The TBA International Law Section's annual forum will provide an overview of the trade and investment landscape as it concerns Tennessee in 2026 and beyond. Programming will focus on Tennessee's foreign direct investment, global health perspectives and partnerships, international financing, global sales and supply chains, and more. Participants will have the opportunity for direct interactive discussions with speakers, and the chance to network, learn about best practices and chart a path to increase capacity for internationalization. Make plans now to join colleagues on May 29 in the TBA's newly renovated CLE classroom. Get more information and register here.

J.E. "Buddy" Stockwell will retire from his position as executive director of the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP) effective April 15. Appointed in 2020 by the Tennessee Supreme Court, Stockwell has worked to transform the program into the "sustainable, gold-standard program it is today" according to TLAP Commission Chair Judge Michael Spitzer. Over the years, TLAP has expanded from assistance with alcoholism and drug use to all other mental health issues such as depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar issues, burnout and compassion fatigue. “The profession with all its pressures and the speed of information these days, and just how tough it can be to practice law, it has ushered in a new era for LAPs. Substance use disorder cases are still significant, but TLAP is comprehensive now. We have a professional clinical staff that can help address any type of mental health issue,” Stockwell said. “It’s become very complex, but our program works really well, and we cover all of those bases.” Read more in this profile from the Administrative Office of the Courts. Stockwell has written "The Buddy System" column for the Tennessee Bar Journal since 2021. His final installment will be published in the July/August 2026 issue.

On April 13, the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Tennessee Supreme Court censured Cumberland County attorney Margaret Jane Powers. Powers agreed to represent a client in probating an estate. Her usual practice was to charge a security retainer and obtain the client’s signature on a fee agreement confirming that the retainer was nonrefundable. Due to an inadvertent office error, no fee agreement was signed by the client. After undertaking the representation, Powers delayed in taking action for the client. After being discharged, she declined to refund the unearned portion of her security retainer despite being aware that no fee agreement had been signed by the client providing that the fee was nonrefundable. Powers also delayed in returning prepaid litigation expenses to the client. The court found that Powers violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3, 1.5(f), 1.15 and 1.16(d).

Davidson County attorney Zachary Ty Carden on April 13 received a censure from the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Tennessee Supreme Court. In the first complaint, Carden represented a criminal defendant in connection with adjustment of jail credits and seeking a furlough. He delayed in taking action for the client and failed to respond to the client’s communications. In the second complaint, Carden represented a client in pursuing a custody matter. He completed limited investigation of the client’s legal claims but did not file a petition or take other legal action, and he failed to respond to his client’s communications, which ultimately resulted in the client discharging Carden. Following his discharge, Carden did not refund an appropriate portion of the client’s fee. In the third complaint, Carden represented a client in pursuing contempt sanctions in a post-divorce matter. He prepared a draft petition but did not complete any other work for the client. Carden also failed to respond to the client’s requests for information about the status of the representation. Carden was found to have violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.16(d).

MATHIS, Circuit Judge. In 2018, Rieth-Riley Construction Company and its employees’ union representative began negotiating a new collective-bargaining contract. After eight years of battling on the picket line and in the courts, the parties still have no agreement. In its third appearance before this court against the National Labor Relations Board, Rieth-Riley petitions us to review the Board’s findings that the company engaged in unfair labor practices in 2021 and 2022. The Board asks us to enforce its order. For the reasons below, we deny Rieth-Riley’s petition and enforce the Board’s order.

The Petitioner, Crystal Lee Martin, entered an Alford or “best interest” plea to DUI on March 17, 2025, and her sentence was immediately executed as time served. On July 17, 2025, the Petitioner filed multiple post-conviction motions, including a “post-conviction relief packet,” which was related to her DUI offense, and also to a separate offense to which she had previously pleaded guilty, been given probation, and her ensuing probation violation convictions. The post-conviction court entered an order stating that the petition was not signed under oath subject to penalty of perjury and gave the Petitioner fifteen days to file an amended petition, and it denied all her other motions. The Petitioner filed a motion stating that her petition was, in fact, properly verified and indicating her refusal to file an amended petition. The post-conviction court summarily dismissed the petition. After review, we affirm the post-conviction court’s judgment.

The Petitioner, Jaylun Malik Currie, appeals from the Tipton County Circuit Court’s denial of post-conviction relief from the Petitioner’s convictions for aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault by strangulation, and aggravated criminal trespass and his effective eight-year sentence. On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the post-conviction court erred by denying relief on his ineffective assistance of counsel claims and that he was prejudiced by the cumulative effect of counsel’s alleged multiple instances of deficient performance. We affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

A Davidson County jury convicted the Petitioner, Coy J. Cotham, Jr., of first-degree premeditated murder and especially aggravated robbery, and the trial court imposed a life sentence without parole and a consecutive twenty-five-year sentence. The Petitioner appealed, and this court affirmed the trial court’s judgments. State v. Coy J. Cotham, Jr., M2012-01150-CCA-R3-CD, 2014 WL 3778613, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App. July 31, 2014). Subsequently, the Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief pursuant to the Post- Conviction DNA Analysis Act, which the post-conviction court summarily dismissed. On appeal, the Petitioner maintains that he is entitled to DNA testing of a blue towel recovered from his vehicle. Following our review of the record, we affirm the post-conviction court’s denial of relief.

Appellant filed a complaint for judicial review of the Tennessee State Board of Equalization’s decision to deny his request for property tax relief. Because Appellant sought review of an administrative order that had not become final under the applicable version of tax relief statutes, the trial court dismissed the complaint for lack of subject- matter jurisdiction under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act. Tenn. Code Ann. § 4-5-322(a)(1) (“A person who is aggrieved by a final decision in a contested case is entitled to judicial review”) (emphasis added). Affirmed

Ronald Matthew Lacy was a luxury car middleman. In 2015, through a series of electronic communications sent from Kentucky, Lacy persuaded the owner of a car dealership in Tennessee to wire him funds for a Mercedes. But Lacy never delivered the Mercedes or returned the funds. In this appeal, we consider whether a Tennessee court had statutory territorial jurisdiction to convict Lacy of theft for that conduct. We conclude that it did. We further conclude that Lacy’s theft conviction was supported by sufficient evidence. We therefore uphold Lacy’s conviction and affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.