Congratulations to our Week 3 Giveaway Winner Brooks Yelverton, who will receive a $50 Amazon gift card! Yelverton is a TBA member practicing in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Don’t miss the opportunity to get in on next week’s final drawing. Those who purchase a course in December will be entered in our weekly drawing made possible by event sponsors Clio and Geico. This month’s Year End CLE event provides a range of packages, on-demand courses and live programs. Check out the options.

Middle Tennessee lawyer Thomas “Tom” Clower Harvey Jr. died Dec. 11 at 81. A graduate of the University of Mississippi Law School, Harvey practiced law over 55 years — 25 in his hometown of Hendersonville and 30 years as lead general counsel for Southwestern Family and Tom James Companies in Nashville. Funeral services were held Dec. 16 in Gallatin. Harvey was then buried at the Friendship Cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Michael’s Anglican Church, 105 Shiloh Rd., Gallatin, TN 37066.

Athens businessman and farmer Dennis Beavers, who worked on Republican Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and went on to serve as executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farms Services Agency in Tennessee, plans to run for the state Senate, the Times Free Press reports. In an interview with the paper, Beavers said he would run in District 11, the seat currently held by retiring Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville. Rep. Mark Hall, R-Cleveland, announced last month he also is running for the seat. The district covers Bradley, McMinn Meigs, Monroe and Polk counties but is expected to shift during legislative redistricting.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III has joined a multi-state lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s recent mask requirements for toddlers and COVID-19 vaccinations for staff and volunteers in Head Start Programs. The states allege that the mandate goes beyond the executive branch’s authority and violates laws that require notice and comment times for proposed executive actions.

Knox County Chancellor John F. Weaver received the “Courage in the Face of Adversity Award” from the Knoxville Bar Association (KBA) during the group’s recent annual meeting. The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) reports on the debilitating injuries Weaver suffered to both of his legs in an accident last March, and how he “had to get creative” in managing his court docket during recovery. The award is presented periodically to a member of the KBA who “exhibits exceptional courage, charity, grace, unselfishness and professionalism in the face of adversity.” Other awards presented at the meeting were highlighted in a previous story.

Davidson County lawyer Melissa June Anderson was censured today by the Tennessee Supreme Court after the court found that she violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.15 and 5.1. Anderson failed to create and maintain appropriate trust account bookkeeping protocols for her law office, breaching her managerial obligation to ensure that her office acted in compliance with the Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct. As a result of this conduct, a check drawn on the firm’s trust account was returned for insufficient funds.

Georgia lawyer Christina Elisabeth McCloskey was reinstated to the practice of law in Tennessee on Dec. 8. She had been placed on inactive status more than five years ago, the Board of Professional Responsibility reports. The court issued the order on Dec. 17.

North Carolina lawyer Hugh Stanley Harris Jr. was reinstated to the practice of law in Tennessee on Dec. 1. He had been placed on inactive status more than five years ago, the Board of Professional Responsibility reports. The Tennessee Supreme Court issued the reinstatement order on Dec. 21.

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit panel on Monday denied the Knox County School Board’s request to pause a mask requirement while litigation on the issue makes its way through the courts, the Associated Press reports. U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer had ruled in September that the school system must adopt a mask mandate to help protect children with health problems that make them more susceptible to the coronavirus pandemic. The school system had offered remote learning as an alternative to those with health concerns, but both courts said they were “not persuaded that virtual schooling is a reasonable alternative to universal masking.” The school system did not adopt a mask policy for the 2021-2022 school year. Parents of children with health concerns challenged that decision.

Rutherford County will pay $6 million for illegally arresting and detaining hundreds of children, WPLN reports. The settlement is less than the $11 million that was estimated earlier this year because not as many plaintiffs filed claims. By the deadline, about 500 claims were filed — about a quarter of what attorneys originally hoped according to plaintiffs’ counsel Kyle Mothershead. For those who did file a claim, the county will pay $1,000 for each illegal arrest and about $4,800 for each illegal incarceration. Earlier this year, WPLN News and ProPublica published an investigation on the Rutherford County juvenile justice system and the judge who oversees it.