Paul Moyle has joined the Hamilton County District Attorney's Office as chief homicide prosecutor, Chattanoogan.com reports. Moyle, a second-generation prosecutor, is a former military police officer with the Alabama Army National Guard who deployed to Iraq in 2010. He graduated from Cumberland School of Law in 2007 and has been working as an assistant district attorney general in the 10th Judicial District, which serves Bradley, McMinn, Monroe and Polk counties. Most recently, he was team leader for Bradley and Polk counties. He also practiced law with a small firm in Cleveland and as a solo practioner and was an assistant public defender in the district.

The state Department of Children’s Services (DCS) held a “surge” over the weekend designed to reduce caseload backlogs, Tennessee Lookout reports. The goal was to visit up to 200 families who had been reported to the DCS on suspicion of child abuse or neglect, interview parents and kids, and close cases where there was no longer fear about child safety. The initiative is one of several new strategies being deployed to address extraordinary high caseloads, which have led to social workers leaving in droves over the past year and children sleeping on office building floors. DCS Commissioner Margi Quin says department needs to reduce backlogs by a third.

Just after midnight Friday, federal Judge Thomas Parker struck down Tennessee's law restricting drag performances, finding it to be an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of speech. He also found the law to be “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad," the Commercial Appeal reports. While Parker recognized the state has a “compelling interest in protecting the psychological and physical wellbeing of children” he questioned the law’s necessity noting that Tennessee law already bans obscenity. The law, signed by Gov. Bill Lee in March, would have banned "adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors" from public places and venues where children are present. It was challenged in the western district of the state by Memphis-based theater group Friends of George's. Parker had imposed a temporary restraining order on implementation of the law in April. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said Saturday the state plans to appeal “at the appropriate time.” He also disputed claims that Parker’s order applies across the state. "The Adult Entertainment Act remains in effect outside of Shelby County,” he told the paper. 

The 2023 edition of the “Black Guide to Law School” is out but with a big change, Above the Law reports. The annual publication from Lawyers of Color typically provides a single, comprehensive ranking of schools designed to help Black prospective law students choose a school. This year, the group abandoned the ranking, instead publishing information from law school reports filed with the ABA. “We are marking this as the end of the rankings era,” the publication explains. Instead, the group reports on “data that is objective and verifiable” and leaves the significance up to students to decide. Read the full report.

A push by local and state leaders to reform the bail system in Memphis may take longer than expected, WREG News 3 reports. At a news conference last week, a county commissioner and state senator spoke about the need to fix the system to curb crime. “We as a community have had our patience tested, and it’s come back negative,” state Senator Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, said. “We are completely at our wits’ end when it comes to crime.” Commissioner Mick Wright said the group is waiting on information from the court to establish a baseline as to the number of people arrested and bail amounts for the last six months. A resolution passed by the city commission last August directed the collection of that data. But that has not happened. Wright said the courts claim they did not know they were supposed to be tracking the information.

Franklin-based financial advisor Dave Ramsey and his company Ramsey Solutions are being sued for $150 million for negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment and violation of consumer protection laws, the Tennessean reports. Seventeen plaintiffs say they lost thousands of dollars based on Ramsey's advice and endorsement of the Timeshare Exit Team as a company that would get people out of their timeshare agreements. However, he did not disclose that he received over $30 million for the endorsements as well as a portion of the fees paid to Timeshare Exit Team by people he referred to the service.

Legal sector jobs increased by 700 in May, totaling just over 1.1 million, despite layoffs at some of the country’s highest-grossing law firms. Reuters reports that overall U.S. job growth accelerated in May, but a jump in the unemployment rate to a seven-month high of 3.7% suggested that labor market conditions are easing.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced yesterday that he is joining 17 other states suing the Biden administration over a new rule to regulate immigration following the expiration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Title 42 public health order. Also this week, the AG's office said that it has joined 21 other state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of two Florida parents appealing a federal court’s decision to dismiss their lawsuit against Leon County Schools. The lawsuit claimed that the school spoke to the child about gender identity without the parents’ consent.

Nashville law firm Sherrard Roe Voigt Harbison is representing the state in a lawsuit filed by Brian Manookian, who wants access to records in the sexual harassment case of former Rep. Scotty Campbell. The Tennessee Lookout reports that Manookian filed a challenge in Davidson County Chancery Court concerning the Office of Legislative Administration’s refusal to open records in the case, in which Campbell was found to have sexually harassed a 19-year-old intern who worked at the General Assembly. A hearing is set for June 30.

The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Memphis $1 million to support community-wide cleanup programs targeting contaminated commercial sites — “brownfields” — for redevelopment inside the city’s limits. The Daily Memphian reports that the grant will be administered by the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) for Memphis and Shelby County. The EPA defines a brownfield as a property where the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.