The Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) Duncan School of Law is hosting its first moot court intramural competition this year in honor of alumnus Matthew B. Long. The competition will serve as the tryout for rising second-year students to join the school’s moot court team. The competition is named for Long, who died in 2020 at the age of 37. He was a member of the school’s inaugural class in 2013 and competed on the moot court team, winning awards for brief writing. In related news, LMU Law students also competed in the ABA’s National Appellate Advocacy Competition and won recognition for their briefs and oral advocacy. Of note, McKenzie Wilson was the school’s first ever 2L to compete as an oral advocate while the 3L team advanced past the preliminary rounds to be named regional quarterfinalists.

The state of Tennessee has received a payment of $163.9 million from the major tobacco companies that joined the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced today. The landmark settlement, finalized in 1998, resolved Tennessee’s lawsuit against the major tobacco companies for violations of consumer protection laws and deceptive marketing practices that caused damages to the state, including increased healthcare costs. To date, Tennessee has received $3.8 billion from the agreement. The new funds will be dispersed annually and will be used to help defray the cost of health care for smoking-related illnesses. The agreement also includes restrictions on companies marketing tobacco products to youth, selling tobacco-branded merchandise and sponsoring entertainment and sporting events. Read more on the attorney general's website.

A class action lawsuit has been filed against the American Bar Association (ABA) for an alleged failure to safeguard members' data that was exposed in a security breach. The suit alleges that the ABA knowingly violated its obligations to abide by best practices and industry standards, the ABA Journal reports. The association notified members on April 20 that a breach had exposed usernames and certain passwords used to access the old ABA website prior to 2018 and the ABA Career Center since 2018. The passwords affected are those utilizing a process that adds random characters to plain text and then converts them to cybertext in the ABA system. Plain text passwords were not exposed, the group said.

The law school class of 2022 graduated into a strong entry-level hiring market, landing legal jobs at a higher rate than their predecessors in 2021 and 2019, according to new figures from the American Bar Association. Nearly 78% of last year's new lawyers found jobs that require bar passage within 10 months of leaving campus — up from about 76% among the class of 2021, Reuters reports. More recent data may suggest that growth is slowing. According to another report from Reuters, the legal services sector lost 600 jobs last month, marking the first monthly employment decline in the industry in six months.

The Nashville School of Law presented its annual Robert Ballow Excellence in Writing Awards last month. Eight students were recognized for their performance in the Rigorous Writing Exercise program that is a requirement for graduation. Each student worked with a volunteer mentor from the legal community. All submissions are evaluated by a panel of legal writing experts who determine finalists and award winners. Read more about the winners and finalists.

The Hamilton County Criminal Court Division II unveiled a new portrait of Judge Rebecca Stern in honor of her 18 years of service and for initiating the county’s drug court program. The painting was commissioned by former Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz. "There are a lot of attributes to her legacy here in Hamilton County -- in my view, the creation and running...the drug recovery has to be at the very top," Greenholtz said as reported by the Chattanooga Free Press. Stern, who is now in private practice, was the first woman to preside over a criminal court in Hamilton County. The drug court was first started as a pilot program in 2005 before becoming permanent. “It was probably my proudest accomplishment and the thing that gave me the most hope,” said Stern.

Gov. Bill Lee on Monday signed the Forever Homes Act, which calls for shorter waiting periods for foster care and adoption services as well as providing additional resources, WDEF reports. Signing the act in Chattanooga, Lee told reporters he has confidence that the upcoming special session of the state legislature will see the passage of his proposed order of protection law to keep guns from people who pose a threat to themselves or others. Lee said his proposal will “...strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights. There needs to be a way to separate those who are a danger to others and to themselves from access to weapons and protect the rights, in particular second amendment rights of Tennesseans.”

Tennessee state representatives Justin Jones, D-Nashville, Justin Pearson, D-Memphis and Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville met at the White House Monday with President Biden and Vice President Harris to discuss their efforts to propose new gun reform legislation in Tennessee. Reps. Jones and Pearson temporarily regained their legislative seats last week after their expulsion for participating in protests on the House floor. The trio has since become known nationally as the “Tennessee Three.” While at the Oval Office they also discussed the upcoming special session called by Gov. Lee to consider his proposed “order of protection” law. "The message has been very clear from Tennesseans – both Republican and Democrat, white and Black, and rich and poor – that something must be done," Pearson said outside the White House as reported by the Tennessean. "And in this special session, the expectation is that a law gets passed that can actually protect our communities."

U.S. News has removed the preview content for the 2023-2024 Best Law Schools rankings, which had been published on April 11. The media entity said it is continuing to deal with “an unprecedented number of inquiries during our embargo period for the 2023-2024 Best Graduate Schools, including requests from law and medical schools to update data submitted after the collection period.” It notes that the rankings are not final until they are published in their entirety on the U.S. News website.

Tennessee’s former vaccine official, who was fired after becoming a critic of the state's COVID-19 pandemic response, has reached an informal settlement with state public health officials, the Tennesseean reports. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, claimed in her defamation suit that state officials made "false, stigmatizing, and defamatory statements” about her in an effort to discredit her and that they released false information about her job performance. Both parties filed notice in court last week stating they had reached a settlement after taking part in court-mandated mediation. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.