Crow Estate Planning & Probate, with offices in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky, has announced its expansion to East Tennessee with an office in downtown Chattanooga. John Crow, founder of the firm, said opening an office in Chattanooga is a “natural extension of what we have been building across Tennessee.” And “... we simply love Chattanooga. It's a city with character, strong families, and a real sense of community. That made it an easy decision for us to invest here and build something long-term.” Attorney Scott Grant will join the firm to lead the new office, which will open May 4. Grant previously served 29 years as an attorney and senior counsel at Grant, Konvalinka & Harrison in Chattanooga. The office will be located at 736 Georgia Ave., Ste. 504, Chattanooga 37402 and can be reached at 423-456-2953. Read more in a press release from the firm.

Members of the newly appointed 2026-2027 Young Lawyers Division (YLD) Board met in Nashville to plan for the upcoming bar year. The group also got to know one another better with a dinner at Ole Red and a wellness walk on Saturday planned by Health & Wellness Coordinator Chris Kelley. Later that day, the board conducted a Tennessee Free Legal Answers Clinic, continuing its commitment to being the "service arm of the bar." Working together, they answered 18 questions.

President-elect Jennifer Sneed-Perry, who will be sworn in as YLD president at the TBA Convention in June, provided an overview of the upcoming bar year as well as the expectations for all board members. She also introduced two initiatives for her year in office: increased law school engagement with the addition of six law student liaisons to the YLD Board and a focus on increasing education for attorneys and the public about estate planning, guardianships and conservatorships. The board also elected Andrea Morgan Hancock of Clinton as the District 2 representative. Mock Trial Chair Bridget Pyman was presented with the disco gavel for being the most enthusiastic participant at the meeting. Judge Zack Walden also was recognized with a disco gavel for his lively game of Traitors. See photos from the event.

The YLD has district representative openings in Districts 10 and 12. YLD members interested in serving in these roles should send a letter of interest and resume to llabenberg@tnbar.org.

DraftKings and FanDuel are the latest apps to be sued by consumers who say the platforms are deliberately designed to addict users, Bloomberg Law reports. Like the landmark social media addiction verdict against Meta and Google, three recent lawsuits against the sports betting apps point to features like push notifications, personalized algorithms and targeted advertising. The apps are accused of making sports betting more dangerous because they do not have the same barriers that inherently restrict in-person wagers.

The Tennessee Attorney General’s office has indefinitely delayed a legal challenge to the state’s abortion ban from going to trial as planned. According to the Nashville Banner newsletter, a two-week non-jury trial was supposed to start Monday in Davidson County Chancery Court, the culmination of a legal challenge that began in September 2023. On Tuesday, after receiving a chancellor’s order on a motion for summary judgment, the state filed a Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 3 (TRAP 3) appeal with the Tennessee Court of Appeals. In response, to save the trial, the plaintiffs filed an emergency motion for partial remand to the trial court and for expedited consideration, which the appeals court denied. As such, the chancery court removed the trial from the docket.

A federal jury found a woman guilty of two counts of cyberstalking for mailing harassing letters about a Shelby County assistant district attorney (ADA). U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant of the Western District of Tennessee announced the verdict today. Adrienne Rosse of Arlington, Tennessee, was found guilty following a three-day trial, with evidence showing she mailed anonymous, harassing letters in 2023 falsely accusing the prosecutor of having a secret pornography career and including explicit images of women resembling the attorney. Prosecutors said Rosse acted out of anger over the continued prosecution of her husband, whose rape and sexual battery case ended in a mistrial and remains pending. The harassment campaign prompted the assistant district attorney to leave her position and relocate, though she has continued her legal career. Rosse faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release at sentencing scheduled for Aug. 5 before U.S. District Judge Mark S. Norris.

