The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments met in Nashville to select nominees for the upcoming vacancy on the Tennessee Supreme Court, which will occur with the retirement of Justice Holly Kirby on June 30, 2026. After holding a public hearing and conducting public interviews, the commission selected three names to forward to the governor. They are: Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge J. Ross Dyer of Memphis; Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Kyle A. Hixson of Knoxville; and Memphis attorney Shea Sisk Wellford. View the nominees’ applications here.

A group of West Nashville residents has filed a 20-page ethics complaint against District 20 Councilmember Rollin Horton, accusing him of misuse of office, retaliation, doxxing and interfering with political activity in response to their efforts to oppose his successful rezoning plan for The Nations, according to the Nashville Post. The complaint stems largely from a failed recall effort and cites incidents including an Instagram post that displayed a resident’s address, police being called on petition gatherers and alleged pressure on business owners. Horton denies the allegations, calling them baseless and politically motivated, and says the rezoning followed extensive community engagement. Metro Legal now has two weeks to determine whether the complaint merits a full hearing before the Board of Ethical Conduct. WPLN also reports on the developments.

Shelby County General Sessions Court Judge Lonnie Thompson grew up in poverty in South Memphis and originally planned to become a classical pianist, earning a scholarship to the Oberlin Conservatory. His participation in student protests against South African apartheid led him to shift his focus from music to law. Thompson went on to earn a law degree from Georgetown and built a wide-ranging legal career before becoming a judge. And he still plays piano and organ at his Memphis church! Now elected president of the General Sessions Judges Conference, he hopes to improve court efficiency and expand community outreach. "I think general sessions is a very, very special court because it’s the court of first impression," Thompson said. "Our citizens get to see exactly what the court system is like, and they are more likely to encounter us before they will any judge on any other level." Read more in this profile from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Calling all early birds! The TBA is launching a new series in December that will bring lawyers compelling CLE webcasts from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. CST. The Sunrise Series will begin Dec. 2 with “College Mascots and Legal Ethics: Lessons from the Sidelines,” during which legal educator Stuart Teicher will use tigers, eagles and other college icons to explore what mascots can teach lawyers about loyalty, character and protecting clients. Then on Dec. 9, Teicher will present "Good Lawyers Gone Bad: Ethics Lessons from True Lawyer Slime and Crime." The session will explore actual missteps committed by lawyers and the ethics lessons underlying the actions. Make plans now to get your day started with a CLE boost!

The TBA will host its 2025 Environmental Law Forum on Dec. 5 in Nashville, offering a full day of programming for lawyers and environmental professionals. The annual event will cover nuclear energy concerns, recent state and federal developments, brownfields and other timely issues shaping the practice area. Speakers include Payton Bradford of the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation, Katherine Barnes Cohn of Bradley, John Dawson of Bass, Berry & Sims, Ellery Richardson of K&L Gates and Ashley Strittmatter of United Cleanup Oak Ridge. For more information and to register visit the TBA website.

The defendant, Charles Wilson, was convicted by a Madison County Circuit Court jury of one count of second-degree murder and one count of facilitation of attempted simple robbery for which he received a sentence of twenty-three years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, the defendant argues that the evidence is insufficient to sustain his conviction. After reviewing the record and considering the applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

DAVIS, Circuit Judge. Timothy Ehn and William Siefert executed a health-care-fraud scheme at the heart of the opioid epidemic. Ehn owned and operated a pain clinic in northern Kentucky. With the help of Siefert, Ehn created a testing scheme that involved using patients’ medical conditions as a front to conduct specialized urine drug tests that were billed at a higher rate than the routine tests most patients needed. This scheme began in 2017 and lasted, for Siefert, until he stopped working at the clinic in 2019 and, for Ehn, until 2021. Both Ehn and Siefert were indicted for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, health care fraud, and conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Siefert was also indicted for unlawful distribution of a controlled substance. A jury ultimately convicted Siefert of health care fraud and Ehn of health care fraud and conspiracy to commit the same. Both defendants appeal those convictions on various grounds and challenge the procedural reasonableness of their sentences. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC (“HDI”) and the Michigan State Utility Workers Council (“the Union”) were parties to a collective bargaining agreement. That agreement provided for arbitration of Union members’ grievances. So, when one member disagreed with HDI about his discharge, the Union demanded arbitration on his behalf. Though the demand mistakenly named HDI’s parent company, Holtec International Corporation (“Holtec International”) (collectively with HDI “Holtec” or “Appellants”), with whom there was no agreement, HDI appeared through counsel and participated in the arbitration—that is, until an award was issued in favor of the Union. HDI did not comply with the award, and Holtec filed suit in federal district court seeking vacatur on the ground that the award’s caption mistakenly named Holtec International. The district court declined to vacate the award. This appeal thus turns on a single question: where an arbitration demand and the case’s caption misname the party against whom an award is meant to be entered, but there is no ambiguity as to the real identity of that party, may a federal district court enforce that award? Because it may, we AFFIRM the judgment below.

SUTTON, Chief Judge. A Nashville city councilman threatened to withdraw business from a law firm, which served as the city’s outside counsel, due to the position one of its attorneys took as the chair of the county election commission on a tax referendum. When the attorney declined the law firm’s request that he oppose the referendum, the firm fired him. The attorney sued the council member and the law firm for retaliating against his federal free-speech rights, namely his support of the tax-repeal referendum in his capacity as the county election chair. The district court denied qualified immunity to each defendant in ruling on their motions to dismiss. The law firm is eligible for qualified immunity in view of the government work it performed. And it did not violate any clearly established law. We know of no case in which the First Amendment prohibited a law firm from firing one of its lawyers when the business interests of the firm, including demands from one of its clients, triggered the firing. We thus reverse that portion of the district court’s decision. On the other hand, the council member’s alleged actions violated clearly established law, and we affirm the district court’s denial of his motion to dismiss.

The petitioner, Brandon Holliday, appeals the denial of his post-conviction petition, arguing the post-conviction court erred in finding he received the effective assistance of counsel. After our review of the record, briefs, and applicable law, we affirm the denial of the petition.