Lawyers are by nature pessimistic, having to envision the worst possible outcomes for clients and then work to protect them. Martin Seligman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says attorneys’ comfort with “catastrophizing” can carry over into their personal lives with negative ramifications. Seligman encourages attorneys to work to develop optimism – the belief that one can make a positive difference in the world now and well into the future. Optimism plays an important role in our lives, including creating perseverance while also fighting off depression. In a recent presentation, Seligman highlighted concrete actions that can help us shift from pessimism to optimism. Read more in the ABA Journal.

Do you know of an event or program taking place in honor of Black History Month? Email us with a link or description of the event for publication in an upcoming issue of TBA Today.  

TEDxNashville, an independently organized program from the TED Talks series, has curated a selection of talks in honor and celebration of Black History Month. See Tamar Smithers, senior director of education and exhibitions for The National Museum of African American Music, talk about breaking the barriers that exist between underprivileged children and access to museums. Watch Nashville Metro Councilwoman Zulfat Suara, an African Muslim woman who emigrated to Tennessee, discuss the unexpected champions she found during her campaign for council. Vanderbilt Professor David Ikard explains how we are all worse off when we whitewash black history. Finally, Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor discusses the often overlooked African origins of American country music, including the story of the now well-known song Wagon Wheel.

In a private ceremony yesterday, Jill E. McCook took her oath of office and became the newest U.S. magistrate judge in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the Chattanoogan reports. She succeeds Magistrate Judge H. Bruce Guyton, who retired after serving the court since 2003. McCook has worked as an attorney for the Tennessee Valley Authority for the past four years. Previously, she was in private practice, served as a law clerk to District Judge Thomas A. Varlan, and was an adjunct professor in legal process at the University of Tennessee College of Law. McCook is a TBA member and a 2018 graduate of the TBA Leadership Law program. A public investiture will take place in the coming months.

Retired Judge Russell Lee Moore Jr. died on Jan. 28. He was 76. Judge Moore served as a circuit court judge in the 29th Judicial District, which includes Dyer and Lake counties, from 1997 until his retirement in December 2021. Moore was a graduate of the Mississippi School of Law and began practicing in 1971. Moore was a past president of the Dyer County Bar Association, a TBA member and a member of the Mississippi State Bar. A private family service will be held, per Judge Moore’s request. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to the Shriners Hospital for Children, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the New Life Union Mission. Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Three attorneys with significant Metro Government experience have joined Nashville’s Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis, the Nashville Post reports. Doug Sloan, Jon Cooper and Quan Poole left Spencer Fane Bone McAllester to join with Waller’s real estate team where they will focus on land use and zoning, corporate relocation and expansion and public-private partnerships. Cooper is a former head of the Metro Council office and Metro legal director. Sloan was previously a Metro attorney, executive director of the Metro Planning Department and chief legal officer at the Nashville International Airport. Poole was from 2017-2020 a Metro attorney working with the city's board of zoning appeals, health department and codes department.

Gov. Bill Lee delivered his fourth annual State of the State address last night, promising to boost funding for education, infrastructure projects and law enforcement, the Associated Press reports. Lee outlined a $52.5 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2022-2023, up nearly 20% from last year’s proposal. The budget gives an additional $125 million to boosting teacher salaries, $356 million for a new multi-agency law enforcement training academy, $150 million to create a violent crime intervention grant and funding to hire 100 more state troopers. An additional $623 million has been allocated for road projects and $200 million has been set aside to help Tennessee’s Colleges of Applied Technology, designed to double the state’s skilled workforce by 2026. Read Lee’s entire address at the Tennessee Journal.

Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly today appointed City Councilman Anthony Byrd as city court clerk, the Chattanoogan reports. Byrd served more than 20 years at the Hamilton County Criminal Court Clerk’s Office, resigning in 2017 to join the city council where he represented residents in District 8. Byrd chaired the council’s Public Safety Committee as well as the Economic and Community Development Committee.  

Travis Reinking, who fatally shot four people at a Nashville Waffle House in 2018, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, WPLN reports. Reinking’s attorney, Luke Evans, told jurors this week that his client was “driven by delusions” about the singer Taylor Swift and aliens, adding that Reinking thought he was being commanded by God the night of the crime. “What the proof is going to show in this case is that Travis Reinking is severely mentally ill,” Evans said. But Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman argued that Reinking’s actions were calculated, pointing to his purchase of extra magazines days before the shooting and how he chose a parking spot at the Waffle House that allowed him to see everyone inside before the shooting began. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan has ruled that former death row inmate Pervis Payne will serve his two life sentences concurrently, making him eligible for parole in five years, the Commercial Appeal reports. Payne was removed from death row after the Shelby County District Attorney’s office dropped its pursuit of the death penalty following a state expert’s assessment that Payne has an intellectual disability. District Attorney General Amy Weirich is seeking to appeal Skahan’s ruling. Weirich said the new statute that “removed the one-year statute of limitations on claims of intellectual disability” doesn’t “authorize changing the original trial judge’s ruling that multiple sentences in the case should be consecutive.” Payne’s attorney, federal public defender Kelley Henry, said she and her legal team will continue to investigate the case in hopes of exonerating Payne.