An agreement for Johnson & Johnson and pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen to pay $26 billion to 52 states and territories for their role in the opioid crises has been finalized. Attorney General Herbert Slatery announced final approval of the deal last week following successful state sign-on and subdivision sign-on periods. The agreement comes after three years of negotiations to resolve more than 4,000 claims from state and local governments across the country. Slatery and North Carolina’s attorney general spearheaded negotiations in the deal, which is the second largest multistate agreement in U.S. history. 150 local governments in Tennessee joined the settlement including every county and all cities with populations of 25,000 or more. The state will now receive $600 million over 18 years. Money will start flowing to state and local governments in the second quarter of 2022. Read more from the AG’s office.

Nashville-based law firms Lewis Thomason PC and Manson Johnson Conner PLLC today announced they have formed a “strategic collaboration,” the Nashville Post reports. According to a press release, the collaboration is “designed to further grow and enhance client services.” Manson Johnson Conner founder, Richard Manson, said the collaboration “would allow both firms exponential growth,” noting the positive impact that Lewis Thomason co-founder Clure Morton had on his life. “Together, our firms are redefining how we make a difference in the legal community,” Manson said. “The spotlight that 2020 placed on various aspects of American culture highlights the fact that equitable action — including diverse voices in business — will allow us to practice law in a new way.”

President Joe Biden on Friday officially nominated federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman nominated to the high court, the Associated Press reports. If confirmed, Jackson would fill the vacancy created by retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she clerked  early in her legal career. A Harvard Law graduate, Jackson served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission — the agency that develops federal sentencing policy — before becoming a federal judge in 2013. Biden last year nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. According to National Public Radio, Biden is expected to talk about the nomination during his first State of the Union address tomorrow night. Other issues the president is expected to address include rising inflation, Russia’s military advance on Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Voting begins tomorrow for the 2022 TBA election. Two candidates are competing for the vice presidential office — Nashville attorney Ed Lanquist and Franklin attorney David Veile — with voting continuing through April 1. The vice president will serve in that role in the 2022-2023 bar year, then as president-elect the following year, and TBA president in 2024-2025. Three candidates are competing for the two Middle Grand Division Governor positions — Mary Dohner-Smith, Nashville; Zachary Jones, Fayetteville; and Billy Leslie, Nashville. Access to the electronic ballot will be sent from the email address TBA.Election@intelliscanvotes.com.  Please check your spam filters if you do not receive a ballot notification. Please feel free to reach out to elections@tnbar.org if you have any questions or concerns.

The Tennessee Supreme Court last week heard arguments in the case of State of Tennessee v. Tyshon Booker, which challenges the constitutionality of mandatory minimum sentences for juveniles convicted of murder, WPLN reports. Booker was 16 when he shot and killed G’Metrik Caldwell in Knoxville during a botched robbery. Attorneys for Booker did not argue his innocence in the crime, but instead took aim at the state’s 51-year minimum sentence for anyone, regardless of age, found guilty of first-degree murder. They argue the law violates Booker’s eighth amendment protection from cruel and unusual punishment. The state argued the law is constitutional because it fulfills the U.S. Supreme Court’s requirement that juveniles be allowed the chance for parole. However, that could soon change if state lawmakers pass the “Truth in Sentencing” bill, which effectively eliminates early release for many crimes, including murder. The high court will consider how to proceed in Booker’s case while that legislation makes it way through the General Assembly. The justices are expected to reconvene in early April.

The TBA’s Corporate Counsel Section will present its annual forum on April 29 from 9 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. CST. Earn four hours of general CLE credit during this live virtual event that will include updates in labor and employment law, administrative law changes, a discussion of intellectual property and more. Corporate Counsel Section members will receive a discount on the course. Not a member of the section? Join today.  

The TBA Young Lawyers Division and Belmont University College of Law yesterday hosted an expungement clinic in partnership with Legal Aid Society and Doors of Hope in Murfreesboro. Seven attorneys and nine students volunteered their time and helped 12 clients expunge 40 criminal charges. Doors of Hope is a nonprofit that helps to empower women to break the cycle of addiction, homelessness and incarceration.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today reheard arguments over Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program, also known as the school voucher program, the Tennessean reports. Lee’s program would give qualifying students in Davidson and Shelby counties state money to spend on private school tuition. Metro Law Director Bob Cooper represented both Metro and Shelby County governments in today’s hearing, arguing the law violates the state’s home rule provision since it is narrowly tailored to the jurisdictions without their consent. Tennessee Solicitor General Andrée Blumstein argued the program would give low-income students a chance to “get an education that is best suited to them.” Justice Holly Kirby repeatedly asked for more details on how the schools wouldn't be paying for "phantom" students, while Justice Jeff Bivins repeatedly asked Cooper whether the amount the counties were spending on schools would really change. Judge Thomas R. Frierson II of the Tennessee Court of Appeals sat on the panel today for arguments, though he asked no questions of the parties. New Justice Sarah Campbell recused herself from the hearing since she had previously worked at the attorney general’s office.

Longtime Nashville attorneys Byron Trauger and Bob Tuke today announced they will dissolve their law firm, Trauger & Tuke, the Nashville Post reports. Tuke, a past chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party who ran for Senate in 2008, is set to retire. According to a release, Trauger will now join Nashville’s Wiseman Ashworth Law Group, which will rebrand as Wiseman Ashworth Trauger, effective March 1. Trauger's practice is focused on health care, complex civil litigation and regulatory agency work, and he has served on the boards of both public and privately held health care and technology companies. “Tom and I are thrilled and honored that Byron is joining the firm as a named partner,” said Ashworth, a former TBA president. “He has a depth of experience and an excellent reputation in the Bar, with his clients, and in the community as a highly respected counsellor, advocate and public servant.”

Nashville public defender, Jeff Preptit, has dropped his campaign for the Democratic nomination in House District 59, the Nashville Post reports. Preptit was forced to make the decision after the newly redrawn House maps put him in a different district, which now includes wealthier areas in southern Davidson County. Local health care executive Caleb Hemmer is seeking the Democratic nomination, while Michelle Foreman and Wyatt Rampy are running as Republicans. Incumbent Rep. Jason Potts, D-Nashville, is not seeking reelection.