Management Counsel: Law Office 101: Locked and Loaded Depositions . . . Page 13 Legal Update: Hemphill Decision Reaffirms “Bedrock Constitutional Protection” . . . Page 15
A Monthly Publication of the Knoxville Bar Association | April 2022
DOBBS V. JACKSON’S WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION AND THE ANTICIPATED END OF FEDERAL ABORTION RIGHTS
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DICTA
April 2022
In This Issue
Officers of the Knoxville Bar Association
April 2022
COVER STORY 16
President Jason H. Long
President Elect Loretta G. Cravens
Treasurer Catherine E. Shuck
Secretary Carlos A. Yunsan
Immediate Past President Cheryl G. Rice
KBA Board of Governors Ursula Bailey Mark A. Castleberry Meagan Collver Jonathan D. Cooper
Daniel L. Ellis Magistrate Robin Gunn William A. Mynatt Jr. Vanessa Samano
Michael J. Stanuszek Amanda Tonkin Elizabeth Towe Zachary Walden
Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization and the Anticipated End of Federal Abortion Rights
CRITICAL FOCUS 5 7 13 15
The Knoxville Bar Association Staff 19
President’s Message
Technically, A Great Opportunity
Practice Tips
The Tennessee Multi-Member Nonprofit LLC Conundrum
Management Counsel
Locked and Loaded Depositions
Legal Update
Hemphill Decision Reaffirms “Bedrock Constitutional Protection”
Schooled in Ethics
Representing Multiple Criminal Codefendants
WISDOM 6 8 Marsha S. Watson Executive Director
Tammy Sharpe CLE & Sections Coordinator
Jonathan Guess Chandler Fletcher Database Administrator Programs & Communications Coordinator
Knoxville Bar Association 505 Main Street Suite 50 Knoxville, TN 37902 865-522-6522 Fax: 865-523-5662 www.knoxbar.org Tracy Chain LRIS Administrator
Volume 50, Issue 4
Dicta
All articles submitted for publication in DICTA must be submitted in writing and in electronic format (via e-mail attachment). Exceptions to this policy must be cleared by KBA Executive Director Marsha Watson (522-6522). DICTA subscriptions are available for $25 per year (11 issues) for non-KBA members. April 2022
10 11 12 14 18
Jeanie Matthews LRIS Assistant
DICTA is published monthly (except July) by the Knoxville Bar Association. It is designed to offer information of value to members of the local bar association. The news and features should illustrate the issues affecting the bar and its members. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Knoxville Bar Association.
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Dicta is the official publication of the Knoxville Bar Association
Publications Committee Executive Editor Executive Editor Executive Editor Brandon Allen Sarah Booher Anita D’Souza Elizabeth B. Ford Jennifer Franklyn Joseph G. Jarret F. Regina Koho
Managing Editor
Cathy Shuck Campbell Cox Melissa B. Carrasco Matthew R. Lyon Angelia Morie Nystrom Katheryn Murray Ogle Laura Reagan Ann C. Short Eddy Smith Grant Williamson
Marsha Watson KBA Executive Director
DICTA
21 23 24 25 27 29 31
What I Learned About Inclusion and Why It Matters
The Journey
Outside My Office Window
An Unsent Letter
Judicial News
Meet Justice Sarah Campbell
Around the Community
Debt Relief Clinic Awarded Prestigious ABA Award
Hello My Name Is
Jacob Refner
Lessons Learned: Reflections from a Retiring Lawyer
Mentor
Around the Bar
High School Mock Trial Competition
How to Thrive in Law and Life
How to Master Your Mindset
Better
The Quality of the Man
Urban Legends
Abiding Love Of Mankind: Beauford Delaney and the Art of Critical
Legal Mythbreakers
Privileged Much?
