On behalf of myself, the entire executive council, and the TBA leadership of the Administrative Law Section (ALS), I want to extend a warm thanks to all our members for being a part of this practice section. 

This is an active and exciting time in administrative law. Fiscal Year 2024-2025 has seen several circuit courts of appeals and SCOTUS rulings which are expected to have long-term ramifications for private citizens, businesses and government agencies. The Supreme Court’s drastic dilution, if not elimination, of Chevron deference may or may not have as great an impact as many are predicting, but it is almost certain to spark a significant volume of litigation and subsequent appellate court action. This is a great time to be part of a group of colleagues with similar professional interests in the field of administrative law.

The ALS and the TBA produce an annual CLE-qualified Administrative Law Forum. This year’s forum was well-attended and covered such current topics as the demise of Chevron, recent developments in the Tennessee Administrative Procedures Act and a professional ethics session highlighting the services of the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP). The faculty included outstanding speakers from both the bench and the bar of Tennessee. The forum is held in December each year, and we look forward to another informative and exciting forum this year. We hope you will join us.

Another program the ALS sponsors is a legal writing competition which is open to any law student in Tennessee. Intended to help develop and strengthen future lawyers’ interest in administrative law, the legal writing competition allows the student to choose his or her own topic in the field of administrative law. The papers are judged by a panel of the ALS Executive Council, and the winners are awarded cumulative cash prizes of $1,000. The deadline for this year’s competition is April 20. For more information feel free to contact Brooke Leeton, our TBA staff liaison, at bleeton@tnbar.org.

Again, we appreciate all our colleagues who are members of the ALS, and hope you will renew your membership again this year. We also extend a sincere open invitation to anyone else who has an interest in administrative law and wants to avail themselves of the many benefits of ALS membership.

—Jerry Taylor