The deadline to apply for the TBA’s new Scaling Small Law program is tonight at 11:59 p.m. CDT. Don’t miss your chance to participate in this unique business education and development program, which will offer training in business planning, marketing, solo/small firm finance and budgeting, client service and experience, ethical considerations and outsourcing and leveraging technology. The four-month program is designed specifically for entrepreneurial lawyers, solo practitioners or newly formed solo/small firms.

Gallatin law firm, Mason & Associates, has announced the opening of a Nashville office. The firm, formerly known as Heritage Law Group PLLC, focuses on elder law and estate planning. The Nashville branch may now be reached at 615-619-2791 or by email at info@planyourlegacy.com.

The TBA today launched a new Practice Management Center for members. The center offers tech support and law office management resources at every stage of practice. TBA has teamed up with Affinity Consulting Group to offer members access to resources, whitepapers, checklists, comparison charts, best practices and ethical considerations. Content includes resources for opening a law firm, building a practice, managing a firm, protecting a firm, and winding down a practice. Members who need additional support have free access to a team of tech gurus. At no cost members can email tech questions or schedule a 30-minute free consultation for business and office management advice, including practice management, time keeping, billing and accounting, document automation and more. TBA members also can get discounts for outsourced bookkeeping, firm tech training, trust account review, new firm launch packages, tech analysis and recommendations. 

Watch this two-minute video to see how the number one software for lawyers improves your client intake, case management, billing, payment collection and all of your firm’s day-to-day operations. Remember: you can take 10% off all Clio products with your exclusive TBA member discount. 

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review is inviting all attorneys who are writing and speaking on topics relevant to the Appalachian region of the United States to submit an article to its publication. LMU’s Law Review was established in 2010 and is an online publication with a print version available on-demand. To submit an article, contact lmulawreview@lmunet.edu.

Read two articles that ran exclusively in last week's TBJ Select, about ways to implement remote signing under Executive Order 52, and why our laws should be capable of adapting to emergencies like the current pandemic before they emerge. In the first, Charles Key offers some tips and tools of one way to use these executive orders. To share your experiences and insights, please fill out this form. Results will be reported in next week's TBJ Select. In the second article, Trey Woodall and Macayla Heath explain why the Tennessee General Assembly should pass legislation recognizing electronic wills and the remote execution of them by electronic presence of the testator and witnesses.

The Tennessee Bar Association’s online renewal for 2020-2021 is now open! During these difficult times it is important to remain connected with your colleagues and your profession. Your TBA membership provides that. Renew your membership to continue having easy access to pandemic and other CLE programming with three pre-paid credits, free online legal research through Fastcase and timely information through TBA Today, TBA Podcasts and the Tennessee Bar Journal. Also now available is access to the TBA’s new Group Health Insurance Plan. Renewal emails are being sent now with a direct link to quickly renew your membership, or you can login and access renewal information through your MyTBA dashboard.

Ahead of a special report on the legal industry being published tomorrow, the Nashville Business Journal spoke with local lawyers, asking them, “What employee perk sets your firm apart?” The list ranged from ghosts to extra days off. DarKenya Waller of Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee & the Cumberlands, for example, applauds LAS’ parental leave policy, while Charles Robert Bone talks up Bone McAllester Norton’s “Summer Fun Days.” Check out the NBJ slideshow with responses from 14 attorneys. 

"I often reflect back on those brutal moments and wonder why I am still here," lawyer Brian Cuban writes. "People did not mind their own business at the right moment for intervention to occur before I completed the act of suicide." Cuban recounts his years with depression, addiction and near-suicide, crediting family and friends who did not "mind their own business." Originally published by the Texas Bar Journal, this article in Above the Law has explains that even if you don't want to get involved if you suspect someone needs help, you should. Cuban points out that lawyers are 3.6 times as likely as non-lawyers to suffer from depression, have the highest problem drinking rate, and are in fourth place in dying by suicide. Read Cuban's account and "pledge to ask someone how he or she is doing."

DarKenya Waller was highlighted in a recent issue of NFocus Magazine in the feature "Model Behavior." Waller is executive director of Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. The article features her volunteer work with the YWCA, serving on its board and providing pro bono legal help to women and children escaping domestic violence who are in the YWCA’s shelters. The series features "volunteers from behind the scenes and place them in the spotlight to honor their tireless devotion to local nonprofits."