Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Gary W. Starnes has been awarded the Judge Leon Ruben Memorial Award for Excellence, an award intended to bestow an honor upon judges who distinguish themselves in service to the community and the Tennessee General Sessions Judges Conference. The award is named after the late Judge Leon Ruben, who served as a sitting judge in Nashville for 37 years. He also served as a Metro Council member and was known for his excellent contributions to the community. "I am blessed and honored to receive this distinguished award from my colleagues and our judicial conference," Starnes said.

Memphis lawyer Lucian T. Pera is the 2022 recipient of the Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award, one of the top ethics honors of the American Bar Association. The award honors an individual whose contributions in the professional responsibility field reflect the highest level of dedication to legal professionalism. Pera, a former Tennessee Bar Association president and partner at Adams and Reese, is recognized nationally for his work on ethics in the legal profession as well as media law and transparency issues in government, particularly in Tennessee where he also served as president of the Tennessee Open Government Coalition. He has written extensively about ethics and lawyer regulation nationally and for the ABA, including an ethics column for Law Practice, a magazine of the ABA Law Practice Division. Read more from the ABA Journal. 

Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s office is now accepting applications for a $1.5 million grant to prevent violence in North Nashville, WPLN reports. The program builds on the first round of $5,000 grants given out last year to curb shootings. The new initiative, labeled “Cure Violence,” is part of the city’s gradual shift toward more community-based solutions to public safety, at a time when violent crime has been rising. Nonprofit groups have until April 22 to apply.

Knoxville lawyer Carol Anne Long has joined the University of Tennessee College of Law as associate director of the Bettye B. Lewis Career Center. In her new position, Long will serve as the primary liaison with employers, maintaining relationships with hiring personnel and developing interview opportunities. She also will provide advising assistance to students and alumni. Long previously practiced civil and criminal defense litigation with two Knoxville law firms and worked as a judicial clerk for Judge Charles D. Susano Jr. of the Tennessee Court of Appeals and Judge James Curwood Witt Jr. of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. She is a 2000 graduate of the College of Law. Long was active in the TBA Young Lawyers Division and is a lifetime member of the TBA YLD Fellows. She is married to former TBA President Jason Long.

Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis today announced that Jennifer Weaver and Eric Scalzo have been named leaders of its Healthcare Industry Team. Weaver is a partner in Waller’s litigation practice with experience defending health care providers in False Claims Act cases throughout the United States. Scalzo is a partner in Waller’s corporate practice where he handles complex transactions in the physician and dental practice management space. His experience includes assisting providers and investors in the formation, acquisition, growth and sale of physician and dental group practices. The team they lead is comprised of more than 200 attorneys advising health care providers and investors across the country.

Nominations for two of the Tennessee Bar Association’s annual awards are due Monday. The Justice Frank F. Drowota III Outstanding Judicial Service Award honors a judge or judicial branch official of a federal, state or local court in Tennessee who has demonstrated extraordinary devotion and dedication to the improvement of the law, our legal system and the administration of justice as exemplified by the career of Justice Frank F. Drowota III. The Claudia Jack Award honors an outstanding public defender or court-appointed private practitioner who has served the legal community and their clients in an exemplary fashion. It is named after the late Claudia Jack, a public defender and long-time champion of the poor and underprivileged.

The Tennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims announced today that it will return to in-person settlement approvals on April 4. The court also said that it is reviewing the procedures for settlement approvals, which differ among its eight offices, and will report soon on revised procedures.

Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III is urging all Tennessee residents who may have been affected by a data breach announced by T-Mobile in August 2021 to take appropriate steps to protect their information from identity theft. T-Mobile said at the time that the breach involved the sensitive personal information of 53 million current, former and prospective customers, including 757,354 in Tennessee. Slatery said today that a large subset of the compromised information has now emerged for sale on the dark web. A statement from his office outlines the action individuals can take to protect themselves.

Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III, along with a bipartisan group of attorneys general, is leading a nationwide investigation of the social media platform TikTok to determine whether the company violated state consumer protection laws that put the public, especially children and young adults, at risk. The investigation will look into physical and mental health harms associated with use of the platform and what TikTok knew about those harms, as well as the techniques it used to engaged young users.

A University of Tennessee College of Law team has won the 2022 national Phi Alpha Delta Mock Trial Competition. The team, including first-year student Kyle Mangrum, and second-year students Alex Allen, Grady McGinnity and Tommy Zoccola, excelled in three preliminary rounds before advancing to the finals and winning out over 21 teams.  The annual competition, held in the Washington, D.C. area, draws law students from 28 schools throughout the country and is judged by volunteer lawyers and judges.