The January Tennessee Bar Journal explores Medical-Legal Partnerships, a concept where doctors and lawyers work together to help the overall well-being of people in need. As part of this issue's emphasis on Access to Justice, you can also read about a recent legal needs study with troubling results, as well as about those honored with public service awards for outstanding service to people in need. President Jonathan Steen writes about an important New Year's Resolution: do more pro bono, which he says he plans to keep better than his usual resolutions to eat healthier, get more sleep and exercise regularly.

Although the holidays are a season of joy and celebration, they are also packed with stress and can bring on lots of anxiety. Family and financial difficulties can lead to increased alcohol consumption and/or depression that affects so many people — and in particular, lawyers — during the holidays. In his December column, TBA President Jonathan Steen gives hope and suggestions for help to anyone whose holidays are not picture-perfect, reminding readers about the life-saving services the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP) offers -- free, confidential consultation, referral, intervention and crisis counseling for lawyers, judges, bar applicants and law students who are struggling with substance abuse, stress or depression.

If you are still looking for a gift for the readers on your list, check out the reviews of two books in the December Journal. Gary Shockley reviews John Dean's book, The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It. The book is based on "transcripts of more than one thousand White House conversations taped by the infamous Nixon taping system — less than half of which had ever been transcribed before," Shockley writes. "Even today, four decades later, the story both fascinates and repels." 

David Wade reviews The Widow Wave: A True Courtroom Drama of Tragedy at Sea. "If you try lawsuits, you will run into yourself on virtually every page of this book," Wade writes. "This book is a great excursion into a real trial wrapped into all the trappings of real trial lawyers who, even though they are at the height of their professional acumen, still agonize over decisions they must make during trial and the impact they will have on the sacred trust to protect the client’s interests. No work of fiction can ever beat that."

In her Journal column this month, Kathryn Reed Edge makes a prediction: "As the financial crisis wanes and fewer banks are plagued by their borrowers’ credit problems, we in the business are seeing the federal banking agencies gear up for an energetic assault on consumer compliance violations." And adding to the confusion that many bank compliance officers have in interpreting the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, she writes that two judicial circuits, the 6th and the 8th, "have split on a seemingly simple issue of the definition of 'applicant' under the ECOA." She explains the important differences and advises readers of her column "Bank On It" to watch the U.S. Supreme Court for an answer.

If you are going to get your Christmas tree this weekend, read Bill Haltom's column in the December Tennessee Bar Journal first. In it he reveals why divorce lawyers love Christmas trees. "Remember folks, it took a crew of 17 big men at the Christmas tree lot to hoist the tree on top of the van. But once I get home, it’s Daddy’s job to personally lift this giant Sequoia off the minivan and carry it (the tree, not the minivan) into the house," Haltom writes. "My wife and I snipe at each other for hours while I clutch the Christmas tree and experience Yuletide acupuncture, as thousands of pine needles pierce my aching body. After several crash landings, we somehow manage to balance the tree. Of course, by this time, my wife and I are in no mood whatsoever to trim the tree, since we’ve stopped speaking to each other. Talk about Silent Night." Consider yourself warned, everyone, and happy tree decorating.

In the December issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal, lawyers Jennifer Lacey and John Williams detail the Vested Property Rights Act of 2014 and how it has given more stability to developers. Bill Rutchow looks at employer protection of confidential business information through the Tennessee Uniform Trade Secrets Act. And in perhaps the best news of all, columnist Eddy Smith reports the demise of Circular 230 Disclosures in "How the IRS Saved the Planet and Returned 30 Minutes of Your Day."

President Jonathan Steen and columnist Bill Haltom each write in this month's Tennessee Bar Journal about being thankful. Steen writes that he is "thankful for you, fellow members of the TBA. ... thankful for your membership, and I encourage you, as you take time this Thanksgiving Day to reflect, count your blessings and give thanks, to find new ways to be active in the TBA. As W. J. Cameron once said, 'Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.'” Haltom writes in anticipation of a Thanksgiving feast with his wife's family, which is full of lawyers, where "we will give thanks for the blessing of being a lawyer. And make no mistake about it, it is a real blessing. It is a blessing to be a counselor and an advocate. It is a blessing to help people avoid conflicts or resolve them. It is a blessing to be a voice for people who would otherwise have no voice. And as a trial lawyer, I consider it a real blessing to be able to make a good living simply by doing the only thing I know how to do — talk."

In the latest issue of the Journal, Murfreesboro lawyer Josh McCreary writes about "The Viability of a Regulatory Takings Claim Under Phillips v. Montgomery County." In his column, Knoxville lawyer Wade Davies helps you understand diminished capacity, and two books are reviewed. Nashville lawyer David Raybin explores a book by noted death penalty scholar Austin Sarat, Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty (there were several in Tennessee over the years, including an elephant) and Chattanooga lawyer John B. Phillips reviews H. Graham Swafford Jr.'s memoir, Go to the Pound and Get a Dog ... Then Learn to Fly an Airplane: Life's Lessons Acquired by a Country Lawyer.

Two new laws went into effect in July that impact how family lawyers do their jobs and in the November Tennessee Bar Journal, lawyers Siew-Ling Shea and Shaina Zakalik give you the details about statutory parental rights and "factors" changes. Also, the Journal introduces a new columnist, Russell Fowler, who in this month's first installment of "History's Verdict" reminds lawyers how Magna Carta influenced today's law. Fowler is associate director of Legal Aid of East Tennessee and an adjunct professor of political science at UT Chattanooga.

In 1980, 36 percent of the nation’s licensed lawyers were under age 35, compared to just 13 percent in this age group in 2005, the ABA Journal reports. The figures come from The Lawyer Statistical Report, which is based on data from Martindale-Hubbell and compiled by the American Bar Foundation. Meanwhile, the median lawyer age also increased from 39 in 1980 to 49 in 2005. Tennessee Bar Journal humor columnist Bill Haltom has embraced these statistics, declaring himself and some of his colleagues "Legally Gray." Read his column in this month's issue.