Barrister Bites
Raise a Glass to Normal Again: Easy and Almost Home-made Food to Share with Friends
Your Monthly Constitutional
Ukraine and the Rule of Law
Mitchell’s Malarkey
Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
Tell Me A Story
Patience is a Virtue
COMMON GROUND 4 20 26 28 30
Section Notices/Event Calendar Barrister Bullets New Members/Change of Addresses Bench & Bar in the News Pro Bono Project
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SECTION NOTICES & EVENT CALENDAR
Section Notices
There is no additional charge for membership in any section, but in order to participate, your membership in the KBA must be current. To have your name added to the section list, please contact the KBA office at 522-6522. Alternative Dispute Resolution Section The ADR Section plans regular CLE throughout the year. Join the ADR Section for the upcoming CLE program “Mediating a Complex Personal Injury Case” on April 5. If you have a CLE program topic or speaker suggestions, please contact the ADR Section Chairs Joe Jarrett (566-5393) or Betsy Meadows (540-8777). Bankruptcy Law Section The Bankruptcy Section plans CLE programs and helps coordinate volunteers for the Pro Bono Debt Relief Clinics. If you have a program topic or speaker suggestions, please contact the Bankruptcy Section Chairs Tom Dickenson (292-2307) or Greg Logue (215-1000). Corporate Counsel The Corporate Counsel Section provides attorneys employed by a corporation or who limit their practice to direct representation of corporations with an opportunity to meet regularly and exchange ideas on issues of common concern. Save the date for the “Annual Corporate Counsel Update” extended CLE on August 24. If you would like to know how you can get involved or have suggestions for CLE topics, please contact Section Chairs David Headrick (363-9181) or Marcia Kilby (362-1391). Criminal Justice The KBA Criminal Justice Section represents all attorneys and judges who participate in the criminal justice system in Knox County. If you have suggestions for CLE topics, please contact Section Chairs Joshua Hedrick (524-8106) or Sarah Keith (931-260-5866). Employment Law The Employment Law Section is intended for management and plaintiffs’ counsel, in addition, to in-house and government attorneys. Join the Employment Law Section for the upcoming CLE programs “Developments in Employment Discrimination and Harassment” on April 14 and the “Annual FLSA Update” on May 25. If you have a program topic or speaker suggestions, please contact the Employment Law Section Chairs Howard Jackson (546-1000), Tim Roberto (691-2777) or Mark C. Travis (252-9123). Environmental Law The Environmental Law Section provides a forum for lawyers from a variety of backgrounds, including government, corporate in-house, and private firm counsel. If you have suggestions for CLE topics, please contact Section Chairs Catherine Anglin (525-0880), Kendra Mansur (771-7192), or Jimmy Wright (637-3531). Family Law Section The Family Law Section has speakers on family law topics or provides the opportunity to discuss issues relevant to family law practice. Join the Family Law Section for the upcoming CLE program “How to Expedite Your Divorce Case in Knox County Chancery Court” on June 7. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Section Chairs Jo Ann Lehberger (539-3515) or Steve Sharp (971-4040). Government & Public Service Lawyers Section The Government & Public Service Lawyers Section is open to all lawyers employed by any governmental entity, state, federal, or local, including judicial clerks and attorneys with legal service agencies. If you are interested in getting involved or have suggestions for CLE topics, contact Hon. Suzanne Bauknight (545-4284) or Ron Mills (215-2050). Juvenile Court & Child Justice Section The Juvenile Court & Child Justice Section has speakers on juvenile law topics or provides the opportunity to discuss issues relevant to juvenile law practice. If you have suggestions for CLE topics, please contact Section Chairs Justin Pruitt (215-6440) or Mike Stanuszek (766-4170). New Lawyers Section The New Lawyers Section is for attorneys within their first three years of practice, and any KBA member licensed since 2020 will automatically be opted-in to the section If you would like to get involved in planning Section activities next year, please contact Section Chairs Courteney BarnesAnderson (803-341-0196) or Sanjay Raman (607-972-6140). Senior Section The KBA Senior Section plans to start meeting again in 2022 for lunch. If you have suggestions for speakers, please contact Chair Wayne Kline at (292-2307). Solo Practitioner & Small Firm Section The goal of the Solo Practitioner & Small Firm Section is to provide and encourage networking opportunities and offer high quality CLE programs featuring topics that will help solo/small firm attorneys enhance and improve their practices and assist them with law office management challenges. If you have a program topic or speaker suggestions, please contact Section Chairs Tim Grandchamp (392-5936), Brittany Nestor (214-7869), or Tripp White (712-0963).
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event calendar n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n
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April 1 2 5 12 12 12 13 13 14 14 19 21 22 26 27 29
Law Practice Today Expo Wellness Hike Law Office Tech Committee Professionalism Committee Publications Committee Business Court CLE Veterans Legal Advice Clinic Barristers Meeting Employment Law CLE Judicial Committee LRIS Committee Conservatorship Practice CLE Wellness Committee Diversity in the Profession Committee Board of Governors Law Day Luncheon
May 3 10 10 11 11 12 19 24 24 25 25 27
Law Office Tech Committee Professionalism Committee Access to Justice Committee Veterans Legal Advice Clinic Barristers Meeting Judicial Committee Federal Court Bench Bar Conference CLE Committee Diversity in the Profession Committee FLSA Update Webinar Board of Governors Wellness Committee
Check the KBA Events Calendar at www.knoxbar.org for scheduling updates. April 2022
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By: Jason H. Long London Amburn
