Former state Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, is replacing his legal team after a federal judge rejected his motion to vacate his guilty plea to campaign finance crimes, the Tennessee Journal reports. In a court filing on Wednesday, Kelsey said he has hired J. Alex Little and Zachary Lawson of Burr & Forman. They replace Paul Bruno, David Rivera, Jerry Martin and David Warrington. The move comes amid what Kelsey’s new lawyers called a “deterioration of attorney-client relationships.” The new team also says they are looking at the potential for litigation against prior counsel. Little and Lawson asked a judge overseeing the case to delay Kelsey’s sentencing date by at least a month so they can get up to speed on the case.

A Canadian judge has ruled a farmer’s thumbs-up emoji constituted approval of a contract texted to him by a grain buyer, the ABA Journal reports. The farmer, Chris Achter, argued that the emoji merely indicated he had received the contract, not that he agreed to its terms. Under the court’s ruling Achter was ordered to pay $82,200 in Canadian dollars for breach of contract. The amount equals about $61,000 in U.S. dollars. Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman tells the New York Times that the precise meanings of emojis in both the United States and Canada depend on the facts of the case. “This case won’t definitively resolve what a thumbs-up emoji means,” he said. “But it does remind people that using the thumbs-up emoji can have serious legal consequences.”

Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy has announced that the Shelby County Juvenile Court is piloting the separation of its juvenile delinquency docket into two: one for cases that will be settled and the other for cases that will go to trial, reports the Daily Memphian. The docket separation, which begins Monday, will mirror the dockets of the Metropolitan Nashville & Davidson County Juvenile Court.

The Trial Court Vacancy Commission meeting in Columbia voted to send three individuals to Gov. Bill Lee for his consideration in filling a new position on the 22nd Judicial District Circuit Court. They are: Lee E. Brooks of Lewisburg, Julie C. Heffington of Columbia and P. Nicole Long of Lawrenceburg. The new position was created by the Tennessee General Assembly and will be effective on Sept. 1. The district covers Giles, Lawrence, Maury and Wayne counties.

Judge Julie Canter was sworn in Monday as the interim general sessions and juvenile court judge at the Johnson County Courthouse in Mountain City, reports the Tomahawk. The Johnson County Commission voted 12-1 for Canter to replace former judge Perry Stout, whose June 15 resignation for “immoral” behavior went into effect earlier this month. Canter, a Johnson County native with 17 years of experience as an attorney and former prosecutor, will now serve until an election in 2024 to fill the remainder of the term.

Murders in Tennessee dropped 14.55% in 2022, while reported cases of rape and kidnapping respectively fell 10.6% and 11.98% from 2021, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's latest annual "Crime in Tennessee" report. However, the report, which is based on annual crime statistics submitted by state and local law enforcement agencies, showed that motor vehicle thefts rose 26.91% and reports of identity theft grew 25.55% from 2021 to 2022. The TBI also says the number of crime victims also rose last year by 1.08% to 346,362. The Times Free Press has more on the report’s findings. Read the full report.

Gov. Bill Lee formally opened the Northeast Tennessee Regional Recovery Center in Roan Mountain on Wednesday, saying it should be "a model for what could happen in other communities across the state,” reports WCYB News. The site was formerly the Center Carter County Work Camp, part of the Northeast Correctional Center. The new facility was funded by a multi-million-dollar settlement of a 2017 lawsuit filed by Branstetter, Stranch and Jennings against pharmaceutical companies under the Tennessee Drug Dealer Liability Act. Read the previous story in TBA Today.

The U.S. legal services sector added 5,100 jobs in June for a total of 1,185,100 legal jobs, nearing a high-water mark set in July 2022, Reuters reports. That month, the legal sector reached 1,187,900 jobs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the count includes a range of legal workers, but the majority are lawyers. Despite the overall job growth, at least a dozen large U.S. law firms have confirmed laying off lawyers, staff or both since November. Layoffs are being driven in part by a slowdown in the global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market. The total value of global M&A deals in the first six months of 2023 shrank to $1.3 trillion, a 37% drop compared to the first half of 2022, according to financial market data firm Refinitiv.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti recently joined a 27-state coalition in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a lower court ruling that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding mechanism is unconstitutional. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last October that Congress improperly delegated power to the CFPB when it guaranteed an independent, perpetual income stream. Read more about the case and the amicus brief.

Williamson County Circuit Judge Michael W. Binkley will retire Sept. 29, after serving 11 years on the bench and 35 years as a trial lawyer in private practice, the Nashville Post reports. When asked why he would retire after winning re-election to an eight-year term last year, Binkley said he has other things that he wants to do with his life. “I have thoroughly enjoyed being a trial judge for the last 11 years,“ he said. “Going forward, I look forward to opportunities in my life, inside the law and, mostly, outside of the law.” According to the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, applications to fill the vacancy will be accepted until July 26. The Trial Court Vacancy Commission will meet on Aug. 31 to consider applicants.