Fort, Holloway & Rogers LLC has announced that Stuart Saylor has been named partner. Saylor also has been appointed managing partner, and the firm will officially change its name to Fort, Holloway & Saylor LLC. The firm focuses on family law, estate planning and criminal defense from offices in Franklin and Columbia.  Read more in the firm’s tongue-in-cheek announcement.

Tennessee ended 2024 with an unemployment rate of 3.6% in December, well below the U.S. rate, according to data from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.6% in December, up one-tenth of a percentage point from the previous month. Despite the uptick, Tennessee’s unemployment rate remains five-tenths of a percentage point lower than the national rate of 4.1%, Clarksville Online reports. Between November and December, Tennessee employers added 500 nonfarm jobs, with the health care and social assistance sector seeing the largest gains, followed by local government and the real estate, rental and leasing sectors.

Attorney volunteers are needed on March 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CST to help score the District 7 high school mock trial competition. The competition will take place at the Rutherford County Judicial Center, 116 W. Lytle St., Murfreesboro 37130. Contact Morgan Hanna for more information and to volunteer. Attorney volunteers are also needed on Feb.19-20 and Feb. 24-25 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. EST in Chattanooga to help score Tennessee's largest mock trial district competition. Click here to volunteer for the District 5 competition. Shelby County needs volunteer lawyers and 2L and 3L law students for their competition on Feb. 20-22 at the Shelby County Courthouse, 140 Adams Ave., Memphis  38103. Click here to volunteer for District 14.  Davidson County is seeking volunteers on the evening of Feb. 21 and the morning of Feb. 22. No mock trial experience is necessary. Click here to select specific times to volunteer for District 9. Those who would like to volunteer at another district competition may find a list of all events on the TBA website.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has rescinded job offers to law students set to join the agency this year. The cuts, made this week, affect third-year law students who had been accepted into the Justice Department’s highly competitive Attorney General's Honors Program, which places new law graduates in entry-level jobs throughout the agency’s divisions, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration. According to Reuters, President Donald Trump announced a temporary hiring freeze on federal jobs in a speech following his inauguration and followed up with an executive order calling for the development of a federal hiring plan to "restore merit to government service" within 120 days. It is unclear whether the job revocations extend beyond the DOJ. Students whose offers were rescinded this week received a brief email from the DOJ’s Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management, attributing the decision to the "hiring freeze announced Jan. 20."

Following Wednesday’s shooting at a Nashville high school, a local organization has begun raising money for the victims. The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee has activated its Nashville School Violence Support and Healing Fund. Funds raised will go to the victims’ families, those who were injured, and students and staff who experienced emotional trauma. The organization says it is following a playbook established after the Covenant School shooting in 2023. Donations can be made on their website.

The Shelby County Veterans Court will have a new leader following the recent retirement of Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Bill Anderson. Current General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Christian Johnson will take over the court, effective March 1, the day Anderson officially retires, the Daily Memphian reports. The Veterans Court serves as a diversion program for criminal defendants who have served in the military, offering mental health and substance abuse counseling, as well as assistance in finding resources such as housing and employment. Johnson, a former Marine Corps Reserve and Army National Guard member, focused on his military background during his 2022 campaign. “I’m going to come in and continue things as they are and make sure everyone’s comfortable,” Johnson said. “If there are changes, they would be down the road, but I can’t foresee any.”

The American Bar Association (ABA) is mobilizing to assist victims of the wildfires in Southern California. Since erupting in the Los Angeles area on Jan. 7, the wildfires have reportedly burned more than 60 square miles of land and claimed at least 25 lives, making them some of the most destructive wildfires in the region's history, the ABA Journal reports. The ABA Young Lawyers Division's Disaster Legal Services program has supported survivors in the aftermath of presidentially declared disasters since 2007. Disaster Legal Services has responded to more than 300 declared disasters in 45 states and five U.S. territories. The program is now coordinating the delivery of free legal services in California. Former President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the state on Jan. 8 and directed federal aid to assist areas affected by the wildfires and straight-line winds. Volunteers can sign up using the Disaster Legal Services volunteer interest form or email director@abaylddls.org. Members can also donate to support free civil legal aid for victims of the Southern California wildfires.

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) announced that workers' compensation insurance premiums will decline for most Tennessee businesses in 2025, marking the 12th consecutive year of decreases. On Dec. 27, 2024, TDCI Commissioner Carter Lawrence signed an order approving a 3.6% overall loss cost decrease for the voluntary market, effective March 1, on new and renewal policies. This rate decrease allows carriers to blend the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) loss cost filings with company experience and expenses to set premiums for the coming year. According to a TDCI press release, Tennessee employers have seen substantial savings since the state's workers' compensation system reforms began in 2014. "Lower premiums allow business owners to have the flexibility they need to reinvest in their companies. I thank the Department of Commerce and Insurance for its work to serve Tennesseans," said Gov. Bill Lee.

The Tennessee Innocence Project (TIP), in partnership with the Innocence Project, successfully vacated the wrongful conviction of Scott Minton, who spent 31 years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. The district attorney's office for Tennessee's 10th Judicial District on Jan. 23 dismissed all charges against Minton related to the 1994 aggravated rape, kidnapping and robbery of a woman. According to TIP, Minton's wrongful conviction resulted from tunnel vision, eyewitness misidentification — the leading contributor to wrongful convictions — and a false confession. Despite time-stamped receipts and 18 alibi witnesses proving he was in a different county at the time of the crime, Minton was convicted and spent over three decades in prison. "Exonerations like Scott's are why we do this work," says Jason Gichner, executive director of TIP. "They are a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and the urgency of addressing wrongful convictions."

Two teens are dead and two were injured after a shooting Wednesday at Antioch High School in Nashville. The Associated Press reports that Solomon Henderson, a Black 17-year-old student at the school, shot and killed Josselin Corea Escalante, who was 16 and Hispanic, in the school’s cafeteria, before turning the gun on himself. Henderson's online writings reportedly included dozens of pages of racist ideologies and calls for violence. The Tennessean reports that although the school has an AI-powered weapon detection software installed on cameras, the system did not detect the gun. The district has invested more than $1 million in the software since February 2023.