The Authors Guild filed a suit in a Manhattan federal court yesterday on behalf of prominent American writers including John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen and "Game of Thrones" novelist George R.R. Martin, accusing OpenAI of unlawfully training its popular artificial intelligence based chatbot on their works, reports Reuters. The class-action lawsuit joins several others made by creative artists and source-code owners against generative AI providers. Similar lawsuits are pending against Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Stability AI over the data used to train their AI systems. OpenAI and other AI defendants claim their use of training data scraped from the internet qualifies as fair use under U.S. copyright law.

The New York State Bar Association announced yesterday a guide for legally maintaining and increasing the number of law students, judges and attorneys from groups that have traditionally been underrepresented within the legal profession, reports Reuters. The New York Bar's Task Force on Advancing Diversity recommended that law schools move away from standardized testing and prioritizing grade-point averages in their admissions process. The bar suggested schools should consider a broader range of criteria to help identify strong candidates. The report also suggested schools increase their outreach to prospective applicants and ensure their marketing materials signal that diverse candidates are welcome.

Memphis Area Legal Services (MALS) will hold its Attorney of the Day Legal Advice Clinic tomorrow in the Probate Room of the Shelby County General Sessions Civil Courthouse beginning at 1 p.m. CDT. Clients should have an active or post-judgment General Sessions case to receive assistance and are helped on a first come, first served basis. For more information or to volunteer call 901-523-8822.

Shelby County Sheriff and Memphis mayoral candidate Floyd Bonner Jr. has claimed, for the second time in two weeks, that video footage of Gershun Freeman's death at the Shelby County Jail in October 2022 was released illegally. Bonner alleges that release of the video was improper and "skews the process." However, a Tennessee First Amendment expert disputed Bonner's claim, stating that there is no legal basis to support his assertion that the video's release was illegal. Bonner has also raised concerns about the handling of the case by Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk and questioned potential political motivations behind the investigation. The Daily Memphian has the story.

Herzfeld, Suetholz, Gastel, Leniski and Wall PLLC (HSGLaW) has filed a lawsuit against another successor firm of the dissolved Nashville law firm Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings. The Nashville Post reports that HSGLaW alleges that Stranch, Jennings & Garvey owes it more than $200,000 as part of agreements made during the dissolution process earlier this year. The dispute centers on various financial obligations, including payroll costs, employee benefits and severance payments.

Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law announces the hiring of Joseph D. "Jody” Prestia and Matthew D. van Dalen as visiting assistant professors of law. Prestia is certified as an information privacy professional through the International Association of Privacy Professionals. He researches and writes about data privacy and cybersecurity law, frequently in a comparative or international context. Prestia is the immediate past chair of the Tennessee Bar Association’s International Law Section. Van Dalen retired from the U.S. Air Force after almost 25 years serving as an attorney in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Prior to retirement in Tennessee, he practiced extensively as a criminal prosecutor, criminal defense attorney and criminal trial judge in over 250 criminal trials.

Secretary of State Tre Hargett has announced that the theme for the 2023 Civics Essay Contest for Tennessee students from pre-K to 12th grade is “Why Civility Matters.” Civics Essay Contest winners will receive a TNStars 529 College Savings Program scholarship and a trip to the state capitol. All Tennessee students in public, private school or home school associations are encouraged to participate. To view contest rules and submit essays online through Dec. 15, visit sos.tn.gov/civics-essay-contest.

A newly formed political action committee from Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, has announced that it will donate $100,000 to Van Turner’s Memphis mayoral campaign. The Tennessee Lookout reports that Pearson, who raised about $1 million this year amid international outrage after being expelled from the state House for leading an anti-gun rally on the chamber floor, has about $800,000 left in his state campaign account and is preparing to start using the money to back “progressive” candidates for local and state offices.

Tennessee State University (TSU) President Glenda Glover is urging the state to provide additional funding to address a decades-long shortfall. A 2021 report found that the state had underfunded TSU by $544 million in matching funds for land grant institutions. A recent letter from the U.S. departments of education and agriculture highlighted that historically Black land grant institutions like TSU had been significantly shortchanged compared to predominantly white land grant universities, leading to a "severe financial gap" of over $2.1 billion for TSU from 1987 to 2020. The Tennessee Lookout reports that the university is calling for the state to address this disparity over several years in its budget.

The American Bar Association’s newly created Task Force on the Law and Artificial Intelligence will provide practical information to help lawyers navigate and responsibly use AI, as well as recommendations and reports on these key issues. The task force will host a series of programs, beginning with “AI Governance: A Conversation with Reva Schwartz of the National Institute of Standards and Technology About NIST’s New AI Risk Management Framework” on Sept. 28. Register for this free event here.