TECHNICALLY, A GREAT OPPORTUNITY I encourage all of our members to, at some point, consider taking a leadership role for our bar. Whether serving on or chairing committees and sections, leading a Barristers program, running for elected office, or coordinating a special event, the Knoxville Bar Association has countless opportunities for members to become involved and have a meaningful impact. We need the diverse viewpoints and talents of all of our members. With that leadership comes special perks. For instance, this past month bar leaders were invited to attend and enjoy a leaders’ workshop at The Square Room. It was a nice evening to gather together (something we have not an opportunity to do much of in the past two years), share fellowship, and reflect upon what makes our bar so strong. The event was led by Charles Swanson and Heidi Barcus who presented on leadership qualities, using an outline which had originally been developed by our late and beloved, Pam Reeves. The program identified the essential qualities of a good leader and asked participants to reflect upon and identify times when the bar association exhibited such leadership. My personal favorite example was when Charles noted that good leaders do not panic in moments of uncertainty or in the face of obstacles. A good leader keeps his or her senses about them and uses such moments as an opportunity. One example that was suggested to reflect this leadership skill was the efforts of the Knoxville Bar Association in the development of the Law Practice Today Expo. Lawyers, just like all other professionals, have been confronted with a rapid pace of technological change over the past two and a half decades. The process continues today, and, if anything, with adaptations from the pandemic, the rate of change is even more disruptive to our daily lives. In this environment, where many of the bedrock foundations are shifting and the ground figuratively moves under our feet, there has been great anxiety in the legal profession about what it all means. How can a lawyer keep pace with technological advances to assure that he or she is providing the best service possible? What can a lawyer do to ensure that the expectations of clients are being met and their practice is still growing? How can a lawyer stay on the cutting edge and keep pace with the competition to attract more clients in a technological age? We, as a profession, tend to be slow to change and reticent to embrace new or different ideas. For many lawyers, the rapid rate of change causes frustration, uncertainty, and fear. Into this uncertainty and anxiety stepped your Knoxville Bar Association. Sixteen years ago the KBA started the Law Practice Today Expo in an effort to bring lawyers and technology together and to provide some form of road map for our attorneys in this fast-paced arena. Over the years, thanks to the many volunteers who have dedicated their time and effort to this event, it has grown into a signature project for the association that many of us look forward to and circle on our calendars each year. The event includes two days of CLE sessions (an All-Expo pass will get you 15 hours of CLE credit) designed to educate attorneys on how to get the most out of products and devices currently on the legal market. Speakers present on everything from the release of new products April 2022
to the ethical implications of practicing in a modern era. Attendees this year can choose from six different CLE tracks designed to educate on software, efficiency, security, tech tools, litigation and essential software (in case you miss that software track on the first day, we will let you know what essential software is out there). In addition to the educational opportunities, an exhibit hall allows members to interact with vendors and find resources that meet their daily needs in the practice. Our exhibit hall grows year over year and we are truly blessed that a bar our size is able to attract some of the best and most cutting-edge vendors in the industry to share their resources with our members. Aside from the educational and technological benefits from the Expo, there is simply the fact that it is a wonderful opportunity to socialize and network. Every year, we have a judicial roundtable luncheon giving members an opportunity to share a meal with our local judiciary, and this year our keynote speakers will include Randy Boyd, President of the University of Tennessee and Doug Kirchhofer, CEO of the Tennessee Smokies baseball team. An additional bonus this year will be our moonshine reception on Thursday evening, giving members an opportunity to celebrate who we are as East Tennessee lawyers and engage in a meet and greet with judicial candidates running in the May 3 primary election. If that were not enough, the two-day event will attract lawyers throughout our bar and give everyone an opportunity to reconnect in person, in a way we have not been able to do in quite some time. In short, the KBA Law Tech Expo is our effort to bring together everything related to technology available in this area under one roof and have meaningful discussions about what that technology means for the practice. Several bar associations have attempted their own version of this event, and I believe it is fair to say that, for its size and punching power, none stack up quite like the KBA Law Practice Today Expo. I once had a friend who tried to encourage me to take up kayaking. He was in love with the sport and really wanted to see me out on the water. I was struggling with the idea because I did not know anything about kayaking and it seemed a little cost prohibitive to me at the time. In selling the idea, he told me “Jason, you live in Knoxville, Tennessee. You are literally within an hours’ drive of the best rivers in the world for kayaking. Knoxville is an epicenter for the sport. Why would you not want to take advantage of that opportunity?” I never did take him up on his offer (shortly after our conversation, my first child was born, and the question was no longer one of money, but of time). However, his words stuck with me, and one day I still aspire to take advantage of the amazing resources around me. I feel the same way about our Law Practice Today Expo. We are Knoxville lawyers, and one of the premier technology-driven expositions will be occurring March 31 and April 1 in our backyard. Why would we not want to take advantage of that opportunity? I hope you will join us at the Law Practice Today Expo this year. It’s another wonderful opportunity to celebrate who we are and where we are going.
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W H AT I L E A R N E D A B O U T I N C LU S I O N A N D W H Y I T M AT T E R S By: Sherif Guindi
McGehee, Cole, Guindi & Walling, P.C.
