The Tennessee Supreme Court recognized Attorney General Herbert Slatery III today for his service to the state. Slatery, who was appointed as attorney general in 2014, is retiring at the end of the day today. Prior to being named attorney general, Slatery served as chief legal officer to then-Gov. Bill Haslam and was in private practice with the Knoxville firm of Egerton, McAfee, Armistead & Davis. In a statement, Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Page said Slatery “leaves the office in an excellent position and has served his state well.” The court has named Jonathan Skrmetti as the next attorney general.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued an order amending Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 10B in response to a petition filed by the Tennessee Trial Judges Association (TTJA) asking the court “to provide judges with authority to summarily deny repetitive recusal motions filed pursuant to section 1.01 of Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 10B, to provide appellate courts with a means of supplementing the record in Rule 10B appeals, to state that the scope of appellate review and relief in Rule 10B appeals is limited to affirming or reversing a trial court’s decision on a recusal motion, and to describe the procedures that should be followed on remand from an appellate court’s order reversing a trial court’s denial of a recusal motion.”

The TBA filed a comment in response to the TTJA’s proposal in which it supported the proposed changes to sections 1.01 and 2.05 as drafted, supported the purpose of the changes to section 1.03 but suggested a change in the proposed language to sections 1.03 and 2.06. The court agreed with the TTJA’s proposed changes to section 1.01 and 1.03 and added language clarifying that any subsequent motion filed under section 1.01 (seeking disqualification, recusal or a determination of constitutional or statutory incompetence of a judge) in the same case must state, with specificity, substantially different factual and legal grounds than those relied upon in support of a prior motion filed under this section, and if this requirement is not satisfied, the subsequent motion may be deemed repetitive and may be summarily denied by the judge without requiring a response to the motion, a hearing on it or any other written explanation for denying the motion as provided in section 1.03. The court also agreed with the TTJA’s proposed changes to section 2.05 allowing the appellate court, when reviewing the petition for recusal appeal, to remand to the trial court for the taking of proof and making further findings on matters designated by the appellate court. Finally, the court amended section 2.06 by adding that if an appellate court reverses a trial court’s order denying a motion under section 1.01, the appellate court shall remand the case for designation of a successor judge in accordance with section 1.04 of this rule.

Asian American advocacy groups across the nation are calling on the Biden administration to withdraw the nomination of Casey Arrowood for U.S. attorney of the Eastern District of Tennessee, Tennessee Lookout reports. The groups, which include APA Justice, Asian American Scholar Forum, Tennessee Chinese American Alliance and United Chinese Americans, also are asking the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to postpone any action on the nomination until an investigation of Arrowood has been conducted. The groups argue that Arrowood is not an appropriate choice given his wrongful prosecution of University of Tennessee professor Dr. Anming Hu. Through that prosecution, “Arrowood demonstrated his poor judgment, wasted valuable taxpayers’ dollars, failed to uphold justice and fairness, and eroded public trust,” the groups say in a letter. The move comes after Hu himself criticized the president’s choice.

The 2022 U.S. 6th Circuit Judicial Conference begins today in Louisville, Thomson Reuters reports in its Daily Docket newsletter. Speakers on the agenda include Kannon Shanmugam of Paul Weiss, Eugene Scalia of Gibson Dunn, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr., Paul Clement of Clement & Murphy and the chief justices of the Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio Supreme Courts.

More than 500 family, friends and officials packed the Hermitage Hotel yesterday to honor the largest delegation of female judges ever to take office in Davidson County. Sponsored by the Women's Political Collaborative, the event featured comments from trailblazing Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey and a presentation of gavels to new judges from Nashville Bar Association President and Public Defender Martesha Johnson Moore. Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee administered the oath of office to the 19 judges who will serve on the chancery, circuit, juvenile, criminal and general sessions courts. See photos from the event and details on the judges.

The sentencing hearing for former Rep. Robin Smith has been delayed until Jan. 30, the Tennessee Lookout reports. Originally set for Oct. 17, the hearing was postponed after attorneys for Smith filed a motion to delay “given the projected length of the Casada case with multiple defendants.” The state did not oppose the motion. Smith, who pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud charges in March, is expected to testify in United States v. Casada before Judge Eli Richardson, set for Oct. 25. Casada and his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, were arrested at their homes last week on 20 federal counts of a variety of charges, including bribery, kickbacks, conspiracy to commit money laundering and more. The charges stem from a company called Phoenix Solutions, which allegedly funneled money from the state to Casada, Cothren and Smith.

Outgoing Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich will this week join the 25th Judicial District Attorney General’s Office as special counsel, the Daily Memphian reports. Weirich, a Republican, who lost to Democrat Steve Mulroy in August, will work in areas including litigation support and training, victim/witness services, legislative affairs, media relations, policy and procedure, community outreach and public awareness campaigns. She’ll be sworn in on Thursday at 10 a.m. CDT at the Fayette County Circuit Court Room in the Fayette County Justice Complex, 705 Justice Drive in Somerville. The 25th Judicial District includes Hardeman, Fayette, Lauderdale, McNairy and Tipton counties.

After serving nearly eight years as the state’s top lawyer, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery is set to retire. WBIR has an interview with Slatery from May in which he discusses his greatest accomplishments as AG, how his office has balanced federal mandates versus states’ rights and advice for his successor. Slatery said he decided to retire now because he felt “like this was a natural time to pass the baton.” Slatery intends to return to Knoxville after retirement.

The August episode of the TBA’s BarBuzz podcast is now streaming with co-host Isaac Kimes of Nashville’s Branstetter Stranch & Jennings! Kimes helps round up top legal news and bar association happenings, details Branstetter’s work on opioids and tells the story of how his mother escaped North Korea during the Korean War and later immigrated to the U.S. BarBuzz is part of the TBA Podcast Network and can be found on the TBA’s website or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Courtney Leyes, a partner in the Nashville office of Fisher Phillips, was voted this year’s recipient of the Larry Dean Wilks Leadership Award by fellow members of 2022 TBA Leadership Law (TBALL) class. All 34 members of the leadership training program met for their final session last week in Franklin. The class heard from a Diversity in Leadership panel before completing a service project with Tennessee Free Legal Answers where they answered 36 legal questions submitted by the public. Leyes was presented with the award during the group’s graduation ceremony on Friday. The award is named for former TBA president, Larry D. Wilks, and recognizes a TBALL class member who exhibits exceptional leadership qualities. Read more on all of this year’s TBALL graduates.