The TBA’s 2024 Litigation Forum is a live virtual event this week on May 16. Programming will include a session covering Tennessee summary judgement, evidentiary privilege and the ethical implications of artificial intelligence from the perspective of the Board of Professional Responsibility. Speakers include Chattanooga attorney David Nagle with Legal Aid of East Tennessee, Nashville attorney Todd Presnell with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings and Tiffany Tant-Shafer with the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. The program will run from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CDT.

Longtime Chattanooga City Court Judge Russell Bean, who served on the bench for more than two decades and retired in 2022, was honored Friday with a portrait unveiling at the Chattanooga Courthouse. Bean said he was most grateful to have had the opportunity to help young people who came before him in the courtroom, where he mostly heard traffic violations. Local 3 News has the story. See photos from the event on Facebook.

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its refusal to grant a rare southern salamander Endangered Species Act protections. The Tennessee Lookout reports that the Berry Cave Salamander, which stretches to a little over 9 inches long, has been found in only a handful of isolated caves — most in east Tennessee — where rapid growth combined with farm runoff, climate change and a legacy of contamination from old quarry mines continues to degrade the creatures’ environment. The largest known population of the salamander lives in the Mead’s Quarry Cave in Knoxville, where its numbers have shrunk by at least 60% over the last decade, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing the CBD.

Appellees brought suit under the Tennessee Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act to recover attorney’s fees incurred in attempting to collect an underlying judgment from one of the Appellants. The trial court awarded Appellees’ attorney’s fees. Because the Act does not authorize the recovery of attorney’s fees, we reverse.

The Estate of John A. Queener (the “Estate”), by and through Personal Representative, Carolyn Q. Junck, seeks to recover funds paid out with respect to two certificates of deposit (“CDs”) owned by the decedent, John A. Queener (the “Decedent”), at the time of his death and funds paid from the Decedent’s checking account during his lifetime. The Estate sued Jim Griffith (“Mr. Griffith”), stepson of the Decedent, and relied upon legal theories of undue influence, fraud and/or fraud in the inducement, lack of competency in the contract, and conversion. Following a bench trial, the trial court awarded the Estate $13,355.05 plus pre- and post-judgment interest against Mr. Griffith to reimburse the Estate for a number of checks that Mr. Griffith wrote from the Decedent’s checking account during the Decedent’s lifetime. The trial court denied the Estate any recovery with respect to the CDs. On appeal, the Estate and Mr. Griffith both raise issues with the trial court’s judgment. Discerning no error, we affirm.

This appeal involves our review of the trial court’s decision to terminate the parental rights of a mother to her two minor children. Having carefully reviewed the record transmitted to us on appeal, we affirm the trial court’s termination of the mother’s parental rights.

Barnes & Thornburg’s Nashville office has relocated to a new building and larger office space of the Broadwest office tower at 1600 West End Ave., Ste. 800, Nashville, TN 37203. Jay Knight, partner-in-charge of the Nashville office, talked about the move in a release saying, “Moving to the Broadwest office tower is a strategic move that will empower our attorneys and business professionals to better serve our clients, foster innovation and deepen relationships in the local community.” The Nashville Business Journal notes that the firm entered the Nashville market last year with the opening of an interim office in The Moore Building at 827 19th Ave. S. The new Broadwest office is more than double the size of its previous space.

Thirteen federal judges on Monday sent a letter to Columbia University's president stating they will not hire law clerks from the university in response to what they called the school’s "failure to deal with pro-Palestinian protests over the war in Gaza." Law.com reports that the letter says, “As judges who hire law clerks every year to serve in the federal judiciary, we have lost confidence in Columbia as an institution of higher education. Columbia has instead become an incubator of bigotry. As a result, Columbia has disqualified itself from educating the future leaders of our country.” According to reporting from Reuters, the head of Columbia's law school responded with a statement asserting that its graduates are "consistently sought out by leading employers in the private and public sectors, including the judiciary." A law school spokesperson did not comment on whether any of the 13 judges had ever hired Columbia Law graduates as clerks.

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has released new episodes of its Court Talk podcast. In "The Mechanics of Appellate Opinions," host Joe Byrd welcomes Stacy Lynch, director of the Court Improvement Program to discuss how attorneys can navigate the juvenile court system effectively, including discussion of Rule 13, Rule 40, and necessary information regarding guardian ad litems, CASA volunteers, Safe Baby Court, court findings of potential dependency and neglect, and more. In "Appointed Counsel," hosted by Judge Jeffrey Usman, judges of the Tennessee Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals pull back the curtain on appellate courts. Judges Jill Ayers, Frank Clement, Tom Greenholtz and Steve Stafford explore a wide variety of topics ranging from arguing cases before appellate courts to the issuance of opinions.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) on Thursday stated that their rate for processing rape kits fell by 64% from the end of 2022 to March of this year. Action News 5 reports that the state’s turnaround times for sexual assault kits drew heavy scrutiny after the murder of Eliza Fletcher in September 2022. TBI had attributed its long delays to staffing woes and low pay.