THE JOURNEY I was born in Nottingham, England, to Egyptian parents who had arrived in the United Kingdom six years earlier. A year and a half later, we emigrated to the United States along with my baby brother. My parents brought with them their cultural values – a combination of Coptic Christianity, Arabic culture, and British etiquette – to the Appalachian mining town of Harlan, Kentucky. People find it surprising that I never felt like I was the “other” in Harlan. Perhaps it was because Harlan had quite a few foreign doctors, like my father, and their families. I’ve been told that I had a British accent until I was 5 years old and that by the time I attended high school in Knoxville, I had a noticeably thick mountain accent. Growing up in Harlan and attending its public school exposed me to kids from all walks of life and from different economic and educational backgrounds, ethnicities, and races. My educational journey took me from Harlan to Knoxville to Evanston to Tempe to Athens (Georgia), with short stops along the way in Brussels, Cairo, and Ensenada and longer stops in Atlanta and Lexington. I made my way back home to Harlan after getting my law degree from the University of Georgia. I found myself at an older age and in very different roles in a town that had changed. After a short, informal internship with the Harlan Circuit Judge while I studied for, and waited for my results from, the Kentucky Bar Exam and a few months of work for a seasoned attorney, I began working for the public defender’s office. For most of my tenure there, one other attorney and I represented all of the indigent defendants in both the district court (where misdemeanors were tried and felonies got preliminary hearings) and the circuit court
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(where felonies were tried). I found myself defending people I knew and had grown up with. My role shifted again when I was hired by the Commonwealth’s attorney, the prosecutor in the circuit court. In addition to negotiating and trying cases, I found myself advising a grand jury that met almost every Monday, often all day. The work was fulfilling, even fun, and the grand jurors represented a revealing, albeit thin, cross-section of the community. Our first foreman was illiterate. My wife, an old friend from high school whom I bumped into, brought me back to my second home of Knoxville, where I center my general practice. in·clu·sion /in’klooZHn/ 1. the action or state of including or of being included within a group or structure. 2. the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized. What have I learned from my meandering journey, where I have had the opportunity to be a part of, and bring others into, various communities? Inclusion of those with diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds allows us to sympathize, and even empathize, with others, making us better lawyers, judges, and counselors.
DICTA
April 2022
PRACTICE TIPS By: Lyndsey L. Lee
Lewis Thomason, P.C.
THE TENNESSEE MULTI-MEMBER NONPROFIT LLC CONUNDRUM Can a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) be a multimember Tennessee LLC? It depends. On October 21, 2021, the IRS issued Notice 2021-56 (the “Notice”),1 the first formal guidance from the Treasury Department or the IRS addressing the requirements for recognition of LLCs as federally tax-exempt organizations under Sections 501(a) and 501(c)(3).2 The Notice provides that in order to obtain tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3), an LLC must (a) submit IRS Form 1023, (b) satisfy the general requirements under Section 501(c)(3),3 (c) represent that all provisions in its articles of organization and operating agreement are consistent with applicable state LLC law and are legally enforceable,4 and (d) the LLC’s articles of organization and operating agreement must include: 1. Provisions requiring that each member of the LLC be either a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3), a governmental unit, or wholly owned instrumentalities of a state or political subdivision thereof; 2. Express charitable purpose and charitable dissolution provisions; 3. If the LLC is a private foundation, the express provisions described in Section 508(e)(1); and 4. An acceptable contingency plan (such as suspension of its membership rights until a member regains Section 501(c)(3) status) in the event that one or more member(s) cease(s) to be a Section 501(c)(3) organization, a governmental unit, or a wholly owned instrumentality of a state or political subdivision thereof.5 Helpfully, the IRS website provides “Sample Questions” that can be a useful guide for ensuring that the organizational documents contain each of the required provisions. The Sample Questions even contain specific suggested language that you can use verbatim for the express charitable purpose and charitable dissolution provisions.6 So which Act governs in Tennessee? The Tennessee practitioner organizing a multi-member tax-exempt LLC would likely turn first to the Tennessee Revised Nonprofit Limited Liability Company Act (the “Nonprofit LLC Act”).7 However, she would quickly discover that Tennessee’s Nonprofit LLC Act limits nonprofit LLC status under Tennessee law to single member LLCs.8 The Notice acknowledges that it is unclear whether in states where a nonprofit LLC act has been enacted, such as Tennessee, a tax-exempt LLC would be required to form under the state’s nonprofit LLC act or whether tax-exempt LLCs would be permitted to form under the state’s regular LLC act. Interestingly though, Tennessee’s statutory framework seems to specifically allow an LLC formed for a nonprofit purpose to be formed under Tennessee’s Revised Limited Liability Company Act (the “LLC Act”),9 rather than the Nonprofit LLC Act. Under Tennessee’s LLC Act, every LLC may “engag[e] in any lawful April 2022
business,”10 and “business” includes “every trade, occupation, profession, investment activity, and other lawful purpose for gain or the preservation of assets, whether or not carried on for profit.”11 As such, it appears that multiple members may join together to organize a tax-exempt LLC under the Tennessee LLC Act, even though such an organization would not be permitted under Tennessee’s Nonprofit LLC Act. Planning for the future. The prudent practitioner will recognize there is a looming threat that the tax-exempt LLC she organizes today may not meet all the requirements of both federal tax law and Tennessee LLC law tomorrow. The Notice sets forth current standards that an LLC must satisfy to achieve Section 501(c)(3) status, but it does not have the finality of a statute or even a regulation. In fact, approximately half of the Notice is a request by the Treasury Department and the IRS for public comments regarding the standards set forth in the Notice, including a lengthy list of specific questions on which it hopes to receive public comments. Of particular note to Tennessee practitioners is the request for public comment on whether tax-exempt LLCs would be permitted to form under the state’s regular LLC act in states where a nonprofit LLC act has been enacted. To account for whatever future guidance the Treasury Department or IRS may provide regarding this issue, Tennessee LLC organizers would be wise to include provisions in the LLC’s articles of organization and operating agreement mirroring the restrictions imposed upon Tennessee nonprofit LLCs.12 Keep an eye out for future guidance as to whether the Treasury Department or IRS broadens the scope of such guidance to LLC seeking tax-exempt status under paragraphs of Section 501(c) other than 501(c) (3). For now, organizations seeking to rely upon the Notice will have to stick to religion, charity, science, testing for public safety, literacy, educational purposes, amateur sports competition, or the prevention of cruelty to children or animals. 1 2
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IRS Notice 2021-56, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-21-56.pdf. Unless otherwise specified, all section references are to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, 26 U.S.C. § 1 et seq. Notice 2021-56, section 3.01. Id., section 3.03. If an LLC is formed in a state that prohibits the addition of these provisions to the articles of organization, this requirement will be deemed satisfied if the operating agreement includes these provisions and the articles of organization and operating agreement do not include any inconsistent provisions. However, that is not an issue under current Tennessee law. Id., section 3.02. Exempt Organization Sample Questions – Limited Liability Company, https://www. irs.gov/charities-non-profits/other-non-profits/exempt-organization-samplequestions-limited-liability-company (last updated Oct. 22, 2021). Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-101-801 et seq. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-101-805. Tenn. Code. Ann. § 48-249-101 et seq. Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-104(a). Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-102(3) (emphasis added). See Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-101-806(a)-(c), (e).
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OUTSIDE MY OFFICE WINDOW By: Robbie Pryor Pryor, Priest & Harber
AN UNSENT LETTER them feel important, particularly my clients. No matter the case, my
I saw Charles Swanson walking to the University of Tennessee
clients left the mediation loving her and appreciating the time she took
College of Law Awards Banquet in February. I caught up to and sat
validating their injury/case when others were tearing it down. Trying
next to him for the entirety of the presentations. I’ve known, liked
to summarize it all in a letter to her grieving husband and children has
and respected Charles since I was a child. He was practicing with
always seemed like a ridiculous task. I suppose that was the hurdle for
Pryor, Flynn, Priest & Harber while I was running around the halls
in Halloween costumes. He had been on my mind for awhile because
of the letter on my desk that is addressed to him. It has been there for more than a year.
me - I wasn’t equal to the task. As the awards program moved forward I convinced myself that I would finish my letter. Then Charles rose
to speak. I would soon learn that he was the only person who could
adequately communicate to others the light
How, I must ask, do you send a letter
in Pam Reeves.
of condolence to Charles Swanson after
He started with “She’s right here on
the death of his wife, U.S. District Judge
Pamela L. Reeves? It is the question I asked
my shoulder,” gesturing to her presence. He
of 2020. I’m sure many of you wrote letters
the words he was speaking. Again, is this
revealed how embarrassed she would be by
immediately upon her death in September
not what helped to make her extraordinary?
and did so beautifully. However, I can never
Before taking the stage he had expressed
look at the partially completed letter on
concern regarding the length of his
my desk and properly edit and send it. It
haunts me. No matter the number of revisions made or pretty words
presentation. After 45 seconds, I wished he would go on all night.
I have been burdened by how many essays and eloquently drafted
It has always been so apparent, just like it was in his remarks at the
her accomplishments and attempted to adequately offer condolences
jar. He most certainly did. You can always tell when someone believes
that come to mind, I always feel as though I am falling short. Perhaps letters must have been offered - so many words that listed and praised
If you think this is another column about Pam, you are wrong.
banquet, that Charles will forever believe he captured a butterfly in a
it, and as he spoke at the podium I knew I would never send the letter.
for what was lost. I told him about my burden when I caught up to
I also realized that the things he said about her could undoubtedly
him. Seeing and talking to him at the banquet set me to exploring
be said about him. That, my friends, is just unfair. I’m sure it exists in
completion of the letter, but more importantly, it sparked a self-
their children, but no better understanding of who Pam Reeves could
examination of why I have never allowed myself to send it.
Almost all of us honor accomplished people by listing their
remarkable accomplishments instead of truly examining the light inside them. I wanted to write that letter - the one about light. I read many
come through anyone other than Charles Swanson. Perhaps we are all a reflection of the special people that love us. I hope so. Maybe it is
something we should think about and recognize more. “I can’t believe
she chose me” is what is felt. I bet it will carry him all the days of his life.
beautiful tributes to Pam. They listed all of the “firsts for women” that
Can we even begin to fathom what BOTH of these people, separately
jumped from Pam’s resume, and rightfully so. However, when I think
of her, all I can see is the brilliant light, a light that inspired others to
seek their own potential. When you discovered that the many qualities
which made her so extraordinary are present in one person, you cannot
and together, have meant to our bar associations and people who have known them?
Charles presented the Judge Pamela L. Reeves Student Leadership
possibly explain it, much less offer perspective on what all of us lost
Award to a special student. You could hear a pin drop. It was the perfect
love of the law would have been enough to put her on a pedestal, but
in his unique voice you heard the grief of a broken-hearted man vested
tribute to a judge and a person who brilliantly served her profession, but
in her passing. A combination of intellect, measured leadership, and
with an understanding of what has been lost, but more importantly, a
to possess the level of humility, kindness and love for people elevated
her to a place that is rare among human beings. Rarely will you find a
person so comfortable in her own skin, and, in my opinion, that quality
was the point of origin for all of her accomplishments. To me, Pam was a friend and most familiar to me professionally as a mediator on many cases. I knew her a long time and our families are forever connected.
confidence in how unbelievably right it was that they shared the world.
So, although I told him I’d get around to getting him the letter, I’m
not going to send it. I just won’t attempt to describe light to a man who is so rightfully convinced he once possessed the sun.
I chose her to mediate because she could speak to anyone and make
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DICTA
April 2022
JUDICIAL NEWS By: Broderick Young
Arnett, Draper & Hagood
MEET JUSTICE SARAH CAMPBELL Sarah Keeton Campbell was confirmed to the Tennessee Supreme Court with a near-unanimous vote on February 10, 2022. Justice Campbell filled the seat left by the passing of Justice Cornelia Clark last September. Justice Campbell was kind enough to join me for a Zoom call recently, and I very much enjoyed learning more about our newest Supreme Court Justice. Her story begins here in East Tennessee. She was born in LaFollette but was raised mostly in Rogersville, where her family still resides. Her father was in managerial accounting, was plant controller for TRW Automotive, among other roles, and was also the first college graduate of his family. Her brother, Kevin Keeton, is also an attorney and currently serves as the Municipal Court Judge in Rogersville. Justice Campbell attended Cherokee High School in Rogersville and graduated in 2000. Justice Campbell was a runner on Cherokee’s track team, and, as you might have guessed, was an excellent student and the Valedictorian of her class. She matriculated to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where she was enrolled in the College Scholars program. She was very active in the student body, was elected student body president, and was a Torchbearer before graduating summa cum laude in 2004. Justice Campbell met her husband Scott Campbell during her freshman year at the University of Tennessee, and the pair married in 2005. After graduation, and after working for nearly a year as a program coordinator for the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy,1 Justice Campbell decided to attend law school. She was interested in obtaining a joint degree in law and public policy. Duke University provided this opportunity, offered a closer-knit community, and when Duke threw a full scholarship into the mix, the choice was clear. She once again excelled academically, serving as managing editor for the Duke Law Journal and a member of the moot court board. She also participated in the Appellate Litigation Clinic, where she had the opportunity to argue an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She graduated magna cum laude in 2009 with her law doctorate and a master’s degree in Public Policy. After graduating from law school, she obtained a clerkship with Judge William H. Pryor Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Birmingham, Alabama. Upon completing this clerkship, she went on to work for the Williams & Connolly law firm in Washington, DC. After just one year with the firm, she was presented with the remarkable opportunity to clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the United States Supreme Court. She returned to Williams & Connolly after the one-year clerkship concluded. Before and after her Supreme Court clerkship, her work was a mix of trial and appellate work, with a heavier emphasis on appellate matters following her clerkship. The cases she handled primarily involved defending corporate clients in a wide range of civil litigation including breach of contract, intellectual property, civil RICO, and tort claims. She also represented individual clients in criminal proceedings, including both April 2022
white-collar and pro bono matters. Ultimately, a desire to be closer to home and improve her community led Justice Campbell to accept a position with the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. As Associate Solicitor General and Special Assistant to the Attorney General, she represented the State of Tennessee in state and federal appellate proceedings, which often involved arguing before the Tennessee Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Having recent experience as an appellate lawyer, Justice Campbell appreciates and understands the challenges practitioners face before the Court. She hopes to utilize this perspective to build on recent advances the Court has made, such as e-filing, to make the Court more accessible for counsel and the parties involved. Justice Campbell has enormous respect for her predecessor on the bench, Justice Clark, and as Associate Solicitor General for the State of Tennessee argued before her on several occasions. She recalls Justice Clark being very prepared for each of the cases that came before her. It was Justice Clark’s questions that “would keep [her] up at night before an argument.” Justice Campbell considers it a “privilege to have appeared before Justice Clark” and a “tremendous honor to have been chosen to succeed her on the Court.” When asked to provide tips we could pass on to litigants who come before the Court, her response was simple: be prepared. “It’s the attorney’s job to know the case better than anyone in the courtroom, including the judges. The attorney should master both the record and the legal issues and be in a position to help the Court understand the case.” Justice Campbell further emphasized the importance of answering directly, not avoiding, a question posed by a member of the Court. “If a judge asks you a question, that question is important to that judge. The question may not be a convenient one to your position, but it is still your job to engage meaningfully and to address the judge’s concerns to the best of your ability.” Finally, from her perspective, while oral argument is important, she believes the written product an attorney files with the Court has far more value than the attorney’s oral presentation. Members of the Court, and their clerks, spend considerable time with the parties’ briefs before and after the oral presentations. An advocate should prioritize her time bearing this fact in mind. The Campbells have made Nashville, Tennessee, their home. Mr. Campbell’s career has been mostly in public education, where he has worked as both a teacher and principal. He currently serves as the executive director of an education-related non-profit called Persist Nashville. Their non-work lives revolve around their three young children’s sporting endeavors and involvement in their church community. In their limited free time, they enjoy hiking and visiting Tennessee’s many beautiful state parks. 1
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She later served on the Baker Center’s board and continues to remain involved through an alumni advisory group.