Tennessee Attorney General (AG) Jonathan Skrmetti announced that Solicitor General Matt Rice will conclude his tenure with the Office of the Attorney General this summer to join Kirkland & Ellis as a partner. Rice joined the AG's office in 2022 and was appointed as the top appellate lawyer in 2024. In that role, he has led litigation efforts for Tennessee and multistate coalitions in several high-profile cases. He argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple cases before the Tennessee Supreme Court during his tenure as solicitor general. “We are deeply grateful for Matt’s service and thrilled for him and his family as he embarks on this new opportunity. Kirkland & Ellis is getting someone truly exceptional, and we couldn’t be prouder of everything he gave to this office and to the people of Tennessee,” Skrmetti said in a release. The attorney general’s office said Rice’s successor will be announced at a later date.

Of Tennessee’s 95 counties, 79 reported unemployment rates below 5% in February, even as most counties saw increases from the previous month, according to data from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Unemployment rates rose in 87 counties compared with January, remained unchanged in five and decreased in three. Williamson, Macon and Cheatham counties recorded the state’s lowest unemployment rates at 3%, while Pickett County had the highest rate at 6.7%, followed by Perry County at 6.6% and Cocke County at 6.5%. Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.6% in February, up slightly from January but still below the national rate of 4.4%.

Reporters from across the state gathered in Nashville today to learn about open meetings law, investigative journalism and more during the sixth annual Reporters Workshop program, produced jointly by the Tennessee Bar Association, the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters and the Tennessee Press Association Foundation. Participants were selected from applicants interested in developing a deeper understanding of media law issues that may affect their everyday work.

Today's programming included a panel of veteran investigative reporters — Phil Williams from NewsChannel 5, Meribah Knight from WPLN News and Stephen Elliott from the Nashville Banner — moderated by Amy Mohan of Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison. Other speakers were Jennifer Safstrom with Vanderbilt's First Amendment Clinic, who presented on reporter's privilege; a panel moderated by Todd Hambidge from Holland & Knight on public records that included Lisa Davidson and Ashley Rinehart from the Metro Nashville Police Department and Jay Miller from the Administrative Office of the Courts; and Deborah Fisher from Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, who discussed the open records law.

Programming will continue on Saturday with a session featuring an overview of defamation with Safstrom and Ryan Riedmueller from the Vanderbilt First Amendment Clinic and a panel on covering state and local government with Alex Apple from Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell's Office, Steve Cavendish from the Nashville Banner, Holly McCall from the Tennessee Lookout, and Erik Schelzig with State Affairs (Tennessee Journal). That panel will be moderated by Clint Brewer from Imperium Public Strategies. The day will wrap up with a panel moderated by Robb Harvey of Holland & Knight on covering the courts with Judges Valerie Smith and Ana Escobar and Chancellor Anne Martin. See photos from the event. Thanks to this year's sponsors Holland & Knight, Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison and Womble Bond Dickinson.

Memphis-Shelby County School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to sue over a state takeover of the district, the Daily Memphian reports. On Wednesday, the House and Senate passed the measure, sending it to Gov. Bill Lee for his consideration. The plan would give a nine-member, state-appointed board authority over the district through at least 2030, potentially reshaping how Memphis’ approximately 100,000 students are educated, how schools are governed and how roughly $1.7 billion in annual local, state and federal education funding is allocated. The school board argues the measure is unconstitutional and grants “unprecedented authority” over the system. It also directed general counsel Justin Bailey to retain outside counsel. Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, who sponsored the legislation and spoke prior to its passage, said that the measure is not targeted at any particular district.

A record percentage of U.S. law school students landed legal jobs soon after graduating in 2025, according to new American Bar Association (ABA) data, despite reduced hiring for government and public interest jobs, Reuters reports. The percentage of 2025 law degree graduates who landed ‌jobs requiring bar admission within 10 months of leaving campus ticked up one percent from 2024, which also was a record year, to 83%. In total, 31,743 of the 2025 graduates from the 195 ABA-approved or provisionally approved law schools were employed in such roles as of March 16 of this year. The data also ranks employment success by law school with Vanderbilt University Law School coming in at third place behind Cornell Law School and Duke University School of Law. ABA officials noted that reporting changes this year include certain law school-funded positions in the totals, affecting year-over-year comparisons.