The joint revocable trust (JRT) is becoming an increasingly common estate planning tool for married couples. Eddy Smith reviews some of the uses and advantages, and a few limitations, of such a trust. 

Read The Legal Life to get updated on legal news from across the state, access information on Celebrate Pro Bono Month and how you can get involved, read about your colleagues' professional accomplishments and catch up on TBA staff news!

The first floor library in the John Sevier State Office Building in downtown Nashville, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2011, has been renamed the “Solicitor General Andrée Sophia Blumstein Room” in honor of General Blumstein. Since 2014, Blumstein — the first female solicitor general for Tennessee — has overseen all appellate litigation practice in the Tennessee Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Court of Criminal Appeals, U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as all published opinions by the attorney general's office. Blumstein serves as chair of the Tennessee Bar Journal Editorial Board.

Members of the TBA Book Club met virtually on Sept. 19 to hear from Law Professor Derrick Beetso, director of Indian gaming and tribal self-governance programs at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Beetso, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, previously served as the general counsel for the National Congress of American Indians and as an attorney-advisor for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He shared his insights about David Grann’s book “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which chronicles a string of murders that plagued the Osage Indian nation of Oklahoma in the 1920s, shortly after oil was discovered on their land. The murders became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations.

The Tennessee Bar Journal accepts submissions for publication on an ongoing basis, so consider writing an article for the TBA’s bi-monthly magazine. Articles should be of interest to Tennessee attorneys — you could detail a new state law or a complicated area of law, or take a larger issue and connect it to what it means for Tennessee attorneys and the justice system. Find a global issue within your particular experience or knowledge and tell about it and how it affects Tennessee law. Take a look at the writer’s guidelines and email editor@tnbar.org with questions! We are especially looking for diverse voices — from BIPOC writers, from our friends in the LGBTQ+ community and from attorneys who have had diverse life and legal experiences.