The Tennessee General Assembly adjourned its 114th session on April 22, following the passage of a $59.8 billion state budget that received bipartisan support, including reallocating approximately $180 million of funding from Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed budget amendment in order to fulfill legislators’ priorities. The TBA's Legislative Affairs team provides an update on TBA's legislative work this year.

Tennessee Bar Association members who have died recently are memorialized.

In Tennessee, and many states, owners on major construction projects often hold back or “retain” a portion of any payment otherwise due to a general contractor in response to the general contractor’s invoice (draw request or request for payment). Many out-of-state owners and/or developers are unaware of the rigid statutory obligations in Tennessee that surround this protocol. Phillip Byron Jones takes a closer look at Tennessee law and how it affects parties involved in construction projects.

Newly installed TBA President Heidi Barcus shares her vision for the 2025-2026 bar year in her inaugural President's Perspective column.

At its February 2025 Mid-Year Meeting, the American Bar Association (ABA) Board of Governors unanimously adopted Resolution 608, creating a brand new ABA Model Rule on Conditional Admission. This new model rule supplants the prior rule from 2008, and it also represents 17 years of medical advances in diagnostics, treatment and monitoring to support fitness to practice law. Buddy Stockwell explains the significance of the new rule in this installment of The Buddy System.

One of the most difficult parts of practicing law in Tennessee is trying to advise clients what a potential sentence would be after trial. In this issue's Crime & Punishment column, Wade Davies breaks down the various factors that could be applied in calculating sentencing.

100 years after the "Scopes Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Russell Fowler looks back on Tennessee's most famous legal battle. It all started in the local drug store as a way to challenge the constitutionality of the Butler Act, Tennessee’s new law against teaching the theory of human evolution.

The Journal’s “back page” content looks a little different in 2025! Introducing “Closing Statements.” We’ll post a question here in each issue and invite you to submit your answer. Perhaps you’ll see your closing statement in the next issue! For this issue, we asked "If you weren't a lawyer, what would be your career?"

This issue's "The Legal Life" feature recaps the TBA's Annual Convention held in Franklin June 11-14. Knoxville lawyer Heidi Barcus was sworn in as TBA's 144th president, taking the gavel from Memphis lawyer Ed Lanquist Jr. Read more about award winners honored, your new Board of Governors and updates from the Young Lawyers Division.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge. Contracts often contain forum-selection clauses so that parties may litigate any eventual dispute in the most efficient venue and obtain certainty over that location. Yet this case shows that forum-selection clauses can disserve these efficiency and predictability goals if the parties do not sign clear agreements that unambiguously identify when the clauses apply. The plaintiff in this case agreed to ship a car part that it made in Mexico to a Mexican plant that the defendants operated. Their initial contract documents contained a forum- selection clause pointing to a Mexican venue. So when the plaintiff sued in Michigan, the defendants moved to dismiss the suit under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) and the forum non conveniens doctrine. The district court granted the Rule 12(b)(6) motion and did not undertake any forum non conveniens analysis. But the complaint plausibly alleges that the parties switched to a Michigan forum-selection clause during the course of their transactions. A factual dispute thus exists over which of these competing clauses applies to the plaintiff’s breach-of-contract claims. And we cannot resolve this venue issue on the pleadings under Rule 12(b)(6) or under the forum non conveniens doctrine without factual findings. We thus reverse and remand for further proceedings.