An Essential Documents for Essential Workers (EDEW) clinic will be held for the Maryville Police, the Blount County Sheriff's Department and the Alcoa Police on March 27 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. EDT. The event, which is co-sponsored by McKinnish Law Group, Spicer Rudstrom PLLC and the TBA Young Lawyers Division, will take place at the Blount County Library, 508 N. Cusick St., Maryville 37804. For more information and to volunteer contact Alexandra Jones or Joey Maus.

The TBA LGBT Law Section registry is a great place to find colleagues with a similar focus. The resource provides a list of section members and their contact information, as well as a list of any other sections or TBA groups in which they participate. This allows an avenue to connect with like-minded lawyers and find elder law attorneys versed in other practice areas as well. View the section directory here.

Law firm Perkins Coie is suing the Trump administration over an executive order that sanctioned the firm, Bloomberg Law reports. The firm filed suit in the federal court in Washington, D.C., today after hiring Williams & Connolly to represent it in the matter. The order, signed on March 6, strips the firm’s lawyers of security credentials, terminates federal contracts with firm clients, and bars firm lawyers from entering government buildings or getting jobs at federal agencies. The president said the move was in response to the firm being involved in “weaponization against a political opponent’’ during the 2016 presidential campaign. The firm says the directives put its solvency and existence at risk.

Question: In Tennessee, a person cannot provide a minor the medical interventions set out in Tenn. Code Ann. § 63-1-176(b) without obtaining parental consent. But carveouts to that statutory restriction exist. The question here relates to the scope of the “blanket consent” carveout in § 63- 1-176(c)(1). Does a “blanket consent” form signed by a parent that specifically references only the treatment of physical ailments, § 63-1-176(b)(1), and the administration of drugs or medications, § 63-1-176(b)(2), remove the parental consent requirement for all activities listed in § 63-1-176(b)?

Opinion: Likely not.

Appellant, Schiller Jerome, has appealed an order of the Shelby County Chancery Court that was entered on September 3, 2024. We determine that the trial court’s order does not constitute a final appealable judgment. As a result, this Court lacks jurisdiction to consider this appeal. The appeal is, therefore, dismissed.

The patron of a restaurant sued the business and its owner when she was injured attempting to sit on a bench outside the business. The trial court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the ground that the patron failed to demonstrate the existence of a dangerous or defective condition. We affirm.

CHAD A. READLER, Circuit Judge. Bhavanaben Patel petitions on behalf of herself, her husband, and her two sons to review the Board of Immigration Appeal’s decision rejecting their applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. Seeing no error in the Board’s decision, we deny the petition. For these reasons, we deny the petition for review.

This appeal arises from a lawsuit over defamation and false light invasion of privacy. Ronald Austin and Linda Austin (“Mr.” and “Ms. Austin,” respectively) (“Plaintiffs,” collectively) were neighbors of Angela Kay Plese (“Defendant”). Plaintiffs and Defendant did not get along. At one point, Defendant posted certain statements on Facebook about Ms. Austin, including that Ms. Austin had been convicted in Texas of deadly conduct with a gun. While Ms. Austin had pled guilty many years earlier to a Texas statute called “deadly conduct,” this was in the context of her reaching a better deal in a DUI case. Ms. Austin’s matter did not involve a gun. Plaintiffs sued Defendant for defamation and false light in the Circuit Court for Knox County (“the Trial Court”). After a trial, the Trial Court found in favor of Plaintiffs, awarding $95,100 in total damages for Ms. Austin’s medical expenses, damage to reputation, emotional distress, punitive damages, as well as Mr. Austin’s loss of consortium.1 Defendant appeals. We vacate that portion of the Trial Court’s award concerning damage to Ms. Austin’s reputation since the record contains no evidence of such damage. Therefore, we modify the judgment to $75,100. Otherwise, we affirm.

The TBA Leadership Law (TBALL) was in Knoxville last week for an "Issues in Community Leadership" session. The class heard from several Tennessee leaders including Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon, Knox County Mayor Glen Jacobs, Supreme Court Justice Dwight E. Tarwater and former Attorney General Herbert Slatery. Other contributors at the event included Chloe Akers, Professor Akram Faizer, Josh Hedrick, Angelia Nystrom, Robbie Pryor, Professor Joy Radice and Cullen Wojcik. TBALL’s next session will take place April 10-11 in Memphis. Learn more about TBALL or see photos from the event.

In this month's episode of BarBuzz, TBA Executive Director Sheree Wright speaks with Liz Todaro, TBA director of access to justice and special projects, and John Farringer, a commercial litigator with Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison and TBA’s incoming president for the 2027-2028 bar year. The discussion focuses on the Administrative Office of the Courts’ plan for funding indigent representation, a key issue shaping legal access in Tennessee. The group also talks about the importance of TBA's Day on the Hill and Big Shrimp Legislative Reception, two events that connect legal professionals with lawmakers to advocate for issues such as indigent defense funding. TBA’s 2025 Day on the Hill and Big Shrimp Reception will take place next week in Nashville. Register for the day's events on the TBA website or get more information about indigent defense in Tennessee. Find past episodes of the podcast in the BarBuzz archive.