The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee is hosting a free one-hour program discussing local legal clinics and other pro bono opportunities. The virtual program will take place Sept. 9 from 3 - 4 p.m. EDT via Zoom. Invitations with the Zoom link will be sent in advance to those who register. The program will be capped at 300 attendees. 

The Tennessee Bar Association will open its doors to members interested in touring its new office space on Sept. 15, from 2-5 p.m. CDT. The office is located at 3310 West End Ave., Ste. 590 in Nashville. Visitor parking is available. Please register here so we know how many guests to expect.

The Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation presented the 2022 Sue Ann Head Award for Excellence in Workers' Compensation to Bob Pitts Sr. at a luncheon last week. Pitts is a policy advisor with the Associated Builders and Contractors of Great Tennessee. Two finalists also were recognized for their influence on workers' compensation: Sarah Reisner, principal with Manier Herod, and Dan Headrick with Star Physical Therapy. The award is named in honor and memory of Sue Ann Head, who led the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Division for over 30 years. She died in 2018. See the announcement and photos from this year’s event.

Tennessee’s full abortion ban will go into effect tomorrow, following the 30-day waiting period under the state’s trigger law. Uncertainties remain in a post-Roe world, WSMV reports, with some physicians questioning their rights under the new law. Immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling returning abortion authority to the states, Tennessee’s six-week abortion ban went into effect. That ban will be superseded tomorrow by the Human Life Protection Act. Memphis defense attorney Blake Ballin with Ballin, Ballin & Fishman has been advising doctors. He says the law does not provide an exception for any kind of situation, whether it be for rape, incest or child abuse. The provision related to a mother’s life is an affirmative defense to criminal charges. He is telling doctors if they perform an abortion they could be charged with a felony. It would then be their responsibility to prove the life of the mother was in jeopardy.

Friends and colleagues gathered at a retirement reception for Circuit Court Judge Donald E. Parish last week. Matt Maddox, president of the Carroll County Bar Association, served as the master of ceremonies and introduced Parish’s former law partner Michael King, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge John Everett Williams and Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger A. Page, the McKenzie Banner reports. Local attorney Steve West unveiled a portrait of Parish that will be displayed in the Carroll County Courthouse. Parish, who announced his retirement last year, served on the bench for 16 years, worked in private practice for 25 years and has been active in the Carroll County Bar Association. The 24th Judicial District Circuit Court serves Henry, Carroll, Benton, Decatur and Hardin counties.

An annual report on hate crimes in Tennessee found a slight uptick in offenses that law enforcement tied to a known bias, Axios Nashville reports. The data, based on a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report released this week, showed 133 crimes in 2021 were attributed to a bias compared to 122 in 2020. Racial bias accounted for 58% of the incidents statewide while biases related to sexuality or gender were found in 23% of cases.

The American Bar Association is collaborating with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to once again mobilize lawyers to assist as poll workers in the upcoming November election. The Poll Worker Esq. Initiative encourages lawyers, law students and other legal professionals to assist in upcoming elections. The initiative kicked off today with the release of a video that details how to sign up to be a poll worker and a landing page where lawyers can sign up to volunteer. There will also be a social media campaign, which will run through the fall.

U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix this week agreed with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' guidance on emergency abortions was unauthorized and went beyond the text of a related federal law. The government had relied on a 1986 federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which seeks to ensure hospitals provide emergency medical care for the poor and uninsured, to impose the new guidelines. Reuters reports that Hendrix did not pursue a nationwide injunction, instead blocking HHS from enforcing the policy in Texas and against two specific groups of doctors. The administration’s policy would have required hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women regardless of state bans on the procedure.

The TBA’s Women in the Profession Committee is planning its first in-person event for Nov. 10. The committee is creating a day-long program to offer over five hours of CLE credit and provide networking opportunities. The event will take place at the Nashville office of Baker Donelson, 1600 West End Ave., Nashville 37203. Register now to reserve your spot!

The law can be a very dangerous thing, University of Missouri School of Law Professor John Lande writes on Meditate.com. Although the legal system is inevitably imperfect, it does provide important benefits such as helping people solve difficult problems, making institutions function properly, and promoting justice, he says. These achievements, however, can be accompanied by vicarious trauma — feelings of trauma that affect those who engage empathetically with survivors of traumatic incidents. Lande cites an ABA Journal article that explores areas of practice where clients, and thus their lawyers, often deal with traumatic incidents. These realities need to be discussed starting in law school, and seeking help in these cases should be normalized, he says. “Lawyers are not immune from mental health issues, and struggling with vicarious trauma isn’t a personal failing. It’s simply a sign that you’re human.”