The TBA will host its 30th Annual Labor & Employment Law Forum on May 1 in Nashville, featuring a full-day program focused on key workplace and regulatory issues facing employers and practitioners. The forum, scheduled from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT at the Tennessee Bankers Association, will include sessions on return-to-the-workplace challenges, Federal Trade Commission noncompetes and trade secrets, wage and hour issues, and ethics topics addressing sexual harassment and assault. Attendees may earn up to five general and one dual CLE hours. Participants will include Maha Ayesh of Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law, Heather Collins of HMC Civil Rights Law, Jason Ensley of Forward Air Corp., John Edwin Gerth of Epstein Becker Green and Greg Grisham of Fisher & Phillips. For more information and to register, visit the TBA website. 

More than 400 people charged with driving under the influence in 2024 after being pulled over by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) troopers had bloodwork that tested negative for drugs and alcohol, the Daily Memphian reports. The report shows that 419 of 16,883 DUI-related blood samples submitted to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) crime labs last year — about 2.5% — detected no intoxicants. TBI officials said negative toxicology results do not necessarily mean a driver was unimpaired, noting some substances may not be detected. THP Col. Matt Perry told lawmakers the arrests were legal and based on observed signs of impairment, not quotas. The issue gained legislative attention after a high-profile Giles County arrest that was later dismissed, leading to a 2025 law requiring TBI to publicly report data on these cases.

Applications are being accepted for the TBA’s 2026 Reporters Workshop now through March 16. Sponsored by TBA’s Communications Law Section, the program will be held in person April 24-25 in Nashville. Organizers will select 15 print, online, television and/or radio journalists who want to develop a deeper understanding of media law issues that may affect their everyday work, including access to government information, defamation and privacy concerns in reporting, as well as other timely topics. Journalists interested in attending should apply online before 5 p.m. CDT on March 16. Student journalists also may apply. Class selection will be announced by March 23, and those selected for participation will be notified by email. Read more about the 2026 program. Tennessee lawyers are encouraged to share this opportunity with members of the media with whom they have relationships.

The TBA Mentoring Committee, in collaboration with the TBA Young Lawyers Division, held a special event — "Developing Lawyers, Developing Leaders: A CLE on Mentorship and Professional Excellence" — last week at Belmont University College of Law. Marshall County General Sessions Court Judge Lee Bussart; University of Tennessee Winston College of Law professor Joan Heminway; Amy Schmisseur, chair of Belmont University's Department of Communication Studies; Sean Aiello of Schell & Oglesby; Billy Leslie of Wilson Elser; and Toyin Edogun of Bass Berry & Sims explored topics of mentorship, leadership and communication across one's legal career. The day of learning was followed by a networking event and the opportunity for participants to mix mocktails together. Mentorship Committee Chair Ross Smith and Vice Chair Alix Rogers organized the event as a kick-off to the TBA's new approach to mentoring. Throughout 2026, the committee will be promoting monthly "mentoring meet-ups" in the hopes that relationships will form organically through participation in activities, rather than the previous approach of assigning mentors. See the committee's updated website page for a list of upcoming mentoring meet-ups as well as helpful resources for mentoring. Those interested in joining the Mentoring Committee to help plan meet-ups should email llabenberg@tnbar.org. See photos from the Jan. 30 event.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairman today sent a letter warning law firms of “serious concerns” about their participation in a law incubator’s diversity program, Bloomberg Law reports. The group, Diversity Lab, has certified more than 360 law firms as having met standards for creating diverse hiring pools, according to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson’s letter to more than 40 of the firms. Ferguson said Diversity Lab may facilitate “potentially anticompetitive collusion” through the use of diversity, equity and inclusion metrics. The lab describes itself as “a team of talent experts, data scientists, and behavioral science scholars, including several former practicing lawyers, who architect and innovate processes, practices, and structures that create inclusive and equitable workplaces.”

The owner of a Hispanic cultural center in South Nashville was sentenced Thursday to three and a half years in prison, far below the 15 years prosecutors sought, following his fraud convictions, The Tennessean reports. Mark Janbakhsh, founder and owner of Plaza Mariachi on Nolensville Pike, was also ordered to pay $11 million in restitution after being convicted in August on 15 felony counts related to a $24 million bank fraud scheme at his former business, Auto Masters. Prosecutors said Janbakhsh and his brother, co-defendant Ron Janbakhsh, along with two other Auto Masters executives, falsified bookkeeping records to inflate the number of active car loans, allowing the company to secure additional bank financing. Some of the funds were diverted to Mark Janbakhsh’s other ventures, including Plaza Mariachi. Ron Janbakhsh, who pleaded guilty shortly after his indictment and testified against his brother, was sentenced to one and a half years in prison. Before sentencing, Mark Janbakhsh repaid about $10 million of the roughly $21 million he personally received through the fraud. The brothers were ordered to report to prison April 28 and will serve their sentences at separate facilities, while the other executives are scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 29.

Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday requested that President Donald Trump grant an expedited major disaster declaration for 23 Tennessee counties following impacts from Winter Storm Fern. The request seeks Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) public and individual assistance to support response and recovery efforts statewide. According to a news release, the expedited request covers counties where damage is already evident and expected to exceed federal assistance thresholds, allowing resources to reach Tennesseans more quickly. Damage assessments are ongoing and will determine whether additional counties qualify. The request includes Cheatham, Chester, Clay, Davidson, Decatur, Dickson, Hardeman, Hardin, Henderson, Hickman, Lawrence, Lewis, Macon, McNairy, Maury, Perry, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Trousdale, Wayne, Williamson and Wilson counties.

The TBA will host its 21st Annual Bankruptcy Law Forum April 24 and 25 in Gatlinburg, offering a two-day educational retreat focused on developments in bankruptcy law. The program will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn and will feature presentations from bankruptcy judges and practitioners from across Tennessee and the Southeast, including judges from the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts in the Eastern, Middle and Western districts of Tennessee, as well as the Northern District of Georgia. The forum includes a full day of programming on April 24, followed by a networking reception and dinner, with additional sessions concluding late morning April 25. Lodging reservations must be made by March 24 to ensure availability. For more information visit the TBA website.

Unemployment rates remained below 5% in nearly every Tennessee county in December, with 91 of the state’s 95 counties reporting rates under that threshold, according to data released Thursday by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Rates declined from November in 87 counties, increased in six and remained unchanged in two, while only four counties posted unemployment rates of 5% or higher, led by Maury County at 5.7%. Williamson and Cheatham counties recorded the lowest rates in the state at 2.6%, followed by Sevier, Wilson, Rutherford, Dickson, Macon, Sumner, Knox and Haywood counties at 2.7%. Tennessee’s statewide unemployment rate was 3.6% in December, though county rates are not seasonally adjusted.

Knoxville paid $579,327.40 in total to litigate and settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Anthony Thompson Jr., who was shot and killed by city police inside an Austin-East Magnet High School bathroom in 2021, Knox News reports. A federal judge finalized the settlement Jan. 15 and canceled a scheduled jury trial in which officers would have had to defend why they did not provide medical care to Thompson. In an earlier ruling, a federal judge determined the family could not sue over the officers’ use of force or the lawfulness of Thompson’s arrest, a decision later upheld by an appeals court.