David McKendree Key's career included being a Confederate lieutenant colonel, postmaster general and a judge. In this month's "History's Verdict" column, Russell Fowler writes about Key's career that included one last great controversy. "In an electric moment, while speaking to the annual Tennessee Bar Association Convention in Nashville on July 2, 1885," Fowler writes, "Key denounced exclusion of African Americans from juries and racial discrimination in public accommodations like trains, hotels and restaurants. The intrepid judge declared a Black person’s dollar should have the same purchasing power as that of a white."

Tennessee Bar Association members who have died recently are memorialized. Read about Rufus Wilford Beamer Jr.,  Richard W. Buhrman, James Cheek III, Cornelia A. “Connie” Clark, Gary Wayne Dodson, Jerry Edward Mitchell, Noel Hugh “Skip” Riley II, Susan Gail Sisson, Alfred Benjamin “Ben” Strand Jr. and Maurice Wexler.

The January/February Tennessee Bar Journal will be available for your New Year's Day reading, featuring a defense of conservatorships in the face of the recent #FreeBritney movement. The issue is packed with other articles, including equal protection for the deaf in Tennessee classrooms; a lesson on the term "gerrymander"; hurdles recovering lawyers face for reinstatement; and some axe murders you won't want to read about while you're eating. Upcoming columns cover family law arbitration, representing an estate, changes in the law regarding fetuses, and Tennessee’s new law to combat vaccine mandates.

The TBA’s Year End CLE event will continue through the end of the month with a range of packages, on-demand courses and live virtual programs available for purchase. Don’t miss the opportunity to get in our weekly Amazon gift card giveaways made possible by sponsors Clio and Geico. All those who purchase a course in December will be entered to win. All 2021 CLE credit may be taken online so check out the options today!