Tennessee is joining with 29 other states and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to sue Live Nation Entertainment Inc. for antitrust violations related to Ticketmaster’s unrivaled control of concert ticket sales. The suit, which is to be filed in a New York court this week, comes almost 15 years after the two entities merged in 2010, Bloomberg Law reports. According to a press release from Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Live Nation controls two of the most important parts of Tennessee’s live entertainment industry: ticketing and artist tours. “Since Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift ticketing debacle in 2022, my AG colleagues and I have relentlessly sought justice for Americans wanting to attend concerts without having their pocketbooks pillaged by Live Nation’s monopoly,” Skrmetti said. “I am glad to partner with the DOJ in the bipartisan effort to break up the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly.”

Memphis lawyer Miles Mason will receive the TBA’s prestigious Justice Joseph W. Henry Award for Outstanding Legal Writing on June 14 during the group's Annual Convention in Memphis. The award, which will be presented at the Lawyers Luncheon, was established more than 40 years ago and is given each year to the lawyer who writes the most outstanding article published in the Tennessee Bar Journal for the preceding year. Mason will be recognized for his article “You Are the Father!: Untangling Custody Rights in Tennessee Between Unmarried Parents,” which appeared in the November/December 2023 issue of the Journal. Mason is the founder of Miles Mason Law Group PLC and a certified public accountant. He is a nationally recognized speaker who presents continuing education seminars across the country. His father-in-law, the late Judge Joe B. Jones, was the first recipient of the Joe Henry Award in 1981. Read the TBA's press release for more information.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on May 21 suspended 23 attorneys for failure to pay the annual registration fee; 11 of them also failed to file proof that client funds are held in an IOLTA-compliant account. View the fee suspension order and IOLTA suspension order. See the list of all lawyers suspended and reinstated for fee and IOLTA violations in 2024 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

Stuart Teicher, The CLE Performer, is back with three ethics webcasts on July 11. Don’t miss “What Emojis Teach About Lawyer Legal Ethics” at 9 a.m. CDT, “Cat Proverbs and Attorney Ethics” at 10:15 a.m. and “What Overrated Rock Bands Teach About Attorney Ethics” at 11:30 a.m. The titles say it all but for more information click on the links above to learn more or register to attend.

You’ve probably used a live chat window on a website; maybe with a business like Amazon, FedEx or an airline. Often times it’s handier than being on hold, even if you like hold music. Add the same capability to your website for client and prospect engagement. This chart compares major live chat vendors. Find this and more in the Opening a Firm section of TBA’s Law Practice Management Center.

Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) Duncan School of Law hosted its second annual moot court competition in honor of LMU Law alumnus Matthew B. Long last month. The annual competition serves as the tryout for rising second-year law students to become a member of the school's moot court team. Moot court accepts no more than 15 students each year based on their oral advocacy and legal writing skills. This year, 30 students participated in the competition. The winners were Halie Higgins of Erwin and Carly Ebersberger of Mount Juliet. Read more in a release.

On May 20, the Tennessee Supreme Court decided not to impose reciprocal discipline on Reagan Michelle Taylor Fondren. It previously had directed Fondren to notify the court why it should not impose the same discipline as that imposed by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. In addition to considering Fondren’s response, the court states that an independent investigation was undertaken by the Board of Professional Responsibility, which determined that reciprocal discipline was not appropriate in this circumstance. The court also approved a request to file documents in the case under seal.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has reinstated Coffee County lawyer Matthew Lee Harris. The court had suspended Harris on April 17 for being substantially noncompliant with a Tennessee Lawyer Assistance Program (TLAP) monitoring agreement and posing a risk of substantial harm to the public. Harris petitioned the court for dissolution of the suspension on May 16. The Board of Professional Responsibility reported that Harris had remedied his noncompliance and sufficiently established his fitness to practice law. The court also approved a request to file documents in the case under seal.

In preparation for the Aug. 1 primaries and the Nov. 5 general election, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is urging all Tennesseans meeting eligibility requirements to consider becoming poll workers for this year’s election cycle. For more information about becoming a poll worker, visit https://sos.tn.gov/pollworkers.

McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge. Timothy Finley is serving a Michigan prison sentence while suffering from severe psychiatric disorders. Over several weeks in 2016, Finley’s mental health hit a breaking point: he repeatedly cut himself with—and swallowed—multiple razorblades. At the same time, his persistent misconduct made him difficult to manage. Eventually, prison officials placed Finley in a heavily restrictive cell in administrative segregation and kept him there for approximately three months. Finley now challenges that decision. He brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging violations of the Eighth Amendment and his right to procedural due process. He also included disability-discrimination claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

Finley targets two prison decisionmakers. Erica Huss, the deputy warden, assigned Finley to administrative segregation. Then Sarah Schroeder, who temporarily served as deputy warden during Huss’s leave of absence, kept Finley in administrative segregation for months. Both officials knew about Finley’s serious mental-health problems and repeated instances of self-harm. In addition, Huss made her decision despite a warning from Finley’s mental-healthcare provider that solitary confinement was likely to worsen his mental health. And Schroeder failed to carry out the mental-healthcare provider’s request that Finley be promptly transferred to a treatment program. In the process, both deputy wardens likely violated Michigan’s correctional policies about mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement.

The district court granted summary judgment to Huss and Schroeder on all claims. We agree that summary judgment was warranted for Finley’s procedural due process and statutory discrimination claims. But summary judgment was improper for Finley’s Eighth Amendment claim because he presented evidence sufficient to find that the deputy wardens violated his clearly established rights. We thus AFFIRM in part, REVERSE in part, and REMAND for further proceedings.