The Tennessee Supreme Court announced today that Deputy Director Michelle Long will become the next director of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) on Feb. 1, 2022. Long was appointed deputy director in 2019 and has over 25 years of experience in private practice, government and in-house counsel offices. Prior to joining the AOC, Long was assistant commissioner of the Division of Health Licensure and Regulation for the Tennessee Department of Health, senior vice president and general counsel for the Tennessee Hospital Association, executive director of the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, and legal counsel to former Gov. Don Sundquist. She earned her law degree from the University of Tennessee. Current AOC Director Deborah Taylor Tate announced earlier this month she will be leaving the AOC in early 2022.

Franklin-based Story, Abernathy & Campbell LLC has opened a new location in the Berry Farms community in South Franklin and is looking for an attorney interested in office sharing and/or an associate attorney to join the team. The office share would include space for attorney’s own legal assistant or shared legal assistant. For more information, please call the firm at 615-790-1778 or email virginia@tnlaw.org.

A Chattanooga jury unanimously found the Texas law firm Witherspoon Law Group, its owner Nuru Witherspoon, and firm representatives Glenn Smith and Alphonso McClendon liable for consumer protection law violations and engaging in the unauthorized practice of law when they solicited business from parents whose children died in a 2016 school bus crash. The Tennessee attorney general’s office argued the men caused confusion about their services and their association with lenders, and contacted consumers at a funeral home while they were making final arrangements for their children. With regard to the unauthorized practice of law charge, the jury found that Smith and McClendon, who are not lawyers, solicited clients while McClendon also falsely held himself out as a lawyer. Witherspoon was found responsible for the conduct of his firm’s representatives. The group was ordered to pay $96,000 in civil penalties.

Join the "CLE Performer" Stuart Teicher next week for one of TBA’s most popular legal writing courses. In “A 2021 Guide to Persuasive Legal Writing” Teicher updates his previous legal writing program to focus on how to make legal writings clear, concise and direct by focusing on the technicalities of sentence structure, reducing long sentences and punctuation. The recorded webcast will air next Tuesday from noon to 3 p.m. CST.

The Ben F. Jones Chapter of the National Bar Association today announced it has assembled an Elections Committee to vet candidates for races appearing on the August 2022 ballot in Shelby County. The chapter welcomed judicial candidates, district attorney candidates and court clerk candidates to participate in the vetting process by filling out a questionnaire by Jan. 12. After submitting the form, candidates will be scheduled for a 30-minute interview with a panel of attorneys. The Election Committee will then submit a report with recommendations to the Chapter’s Executive Board for further action. Those interested in assisting the Election Committee with interviews should contact BFJElectionsCommittee@gmail.com. Read more information on the press release.

Nashville Metropolitan Chief Public Defender Martesha L. Johnson was last week sworn in as president of the Nashville Bar Association during the organization’s annual meeting. Johnson has served three years as chief public defender and was the first African American and second woman to be elected to the position. Others elected to lead the NBA were First Vice President Judge Melissa Blackburn, Second Vice President Liz Sitgreaves, President-elect Gulam Zade, First Vice President-elect Lora Fox, Second Vice President-elect Marlene Moses, Secretary Charity Williams, Treasurer Flynne Dowdy, YLD President Jeremy Oliver and General Counsel Lela M. Hollabaugh. Additional board members elected include Christen Blackburn, Erin Coleman, Mandy Floyd, Elizabeth Foy, Joseph Hubbard and Marie Scott. The NBA also honored Charles Grant of Baker Donelson with the John C. Tune Public Service Award for outstanding contributions to the greater Nashville community. 

Nashville lobbyist and attorney Erica Garrison has been named partner in the Nashville office of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, the Nashville Post reports. Garrison previously practiced at Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis and was an assistant Metro attorney. Garrison will join Bradley’s economic development practice group and will work on land use and zoning issues, state regulatory matters and economic development incentive deals for relocating companies.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has adopted four proposed rules amendments. Amendments to the Rules of Appellate Procedure, Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules of Criminal Procedure and Rules of Evidence are all subject to approval by the Tennessee General Assembly.

Legal services provider Legility has been acquired by Consilio, an e-discovery, document review, risk management and legal consulting service provider. "An important consideration for Legility was the shared view on where the market is going, and we are particularly interested in expanding together what we can provide to clients in non-eDiscovery legal and compliance domains,” Legility CEO Barry Dark said in a press release. Originally known as Counsel on Call, Legility was founded in 1991 by lawyer Jane Allen and is headquartered in Nashville.

A new article from the Tennessean profiles Vanderbilt Law School Professor Mike Newton who, alongside his students, is helping judges in Iraq prosecute ISIS cases. Newton had worked on helping the Iraqi judiciary rebuild its court system after the reign of former dictator Saddam Hussein, but his work has now shifted to helping prosecute tens of thousands of ISIS cases and genocide cases previously ignored by the country. Newton’s work, funded by a grant from the U.S. State Department, is aided by students from Vanderbilt’s exclusive International Law Practice Lab. The students last year built a 300-page manual of international criminal law best practices to support attorneys in international criminal tribunals.