A wellness-focused CLE program, “Attorney Wellness Hour: Movement, Mobility and Mindfulness,” will take place June 13 during the TBA's 2025 Annual Convention. The session will highlight the importance of self-care in maintaining competent legal representation, as outlined in Tennessee Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1. Presenters Brad Bald of Lifestyle Communities and Laura Hull of the Tennessee Court of Appeals will guide attendees through mobility exercises, posture-improving movements and mindfulness techniques designed to counteract the physical and mental stressors common in the legal profession. Learn more about this session and all CLE convention programming on the TBA website.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office nearly doubled its number of immigration detainees in May compared with January, marking the second consecutive month the jail has held more than 300 people on immigration-related matters, according to Knox News. The increase was driven in part by a surge in arrests in Middle Tennessee by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Last month, ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol conducted 468 traffic stops and made 200 arrests in Nashville and surrounding areas. The Knox County Sheriff's Office partners with the federal government to detain those arrested in other counties. The Knox County Jail reported 303 immigration detainees in May, including a single-day high of 53 on May 9.

Following its departure from downtown Nashville in May 2022 and a period in temporary offices, the TBA has found a new permanent home. The new building, officially closed on June 4, is located in the heart of Nashville’s West End Avenue corridor, providing convenient access and ample parking for members. Over the next six months, interior renovations will be planned to create modern office spaces, a state-of-the-art multimedia studio and a cutting-edge CLE and seminar classroom. The TBA is expected to begin operations at the new location in early 2026. In announcing the acquisition, TBA President Ed Lanquist Jr. said, “The Building Committee has worked tirelessly for the last few years to find TBA’s new home and I’m grateful for their time and expertise. This new space will help us meet the changing needs of our members as we look to the next several decades of practicing law in Tennessee.” Former TBA President Jim Barry, president of The Tennessee Legal Community Foundation (TLCF) — which purchased the building — said, “This investment ensures that TBA has a long-term home to serve our members and the broader legal community. The new space will facilitate top-notch legal education, member engagement opportunities and a stronger sense of community in our profession.” Special thanks to the committee of TBA leaders, members and real estate professionals whose thoughtful and comprehensive search led to the successful acquisition of this new home for your state bar association.

The U.S. House passed legislation last month designed to enact President Trump's domestic policy agenda. According to Reuters, the 1,100-page bill includes a one-sentence provision that could weaken the power of U.S. judges to enforce contempt when the government defies court orders. Specifically, the provision prevents federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, from enforcing contempt orders unless the plaintiffs have posted a monetary bond. According to critics, this rarely happens in cases against the government and would leave judges powerless to enforce orders if they are not followed. The legislative provision follows a White House memo from March that directed heads of government agencies to request that plaintiffs post a bond when seeking injunctions against agency policy. The administration said the directive was aimed at deterring frivolous lawsuits. The U.S. Senate is scheduled to take up the bill this week, NPR reports, though some senators suggest that inclusion of the provision would not survive a challenge under that body’s rules. Bloomberg Law reports on that angle.

The TBA Criminal Justice Section recently hosted a unique and successful murder mystery CLE. Led by Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law (LMU Law) professors Melanie Ried and Syd Beckman, LMU Law students played characters in a 1920s themed event where participants used Tennessee’s latest criminal laws to unravel the mystery and bring the killer to justice. The winning team consisted of lawyers Jade Peters, Nicholas Poe-Jones and Tim Fowler. Keep your eyes peeled for more fun events to come from the TBA Criminal Justice Section. View photos from the event here.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week unanimously ruled that a federal agency that regulates rail transportation had properly considered the environmental impact of a proposed 88-mile railway in Utah. The Surface Transportation Board of the U.S. approved the project in 2021 after a review concluded with a 3,600-page report. Environmental groups and a Colorado county sued, saying the report did not consider ways in which the railway could do harm to the environment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled for the challengers, saying the agency had not considered all the “reasonably foreseeable” results of the project. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh penned the opinion saying that many lower courts had found the environmental impact statements required by the National Environmental Policy Act to be needlessly elaborate. “The goal of the law is to inform agency decision making, not to paralyze it,” said Kavanaugh. The railway would connect oil fields in northeast Utah to a rail network that runs next to the Colorado River and then to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The New York Times has more.

