Shelby County lawyer Gerald Denny Waggoner Jr. was reinstated to the practice of law on Aug. 8. Waggoner was suspended on Aug. 1, 2017, and again on July 11, 2023. The Tennessee Supreme Court also placed Waggoner on probation for two years. During each calendar year of probation, Waggoner must obtain an additional six hours of continuing legal education (CLE) on the proper handling of client funds and property, and engage a practice monitor. The monitor should meet with Waggoner monthly to review his office practices, client retainer agreements and trust accounts, and submit monthly reports to the Board of Professional Responsibility. Waggoner also was directed to employ a certified public accountant to review, reconcile and balance all trust accounts on a biannual basis for two years.

Retired Nashville General Sessions Judge William Higgins died Aug. 11 at the age of 86, The Tennessean reports. A graduate of Cohn High School and Vanderbilt University, Higgins went on to earn his law degree from the Nashville School of Law. After graduating, he served two years in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, served on the Metro Nashville Council for three terms and practiced law for 13 years before running for the Davidson County General Sessions Court in 1980. He won that race and subsequently was elected to five terms. He was named presiding judge of the court in 2013. He retired in September 2022 to return to practicing law. At that time, the Tennessee legislature recognized his more than 40 years of service on the bench and lauded him as "one of the finest judges this State has ever produced.” Funeral arrangements have not been announced yet.

Nashville’s longest serving criminal court judge died Aug. 11 at the age of 87, The Tennessean reports. Judge J. Randall Wyatt Jr. spent 43 years serving the judicial system, including eight years as a general sessions court judge and then as a criminal court judge. He retired in 2017. Two years later, his portrait was unveiled at the Justice A.A. Birch Building in front of family, friends and colleagues. While working as a Nashville Metro police officer, Wyatt studied at Middle Tennessee State University and then Vanderbilt University Law School. After receiving his law degree, Wyatt became an FBI special agent in Detroit. He later returned to Nashville and became an assistant district attorney, a legal advisor to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and then was elected as a general sessions judge. Funeral arrangements have not been announced yet.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and the Ross Early Learning Center have agreed to settle allegations that they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by refusing to allow certain communications related to continuous glucose monitoring on behalf of a three-year-old student with Type 1 Diabetes. The agreement was announced by Robert E. McGuire, acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. According to the complaint, the child was prescribed a continuous glucose monitor, which would transmit an alarm if blood sugar dropped or spiked. The parents asked the learning center to monitor the device, which it agreed to do only until the school nurse left the property each afternoon. It also said it could not communicate with the parents about the device except by phone or email. Under the agreement, MNPS will modify its policies to provide monitoring devices, dedicated mobile devices to interface with the monitors and training to help staff manage alerts. It also will pay the family $1,000. Read more in a release from the U.S. attorney’s office.

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently declined to hear the final appeal of an anti-transit referendum group, nine months after Nashville voters approved a sweeping transit proposal. The Committee to Stop an Unfair Tax and former council member Emily Evans pursued litigation after losing their bid to defeat the ballot initiative. While an appellate panel ruled in April that the transit tax could not be used to buy land for transit-adjacent housing and parks, it largely left the measure untouched, echoing an earlier opinion by the chancery court. The Nashville Banner highlights the court’s action in its daily newsletter.

A statue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall will be unveiled on Oct. 3 at 5 p.m. CDT in downtown Columbia. News Channel 5 reports that the statue will mark the role Marshall played representing 25 Black men charged in what is now called the Columbia Race Riot of 1946. The incident stemmed from an argument between a white shop worker and a Black man, James Stephenson, who had brought in a radio to be repaired. The confrontation turned violent. After Stephenson was charged with attempted murder, a mob sought Stephenson for what the Black community believed to be a lynching. The Black residents resisted the mob but then were criminally charged. Marshall — who later would become the U.S. Supreme Court's first Black justice — was the lead attorney defending Stephenson and the others. They were acquitted. The bronze statue will stand at the center of a new roundabout in downtown Columbia.

Franklin lawyer Mary Catherine Ross Kelly died Aug. 9 after an extended illness. She was 83. Originally from West Carroll Parish, Louisiana, Kelly relocated to Texas, where she worked as a high school teacher, coach and athletic director. She earned her law degree from Texas A&M in 1994, relocated to Tennessee and opened a solo practice in Franklin. She focused her practice on alternative dispute resolution, family law, elder law, estate planning, trusts, wills and probate. According to her obituary, she also was the first certified Rule 31 Mediator in Willamson County. She received the Williamson County Bar Association’s 2014-2015 Professional Award. Kelly retired from the practice of law in 2016. Graveside services will be held at 10 a.m. CDT on Friday at New Forest Lawn Cemetery, 2493 Highway 134, Oak Grove, LA 71263. Memorial donations may be made to the charity of the donor’s choice.

U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman has reset the trial date for a lawsuit stemming from the death of Tyré Nichols. The trial now will begin on Nov. 9, 2026, according to the Daily Memphian. It previously was set to begin on July 13, 2026. Monday’s hearing also marked the first time the attorneys in the lawsuit appeared before Lipman, who assumed control of the case after U.S. District Judge Mark Norris recused himself. Attorneys representing Nichols’ family and estate asked for the delay citing a large amount of evidence provided by the city of Memphis that requires a considerable amount of work to organize.

The TBA Creditors Practice Section will hold its annual forum on Oct. 1 in Nashville. The event will kick off with registration at 9 a.m. followed by programming from 10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and a networking reception from 3:15 to 5 p.m. CDT. Topics to be covered include a case law update, administrative action update, e-filing, AI and the sovereign citizen movement. The program will offer three general and one dual CLE credits. Make plans now to join colleagues in person at the Tennessee Bankers Association’s Bradley L. Barrett Training Center, 211 Athens Way, Nashville, TN 37228! Creditors Practice Section members receive discounted registration. Not a section member yet? Join here.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed sentences in two gun possessions arising from cases in Memphis. In the first ruling, the court upheld a 108-month federal sentence for a Memphis man convicted of possessing a machine gun. In 2024, Senior U.S. District Judge John T. Fowlkes sentenced Jaquan Bridges to 108 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Bridges appealed the judgment, arguing that the prosecution violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms. The appeals court upheld the sentence and the constitutionality of the federal statute regulating the possession of machine guns. In the second case, the appeals court upheld a 50-year federal prison sentence handed down to Louis Holloway, who was convicted in 2022 for the attempted robbery and death of University of Memphis student John Stambaugh. Holloway originally was sentenced to life in prison but due to changes in the law, that sentence was vacated. At a resentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Samuel H. Mays sentenced Holloway to 50 years in federal prison, the statutory maximum, followed by three years of supervised release. The appeals court affirmed that sentence, holding it was reasonable considering the horrific nature of the offense and Holloway’s serious criminal history. Read more about these cases from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee.