Nashville lawyer Gerard Stranch IV with Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings and University of Tennessee College of Law Professor Paula Schaefer recently joined a panel discussion hosted by the Jacob Burns Center for Ethics at Cardozo Law School in New York City. The session “Big Law, Big Discovery, Big Trouble,” looked at misconduct by the law firm of Arnold & Porter in its representation of Endo Pharmaceuticals, which resulted in two default judgments against the company in Tennessee. The virtual program also included Georgetown University Law Center Professor of Law Maria Glover and Cardozo Law School Professor Anthony Sebok, co-director of the Burns Center. Endo was the subject of a number of opioid-related law suits in Tennessee. Read past TBA Today coverage of those cases.

The Tennessee Innocence Project and its client Joyce Watkins, along with the Davidson County District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit, were featured on CBS Sunday Morning over the weekend and on CBS News yesterday. The piece looks at a partnership between the two organizations, which led to exoneration of the 74-year-old Watkins and her boyfriend (who died in prison) three decades after being convicted for killing her four-year-old great-niece. Once the district attorney’s office began reviewing the case, it found “so much information” that the fatal injuries to the child happened before she was in Joyce’s custody, said Sunny Eaton with the review unit, who also appeared on the program. Read more about the case or watch the interview.

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals ruled last week that Oscar Smith, 71, had “not presented new scientific evidence establishing that he is actually innocent of the murders of the victims,” the Tennessean reports. Smith’s legal team has asked the court to reopen the case after DNA from an unknown person was detected on one of the murder weapons. The trial court previously rejected the request. Smith’s public defender had filed a motion with the Tennessee Supreme Court earlier in the day Thursday seeking a stay of execution so the appellate court could have time to consider the motions. In the opinion, Judge Timothy Easter said that given the other evidence in the case there was not a “reasonable probability that the recently discovered DNA evidence would have prevented ... prosecution or conviction.” Smith is scheduled to die by lethal injection on April 21. He was convicted in 1990 of fatally stabbing and shooting his estranged wife and her two teenage sons.

The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) officially will open new offices at 3310 West End Ave., Ste. 590 in Nashville on May 2. The association is moving from its downtown location to leased space near the Vanderbilt University campus. It will operate there while the TBA Board of Governors evaluates office/event space needs for the bar in the future. TBA staff have been working remotely full-time since March 2020 and now will be transitioning to a hybrid model, rotating between working in the office and working from home. The new office primarily will be used for office support with the potential option of holding small TBA leadership meetings in the future. Please call ahead if you need to meet with someone or drop something off at the office. The main phone number will remain the same but the previous fax number is no longer available. Staff email and direct phone lines are listed online. TBA will retain a lease at its former downtown space through early June while it transitions additional items to storage.

The Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS) is seeking session proposals for this year's Equal Justice University (EJU), set for Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 at the Embassy Suites in Murfreesboro. Topics of interest include TennCare, conservatorships, employment law, representing clients with mental health or substance abuse issues, introduction to family law, federal nutrition programs, veterans benefits, student loan forgiveness, housing law, immigration and unemployment benefits. Presentations that include ethics and professional development components are also welcome. See the full list of topics here. Submit proposals by May 20.

The TBA Executive Committee has amended its recent COVID-19 Safety Protocols. Pursuant to the new policy, all in-person, indoor TBA events, meetings and programs will have the following restrictions until further notice: (1) TBA will comply with the more restrictive protocols and requirements of the host venue at the time of an event, meeting or program; (2) If there are no venue rules in place, TBA will, at a minimum, encourage masking for attendees, where appropriate; (3) Social distancing may be required, and attendance may be limited to ensure compliance at all in-person events depending on current health conditions and CDC guidelines in place at the time of the event; and (4) Attendees will remain subject to TBA’s COVID-19 Safety Acknowledgement Form. This policy is effective immediately until further notice.

Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III has joined a federal lawsuit brought by a coalition of 20 state attorneys general against the Biden administration for ending Title 42, a public health policy that allows border officials to turn away migrants because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The complaint accuses the administration of violating the Administrative Procedure Act because it made the decision without considering states’ interests or input.” 

Senior Judge Robert E. Lee Davies last week found that Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Kelvin Jones acted illegally during his divorce proceedings, finding that he relied on "attorney/client privileged communications that were illegally obtained" during the proceedings. Davies also denied attempts by Jones to reverse the initial judgment in the divorce. Jones has denied any illegal activity and told the Tennessean that he disputed the wording in the published order but not the ruling itself.

Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin this week rejected the town of Mason’s motion for a temporary injunction that would have slowed a financial takeover by the state comptroller, WPLN reports. In the ruling, Martin said that the comptroller’s office was within its authority to provide oversight to local governments in financial trouble. Earlier this month, the state issued a corrective action plan (CAP) to address financial woes. Local officials say the CAP keeps them from meeting the needs of residents in a timely manner and could cause the town to default on payments to outside entities. Van Turner, who is representing Mason, said the town’s lawsuit will continue to move forward.

Four years after the General Assembly passed legislation creating a cold case office to delve into decades-old civil rights crimes, the office opened its doors in the Cordell Hull Building. The Tennessee Civil Rights Crimes, Information, Reconciliation, and Research Center is to act as a clearinghouse for information, based on requests to open cold cases from the U.S. Department of Justice, district attorneys general and the public. The center also will conduct a statewide survey of civil rights crime cold cases and direct cases for prosecution. Read more about the center’s legislative history from Tennessee Lookout.