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AROUND THE COMMUNITY By: Thomas H. Dickenson Hodges Doughty & Carson
DEBT RELIEF CLINIC AWARDED PRESTIGIOUS ABA AWARD What started in 2017 with a simple e-mail to the co-chairs of the KBA Bankruptcy Section from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Suzanne Bauknight turned out to be a huge success in the eyes of the American Bar Association. That e-mail gauged the interest of the bankruptcy bar to start and participate in a Pro Bono Debt Relief Clinic serving Knox and surrounding counties. The KBA Bankruptcy Section thought it was a great idea, and from that initial e-mail, the Debt Relief Clinic was formed. The Debt Relief Clinic is a joint project spearheaded by Judge Bauknight and supported by the KBA Bankruptcy Section and Legal Aid of East Tennessee. It started out as a local project but expanded in November 2020 to a virtual (Zoom) clinic with sponsorship by the TBA Young Lawyer’s Division, the Tennessee Supreme Court Justice for All Initiative and the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services, local chapters of the Federal Bar Association, and state-wide legal aid offices. The virtual forum means that COVID-19 could not stop the quarterly clinics. Legal Aid advertises the clinics and pre-screens potential clients to ensure that they qualify. The local, in-person KBA-LAET clinics (which serve clients who qualify for legal aid because their income does
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not exceed 125% of the federal poverty level) resumed in 2021 and are planned for 2022, and the TBA-YLD virtual Debt Relief Clinic is expanding in 2022 to benefit citizens across Tennessee. The TBA-YLD virtual clinic is designed to expand access to the Debt Relief Clinic to clients of moderate income whose income does not exceed 200% of the federal poverty level. Clinic clients receive personalized and confidential advice in Zoom break-out rooms during the clinic to determine if a chapter 7 bankruptcy case might benefit them. Some clients would not benefit from bankruptcy, but volunteer attorneys explain what it means to be “judgment proof,” and the clients are given information about their rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Clients for whom bankruptcy would be beneficial learn about their right to file a request to pay the bankruptcy filing fee by installments and how to assert applicable exemption rights, and if the client is eligible and wants to move forward to pursue bankruptcy protection, they are paired with an attorney who is willing to represent the client pro bono. At the start of each virtual and in-person clinic, Judge Bauknight presents the general framework of chapter 7 bankruptcy, focusing on the costs and benefits with a goal of sending the message that bankruptcy is not the solution for everyone so that the clinic clients should carefully consider the advice they receive from the experienced bankruptcy attorneys with whom they meet at the clinic. Following the short presentation, the clients, who are required to complete a one-page form concerning their income and liabilities, meet with pre-assigned volunteer attorneys who interview each client and provide individual advice. At some clinics, LMU Duncan School of Law students shadow private attorneys as an assignment for the consumer bankruptcy class taught by KBA Bankruptcy Section co-chair Tom Dickenson. Clinic clients who qualify and desire to file chapter 7 are assigned either to the attorney who provided advice at the clinic or to another attorney who is willing to represent the client on a pro bono basis. From there, chapter 7 cases are filed for those who need it. This innovative program was recently awarded the prestigious ABA Louis M. Brown Award from the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services as a program expanding access to legal services to those of moderate income. This award “honors the work of those who advance the mission [of access to legal services] in ways that are both remarkable and replicable.” The announcement of the award was made by Fritz Langrock, Chair of the ABA Standing Committee, at the ABA’s mid-year meeting on February 12, 2022. He noted that the clinic aims “to improve delivery of legal services and legal information through leveraging virtual services held four times per year.” More than 40 attorneys in the Eastern District (most of whom are KBA members) have contributed to the clinic’s success. Judge Bauknight continues to make a presentation at the start of each clinic that serves Eastern District clients, and she has recruited judges from the Middle and Western Districts to serve similarly at clinics that are targeted to citizens in those districts in 2022.
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April 2022
HELLO MY NAME IS By: Jennifer Franklyn
Leitner Williams Dooley Napolitan, PLLC
JACOB REFNER This month’s “Hello, My Name Is…” q-and-a features KBA member Jacob Refner, an associate attorney at Bernstein, Stair & McAdams LLP, where he practices general civil litigation. Jacob graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 2021. Prior to law school, Jacob attended Arizona State University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management. As he mentions in his q-and-a, Jacob is engaged to Becca Plank, who was featured in last month’s “Hello, My Name Is…” I hope you enjoy getting to know Jacob, a well-traveled new KBA member! Where are you from? I am from Tempe, Arizona, although I tell people I’m from Phoenix if they don’t know the area. What brought you to Knoxville? My fiancée, Becca Plank, is a Knoxville native and local attorney. When I met her in Cambridge, UK, in 2019, I knew I’d go anywhere in the world to be with her. I’m glad I ended up here. I love Knoxville and know that it will be a perfect place to start a family. Have you traveled or lived internationally? In my life, I have been fortunate enough to travel to some of the most wonderful places in the world. I’ve been to Ireland, Thailand, Mexico, Germany, Austria, England, Wales, the Netherlands, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Canada. I was lucky enough to live and study in Cambridge, England, for over six weeks during law school. What is your favorite book? It’s so hard to pick just one, because I love reading and have spent most of my life with my nose in a book. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit has always been one of my favorites to revisit. It is so full of wonder and adventure, and it has such surprisingly deep themes and lessons. If you could give a new law student one piece of advice, what would it be? You’re not alone in this. Law school is often so competitive, and people think they’re alone in the struggle. But, if you find a way to help each other, you’ll have a network of friends and peers within the legal community once you graduate that can be more valuable than a class ranking.
