As a follow up to this spring’s popular Accounting 101 webcast, next month's Tales from a Tax Return: An Introduction to Understanding Tax Returns is designed to introduce basic tax principles to attorneys including the various types of tax returns an attorney may encounter in their practice. The program will focus on helping non-tax attorneys understand the information found on an individual 1040 and the sources of that information. Join in on Sept. 20 from noon to 1 p.m. CDT for this one-hour overview.

Do you use PCLaw or Time Matters, or know someone who does? If so, you might know that older versions of these services are losing support, and aging servers are getting expensive to maintain. Now would be the perfect time to consider moving to cloud-based legal software. But switching software is no small feat; that’s why TBA member benefit provider Clio has an exclusive offer to make it easier. For a limited time, PCLaw and Time Matters users get three months free of Clio. This complimentary period, along with free data migrations and onboarding support, will set firms up for success. Already a Clio customer? Refer a friend and get a $500 gift card! Terms and conditions apply.

The Tennessee Supreme Court suspended 18 attorneys on Monday for failure to pay the annual registration fee; 10 of them also failed to file proof that client funds are held in an IOLTA-compliant account. View the fee suspension order and IOLTA suspension order. See the list of all lawyers suspended and reinstated for fee and IOLTA violations in 2023 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

The TBA's Affinity Consulting Webcast Series will offer three CLE programs this fall on the subjects of digital signatures, document management and retention, and client data. On Sept. 14, Jeff Schoenberger will host a seminar on Digital Signatures. On Oct. 11, Paul Unger will speak on a common-sense and ethical approach to Document Management and Retention. And on Nov. 14, Danielle DavisRoe will discuss Client Data and how to create fillable PDFs and questionnaires. Visit each program webpage for registration and more info or visit the TBA's online CLE Course Catalog to explore other offerings.

The Tennessee Supreme Court issued an order yesterday conditioning reinstatement of Rhea County lawyer Lee R. Thurman on completion of required CLE hours. Thurman filed a petition on Aug. 23 seeking reinstatement of his law license. The Board of Professional Responsibility reported it was not opposed to reinstatement but the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education reported that Thurman was not compliant with CLE requirements. The court gave Thurman until Oct. 12 to satisfy those obligations or said it would dismiss his petition.

The Tennessee General Assembly adjourned sine die after reaching an agreement with Gov. Bill Lee to pass three bills aimed at public safety, the Tennessean reports. Before adjourning the special session, the Senate agreed to a House amendment requiring local courts to update records in the state’s background check database within 72 hours, a House amendment funding the Department of Safety’s ad campaign on gun safety and a House amendment for mental health workers. Republican and Democrats expressed frustration that the session is over. “I’m very disappointed that we didn’t get more done in this special session,” said House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland. “In the House, we had a lot of bills that got left on the table that I hope will still be taken back up in January to help families in Tennessee be safer.” House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, said, “People expected us to do something to make the public safer. We did nothing.”

Tensions between Republicans and Democrats were apparent after adjournment Tuesday afternoon, leading to confusion and shoving on the chamber floor. As House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, attempted to leave, Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, confronted Sexton at the speaker's dais, holding handmade signs as the speaker exited the chamber. In related news, Davidson County Chancellor Anne C. Martin ruled Monday afternoon that recent House rules banning signs from the chamber's galleries and committee rooms will remain blocked, saying that the plaintiffs had shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims the new rule violated the First Amendment. The General Assembly will reconvene on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024.

Two lawyers recently were reinstated to the practice of law in Tennessee after being on inactive status. They are: Montgomery County lawyer Dillon E. Barker and Shelby County lawyer Zipporah Williams. Read about their specific cases in the Tennessee Supreme Court orders linked above.

Over the last several days, the Tennessee Supreme Court has reinstated 13 lawyers who had been suspended for failing to complete annual continuing legal education requirements in 2022. View the Aug. 25 order, the Aug. 28 order and Aug. 29 order or see the list of all those reinstated online.

A new study at the University of Minnesota found that low-performing law students scored 45% higher on final exams when given access to artificial intelligence, reports Reuters. Researchers compared the final exam scores of 48 students in two courses: Introduction to American Law and Legal Reasoning and Insurance Law. The students first took the final without AI, then took a different final using GPT-4, the latest large language model from Open AI. They found that GPT-4, which produces human-like text based on user prompts, vastly improved student performance on multiple-choice questions. Higher performing student scores were about 20% lower when using GPT-4. The use of GPT-4 did not improve essay scores in either group.

3M has agreed to pay $6 billion to settle over 250,000 lawsuits that accuse the company of selling defective combat earplugs that caused hearing loss in hundreds of thousands of military service members. Reuters reports the deal was announced today after a failed attempt by 3M to move the lawsuits, which are currently the largest mass tort litigation in U.S. history, into bankruptcy court. Combat Arms earplugs were made by Aearo Technologies, a company 3M acquired in 2008. The earplugs were used by the U.S. military from 2003 to 2015, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. A U.S. judge dismissed Aearo’s recent bankruptcy claim, noting that Aearo, as a subsidiary of 3M, enjoys a "greater degree of financial security than warrants bankruptcy protection."