The TBA Environmental Law Section has announced Layton Coker, a student at the University of Tennessee (UT) Winston College of Law, as the winner of its Hastings Writing Competition for 2025. The judges felt that Coker’s essay, Paradise Lost: Environmental Justice Gaps in TVA’s Clean Energy Transition, was both timely and captured the spirit of the competition.

This year’s decision was a difficult one, with recent Nashville School of Law graduate Emily Crawford’s essay, Jarkesy, Juries and Justice: The Future of EPA Civil Penalties, selected as a close runner-up. Rounding out the competition were exceptional entries by UT Winston College of Law student Logan Hawkins and University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law student Owen King, who submitted papers on the Environmental Footprint of the xAI Facility in Memphis and Tennessee’s Regulatory Opportunities and the Clean Water Act, respectively.

The competition, founded in memory of one of the Environmental Law Section's founding members, Jon E. Hastings, is a juried competition for the best legal writing on a topic of Tennessee or federal environmental law. TBA's Environmental Law Section executive council would like to thank all participants for their thoughtful and impressive entries.

Editor's Note: The essays are shared as submitted.

Save the date for the annual Federal Practice Forum, which will take place virtually on July 15 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CDT. Speakers and topics will be announced soon. Stay tuned here for more information.

The 2025 William M. Leech Jr. Public Service Award will be presented to 21st Judicial District Circuit Court Judge and Chancellor David Veile at the TBA’s Annual Convention by the Fellows of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) Young Lawyers Division (YLD). Named for former Attorney General William M. Leech Jr., the award is given each year to a Tennessee lawyer who has been of outstanding service to the profession, the legal system and their community. In announcing the award, Fellows President and Jackson lawyer Michelle Greenway Sellers said, "Judge Veile truly exemplifies the values embodied in the Leech Award. He is a past president of the TBA YLD, a TBA Board of Governors member, an extremely supportive TBA YLD volunteer and a devoted community leader. Judge Veile generously gives of his time as a mentor to young lawyers, speaks at legal and community events, and volunteers at TBA YLD events such as the TBA YLD Mock Trial competition. He has spent his entire career giving back to the Tennessee legal community and to the Middle Tennessee communities he serves. The Fellows are honored to award Judge David Veile the 2025 TBA YLD Fellows William M. Leech Jr. Public Service Award." Veile was elected circuit court judge and chancellor in Williamson County's 21st Judicial District in 2024. He previously practiced criminal defense law in Franklin. The award will be presented on June 13 at the Lawyers Luncheon. Read more about Veile's selection in the TBA's press release.

This appeal involves a commercial lease of property operated as a convenience store in Memphis. The lease provided that it was to be construed and enforced in accordance with Georgia law. The lease was for an initial term of ten years, but it provided that the tenant had the option to renew the lease for two additional terms of five years commencing at the expiration of the initial term. Near the end of the initial ten-year term, the landlord sent a notice of nonrenewal to the tenant, notifying the tenant that the lease was scheduled to expire because the tenant had failed to timely exercise the option to renew it. One week later, the tenant sent the landlord written notice of its intent to exercise the option to extend the lease for an additional five years. The tenant’s letter asserted that the provision of the lease regarding when notice was to be provided “[did] not make any sense” and informed the landlord that the tenant was thereby exercising the option. The landlord filed this lawsuit, asking the trial court to hold that the lease had expired by its terms when the tenant did not timely exercise the option to extend it, and therefore, the landlord was entitled to possession of the property and a judgment for rent at the holdover rate provided in the lease. The tenant filed a counterclaim for declaratory relief. On cross motions for summary judgment, the trial court held that the lease was ambiguous but that the only reasonable interpretation of the lease was that notice of intent to exercise the option was due ninety days before the end of the initial term. Because the tenant failed to provide notice by that date, the trial court concluded that the initial term of the lease expired, the landlord was entitled to possession, and the tenant was liable for holdover rent and attorney fees. The tenant appeals. We affirm and remand for further proceedings.