The July 25 Elder Law Forum will feature a session on elder abuse and undue influence. Panelists Amy Bryant and Barbara Moss will detail warning signs of abuse and dementia, and how lawyers can use their position to spot it. Issues to be examined include what you can and can’t do when the client has diminished capacity, how to determine the difference between influence and undue influence, issues with joint representation of principal and agent, and more. Other topics at the forum include VA benefits, TennCare, strategies to protect IRAs using Medicaid annuities, ethics and more. Elder Law Section members receive a discounted rate to attend. Learn more and register here.

More than 100 new Tennessee laws go into effect today, many affecting criminal justice practice. Notable examples include the classification of all robberies as a crime of violence, addition of offenses to be considered “racketeering activity," a mandate for TBI to create and maintain a persistent domestic violence registry and new definitions for abortion exceptions. Tennessee District Public Defenders Conference Deputy Executive Director Chelsea Curtis and Director of Research and staff attorney Kirk Yoquelet have compiled a comprehensive list of Tennessee criminal law statutory updates for 2025. View the update here.

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

Chris Smith reviews Valley So Low: One Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in the Wake of America’s Great Coal Catastrophe by Jared Sullivan, which studies the Kingston coal ash disaster, the clean up, the lawsuits that followed after workers became sick and what he characterizes as "the near-total failure of the American tort system to hold powerful corporations to account when their wrongdoing devastates the environment and destroys people’s lives."

A good attorney would never purposely ignore relevant information or leads during discovery. But in the July/August cover story, Travis Vest argues that if you are not requesting and reviewing metadata, you may be inadvertently overlooking invaluable impeachment evidence or information that leads to an unexpected witness.

The Tennessee General Assembly adjourned its 114th session on April 22, following the passage of a $59.8 billion state budget that received bipartisan support, including reallocating approximately $180 million of funding from Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed budget amendment in order to fulfill legislators’ priorities. The TBA's Legislative Affairs team provides an update on TBA's legislative work this year.

Tennessee Bar Association members who have died recently are memorialized.

In Tennessee, and many states, owners on major construction projects often hold back or “retain” a portion of any payment otherwise due to a general contractor in response to the general contractor’s invoice (draw request or request for payment). Many out-of-state owners and/or developers are unaware of the rigid statutory obligations in Tennessee that surround this protocol. Phillip Byron Jones takes a closer look at Tennessee law and how it affects parties involved in construction projects.

Newly installed TBA President Heidi Barcus shares her vision for the 2025-2026 bar year in her inaugural President's Perspective column.

At its February 2025 Mid-Year Meeting, the American Bar Association (ABA) Board of Governors unanimously adopted Resolution 608, creating a brand new ABA Model Rule on Conditional Admission. This new model rule supplants the prior rule from 2008, and it also represents 17 years of medical advances in diagnostics, treatment and monitoring to support fitness to practice law. Buddy Stockwell explains the significance of the new rule in this installment of The Buddy System.