Article about criminal sentencing explains recent U.S. Supreme Court decision

KNOXVILLE, June 17, 2005 — Nashville lawyer David Raybin received the Justice Joseph W. Henry Memorial Award for Outstanding Legal Writing from the Tennessee Bar Association today during its annual convention in Knoxville.

The Joe W. Henry Award is given each year to a member of the Tennessee Bar Association who contributes the most outstanding article to the TBA’s monthly magazine, the Tennessee Bar Journal. The Journal reaches about 9,000 lawyers each month. Raybin receives the honor for his article “What is the Impact of Blakely on Sentencing in Tennessee?” which appeared in the August 2004 issue of the Journal.

Raybin is a member of the Nashville firm of Hollins, Wagster, Yarbrough, Weatherly & Raybin where he specializes in representing defendants in criminal trials, appeals, parole hearings and post-conviction petitions. He also practices in a number of civil litigation areas, including civil rights, embezzled asset recovery and victims rights. He is licensed to practice before the U.S. district courts in Tennessee, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.

Prior to joining his current firm, Raybin served as an assistant attorney general for Tennessee and an assistant district attorney for Davidson County. He has served on a multitude of commissions and boards, including the Tennessee Sentencing Commission, the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Advisory Commission on Rules of Post Conviction Procedures and Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedure, as well as Governor Bredesen’s Task Force on the Use of Enhancement Factors in Criminal Sentencing. While on the Tennessee Sentencing Commission, he chaired the Criminal Code Revision Subcommittee and the Substantive Law Subcommittee, which drafted the Tennessee Sentencing Reform Act of 1989. He also chaired the Tennessee Supreme Court Advisory Commission on Rules of Criminal Procedure from 1982-1988. Raybin graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1973 where he was a member of the Tennessee Law Review.

The Joe Henry award is named for Justice Joseph W. Henry, a former chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, practicing lawyer, scholar, and writer with a rare talent for clear, forceful and often dramatic prose. The award was established in 1981 to encourage scholarly yet practical writing to benefit the members of the bar. The winners are chosen by Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota, UT Law School Dean Thomas Galligan and TBA President Charles Swanson.

Raybin is a two-time award winner of the Joe Henry award having received the honor in 1983. He shares this year’s award with Charles E. Young Jr. of Knoxville who is a partner with the Knoxville firm of Kramer, Rayson, Leake, Rodgers & Morgan LLP. Young is being honored for his article “Can You Protect Your Client’s Trademark from Cyber Mud Slingers?”