A story in Friday’s issue of TBA Today included information from the Board of Law Examiners that ranked the state’s law schools on bar passage rates. The ranking included in the story was based on the overall rate, which included first-time and repeat test takers. The percentages based on first time test takers only are: Belmont University, 97.2%; Vanderbilt University, 93%; University of Tennessee, 83.7%; University of Memphis, 81%; Duncan School of Law, 73%; and Nashville School of Law, 69%.

A recent TBA Today item on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s adoption of changes to Rule 10B and 11 contained an incorrect link to the court’s order. Here is the correct link to that document.

In a recap of the recent TBA Board of Governors meeting, an item in TBA Today discussing the adoption of a new TBA policy on attorney wellness did not include a link to that new policy. Here is the policy that was adopted, which references the Path to Lawyer Well-Being report prepared by the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being.

An item in Friday’s TBA Today included mention of a letter from ABA President Robert M. Carlson urging senators to delay a vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination until “an appropriate background check into the allegations made by Professor Blasey and others is completed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Later, Paul T. Moxley, the chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, wrote Senate Committee on the Judiciary leaders, saying that the ABA committee had not received a copy of Carlson's letter before it was issued and that the letter would have no effect on its previous decision to give Judge Kavanaugh a "well qualified" rating.

An item on the controversy surrounding a plaque in Knoxville Police headquarters in Friday’s TBA Today did not accurately reflect the facts or the city’s position on the issue, Knoxville Law Director Charles Swanson wrote in an email. Swanson said that the city’s review of the facts “revealed that the plaque as displayed was in violation of the Establishment Clause and that our duty was to correct that violation.” He also noted that the plaque was not being removed, but was being moved to a Hall of Inspiration where it will be displayed along with other inspiring messages, both secular and non-secular.

In the July 28, 2017, edition of TBA Today you printed a story, likely based on Knoxville News-Sentinel reports, suggesting that the City of Knoxville would remove a plaque containing a Bible verse from the City’s Safety Building and police headquarters. The story says that I said we could have defended the plaque but agreed with the Mayor’s decision to remove it in order to avoid spending taxpayer money to fund the defense.  I do not believe this story to be an accurate portrayal of the facts nor an accurate portrayal of the City’s position on this case.

The Nashville Business Journal released its annual 40 Under 40 list yesterday, and in addition to the names highlighted in TBA Today, the publication also honored four more people from the legal community. Reen Baskin, deputy director of the Tennessee Office of Customer Focused Government; David Crenshaw, CFO of Confirmation.com; Kim Hollingshead, CEO at Touchstone Title & Escrow, COO at Smart Title & Escrow and regional developer at EXIT Realty Tennessee/Kentucky; and Shaka Mitchell, regional director at Rocketship Education.