The Knoxville Bar Association will hold its 2016 Memorial Service Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. EST on the second floor of the Tennessee Supreme Court Building. The service will honor Knoxville-area attorneys who passed away this year. KBA President Wayne R. Kramer, Rev. Charles Fels and Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon G. Lee will be on hand to pay tribute to each of the 15 lawyers who will be remembered. A memorial service in May will honor attorneys who died after Aug. 15.

Fall admission ceremonies in Tennessee wrap up with two events tomorrow in Nashville, and the Tennessee Bar Association will welcome the state's newest lawyers with an open house and luncheon at the Tennessee Bar Center. The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., between the morning and afternoon swearing in ceremonies. Next week, the Nashville Bar Association will celebrate new bar admittees with a reception Nov. 15 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Jury Assembly Room of the Birch Building.

The Knoxville Bar Association will hold its annual chili cook-off, lunch and basket auction on Nov. 18 at the Knox County Juvenile Court, 3323 Division St. Chili judging will occur at 11 a.m. followed by lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A silent auction will open at 11:30 a.m. A live auction will begin at 12:45 p.m. All winners must be present to accept their items. All proceeds from the event go to an annual foster care parents’ appreciation dinner and to meet any emergency needs of foster care children. Those interested in donating a basket should complete a donation form. For more information, call 865-215-6475.

East Tennessee Lawyers’ Association for Women (ETLAW) will host its Annual Supreme Court Luncheon on Monday. The event will take place at noon at The Foundry, 747 Worlds Fair Park Dr. Tickets are $35 or $15 for new admittees. Tables of eight and 10 are also available. The luncheon follows the swearing-in ceremony for new lawyers in Knoxville. For more information, contact ETLAW President-Elect Alyssa Y. Minge, 865-342-4916.

The Knoxville Bar Association (KBA) will offer its annual LawTalk sessions tomorrow and Saturday at two locations in Knoxville. On Friday, the sessions will be held at the O’Connor Senior Center, 611 Winona St. On Saturday, the presentations will take place at Fellowship Church, 8000 Middlebrook Pike. From 9 to 10:45 a.m. each day, lawyers will focus on wills and trusts, probate options and the importance of living wills and powers of attorney. Then from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., lawyers will discuss legal protections for the elderly, the disabled and their caregivers. The seminars are free and open to the public but registration is encouraged. Attendees can register for their preferred location at the links above. For more information call 865-522-6522.

A public forum is scheduled for Thursday to continue planning for the 10th Judicial District Mental Health Court, which was announced earlier this fall. The court will serve Bradley, Polk, Monroe and McMinn counties. The forum will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Bradley County Courthouse. Circuit Court Judge Andrew Freiberg said the court’s mission is “to recognize the existence of mental illness and provide sentencing alternatives to those individuals in the criminal justice system who may be rehabilitated through appropriate mental health treatment.” He posted a reminder of the event on Facebook. The court is scheduled to open in January.

The TBA will host an information session and happy hour this Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. for those interested in learning more about Legal Assistance Volunteers for Patent Applicants (LAVPA), a program that helps under-resourced inventors and small businesses with their patent legal needs. The event is part of the TIPLA CLE and is sponsored by Patterson Intellectual Property. It will be held at Patterson’s office at 1600 Division St. # 500 in Nashville. For more information about the program, contact LAVPA Coordinator J. Scott “Skip” Rudsenske, 615-277-3207.

The Tennessee Supreme Court will travel the state over the next 10 days to swear in new attorneys, the court announced today. More than 450 people passed the July bar exam and hundreds of them will be sworn in to the practice of law by the court. The justices will start their tour in Jackson with a ceremony Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. They will be in Memphis on Thursday for a ceremony at 10 a.m. The Knoxville ceremony will be held Nov. 7 at 10 a.m., while the Nashville ceremony will take place in two sessions, one at 10 a.m. and one at 1 p.m., on Nov. 8. The TBA will host an open house that day between sessions. Get additional details from the court.

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will hold oral arguments in the historic courtroom at the University of Memphis School of Law Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. The panel, consisting of Senior Judge Gilbert S. Merritt, Senior Judge Eugene E. Siler Jr. and Memphis Law alumna Judge Bernice B. Donald, will hear arguments in the death penalty case of Andrew Thomas Jr. v. Bruce Westbrooks. Following oral arguments, attorneys in the case will conduct a post-argument debriefing and the judges have agreed to stay for a reception in the school’s Scenic Reading Room.

The University of Tennessee College of Law’s Legal Clinic will host its 2016 Charles H. Miller Lecture in Professional Responsibility Tuesday at noon EDT. The event will kick off celebrations of the clinic’s 70th anniversary and will feature Zenobia Dobson, the mother of Zaevion Dobson, a Knoxville teenager who was killed last December shielding his friends from gunfire. Dobson will discuss how legal professionals can help their clients in nontraditional ways. She will be joined by her attorneys, Ursula Bailey and Esther Roberts, both of whom are alumni of the law school and its legal clinic. The event is free and open to the public.