The special prosecutor investigating Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert reported to Shelby County commissioners that “to date, we have not received in writing one formal complaint or grievance in the form of an email, letter or any other type of documented correspondence," according to the Daily Memphian. Hamilton County District Attorney General Coty G. Wamp is serving as special prosecutor to investigate if there are grounds for a move to oust Halbert from her position for mismanagement of the office. Wamp said Halbert’s tenure as clerk has included a backlog of registration renewals and violation of state law governing the release of public records requested in the probe. Halbert has denied wrongdoing and said her office has not received full funding from the county administration.

A number of lawyers have been reinstated after being suspended for not paying their annual registration fee to the Board of Professional Responsibility. They include 25 lawyers who did not pay their fee in 2023, three who did not pay the fee in 2022, one who did not pay the fee in 2021 and one who did not pay the fee in 2012. The TBA has records of all administrative suspensions and reinstatements going back to 2005. See all lists here.

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently reinstated four lawyers suspended for not paying their professional privilege tax: one who did not pay in 2015, one who did not pay in 2021, one who did not pay in 2022 and one who did not pay in 2023. The TBA has records of all administrative suspensions and reinstatements going back to 2005. See all lists here.

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently reinstated 12 lawyers to the practice of law who had been suspended for failing to complete annual continuing legal education requirements in 2023. One was reinstated for failing to complete requirements in 2021. View all administrative suspensions and reinstatements here.

The Tennessee Supreme Court yesterday suspended 20 attorneys for failure to pay the annual registration fee; 16 of them also failed to file proof that client funds are held in an IOLTA-compliant account. View the fee suspension order and IOLTA suspension order. See the list of all lawyers suspended and reinstated for fee and IOLTA violations in 2023 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

Brentwood attorney Oscar B. Hofstetter III died Dec. 7, 2023, at the age of 82. A native Nashvillian, Hofstetter attended Father Ryan High School, Vanderbilt University, University of Tennessee and Nashville School of Law. He entered the family law firm of Hofstetter & Hofstetter where he practiced until he retired. Hofstetter was active in several groups, including the Collectors of Moon and Stars Pattern Glass Society, Sons of the American Revolution and Sons of the Confederate Veterans. A memorial service will be held Friday at East Brentwood Presbyterian Church, 9000 Concord Rd., Brentwood, 37027 at 11 a.m. CST. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the church.

Tennessee released letter grades for every public K-12 school in the state on Thursday, with more than a quarter receiving Ds or Fs under a controversial new grading system, reports the Tennessean. Schools that receive a D or F may be asked to appear before the State Board of Education which could order corrective plans or academic and financial audits. Technical issues with testing and disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic delayed the report, first enacted by 2016 legislation. Opponents of the grading system say it is overly simplistic and does not "capture the hard work of Tennessee students and educators." Advocates say letter grades are a simpler, more transparent way for parents to understand school performance. 

Judge Tarik B. Sugarmon of the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County will serve as guest speaker for Dyersburg State Community College’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Luncheon at noon, Jan. 12, 2024, at Dyersburg State Community College inside the Learning Resource Center (LRC) Sells Family Lobby. The event will be co-hosted by the Dyersburg/Dyer County Chamber of Commerce. Tickets for the luncheon are $20 each and must be purchased in advance by Jan. 10 at the Dyersburg/Dyer County Chamber of Commerce or the DSCC One Stop located in the Student Center at the Dyersburg campus. For more information regarding the event, contact Edith Carlton at 731-286-3300 or carlton@dscc.edu.

A group of 11 nonfiction authors joined a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court alleging copyright violations by OpenAI and Microsoft when training the models behind ChatGPT and other artificial-intelligence based software, reports Reuters. The writers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Taylor Branch and Kai Bird, co-writer of the J. Robert Oppenheimer biography adapted into the 2023 film, told the court Tuesday the companies used their work to train OpenAI's language models. "The defendants are raking in billions from their unauthorized use of nonfiction books, and the authors of these books deserve fair compensation and treatment for it," the writers' attorney said on Wednesday. The case is one of several brought by copyright owners against OpenAI including authors John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and Jonathan Franzen.

The TBA will be closed Friday and Monday in observance of the Christmas holiday. We will reopen Tuesday at 8 a.m. CST. Online CLE programming will remain available throughout the holidays.