Sevier County lawyer James Ralph Hickman Jr. was reinstated to the practice of law on March 22 with the condition that he engage a practice monitor and continue to comply with the terms and conditions of a judgment entered on June 30, 2023. Last summer, the Tennessee Supreme Court suspended Hickman for one year, with six months to be served on active suspension. Hickman filed a petition for reinstatement on Feb. 15. The Board of Professional Responsibility reported to the court that the petition was satisfactory.

On March 22, the Tennessee Supreme Court temporarily suspended Hawkins County lawyer Terry Risner after finding that he was substantially non-compliant with his Dec. 20, 2023, Tennessee Lawyer Assistance Program Preliminary Evaluation and Assessment Monitoring Agreement. Supreme Court Rule 9 Section 12.3 requires immediate summary suspension of an attorney’s license to practice law when an attorney substantially fails to comply with a TLAP monitoring agreement. The suspension will remain in effect until dissolution or modification by the court. The court also granted a motion to file documents in this case under seal.

Connecticut lawyer Wesley Shelman Spears was suspended for two years, retroactive to Oct. 25, 2023, by the Tennessee Supreme Court on March 22. The court reports that Spears received a two-year suspension from the State of Connecticut Superior Court in the Judicial District of Hartford on Sept. 25, 2023. On Feb. 13, the Tennessee Supreme Court directed Spears to respond as to why the same discipline should not be imposed in the Tennessee. Spears failed to respond.

Knoxville lawyer Ford Little has been named to the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission where he will represent District 2, which consists of 11 counties. Little is an attorney with Woolf-McClane, where he handles construction law, commercial litigation and product liability/toxic tort cases. His appointment will run through February 2029, the Wildlife Resources Agency reports. Read more about Little’s career in a news release from the agency.

A news item in Thursday's issue of TBA Today incorrectly identified the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals judge that Kevin Ritz, current U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, will replace if confirmed to the court. Ritz was nominated by President Joe Biden last week to replace Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, who last August announced her intention to take senior status on the court following confirmation of a successor. Read the corrected story from the Daily Memphian.

The University School of Nashville was named the 2024 Tennessee State High School Mock Trial champion Saturday night after two days of preliminary rounds. The school prevailed over Montgomery Bell Academy, also from Nashville. Tennessee State Supreme Court Justice Dwight Tarwater presided over the round, while members of the TBA Young Lawyers Division's (YLD) Executive Committee, TBA President Jim Barry and TBA Vice President Heidi Barcus served as jurors. Earlier in the day, the top eight teams were announced, an MVP for each team was recognized, individual awards were presented to the best advocates and witnesses, and Sevier County High School was awarded the 2024 Sportsmanship Award.

Special thanks to YLD Mock Trial Committee Chair Ashley Tipton and Vice Chair Michael Holmes, and members of the committee for organizing this year's event, which involved 14 teams, close to 200 participants and more than 100 volunteers, including sitting Tennessee judges, lawyers and the YLD's Diversity Leadership Institute's law students. The University School of Nashville will now represent Tennessee at the National High School Mock Trial Competition in Wilmington, Delaware in May. The team is coached by Nashville attorneys Ned Hildebrand with Dunham Hildebrand, Maureen Timoney Joyce and Ben Raybin with Raybin & Weissman. See more competition results and photos from the event.

A nearly $2 billion tax and refund for businesses passed the Senate on Thursday on a vote of 25-6, the Associated Press reports. “This bill will put this issue behind us and address it in a responsible way,” said Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, adding that doing so could make the state more competitive in attracting businesses to move to Tennessee. At issue are concerns that the state’s franchise tax violates a U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause provision, which bans states from passing laws that burden interstate commerce. Further adding to the legal woes is a 2015 case involving the U.S. Supreme Court striking down down Maryland’s tax that the justices ruled had the effect of double-taxing income residents earn in other states. The proposal is designed to prevent threats of a potential lawsuit. Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, told reporters that the House version will be different.

On Monday, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led 24 states in sending a letter to the Department of Labor stating that its proposed rule to embed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into the National Apprenticeship System "exceeds congressional authority, illegally promotes racial-discrimination and is antithetical to the American ideal of equality." On Thursday, the AG's office joined a coalition of 22 states in filing an amicus brief at the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Texas’s state law SB4, which would allow state officers to arrest people suspected of entering the country without documentation, and state magistrates and judges to order them back to the country from which they entered. Also on Thursday, Skrmetti, alongside 15 state and district attorneys general, joined the U.S. Department of Justice in filing a civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple for monopolization or attempted monopolization of smartphone markets in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Today, Skrmetti praised Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Council for releasing its first ever round of community grants totaling $80,936,057. Programs funded through the grants will support work in response to opioid addiction throughout Tennessee for up to three years.

The TBA Access to Justice Committee is accepting nominations for the 2024 Public Service Awards. The annual awards recognize outstanding commitment to access to justice in three categories: work performed by an attorney employed by an organization primarily involved in providing legal representation to the indigent, pro bono work performed by a private or corporate attorney, and a strong commitment to pro bono service by a Tennessee law student or recent graduate. Nominations are due by March 29 and awards will be presented during the TBA Annual Convention in Memphis in June. For more information, contact TBA Director of Access to Justice Liz Todaro.

The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to vacate Tennessee State University's (TSU) board of directors in a 25-6 vote. All six senators who voted against the bill were Democrats. The Tennessean reports that the bill has stirred intense controversy over $2.1 billion in historic underfunding of TSU by the state and disparities in how TSU has been treated by lawmakers. University leaders have pleaded with lawmakers to extend the current board and allow it to build upon the progress it has made in the last year. The House version of the bill is at odds with the newly passed Senate version, instead moving to keep three of the board's 10 members, along with its student and faculty trustees, and is set for a full House vote on March 28.