The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) honored Joy Radice with the University of Tennessee Winston College of Law at a reception at the American Bar Association (ABA) Midyear Meeting in San Antonio. Meeting attendees from across the country gathered to celebrate Radice, who serves as director of clinical programs and associate professor of law. See pictures from the event. The TBA hosts the Tennessee Reception twice a year at the ABA Midyear Meeting in February and the Annual Meeting in August. The events provide an opportunity to raise the state's visibility among the national legal community and honor the good work being done by Tennessee attorneys. Members of the TBA Young Lawyers Division (YLD) also were in town for the reception and ABA YLD meetings. See photos from their activities.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Sept. 16, 2025, issued an order inviting public comment on legal access and potential regulatory reform. In the order, the court noted it is reassessing how the profession is regulated “to ensure that all Tennesseans have access to affordable quality legal services.” These issues could have a significant impact on the practice of law in our state. The Tennessee Bar Association wants to hear directly from you. We invite you to share your perspective on the seven issues outlined in the court’s order by completing this brief survey. It should take less than 10 minutes to complete and all responses are anonymous. To help you prepare, the TBA has compiled background materials on a dedicated resource page. We encourage you to review those materials before submitting your responses. The survey will remain open until 11:45 p.m. CST on Feb. 20. The TBA also is holding a series of virtual town halls to gather feedback from the legal community. Each event will focus on one or two specific areas of potential regulation. See the list of events.

Join the TBA's Tort & Insurance Law Section on Feb. 19 for its annual forum, presented virtually this year. This program will include a session on navigating court approval of minor settlements, a medical malpractice update and a course dedicated to ethical issues in the public adjuster industry. Earn up to two general hours and one dual hour of CLE credit. Reserve your spot today!

A news item in yesterday's issue of TBA Today included the wrong link for Friday's virtual town hall meeting. The event this week will focus on non-lawyer ownership and fee sharing. There is no cost to attend but registration is required to receive the meeting link. The event is part of TBA's ongoing effort to gather feedback from Tennessee attorneys on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Sept. 16 order seeking public comment on seven areas of potential regulatory changes to the legal profession. Additional town halls will be held on Feb. 19, 23 and 26. Attorneys also are encouraged to review the TBA’s Legal Access & Regulatory Reform resource page before attending any of these events.

Memphis attorney Robert Miles Mason Sr. died Feb. 1 at age 61 after a long battle with cancer. He received his law degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 1994. A Memphis native, Mason founded Miles Mason Law Group PLC and was a certified public accountant. Mason served on the Tennessee Bar Journal's Editorial Board from 2003-2006 and as chair of the TBA's Family Law Section. He received the Justice Joseph W. Henry Award for Outstanding Legal Writing in 2024 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’s father-in-law, the late Judge Joe B. Jones, was the first recipient of the award in 1981. A funeral Mass was held Feb. 9.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Mason's name to Christian Brothers High School or the Orpheum Theatre Group.

The U.S. Supreme Court has added a case to its docket regarding the scope of the federal Video Protection Act. On Jan. 26, the court granted certiorari in Salazar v. Paramount Global, a case originating in Tennessee. The decision has the potential to limit class action lawsuits against websites that share their customers’ video viewing habits with third parties. The outcome will turn on the definition of who qualifies as a “consumer” for purposes of the act, according to legal observers. Learn more about the case from JD Supra or read the decision from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Davidson County Juvenile Court Clerk Lonnell Matthews Jr. deals with young people who most consider “troubled.” His own life was profoundly changed by violence when his younger brother was shot and killed in a drug deal gone bad. As such, a keen understanding of the fine line that separates the “troubled” from others shapes his approach to the job. Matthews was recently named co-chair of a new Community Safety Task Force, which brings together leaders and community members from across the city of Nashville and gives him a different avenue to pursue the work that has shaped his adult life. Learn more about his plans for the role in this interview with the Nashville Banner.

Legislation to increase bankruptcy fees and extend the terms of temporary bankruptcy judges has been signed into law, Bloomberg Law reports. The Bankruptcy Administration Improvement Act of 2025 was signed by President Donald Trump on Feb. 6. It increases compensation for Chapter 7 trustees in no-asset bankruptcies for the first time since 1994. The rate will raise from $60 to $120 per case. The law also extends the terms for some temporary bankruptcy judges from five years to 10 years. The bill, S. 3424, cleared the U.S. House in a voice vote last month and passed the U.S. Senate in December.

The Defendant, Camry Chrishay Veazey, was convicted by a Davidson County Criminal Court jury of aggravated assault, a Class C felony, and reckless endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor. See T.C.A. §§ 39-13-102 (Supp. 2021) (subsequently amended) (aggravated assault), 39-13-103 (2025) (reckless endangerment). The trial court merged the convictions and imposed a three-year sentence, to be served on probation. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support her convictions and that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of a firearm found in the Defendant’s car one month after she shot the victim. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

This consolidated appeal is before this court on the Petitioner, Jason Lee Fisher’s, application for permission to appeal the Marshall County Circuit Court’s denial of his petition for a writ of error coram nobis and the denial of his motion to reopen post- conviction proceedings. The Petitioner argues that the circuit court1 erred in denying both his petition for a writ of error coram nobis and his motion to reopen post-conviction proceedings based upon a claim of juror bias during his trial. He also raises constitutional challenges to the error coram nobis and motion to reopen post-conviction statutes. Finally, he contends that the circuit court erred by finding that he failed to establish prejudice on his juror bias claim. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court denying the petition for a writ of error coram nobis, and we deny the Petitioner’s application for permission to appeal the denial of his motion to reopen post-conviction proceedings.