The TBA Health Law Section has partnered with organizations across the state to provide free advance health care directive clinics in each of Tennessee’s Grand Divisions.

At these clinics, participants will meet with a volunteer lawyer who will offer guidance and assist them in drafting an advance directive. No previous experience is necessary and there will be experts on hand to answer questions. View a simple advance directive form here.

The first clinic will take place in Knoxville on Saturday, Sept. 21, from 9 a.m. to noon EDT. A Nashville clinic will follow on Saturday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT. Details for a Memphis clinic still are being finalized.

Volunteers do not need to be available for the duration of each event. Participants will be appreciative of whatever time you can commit. Contact TBA Health Law Section Chair Ian Hennessey with questions and/or volunteer interest at ian.hennessey@amrllc.com.

Over the past two weeks, the Tennessee Supreme Court reinstated 15 lawyers who had been suspended for failing to complete annual continuing legal education requirements in 2023. See the list of those reinstated online.

The Community Action Committee Office (CAC) on Aging will host its 40th annual Aging: A Family Affair senior expo Nov. 14 in Knoxville. The event features a full day of workshops on topics of interest to older adults, their families, caregivers and related professionals. Vendors will be present to provide information on programs and services for seniors. A light breakfast and lunch are included with registration. Learn more and register here.

Couldn't make it to this year's in-person Elder Law Forum? Not to worry, sessions are now available on the TBA CLE website! Timely topics include litigation in elder law, firm marketing and intake, differences in conservatorships, ethics and more. Find sessions from the forum here.

Stuart Teicher, the CLE Performer, is back with three new sessions. Join him on Nov. 7 for one, two or all three of these webcasts! From 9-10 a.m., Teicher will look at a host of grammar and punctuation rules that don’t make sense and are in some cases are not even rules in "Legal Writing Rules You SHOULD Be Breaking." From 10:15-11:15 a.m., Teicher will connect the cast of "Friends" to a number of ethics rules in "Friends ... An Ethical Sitcom?" To wrap up the series, Teicher will look at the worst criminals in history and the ethics lessons they teach us. "From Bonnie and Clyde to Bernie Madoff: What the Biggest Thieves in History Teach About Attorney Ethics" will run from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. All times in central time zone.

Womble Bond Dickinson and Lewis Roca have announced that the two large, multi-practice law firms will merge, creating a firm of more than 1,300 attorneys in 37 offices in the United States and United Kingdom. The merger, which will give Womble Bond Dickinson additional locations in the southwest and mountain west, will be effective on Jan. 1, 2025. The resulting firm will continue to operate as Womble Bond Dickinson under the leadership of CEO Merrick Benn and Vice Chair Kenneth Van Winkle. Womble Bond Dickinson opened an office in Nashville in 2022. It is run by managing partner Joshua A. Mullen.

The Nashville Bar Association (NBA) has announced the members of the 2025 Nashville Bar Foundation (NBF) Leadership Forum class. Of the new class, NBA President Erin Palmer Polly said, "This very select and diverse class will have the opportunity to develop exceptional leadership skills and foster strong professional relationships. We look forward to the positive impact that they will have in our profession and our community." The NBF established the Leadership Forum — a nine-month leadership program for lawyers with three to eight years of experience — in 2014 to bring together emerging leaders who participate in monthly workshops designed to help them realize their potential to benefit the legal profession and the local community.

Members of the TBA Young Lawyers Division visited University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law last week to speak with over 35 students about their entry into the profession and to share information about TBA member benefits. Membership, which is free to law students, provides access to continuing legal education that can increase students' professional knowledge, opportunities to network and savings on school supplies and insurance. Students also were also encouraged to apply for the 2025 Diversity Leadership Institute (DLI), a six-month leadership and mentoring program designed to help develop the skills needed to succeed as a law student and attorney. Thanks to YLD presenters Constance Brown, Julie Chapman and Faith Watson for their contributions to the event. See a photo from the visit.

The ABA's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has proposed revisions to Standard 206, shifting its focus from diversity to access to legal education and the professional for all qualified aspiring lawyers in an effort to align with the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision on race-based admissions. Attorneys general of both conservative and liberal states have weighed in on the proposal. The ABA Journal has more on the move.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge. Just weeks before he turned eighteen, Johnathan Holt shot and killed a drug dealer on behalf of a dangerous gang. Soon after this murder, Holt himself suffered gun violence that left him paralyzed from the chest down. A federal jury later convicted him of two crimes for the murder. A district court sentenced him to a mandatory term of life in prison. Yet Holt had committed the murder as a juvenile, so this sentence violated the Eighth Amendment under Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012). The district court thus granted Holt’s request for relief from his life sentence. It resentenced him to a total of 900 months’ imprisonment. We affirm.