A member of the board overseeing the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center is recommending the facility undergo a name and logo change following its past violations of detaining children, the Tennessean reports. Michael McDonald suggested the rebranding effort during a board meeting this month, also calling for the facility to change its logo, which includes a pair of handcuffs. Former Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport retired in August after facing federal lawsuits for the court’s illegal detention of children. The board also discussed adding a grant writer to the detention center’s staff in order to “pursue dollars for these young people” to help with things like “mental health.” One board member also suggested a policy that would require the county’s new Juvenile Court Judge Travis Lampley or magistrates trained in the law to make probable cause determinations on immediate detentions.

According to a new report from the Knoxville News Sentinel, the city of Knoxville has admitted it tried to sidestep Tennessee’s open records law during its search for police chief by commissioning a firm to handle the hiring. The Sentinel sued the city in July to see records from the search. During an Oct. 7 hearing, court records show the city’s hired attorney, Chris McCarty, told Knox County Chancellor John Weaver the police chief search was conducted in such a way that there would be no records of certain things. McCarty said the city did this to “eliminate the possibility that those candidates would fear that their names would be disclosed to the public, therefore, questioning and threatening their current jobs, therefore not having them apply in the first place.”

Yale Law School says it will no longer participate in the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, despite its history of always taking the top spot, the ABA Journal reports. Yale Law dean Heather K. Gerken said the school won’t be supplying its data to U.S. News & World Report, but it will provide information to would-be students “in a public, transparent and useful form.” Gerken said she thinks U.S. News has good intentions, but that its rankings are “profoundly flawed” because they disincentivize programs that support public-interest careers, provide need-based aid and help working-class students. “Granting exclusive access to a flawed commercial rankings system is counterproductive to the mission of this profession and the core values of Yale Law School,” Gerken said.

The Hamilton County Commission today passed a resolution calling on attorney John Konvalinka to take legal action against Mayor Weston Wamp if his dispute with County Attorney Rheubin Taylor isn’t settled by Friday. According to the Chattanoogan, the resolution authorizes Konvalinka "to take such action as is necessary to enforce each and every resolution" that the commission earlier passed in support of Taylor. Wamp fired Taylor in October, but the longtime county attorney has stayed on, citing a four-year contract. The matter has already gone to chancery court.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is concerned about possible violations to consumer protection laws after Taylor Swift fans yesterday reported spending hours trying to get presale tickets to the singer’s 2023 tour, the Tennessean reports. Fans with special presale codes for tickets found huge queues, site crashes and inflated prices when trying to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster. Skrmetti called Ticketmaster a “very dominant market player” at a press conference this morning and said his office wants “to make sure that they're treating consumers right and people are receiving fair opportunity to purchase the tickets…” No actual allegations of wrongdoing have been made yet, but Skrmetti was clear he sees the size of the company as a possible detriment if its near-monopoly disincentivizes customer support and fair dealing.

The TBA on Tuesday filed a comment with the Board of Professional Responsibility (BPR) in response to its proposed Formal Opinion 2022-F-168, which addresses whether lawyers who do not reside in Tennessee, but work remotely full-time as in-house counsel for an organization with its principal place of business in Tennessee and are not licensed in Tennessee or registered as in-house counsel in Tennessee are engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. The TBA believes the guidance provided by the proposed opinion will be helpful to in-house counsel who are evaluating whether they should register with the Board of Law Examiners under Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 7, § 10.01. However, the proposed opinion makes several references to in-house counsel licensed in other states “practicing Tennessee law” or engaging in “the practice of Tennessee law” while they are not physically present in Tennessee. The proposed opinion also repeatedly relies on the phrase “the practice of Tennessee law” as a description of a lawyer’s activity to be evaluated under Rule 5.5. This phrase is not used in Rule 5.5, nor is it used in the primary statutory law governing UPL in Tennessee, Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 23-3-101 and 23-3-103. There are several likely reasons for this absence. While the TBA commends the BPR for its efforts to address an important issue through the opinion, the TBA recommends that the opinion be revised in several important respects. See the filed comment and suggested additions and deletions. 

Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti today announced a settlement has been reached with Walmart to resolve allegations that the company contributed to the opioid addiction crisis by failing to appropriately oversee the dispensing of opioids at its stores. Walmart must pay $3 billion nationally and make significant improvements in how it handles opioids. Under the settlement, Tennessee and its local governments could receive more than $70 million if all incentives are met. State attorneys general on the executive committee, attorneys representing local governments and Walmart have agreed to this settlement, and it is now being sent to other states for review and approval. The settlement requires approval from 43 states by the end of the year. Read more from the Attorney General’s Office.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and attorneys general from 39 additional states have reached a $391.5 million settlement with Google over its location tracking practices relating to Google Account settings. Tennessee is set to receive $14,560,086.13 from the settlement, which is the largest multistate attorney general privacy settlement in U.S. history. The attorneys general opened the Google investigation following a 2018 Associated Press article that revealed Google “records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.” The attorneys general found that Google violated state consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its location tracking practices since at least 2014. The agreement requires Google to be more transparent about its practices. Read more from the AG’s office.  

Frost Brown Todd LLC has announced it is expanding to the west coast with the addition of California-based law firm AlvardoSmith, the Nashville Business Journal reports. AlvardoSmith, which has a presence in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Francisco, will operate under the name “Frost Brown Todd AlvardoSmith” through 2023 and then take on only the Frost Brown Todd name. The firm has 23 attorneys, bringing Frost Brown Todd’s total presence to more than 575 attorneys. In Nashville, its office includes about 30 attorneys, making it the city's 12th-largest local law firm, according to Nashville Business Journal research. Terms of the merger, which will be completed on Jan. 1, 2023, were not disclosed.

Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon G. Lee has announced she will retire on Aug. 31, 2023. Lee is currently the high court’s longest-serving member, having been appointed in 2008 and serving as Chief Justice from 2014 until 2016. Prior to her time with the Supreme Court, she spent four years on the Court of Appeals. “Serving in the Tennessee Judiciary for the past 19 years has been the greatest honor of my professional life,” Lee said. During her time on the court, Lee advocated for access to justice and spearheaded a variety of innovative projects, including the Business Court pilot project, e-filing implementation, a review of the state’s indigent representation system and a statewide docket cleanup initiative. Chief Justice Roger Page said Lee, the court's only East Tennessee justice, “has never forgotten where she came from and the people she serves.” Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts.