The TBA’s 2024 Environmental Forum will take place in person on Nov. 15 in Nashville. This year’s program will address topics such as endangered species litigation, underground storage tanks, drinking water, the Chevron decision, brownfields, ethics and more. Breakfast and lunch will be included. The program will feature Stephanie Durman and Ellery Richardson with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Office of General Counsel; Jaz Boon, Bridgestone Americas; and Emily Vann with the Tennessee Attorney General's Office.

Trust account compliance is essential to maintaining client relationships, keeping your practice in good standing, and preventing the risk of being disbarred. With our “Guide to Ensuring IOLTA Account Compliance,” you’ll learn how to successfully manage trust accounts — including arranging a recordkeeping system, generating trust and client ledgers, and preparing a reconciliation process. You’ll also discover how LawPay makes trust account management easy with built-in tools that help to correctly separate earned and unearned fees, protect your trust accounting against third-party debiting, and perform three-way reconciliation. Download your copy today.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today held that a party could not recover attorney’s fees for fighting a SLAPP lawsuit when the person bringing the suit dropped the case. In the matter before the court, Robert E. Lee Flade sued several defendants based for what he considered to be disparaging remarks on social media. In response, two defendants filed petitions under the Tennessee Public Participation Act (TPPA), arguing that that the suit was brought primarily to chill speech rather than to prevail on the merits. Before the petitions were heard by the trial court, Flade voluntarily dismissed his suit. The defendants sought payment of their attorney’s fees, as allowed under TPPA, but the court found that the dismissal precluded consideration of the fee request. Read more in a release from the court.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced a $52 million multistate settlement with Marriott International to resolve a data breach of one of its guest reservation databases that affected 131.5 million guest records. The breach exposed personal information such as contact details, birthdates, passport numbers, and payment card information. Under the settlement, Marriott agreed to strengthen its data security practices, provide consumer protections and pay $52 million to states. Tennessee will receive $919,043.00 from the settlement, according to a press release.

The list of those applicants who achieved a passing score on the July 2024 Uniform Bar Examination in Tennessee will be released Friday by the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners. Results will be posted by the board by 2 p.m. CDT and will be available on the TBA.org website as soon as they are released. The board also recently announced that applications for the February 2025 exam, originally scheduled to open on Oct. 1, will open later in October due to updates.

PER CURIAM. Antoine Thompson appeals his conviction and sentence for murdering a fellow inmate while imprisoned. He argues that (1) the exclusion of his experts’ testimony was improper; (2) his charge under 18 U.S.C. § 1118 for murder while “under a sentence for a term of life imprisonment” should have been dismissed because the underlying life sentence is unconstitutional; and (3) the medical examiner’s testimony violated his Confrontation Clause rights. For the reasons stated below, we affirm.

Appellant filed this petition for recusal appeal after the trial court denied a motion to recuse. Because we can find no evidence in the record of any bias that would require recusal, we affirm the trial court’s denial of the motion.

In this appeal, we examine the intersection of the rule governing the voluntary dismissal of a civil action, Tenn. R. Civ. P. 41.01, and the statutory scheme of the Tennessee Public Participation Act (“TPPA”), Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 20-17-101 to -110 (2021). Robert E. Lee Flade filed suit against several defendants over what he considered to be disparaging remarks that were made on social media. Two of the defendants, Stephanie Isaacs and the Bedford County Listening Project (“the BCLP”), each filed not only a motion to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Rule 12.02(6) of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure, but also a petition to dismiss pursuant to the TPPA. The TPPA petitions sought dismissal of the complaint with prejudice, an award of attorney’s fees and costs, and an award of sanctions. Mr. Flade filed responses, and both the motions and the petitions were set for hearing. However, before the trial court conducted the hearing, Mr. Flade voluntarily nonsuited his complaint. As a result, the trial court entered an order of dismissal without prejudice. Ms. Isaacs and the BCLP sought to have the trial court adjudicate their TPPA petitions notwithstanding the dismissal of the complaint. The trial court determined that Mr. Flade’s nonsuit concluded the matter and declined to adjudicate the TPPA petitions. On appeal as of right, the Court of Appeals affirmed. Flade v. City of Shelbyville, No. M2022-00553-COA-R3-CV, 2023 WL 2200729, at *1 (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 24, 2023), perm. app. granted, (Tenn. Aug. 9, 2023). We granted permission to appeal. Based on our review of applicable law, we conclude that although the right to take a voluntary nonsuit is subject to certain limitations, the mere filing of a TPPA petition is not among them. Thus, we hold that the trial court correctly declined to adjudicate the pending TPPA petitions after Mr. Flade voluntarily nonsuited his complaint. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

Shelby County lawyer Larry A. Weissman has received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court. The court found that Weissman was not diligent in checking a client’s case status, which led to him not discovering that the case, which had previously been dismissed, was never reopened. This led to a delay in moving the case forward. Weissman also did not consult with the client about how her case was being handled and did not abide by her decision to set the case for trial. Later in the case, he stopped communicating with the client, stopped doing any work on her case and disregarded the client’s requests that he withdraw. His actions were determined Rules of Professional Conduct 1.2(a), 1.3, 1.4(a), 1.16(a) and 3.2.

Knox County lawyer Kristen Crye Stevenson has received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court. The court found that Stevenson “knowingly and repeatedly” failed to notify her client that the court overseeing the client’s workers’ compensation case had ordered the employer to approve medical treatment while the case was pending. Stevenson also repeatedly failed to appear at court-ordered conferences and hearings and failed to submit required filings. These actions led to her client being assessed sanctions, fines and attorneys’ fees in excess of $16,000. Her actions were determined to violate Rules of Professional Conduct 1.2, 1.3, 1.4(a), 3.2 and 3.4(c).