Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and 17 other state attorneys general announced today they have concluded their investigation into Wells Fargo & Company following the company's decision to abandon certain environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies. The coalition has been investigating whether Wells Fargo and five other American banks — Bank of America Corporation, Citigroup Inc., The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley — violated antitrust or consumer protection laws by implementing net-zero emissions policies and restricting financing. In a release, Skrmetti said, “I commend Wells Fargo’s pro-consumer decision to step away from utopian policymaking, and I look forward to the rest of America’s major financial institutions following its lead.”

Recent executive orders issued by President Donald Trump include three directing the federal government to review large law firms. An order issued on Feb. 25 calls on the government to review security clearances for “all members, partners and employees" of Covington & Burling as well as all government contracts with the firm. An order issued on March 14, directs the government to review security clearances, contracts and federal building access for attorneys with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. On March 21, the president revoked the order after saying the firm “agreed to a number of policy changes.” An order on March 25 directs the government to review security clearances, contracts and federal building access for attorneys with Jenner & Block. In addition to orders naming specific firms, the president signed an order on March 22 directing the attorney general to investigate any law firm that engages in “frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation” against the federal government.

Make plans now to join colleagues from across the state at the TBA’s 2025 Annual Convention, set for June 11-14, in the Nashville suburb of Franklin. The Franklin Marriott Cool Springs will serve as the host hotel. Perennial favorites such as the Bench Bar program and lunch, Lawyers Lunch, and joint event with the Tennessee Judicial Conference return to the agenda. For the second year, the Public Service Breakfast will take place during the convention to honor legal aid, private practice and law student pro bono work. CLE programming will include sessions on famous Tennessee trials, the role lawyers played in the Gov. Ray Blanton pardon scandal, an indigent defense and legislative update, AI, wellness, and the future of DEI. For the first time, the TBA also will present a session on the future of legal tech with vendor panelists. Again this year, the Tennessee Lawyers' Association for Women (TLAW) and Tennessee Alliance for Black Lawyers (TABL) will hold meetings and events in conjunction with the convention. Don’t miss this annual gathering of Tennessee lawyers! Access registration, hotel reservation information and more on the event website.

The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released an interim final rule on Friday, narrowing the scope of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). Under the new rule, U.S. companies are no longer required to submit Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reports, with the exception of foreign companies operating in the U.S. and their foreign beneficial owners. According to The National Law Review, this change significantly reduces the compliance burden, with FinCEN estimating a 99.8% reduction in the number of companies required to report. The rule follows a series of legal challenges to the CTA, including a suspension of enforcement earlier this month. FinCEN is soliciting comments from the public on the interim rule, noting it will assess requested exemptions as appropriate. A final rule is expected this year.

The Tennessee Bar Association is still accepting nominations for its 2025 Claudia Jack Award and Justice Frank F. Drowota III Outstanding Judicial Service Award. The Claudia Jack Award honors an outstanding public defender or court-appointed private practitioner who has served the legal community and their clients in an exemplary fashion. It is named after the late Claudia Jack, a public defender and long-time champion of the poor and underprivileged. The Drowota Award is given to a judge or judicial branch official of a federal, state or local court in Tennessee who has demonstrated extraordinary devotion and dedication to the improvement of the law, the legal system and the administration of justice as exemplified by the career of former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Frank F. Drowota III. The deadline for both nominations is April 4.

A Muslim woman from Knoxville has been awarded $71,500 in her lawsuit against the Knox County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) after the agency released her mug shot without her hijab. The woman partially settled the suit on March 11. She had filed the suit seeking at least $250,000 in damages. The settlement resolves only her claims for monetary damages, according to Knox News. She also is seeking to have her booking photo deleted and amend KCSO policy to allow hijabi women to keep their head coverings on during mugshots.

Nashville attorneys have sued President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the heads of several federal agencies to recover $14 million for two federal grants that were awarded but never paid, the Nashville Post reports. Nashville joins five major cities and 11 nonprofit groups as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The city is suing for a $4.7 million grant, awarded in August, to expand public vehicle charging stations and a $9.3 million grant, awarded in January, to build bike lanes and pedestrian improvements near the East Bank. Both grants were part of infrastructure programs managed by the U.S. Department of Transportation. According to the suit, Nashville has already completed a procurement process, selected a vendor and signed a contract for electric charging stations, leaving the city with significant financial liability. Two federal judges recently ruled against the White House in similar cases, stating that such funding interference violates the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Tuesday led a bipartisan coalition of 30 attorneys general urging the U.S. Congress to pass federal legislation that would allow states to deploy cell phone jamming systems in prisons. The proposed bill seeks to prevent inmates from using smuggled cell phones to orchestrate crimes from behind bars. Currently, federal law prohibits the use of cell phone jamming technology. The legislation is designed to avoid interfering with emergency signals while granting states the authority to implement targeted jamming systems within prisons. “Contraband cell phones pose a serious risk to public safety when criminals reach beyond prison walls and continue terrorizing our communities,” Skrmetti said in a press release. “This legislation finally gives states the tools they need to stop this illegal and dangerous activity.”

The state Senate State and Local Government Committee has unanimously voted in favor of legislation that would financially penalize private prison operators for increasing death rates. The bill, SB1115, would allow the state Department of Correction to remove 10% of the prison population from any private prison once the death rate reaches twice the average death rate in state-run prisons. The legislation specifies that the population reduction would continue "until the department determines that the conditions leading to the reduction have been corrected." The House State & Local Government Committee passed its version (HB1144) today and forwarded it to the Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee. Action is scheduled next for April 2. According to The Tennessean, one private prison operator — CoreCivic — is paid based on its daily inmate population so a reduction would impact its bottom line. A Tennessean review in January of death data from 2020 to 2023 found that deaths occurred disproportionately in CoreCivic facilities, with more than 50% of prison deaths during that period occurring in company's four facilities.

After an initial attempt in February to cancel a contract for legal services for immigrant children, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has now fully canceled its contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provided federal funding for lawyers who represent unaccompanied immigrant children. The Daily Memphian reports that the decision will affect hundreds of children across the state who have legal representation through groups such as Latino Memphis, Advocates for Immigrant Rights (AIR) and Mid-South Immigration Advocates (MIA). “It’s an existential threat to our organization as it represents the vast majority of our budget for both our Memphis and Nashville offices,” said MIA legal director Sally Joyner. According to Joyner, last year’s federal contract was $902,346 or around 80% of MIA's budget. That money is going to have to be replaced somehow, she says, because groups still have ethical obligations to represent these children. The American Bar Association (ABA) also weighed in on the issue, saying, "Without specialized children’s programs and attorneys, many of these kids — some as young as toddlers — will be forced to navigate adversarial immigration proceedings alone. Legal services providers help ensure that children’s immigration proceedings are fair and efficient, alleviating undue burdens on judges and prosecutors, while protecting children’s due process rights." The Associated Press has more.