Labor and employment law firm Ogletree Deakins has named Luther Wright Jr. as the new office managing shareholder in Nashville. Wright has practiced in the office for more than a decade, handling employment discrimination litigation. He is also a member of the firm’s national Diversity and Inclusion Practice Group, through which he advises clients on diversity matters and trains employees on diversity and inclusion, workplace violence and other employment-related issues. And he is co-chair of the firm’s Black Attorney Affinity Group, which serves a resource to create and foster an environment of inclusiveness for African-American and Black attorneys through active involvement in business development, recruitment, retention and advancement opportunities.

Florida-based Holland & Knight and Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis have agreed to a merger to be completed during the first quarter of the year. The combined law firm will operate under the Holland & Knight name and will have nearly 2,000 attorneys in 35 offices across the United States and internationally. Waller has 280 lawyers in four offices: Chattanooga and Nashville; Birmingham, Alabama; and Austin Texas. Holland & Knight is among the 30 largest law firms in the country. The firm’s Managing Partner Steven Sonberg said the merger will bring one of the most established and well-respected brands in health care law into the Holland & Knight family. It will also bolster the firm’s capabilities in private equity, financial services, real estate and litigation. Bloomberg Law reports that the move further solidifies Holland & Knight’s stronghold in the south.

Gov. Bill Lee has appointed Frank Strada of Arizona as the new Tennessee Department of Correction commissioner, the Tennessean reports. Strada currently serves as the deputy director for Arizona Department of Corrections, where he oversees prison operations, inmate programs, public affairs, facilities management and financial services. He is an Air Force veteran with 34 years of corrections management and law enforcement experience. Lee promised he would take decisive actions, including a TDOC leadership change, after a third-party report found the state failed to follow its own death penalty protocols. Strada, who will succeed Interim Commissioner Lisa Helton, is set to begin on Jan. 9.

The Barristers, the Young Lawyers Division of the Knoxville Bar Association, will host the Regional High School Mock Trial Competition for Competition Districts 2, 3 and 4. Round 1 will take place on Feb. 24 and Rounds 2-4 on Feb. 25 at the Knoxville City County Building. Round 5, the Regional Championship, will take place on Feb. 26 in the Business Courtroom at LMU’s Duncan School of Law. Volunteer bailiffs, scoring judges and presiding judges are needed for this event. Register to volunteer here. Winners of the tournament will advance to the statewide tournament hosted by the TBA Young Lawyers Division on March 17-18.

U.S. News & World Report will change its law school ranking system after most top law schools announced they were boycotting the rankings due to concerns about metrics that emphasize reputation and disincentivize support for public-interest careers. The new system will give less emphasis to reputation surveys based on peer assessments by academics, lawyers and judges and more emphasis to outcomes such as employment and bar-passage rates. Additionally, U.S. News & World Report will no longer consider student debt at graduation, school spending per student or employment at graduation. The ABA Journal has the story.

The White House and Democratic senators are closing out the first two years of Biden's presidency having installed more federal judges than did Biden's two immediate predecessors, the Associated Press reports. So far, 97 lifetime federal judges have been confirmed under Biden, a figure that outpaces both Trump (85) and Barack Obama (62) at this point in their presidencies, according to data from the White House and the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. D-N.Y. It is also a more diverse group of judges, led by Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, that court's first Black woman. 

Beginning in January, the Tennessee Department of Correction will require every person entering a TDOC prison to be screened by a full body scanner, Chattanoogan.com reports. The new technology enhances TDOC’s current security procedures by using advanced imaging technology that allows security staff to identify contraband being smuggled inside a person’s body. “Like all correctional agencies across the country, Tennessee is in a constant battle to keep contraband out of our facilities," said Interim Commissioner Lisa Helton. "We are committed to meeting the evolving threat and our mission of operating safe and secure prisons.”

Gov. Bill Lee says the state will take decisive actions to comply with protocols for carrying out the death penalty following release of a critical report from an independent investigator. “I have thoroughly reviewed the findings,” Lee said, “and am directing several actions to ensure the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) adheres to proper protocol.” Clarksville online reports that the months-long review of lethal injection operations was led by former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton.

Nashville attorney Todd Presnell offers some hot takes on privilege-related issues and court rulings that took place during 2022. Check out his latest post to the Presnell on Privilege legal blog to read about some of them, including attorney-client privilege and state-secrets privilege in the Supreme Court, internal investigations and more. Presnell also provides links to timely articles from others on a few unsettled privilege questions.

A viral video is raising questions about how much authority Nashville airport police had during an incident in which officers threatened to arrest Southwest Airlines customers with canceled flights on Christmas evening. The video shows an officer telling those with canceled tickets to leave the secured area and go to a pre-security ticket desk for help. He then tells them they would be arrested for trespassing if they did not leave. Nashville criminal defense lawyer David Raybin said the response to the situation was “clearly inappropriate.” Based on his understanding, Raybin said what happened at the airport that night did not rise to the level of criminal trespassing. "There was nothing that these people were doing that would constitute any kind of breach of the peace or any kind of bad behavior,” he said. The Tennessean has the full story.