Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands (LAS) has announced that three new members have joined its board of directors. Judge Kathryn W. “Katy” Olita has joined as an attorney board member and represents the Clarksville service area. Olita has been a circuit court judge in Tennessee’s 19th Judicial District since 2018, presiding over civil cases in counties including Montgomery and Robertson. Carletta L. Merritt has joined as a community board member, also representing the Clarksville service area. Wesley “Wes” Mack Bryant, a managing partner at Parks, Bryant & Snyder PLLC in Columbia, has joined as an attorney board member representing the Columbia office. “We’re proud to welcome Carletta, Wes and Katy to our board of directors,” said DarKenya W. Waller, executive director of LAS. “They bring different but equally valuable backgrounds that will be beneficial in focusing our services on those in Middle Tennessee who need legal assistance the most. We look forward to their input and advocacy and are grateful for their willingness to serve.” Read more about the new board members in a press release.

TBA YLD President-elect Jennifer Sneed-Perry has appointed six law students to serve as law student liaisons for the 2026–2027 bar year. The students will fill newly established roles on the YLD Membership Committee and be led by YLD Law Student Liaison Coordinator Lorne Hiller, who also serves as a young lawyer delegate to the TBA House of Delegates. The selected liaisons are: Drew Fowler from Belmont University College of Law, Carlee Sullins from Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law, Marilyn Harrison-Bates from Nashville School of Law, Haley Crossley from University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, Trent White from University of Tennessee Winston College of Law and Weslyn Harmon from Vanderbilt University Law School. Throughout the bar year, the law student liaisons will collaborate on a variety of projects, strengthen connections between the TBA YLD and Tennessee’s law schools, and engage with members of the YLD Board. The program will culminate with the students attending the TBA Annual Convention in Memphis in June of 2027, where they will present their final project.

The Legislative Updates podcast is new this week with attorneys and TBA lobbyists Berkley Schwarz of Pier Strategies LLC and Ashley Harbin of Adams & Reese. This week they discuss the extrajudicial adoptions bill HB1263/SB1238; real estate bills HB569/SB394, HB1970/SB1985 and HB1762/SB170; TBA's adoption bill SB2165/HB235; probate bill SB2184/HB2451; and family law bill SB2324/HB2429. Tune in on the TBA website or here. Attorneys can support TBA’s lobbying efforts by contributing to LAWPAC.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board of directors selected Mitch Graves of Memphis to serve as interim board chair of the utility. According to the Commercial Appeal, Graves will serve as chair through April 2027, taking the place of Bill Renick, who resigned Feb. 24.

State investigators are investigating an in-custody death at the Marion County Jail in Jasper, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. The deceased arrestee was identified as Clifford Ray Rector Jr.. Rector had been arrested Monday for public intoxication. “He was put in the drunk tank and at some point became unresponsive,” Marion County Sheriff Ronnie “Bo” Burnett said Wednesday. Staff reportedly used a defibrillator on Rector and performed CPR until emergency medical technicians arrived. Rector was transported to Parkridge West Hospital in Jasper, where he was pronounced dead. Burnett said jail surveillance footage was provided to state investigators and the officers involved turned over their body cameras to aid the investigation.

Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin was elected president of the American College of Business Court Judges (ACBCJ) at the group's annual meeting in California. Founded in October 2025, the ACBCJ is a national organization of business judges who hear complex commercial cases. The group provides networking opportunities for business judges from across the country, as well as developing education programs and seminars to equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to deal efficiently and professionally with the increasingly complex issues they see in court. The ACBCJ meets annually in the location of the then-president. The next group will be meeting in Nashville in 2027.

The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments met in Knoxville to select nominees for the Court of Criminal Appeals Eastern Section vacancy following Justice Kyle Hixson’s elevation to the Tennessee Supreme Court. After holding a public hearing and conducting public interviews, the council selected the following nominees: Paul Othneil Moyle IV, assistant district attorney general for the 11th Judicial District (Hamilton County); Criminal Court Judge Stacy Lee Street, presiding over the 1st Judicial District, which includes Carter, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties; and Brennan Maureen Wingerter, director of the Appellate Division for the Tennessee District Public Defenders Conference. Read more about the nominees on the Administrative Office of the Court's website.

Kirkland & Ellis will open its Nashville office in The Pinnacle at Symphony Place, 150 3rd Ave. South, Ste. 1220, Nashville 37201. The world's largest law firm by revenue announced its move to Tennessee last month, and its website lists 16 attorneys associated with the new location. The Nashville Business Journal has more on the move.

A lawsuit filed in Florida alleges that former Tennessee Republican Rep. Mark Green and lobbyist Marc Hebert used confidential client information to form a competing business and pursue a fuel agreement with the Guyanese government — the same deal their clients, Curlew Mainstream and Playera Group, already were working to secure. The suit further claims that while Green was still a sitting congressman and chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, he and Hebert threatened to use their political connections to interfere with Curlew's pending agreement, and later communicated with the Guyanese government to raise "issues" that delayed it. Green, who retired from Congress in July 2024, has described his company Prosimos as a venture to help American companies compete internationally against Chinese firms. The Nashville Banner has the story.

Tennessee Court of Appeals Judges Andy Bennett, Frank Clement Jr. and Jeffrey Usman on Thursday heard arguments over whether Gov. Bill Lee's deployment of the National Guard to Memphis is constitutional. The case stems from a lawsuit filed by a group of Democratic city, county and state officials who claim the deployment violates the Tennessee Constitution. The plaintiffs argue the National Guard can be called up only in cases of rebellion or invasion, or at the request of local governing bodies or the legislature — none of which occurred. They also warn that without a defined end date, the military presence could continue indefinitely. The state countered that Memphis, which had the nation's highest per capita crime rate in 2024 at 345% above the national average, qualifies as a "grave emergency" justifying deployment, and that the decision falls within the governor's executive authority and is not subject to judicial override. The Commercial Appeal reports that the judges pressed both sides, appearing skeptical of the plaintiffs' narrow definition of the National Guard as a militia while also challenging the state to define what conditions would end the deployment.