The TBA Young Lawyers Division (YLD) has selected Sue Mathews as the 2023 CASA Volunteer of the Year. Mathews is a volunteer with CASA of Maury County and has served as a court-appointed special advocate for 15 years. In nominating Mathews for the award, CASA of Maury County Executive Director Jessica Ballard said that Mathews regularly “goes above and beyond” to support, mentor and advocate for the cases she is assigned, and “embodies what it means to be an effective CASA by making sure the children’s needs are being met and their voices are heard.” The award will be presented at the YLD Board’s annual dinner on June 16 in Knoxville as part of the TBA’s Annual Convention. CASA’s mission is to train and support court-appointed volunteers who then advocate for abused and neglected children who have come to the attention of the courts. Read the TBA’s full press release here.

Elk Valley Times writers Lora Scripps and Wanda Southerland will receive the Fourth Estate Award during the Tennessee Bar Association’s annual convention in Knoxville. The award will be presented at the Lawyers Luncheon on June 16. Scripps, the paper's general manager and editor, and Southerland, one of its reporters, are being recognized for six months of reporting on the Lincoln County mayor’s decision to exclude Jack Daniels from certain planning and zoning requirements, including site plans, permitting and fees. The move comes as local residents express concern about “whiskey fungus” created by unregulated barrel houses. The Fourth Estate Award was established to recognize and encourage journalists who promote public understanding of the rule of law and improvements in our system of justice through their vigorous exercise of their First Amendment rights. Read TBA’s full release on the award.

Rutherford County attorney Mary Bonita Tucker will be honored next month with the TBA's Fourth Annual Claudia Jack Award. Named for the late Claudia Jack, a long-time champion of the poor and underprivileged, and a public defender in Maury County, the award is presented to an outstanding  public defender or court-appointed private practitioner who serves the legal community and clients in an exemplary fashion. Tucker has served  as a court-appointed private practitioner for involuntary commitment proceedings in Rutherford County since the special court's inception in 2013. Since 2015, she also has defended clients in involuntary commitment proceedings involving the Veterans' Affairs Department. And she accepts appointments in probate court as an appointed conservator and guardian ad litem. One nominator wrote that Tucker “serves those who are often either in the worst state of their lives or who are struggling in ways that many will never have to experience or understand.” She also has been described as “trustworthy and respectful of her clients” and called an “inspiration.” The award be presented at the TBA Annual Convention in Knoxville on June 16 during the Lawyers’ Luncheon. Read the TBA's full press release about the award.

Knoxville attorney and University of Tennessee (UT) College of Law Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus Douglas A. Blaze will be honored next month with the prestigious William M. Leech Jr. Public Service Award. Named for former Attorney General William M. Leech and presented by the Fellows of the TBA Young Lawyers Division, the award is given to a Tennessee lawyer who has been of outstanding service to the profession, legal system and the community. Blaze joined the UT Law faculty in 1993 as the director of clinical programs. He also served as director of the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution and interim associate dean for academic affairs. He was named dean of the law school twice and served from 2008-2015 and then again from 2020-2022. Blaze helped found the college’s Institute for Professional Leadership and served as its first director. He retired from full-time teaching in July 2022. The Leech Award will be presented at the TBA Annual Convention in Knoxville on June 16 during the Lawyers’ Luncheon. Read the TBA's full press release on the award.

Chattanooga lawyer Russell Fowler will receive the prestigious Justice Joseph W. Henry Award for Outstanding Legal Writing on June 16 during the Tennessee Bar Association’s (TBA) Annual Convention in Knoxville. The award, which will be presented at the Lawyers Luncheon, was established nearly 40 years ago and is given each year to the lawyer who writes the most outstanding article published in the Tennessee Bar Journal for the preceding year.  Fowler is being recognized for his article "Tennessee Lawyers Impact America: A History of Advancing the Right to Vote" and companion piece "Dunn v. Blumstein: A Young Tennessee Lawyer Wins Expansion of the Right to Vote, which ran in the March/April 2022 issue of the Journal. Fowler is director of litigation and advocacy at Legal Aid of East Tennessee. He has written many pieces on law and legal history, and is a regular columnist for the Journal. Read the full release.

Chancellor John C. Rambo of Jonesborough will be honored next month at the TBA Annual Convention with the Judge Pamela L. Reeves Tennessee Professionalism Award from the Tennessee Bar Association and the Tennessee American Inns of Court. The award is named in honor of the late Judge Reeves, who was also the first recipient of the award in 2020. Chancellor of the First Judicial District, Rambo practiced law in Northeast Tennessee for 19 years before assuming the chancery court bench in 2013. Attorneys who have practiced in his court note that Rambo is dedicated to the highest standards of the rule of law and of the legal profession in Tennessee. His nominator, Mark W. McFall, says that “Chancellor Rambo possesses the ideal judicial temperament, patience with lawyers and litigants, and a true desire to mete out equity and justice in his rulings and opinions.”

The Tennessee Bar Association this year will again honor the good works of Tennessee journalists through the Fourth Estate Award: Honoring Courageous Reporting on Justice and the Law. This year's prize includes a $250 honorarium for the winner. The TBA strongly supports our freedom of expression under the First Amendment, as exercised by lawyers on behalf of their clients and by journalists on behalf of the public, and it particularly wants to recognize and encourage journalists who promote public understanding of the rule of law and our system of justice through vigorous exercise of their First Amendment rights. Prior winners include the WSMV News 4 I-Team, Steven Hale of the Nashville Scene, the Bristol Herald Courier, Marc Perrusquia’s work for the Daily Memphian and the Institute for Public Service Reporting, and the Kingsport Times News. The deadline for entry is April 10. Read more about this year's award process.

Courtney Leyes, a partner in the Nashville office of Fisher Phillips, was voted this year’s recipient of the Larry Dean Wilks Leadership Award by fellow members of 2022 TBA Leadership Law (TBALL) class. All 34 members of the leadership training program met for their final session last week in Franklin. The class heard from a Diversity in Leadership panel before completing a service project with Tennessee Free Legal Answers where they answered 36 legal questions submitted by the public. Leyes was presented with the award during the group’s graduation ceremony on Friday. The award is named for former TBA president, Larry D. Wilks, and recognizes a TBALL class member who exhibits exceptional leadership qualities. Read more on all of this year’s TBALL graduates.

The Kingsport Times News will be recognized for its extensive coverage of the opioid crisis and its effects on the Appalachian Highlands when it receives the Fourth Estate Award during the Tennessee Bar Association’s (TBA) annual convention in Nashville. During a seven-month period, the Times News reporting team took readers on a journey into the local and regional proliferation of meth and fentanyl, providing an analytical, unbiased, multifaceted report that will help legislators, health care professionals, law enforcement, judges and addicts. The TBA's Fourth Estate Award was established to recognize and encourage journalists who promote public understanding of the rule of law and improvements in our system of justice through their vigorous exercise of their First Amendment rights. Read the full press release.

Knoxville lawyer R. Culver Schmid will be presented with the prestigious Justice Joseph W. Henry Award for Outstanding Legal Writing on June 17 during the Tennessee Bar Association’s (TBA) annual convention in Nashville. The award was established nearly 40 years ago and is given each year to the lawyer “who writes the most outstanding article that is published in the ... Tennessee Bar Journal for the preceding year." Culver is managing shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Knoxville office, and a member of its Real Estate/Finance Group. Judges said his article, “Restoring Rights of Individuals Convicted of a Felony Crime: A Manual,” did “an excellent job laying out the statistics and statutes regarding lost voting rights in Tennessee, and then guiding the reader clearly and succinctly through the process of restoring those rights." Read the full release.