of legal topics.

A Muslim civil rights organization is calling on the Knox County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) to allow women to wear their hijab if they are forced to sit for a mug shot, Knox News reports. According to the paper, this is a policy followed by many police agencies nationwide out of respect for constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion. The statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations comes less than a month after a Knoxville woman sued the KCSO in federal court because the agency published a mug shot of her taken without her hijab after she was arrested in May, and it still remains accessible on third-party mug shot databases. The woman is seeking damages and policy changes to accommodate Muslim women.