Today is International Women’s Day and American Bar Association (ABA) President Mary Smith is honoring the women who make up more than 50% of law firm associates and the majority of U.S. law school students. In a statement released today, she notes that this year’s theme, “Inspire Inclusion,” serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing journey to ensure women’s full and equal participation in every sector, including the legal field. However, Smith says there is work still to be done, citing data that women remain significantly underrepresented in senior leadership positions at U.S. law firms. Read more about the ABA's efforts to advance the status of women and girls at home and abroad. On March 1, Smith issued this statement in support of Women's History Month.

The legal services sector added 2,700 jobs in February, resuming an upward trajectory after dipping slightly in January, Reuters reports. The count includes a range of legal workers, including paralegals and assistants, though the majority are lawyers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the broader economy, job growth accelerated last month, but downward revisions to employment gains in the prior two months and an increase in the unemployment rate to a two-year high of 3.9% suggest that the labor market is slowing.

Make plans now to log in for a May 2 webcast produced by the TBA Tax Law Section to learn more about the state's franchise and excise tax. Join Nashville lawyer Jeffrey Foster with the Tennessee Department of Revenue for this one-hour program beginning at noon CDT and offering one hour of general CLE credit.

TBA’s Legislative Updates podcast is back for another week with attorney and TBA lobbyist Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorneys and TBA lobbyists Brad Lampley and Ashley Harbin. Special guest TBA Executive Director Sheree Wright also joined the episode to promote TBA’s upcoming Day on the Hill and Big Shrimp Reception on March 20 and talk a little about her background. The group discusses the Administrative Office of the Courts’ (AOC) budget presentation before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which included significant discussion of the reimbursement rate for indigent representation and impromptu testimony by Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Rob Philyaw about how the low rate is impacting his courtroom. Lampley says it was the “best conversation on this issue ever … in this public of a setting.” Watch the AOC testimony here beginning at 54:56. The vote to advance the governor’s proposed AOC budget to the Senate Finance Committee happens at 1:32:21.

Also in this week's episode, the group recaps the two school voucher bills moving through the House and Senate and provides an update on three TBA-supported bills: HB2710/SB2254 (conservatorship bill), HB2645/SB2632 (adoption birth certificate bill) and HB2644/SB2633 (adoption clean-up bill). Legislative Updates airs each week on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The Tennessee House yesterday passed a bill that would block local governments from reforming their traffic stop policies, the Commercial Appeal reports. HB1931/SB2572, sponsored by Memphis Republican Rep. John Gillespie, has faced opposition from Memphis' local elected officials, activists and the family of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who was fatally beaten by Memphis police officers following a traffic stop in January 2023. Gillespie amended the bill on the floor in an attempt to narrow its focus so it would not apply to the "pretextual" stop ordinance passed by the Memphis City Council last year, but opponents say the change will not have the intended effect. That ordinance directed police to not make traffic stops solely for low-level offenses like improperly placed license plates or a single broken brake light.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has announced that Solicitor General Andrée Blumstein will leave the office to return to private practice. She will be succeeded by Matt Rice, current special assistant to the solicitor general. In a news release, Skrmetti said, “It’s nearly impossible to express sufficient gratitude to Solicitor General Blumstein for her extraordinary contributions to the great State of Tennessee.” He noted that Blumstein served in the office for nearly a decade and was the first woman solicitor general for the state. Rice, a Johnson City native, joined the AG’s office in June 2022. He previously worked at the Washington, D.C., firm Williams & Connolly and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He earned his law degree from University of California Berkeley School of Law.

Grant requests from the Knoxville Bar Foundation (KBF) are due tomorrow. Awards will be announced in May. The KBF’s goal is to facilitate and support projects and programs that seek to improve the administration of justice, enhance the public’s understanding of and confidence in the legal system, support access to the legal system, and serve the legal profession. Since 1997, the KBF has awarded approximately $560,000 in grants for local law-related projects. In 2023, the KBF board approved 12 grant requests totaling $25,000.

In a new analysis of data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Tennessean found that for every 100,000 people working in the state in 2022, 89.5 filed formal charges with the EEOC. Only Illinois had a higher rate. An analysis of data from 2021 had found Tennessee had the highest rate of workplace discrimination charges in the nation. For both years, the most common type of complaint was for retaliation.

This is a divorce proceeding in which the wife filed a divorce complaint against the husband on the grounds of adultery and inappropriate marital conduct. While the action was pending, Husband drafted a handwritten reconciliation document in which he promised that the marital residence would become the wife’s separate property if he ever “cheated” on her again, “in consideration of her reconciling with [him] (also dropping the divorce lawsuit currently filed).” Although the wife took no action to “drop” or dismiss the divorce complaint, the trial court, sua sponte, dismissed the complaint for failure to prosecute. Upon learning that the husband’s infidelity had resumed, the wife successfully motioned to set aside the order of dismissal, and the case went to trial. In its final order, the trial court granted the wife a divorce on grounds of inappropriate marital conduct due to the husband’s infidelity. Because the wife took no action to enforce the purported reconciliation agreement, the court classified the marital residence as marital property, not the wife’s separate property. The court awarded the wife approximately $3.9 million in marital assets, of which $1.3 million was liquid assets, representing 60% of the marital estate. The court further awarded the wife $13,000 per month in transitional alimony for eight years and $229,000 in alimony in solido, but declined to award her alimony in futuro. The court also denied the wife’s request to recover her attorney’s fees and expenses. The wife appeals, contending that the trial court erred in failing to classify the marital residence as her separate property and in failing to award her alimony in futuro as well as her attorney’s fees. We affirm.

A jury convicted two defendants, Tony Thomas and Laronda Turner, of three counts of first-degree premeditated murder. Those convictions stem from a triple homicide that occurred in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2015. Another co-defendant, Demarco Hawkins, was also implicated in the killings. However, his trial was severed from the other defendants, and he testified against Mr. Thomas and Ms. Turner. After Mr. Thomas and Ms. Turner were convicted, they appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals, raising five issues for review. The intermediate appellate court ruled unanimously on three of the issues, but one judge dissented on the other two. Mr. Thomas and Ms. Turner sought permission to appeal, and we accepted the appeal only as to the two issues on which the intermediate appellate court was divided. First, we agreed to consider whether the prosecution breached the requirements of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), by failing to produce statements made by Mr. Hawkins at proffer conferences, which were allegedly inconsistent with Mr. Hawkins’ formal statement to law enforcement, before trial. Second, we agreed to address whether the evidence was sufficient to support Ms. Turner’s murder convictions. Based on our review, we conclude that the State did not breach its obligations under Brady with regard to Mr. Thomas. Additionally, we determine that the evidence is insufficient to sustain Ms. Turner’s convictions because Mr. Hawkins’ testimony was not adequately corroborated.1 As a result, we affirm the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals in part and reverse in part. Additionally, in this opinion, we abrogate Tennessee’s common law accomplice-corroboration rule. However, we apply that change on a prospective basis only, and, thus, it has no bearing on the outcome of this case.