Judge John W. Campbell was today confirmed to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals – Western Section, the Administrative Office of the Courts reports. Campbell was appointed to the position by Gov. Bill Lee on Jan. 12. Since 2012, Campbell has served as Criminal Court judge in the 30th Judicial District, which includes Shelby County. Prior to taking the bench, he worked as an Assistant District Attorney General in the 30th Judicial District from 1985 to 2012 and an Assistant Public Defender from 1984 to 1985. While an Assistant District Attorney General, he also was appointed a Special Assistant United States Attorney. “I am passionate about criminal justice, education, and the law,” Campbell said. “Becoming an appellate judge was always an aspiration, and I am very grateful to everyone who helped make this goal come to fruition.”

President Joe Biden’s nomination of Memphis attorney Andre Mathis to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals was today advanced by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Reuters reports. Lawmakers voted 12-10 to clear the way for Mathis’ nomination to be considered by the full Senate. The nomination of Mathis, a Butler Snow partner, was not supported by Tennessee Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, who claim the Biden administration failed to “meaningfully consult” with them. Historically, Mathis would have needed the votes of his home state’s senators to advance, but after Republican senators during the Trump administration did away with the “blue slip” process for appellate nominees, that support is no longer necessary to move forward.

The General Assembly today confirmed Nashville attorney Sarah Campbell to the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Tennessean reports. Campbell, Tennessee’s associate solicitor general, clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito until 2015 when she joined the Attorney General’s Office. "As a judge, I will be firmly neutral on the issues that come before me," Campbell said in recent interviews with lawmakers. "The role of a judge, in my view, is to decide cases based on neutral, objective principles that don't lend themselves to any one outcome or the other." The vote to confirm Campbell was nearly unanimous, with the lone dissenting vote cast by Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville. Johnson voiced concerns about the “partisan nature” of Campbell’s work in the attorney general’s office.

Join TBA Director of Public Policy & Government Affairs Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorneys and TBA lobbyists Brad Lampley and Ashley Harbin for a brand new episode of TBA Legislative Updates. Tune in for news on the newest Tennessee Supreme Court Justice, House Majority Leader William Lamberth’s Truth in Sentencing measure, the state’s new deputy governor and more! Legislative Updates airs every Thursday on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Tennessee’s finance commissioner and former Nashville businessman Butch Eley was appointed deputy to the governor today, the Nashville Business Journal reports. The position was previously held by Lang Wiseman who returned to the private sector in January as a shareholder in Baker Donelson’s advocacy department. Eley founded Infrastructure Corporation of America in 1998 and was CEO of the company for nearly two decades. He later served as chief growth officer of DBi Services, an infrastructure management company. In 2018, he chaired Gov. Bill Lee’s transition team. According to a statement from the governor’s office, Eley will continue serving as Department of Finance and Administration commissioner, a role he has held since 2020.

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is warning business owners about a scam incorrectly implying they need a Certificate of Good Standing, Chattanoogan.com reports. Hargett said a deceptive mailer from a company called Business Document Center asks business owners to pay $87.25 for the certificate. That fee is four times more than what the Secretary of State’s office charges for an equivalent document known as a Certificate of Existence. “These mailers imply that businesses must have a Certificate of Good Standing to operate in Tennessee,” Hargett said. “A Certificate of Good Standing is not even something that our office offers. What is called a Certificate of Good Standing in some other states is a Certificate of Existence in Tennessee, and neither are necessary to do business in our great state.” 

New data from Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions, a legal analytics company, shows that big billing rate increases last year often coincided with population gains, and ELM found “especially” high average billing rate increases in the following seven cities: Greenville, South Carolina (18%), Fresno, California (15%), Oklahoma City (13%), Seattle and Nashville (11% each), Phoenix (10%) and Miami (9%). Andrew Maloney writes in Law.com that population gains tied with billing rate increases indicate these cities could be among the next wave of markets for a Big Law boom.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, has asked Gov. Bill Lee to seek a federal disaster declaration for Memphis after last week’s ice storm, the Daily Memphian reports. Cohen, in a letter to Lee, wrote that an estimate from Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division shows $13 million in preliminary damage. That number is already more than the required minimum to qualify for federal disaster assistance. Cohen says several relief funds administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be of specific use, including the Public Assistance Grant Program for help with “debris removal, repair, replacement or restoration of disaster-damaged and publicly owned facilities.”

Items belonging to late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are set to be donated to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., next month, The Hill reports. In a release, the Smithsonian said a “significant selection of artifacts” representing Ginsburg’s career will be given to the National Museum of American History in a March 30 ceremony. The ceremony will serve as the “first public reveal” of exactly which items will join the institution’s collections. Ginsburg will also be posthumously awarded the museum’s Great Americans medal, which recognizes “lifetime contributions embodying American ideas and ideals” and those who “have not only made a lasting impact in their fields, but whose philanthropic and humanitarian endeavors set them apart.”

Free Legal Answers, the online virtual legal clinic that helps qualifying users get civil legal advice from volunteer attorneys, has surpassed 200,000 client questions, doubling the total number of its inquiries in less than two years. Free Legal Answers has experienced rapid growth since March 2020 when the program hit 100,000 questions. Nationwide, more than 43,400 hours of pro bono legal service were submitted with 10,288 volunteer attorneys registered to participate and 45 states committed to the program. More information is available in the most recent Free Legal Answers report. Sponsored by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, Free Legal Answers was established a decade ago as a joint project of the TBA, Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services and Baker Donelson.