Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis will serve in an interim role following a vote to table her confirmation at a Memphis City Council meeting, reports the Commercial Appeal. Memphis Mayor Paul Young suggested to the council that Davis serve in an interim role to see what impact she can have on crime, police policy and community engagement before bringing the confirmation vote to the floor. Young said the timeline for that vote would up to the city council. Davis' confirmation hearing on Jan. 9 saw multiple council members questioning her record on fighting crime and enforcing reforms passed by the council as well as her ability to lead the department.

According to a new poll by test prep company Kaplan, a majority of law school admissions officers are concerned that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ban on race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities will reduce the number of diverse law students. Reuters reports that 54% of those polled were "very concerned" the ruling would affect campus diversity, while 33% said they are “somewhat concerned” and 13% were either neutral, unconcerned or did not know. Respondents were a bit more optimistic about their own ability to bring in diverse classes: 21% said they were “very concerned” about those efforts, while 38% said they were "somewhat concerned." Despite the concerns, Kaplan notes that the fall 2023 entering class was the most racially diverse on record with 40% students of color, and that the current applicant pool for fall 2024 admission is historically diverse with 43% students of color.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has announced that Nashville partner and TBA member A.J. Bahou has been appointed to serve on the newly formed Artificial Intelligence (AI) Committee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia selected the committee, which will be chaired by Judge Eric D. Miller, to aid the court in evaluating appropriate rules and uses of AI. Bahou currently serves as Bradley’s AI practice leader and frequently speaks on the use and ethical implications of AI and ChatGPT in law practice and other industries. If you missed his presentation at TBA's Law Tech program last year, check it out here.

Gov. Bill Lee has announced that he will deliver his sixth State of the State address to the General Assembly on Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. CST. The joint session will take place in the House chamber of the Tennessee State Capitol. The address will be available on Lee’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

The University of Memphis announced that all campuses, including the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, would continue modified operational status this week, including virtual classes. Law students should monitor their emails for additional details regarding plans for the remainder of the week. Check www.memphis.edu or the school's Facebook page for updates.

University of Tennessee College of Law student Kevin Escalona won "The Closer," the nation’s most challenging transactional law competition, on Jan. 14. Hosted by Baylor Law School in Waco, Texas, 14 law schools are invited annually to compete. Unlike most competitions, each school can send only one student. Each competitor is given only 24 hours to digest their client’s extensive files and prepare to negotiate a deal. This year’s competition challenged the law students to negotiate an agreement between Hotel 1928 (a historic hotel renovated by Chip and Joanna Gaines of Magnolia and Fixer Upper fame), and Neighborly Inc., a Waco-based home service provider. The competitors learned that Neighborly Inc. wants to host a conference at Hotel 1928 during the April 2024 solar eclipse. The competitors negotiated use of the hotel and its restaurants and terms for employment of entertainers, insurance for outdoor liquor sales, use of trademarks and advertising. 

The law firm of Baker Donelson has announced a renewed commitment to the American Bar Association's (ABA) Free Legal Answers (FLA) with a major investment of financial and technology resources that will ensure the tool continues to increase access to advice and information about non-criminal legal matters for those who cannot afford a lawyer. Baker Donelson technicians will work over a period of six months to rewrite and update the code for FLA while also improving the data security of the website. The firm is also making a $250,000 donation to ensure the ABA has the resources to further develop and maintain this next-generation version of FLA. The virtual legal advice platform that would become FLA was launched in Tennessee in 2009, via a collaborative effort between Baker Donelson, the TBA, Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services and the Tennessee Supreme Court's Access to Justice Commission. Since its inception, FLA has received more than 330,000 questions from program participants seeking pro bono legal advice from volunteer attorneys.

The city of Memphis reports that it spent nearly $50,000 for 15 employees to travel to Puerto Rico in July with the intent of recruiting for hard-to-fill jobs, like police officers. The trip did not result in a single applicant. The Daily Memphian reports that the employees — representatives of the public works, parks and police departments — spent hundreds of taxpayer dollars on meals, thousands on flights, more than $500 on tips and $13,566.06 on rooms at the Sheraton Hotel & Casino in San Juan. There was a $14,348.32 catering bill at the hotel for a job fair that 300 people attended. “It was a strategy used by some other cities — Louisville, Dallas and Baltimore — to recruit bilingual employees. It was not successful for us,” the city said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Justice and four additional jurisdictions have joined the multistate bipartisan antitrust lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which was filed in December by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and attorneys general in six other states. Skrmetti's office reports that the additional parties include the states of Minnesota, Mississippi and Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The lawsuit challenges the NCAA’s transfer eligibility rule as an illegal restraint on college athletes’ ability to sell their image and likeness and control their education. The rule requires that college athletes who transfer a second time among Division I schools must wait one year before competing in games.

Adam Johnson has been elected to serve as 2024 president of the Memphis Bar Association (MBA), which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Johnson is an associate attorney at Nahon, Saharovich & Trotz, where he practices civil litigation in the area of personal injury. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from UCLA in 2003 and he began practicing law in 2008 after obtaining his law degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. During law school, Johnson served as a judicial extern for Judge Bernice B. Donald, then of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, and as a member of both the University of Memphis Law Review and the University of Memphis Moot Court Board. Read more in a release from the association.