TBA Executive Director Joycelyn Stevenson has been named a 2022 Women of Influence honoree by the Nashville Business Journal. The 35 honorees are businesswomen leading top companies and nonprofits, supporting their communities and inspiring those coming behind them. They are selected for the honor based on their positive impact on the profession and the community. Stevenson, the first Black woman to the lead the bar association, previously spent 12 years at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings before becoming a shareholder at the world's largest labor and employment firm, Littler Mendelson PC. She is a past president of the Nashville Bar Association, the Lawyers' Association for Women in Nashville and the Council on Aging of Greater Nashville. She will be honored at an awards celebration on May 10. Meet the 2022 Women of Influence.

Travis Reinking was convicted Friday on all 16 counts on which he was charged, including four counts of first-degree murder for killing four people in a mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House in 2018. On Saturday, the jury sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the Tennessean reports. Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Mark Fishburn will decide later, likely in May, whether the sentences will run concurrently or consecutively. Reinking's defense team never challenged the facts of the case and agreed he was the shooter, but argued his schizophrenia was so severe that it kept him from realizing his actions were wrong.

The Tennessee Bar Association is now accepting nominations for its 2022 Claudia Jack Award and Justice Frank F. Drowota III Outstanding Judicial Service Award. The Claudia Jack Award honors an outstanding public defender or court-appointed private practitioner who has served the legal community and 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 Drowota Award is given to 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, the legal system and the administration of justice as exemplified by the career of former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Frank F. Drowota III. The deadline to submit nominees for both awards is March 7.

Volunteer registration is now open for the Tennessee State High School Mock Trial Competition, which will take place in person in Nashville March 25-26. Presiding judges, attorneys, law students and paralegals can sign up here to volunteer as a judge, scorer or bailiff. Those who volunteer for at least three trial rounds will receive reimbursement for travel and lodging. The 2022 Tennessee State High School Mock Trial case and rules were released last fall. District mock trial competitions are taking place this month with winners from each district taking part in the state competition. The Tennessee champion will compete at the National High School Mock Trial Championship, which will be held virtually in May.

Tennessee is joining 15 other states in a renewed challenge of the federal government’s vaccine mandate for health care workers, Mainstreet Nashville reports. The group of states – which represent locations where an injunction against the mandate is not in effect – filed suit in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Participating states included Louisiana, Montana, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia. In December, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a nationwide injunction blocking the mandate, limiting it to just the states in its circuit. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the mandate for health care workers and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it would start enforcing the requirement in states not impacted by an injunction.

University of Memphis School of Law students Holden Branscum and William Gebo were awarded first place in the 21st Annual Law Student Tax Challenge, sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Section of Taxation. The students were coached by William Kratzke. The annual contest is designed to give law students an opportunity to research, write about, and present their analyses of a real-life tax planning problem. This year, teams presented their oral arguments virtually before a panel of tax lawyers and tax court judges. Winners were announced at a virtual awards ceremony.

President Joe Biden last week announced he is nominating federal judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Davis currently serves on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was named a district court judge in December 2019 after serving as a magistrate judge in the district for three years. Before joining the bench, she worked as an assistant U.S. attorney and in private practice at Dickinson Wright in Detroit. Davis earned her law degree from Washington University School of Law in 1992. If confirmed, she would be the first Black woman to serve on the court from Michigan, and only the second Black woman – behind Judge Bernice Donald of Tennessee – to serve on the court. In May, Judge Donald notified President Biden that she intends to take senior status as soon as her replacement is sworn in on the court. In November, Biden nominated Memphis lawyer Andre Mathis for the seat.

Ogletree Deakins has elected Nashville shareholder Liz Washko as the firm’s new managing director. Washko succeeds Joe Beachboard, who completed a six-year term. Washko joined Ogletree Deakins in 2000 as an associate and was elected shareholder in 2003. She previously was managing shareholder for the Nashville office and member of the firm’s compensation committee and board of directors. She also was founder and co-chair of the firm’s Pay Equity Practice Group. Her practice focuses on representing employers in single plaintiff and class/collective action litigation and in matters before state and federal agencies. She has particular experience defending employers in Fair Labor Standards Act and pay discrimination cases. She also conducts proactive pay audits and pay equity analyses.

Law.com’s Corporate Counsel and ALM Intelligence are conducting their first annual legal department diversity survey and are seeking input. The survey is intended to be completed by legal department leadership and includes four sections: (1) Company Data and Legal Department Structure, (2) Legal Department Headcount and Diversity Data, (3) Individual Respondent Demographics and (4) Legal Department Diversity Policies and Programs. Responses are requested by Feb. 18. All information, including company names, will remain anonymous. For more information contact Steve Kovalan, senior director of research at ALM Intelligence, or Heather Nevitt, editor-in-chief at Corporate Counsel.

State wildlife officials say they now plan to raze a different portion of forest on public land in White County after their original plan met with resistance from local residents, a threatened lawsuit and demands from lawmakers to “stop all action on the plan immediately.” In a letter sent to members of the General Assembly, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency now says it will clear other parts of the Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area, Tennessee Lookout reports. Opponents of the original plan were surprised by the move after the agency indicated it was backing away from the effort. “TWRA informed a member of our community that they were stopping the entire project. Less than 48 hours later, they have changed their story again,” said attorney Austin Warehime, who has been retained to represent the county’s interests in the matter.