The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office announced a new round of hires last week, with six new assistant district attorneys, a director of communications and the first-ever grants coordinator, the Daily Memphian reports. New assistant district attorneys are Constance Brown, Errol Harmon, Nigel Lewis, Karin Morris, Sanjeev Memula and William Walsh. Erica Williams will serve as the director of communications. She was formerly chief of staff and communications at Frayser Community Schools. Nelia Dempsey will serve in the newly created position of grants coordinator. Commenting on the hires, District Attorney General Steve Mulroy said he is bringing in people who share his vision of criminal justice reform and making good on his campaign promise of increasing diversity in the office.

Rutherford County is suing its insurance provider for refusing to cover the costs of a large class action settlement over unlawful policies for arresting and detaining children, Nashville Public Radio reports. A denial letter from insurer Lloyd’s of London indicates it believes the county knew of the problems prior to coverage and “concealed or misrepresented material facts.” The county now is suing on three counts, including breach of contract. It also is asking to be made whole for its costs, including more than $5 million it paid out, attorney’s fees, damages, interest and a 25% penalty fee. The county was sued over its juvenile court polices, which led to more than a thousand children being illegally arrested and jailed. The case was settled in 2021.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and 20 other Republican governors are calling on congressional leaders to remove the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. military members, News Channel 9 reports. The letter argues that the mandate is hurting military retention and recruitment: current service members are leaving and new recruits are not signing up. Lee called the situation a “threat to national security.” Read the letter.

Despite the Hamilton County Commission’s efforts to halt county Mayor Weston Wamp from ousting longtime county attorney Rheubin Taylor, Wamp is vigorously pressing on with those plans, Chattanoogan.com reports. Wamp responded to legal action brought by Taylor by asserting his “clear authority and obligation under state law to appoint all department heads.” He also detailed “extensive evidence” justifying the termination of Taylor for cause, asked Chancellor Jeffery Atherton to recuse himself from the case, and asked the court to order a permanent injunction blocking Taylor from acting as county attorney. On the last point, Wamp’s office says it is not seeking an injunction at this time, but included it if needed "at a later date." A few weeks ago, Wamp told the county commission he was compliant with all of its resolutions regarding Taylor, who is challenging his firing on the basis that he has a contract through June 30, 2025.

Many federal appellate court judges say they struggle to hire Black and Hispanic law clerks even though they aspire to bring on a more diverse cohort, according to a new study. At the time of the study, Black judges made up less than one-eighth of active appellate court judges, yet they hired more than half of the Black clerks in federal appellate courts annually. Federal clerkships are a gateway to well-paid legal jobs and sought-after positions in government and academia. Read more about the study from Reuters.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office – Eastern District of Tennessee has earned an award for its work in bringing to justice those who committed health care fraud on unsuspecting victims, reports the Claiborne Progress. Members of the Knoxville-based office staff along with participating federal partners received a national commendation for their work in “Operation Health Wrong” — a long-term, multi-defendant program that prosecuted those suspected of healthcare fraud. The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association chose Operation Health Wrong for the award during its annual training conference. 

The Shelby County District Attorney's Justice Review Unit (JRU), tasked with identifying and addressing wrongful convictions and sentences, is now accepting cases for review, Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy says. The independent unit within the DA's office will be led by Chief Lorna McClusky and Assistant Chief Robert Gowen. Each has at least 24 years of high-level criminal defense experience in Shelby County. “I’m glad we were able to quickly get our new unit up and running,” Mulroy said. “We all know our criminal justice system is imperfect. When we correct injustices, we restore public confidence in the fairness of our system. That can get the community cooperating more with law enforcement to address crime.” Learn more about the mission and how to file an application.

Main Street Clarksville reports that a federal jury in late November convicted a Clarksville man of filing false tax returns that omitted income he earned from his business. The announcement came from U.S. Attorney Mark H. Wildasin for the Middle District of Tennessee and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, David Haley, 65, of Clarksville failed to report income from Haley & Associates Mechanical Contractors, a heating and plumbing business, which was hired as the subcontractor on commercial projects in Middle Tennessee and was paid more than $1,000,000 for each year from 2014 to 2017.

Belmont Law, Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee, The Tennessee Supreme Court Access to Justice Initiative, the Montgomery County Bar and other community partners hosted an expungement clinic in Clarksville on Nov. 19. The clinic was dedicated to Belmont Law 1L Laurel Flaherty, who died earlier this semester. Fifteen law students and 20 attorneys assisted clients with expungement paperwork and fee waivers. The Montgomery County and Davidson County clerk’s offices along with four judges were present to process the expungement paperwork. See photos from the event.

The November episode of the TBA's BarBuzz podcast is now streaming. Attorney Shellie Handelsman of Handelsman Law in Nashville joins the latest episode to give listeners a rundown of legal news from across the state, upcoming events and bar association happenings. BarBuzz is part of the TBA Podcast Network and can be found on the TBA's website or anywhere you listen to podcasts.