April 2022
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LESSONS LEARNED: REFLECTIONS FROM A RETIRING LAWYER By: John Eldridge
MENTOR Every young lawyer needs a mentor, for beginning the practice of law without a mentor is disastrous. Mentors provide that needed transition from law school to being a young lawyer. Mentors serve to answer those questions that come up so often. They are a source of information and wisdom that provide direction at just the right time. A recent report in DICTA about the results of the KBA’s 2021 Economics and Law Practice Management Survey indicated that 88% of the respondents had had a mentor, and 60% indicated the mentor was extremely impactful in their career. That is good, but what about all those lawyers who have not had a mentor? Who answered their questions and pointed out a way forward? Probably no one, and that means mistakes were no doubt made, maybe even malpractice was committed. That same Survey indicated that most attorneys who have had mentors got them as a member of a firm. That makes sense. There is always an answer to that neophyte’s question in the next office or down the hall. My mentoring was so strong that as the years went by, I would always gauge my efforts on a case by what I had learned was the way to work a case. The KBA recognized the importance of mentors by creating the “Mentor of the Moment” program that fosters a lawyer with a question being able to call a seasoned attorney to get some direction. Whenever I would get a call from a young lawyer as a part of the “Mentor of the Moment,” I knew that this young lawyer was indeed troubled and I took time to help. There are two aspects to the practice of law that must come in order
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to be an effective lawyer; competence and confidence. Ideally, becoming a competent lawyer and a confident one occur at the same time. For me, it took about five years for me to feel competent and ten years to feel confident. But both competence and confidence are enhanced by having a mentor. In my practice, I had a succession of law clerks and then some lawyers starting their practice with me or in our office. Regardless, the experience was always the same. During the first few months I would get at least one question a day, then as time went by, the questions lessened as competence and confidence increased. The questions could be as simple as “How do you get to see your client in lock-up?” to “How does Judge X do a minor’s settlement ?” The more difficult questions involved dealing with opposing counsel. “Should I put “X’ in a pleading, or wait and ask it on cross-examination?” or “What advice should I give my client about how to answer those sticky questions coming up in a deposition?” I have noticed that good lawyers will always take time to serve as a mentor. When you have practiced law for many years, you know things. You know the in’s and out’s of the courthouse, the judges’ likes and dislikes, and who you can trust and who you need to be wary of within the Bar. Having a mentor as a young lawyer is invaluable. If you had a mentor and he/she was a good one, be grateful. If you do not have one, find one!
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April 2022
MANAGEMENT COUNSEL: LAW PRACTICE 101 By: Caitlyn Elam
Lewis Thomason P.C.
LOCKED AND LOADED DEPOSITIONS In March 2016, a colleague of mine took a deposition with a somewhat usual twist. Shortly into the deposition, the witness confidently and intentionally made it known on the record that he was carrying a handgun. Although no overt threat was made, the point of the statement was clear – intimidation. The opposing attorney handled the situation wonderfully – he stopped the deposition, instructed the witness to remove the weapon from the building, and apologized for the incident. The deposition proceeded without further excitement. In January 2022, the Office of the Attorney General issued Opinion No. 22-01 to address a series of questions related to “Carrying Handguns in Buildings in Which Judicial Proceedings Occur.” The Opinion addresses Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1306, which “generally prohibits individuals from carrying ‘weapons’ in buildings in which judicial proceedings are in progress.”1 Notably, the Opinion’s analysis frequently turns on whether a “judicial proceeding” is taking place. The term “judicial proceeding” is not defined within statute, so the Office of the Attorney General determined that a “judicial proceeding” occurs when a judge is present in the building “carrying out acts or taking steps that are part of any judicial proceeding.”2 Thus, if a judge is not present doing “judge” things, section 39-17-1306 does not prohibit weapons in the building. Given my colleague’s experience, I became curious – What obligations, if any, does an attorney have with regard to firearms on-site (whether in possession of attorneys, staff, or clients) during a deposition? The Tennessee Court of Appeals has previously written that “a deposition proceeding is no less a court proceeding than if the witness were testifying in open court.”3 Giving that statement its full weight, one struggles to see daylight between a “judicial proceeding” and a “court proceeding.” From the start, let’s be clear – I am taking no position on gun permits, carry rights, or the Second Amendment. I am simply asking the question and reporting my brief findings. Unsurprisingly, the Tennessee Rule of Professional Conduct and attendant Ethics Opinions were a dead end, and my search of other states (admittedly non-exhaustive) uncovered no quick answer, either. I did find at least one real-world scenario, though. The Supreme Court of Nevada suspended an attorney for six months after the attorney brandished a weapon during a deposition.4 As the story goes, the attorney engaged in disruptive behavior during a deposition – using vulgarities, calling the witness derogatory names, and making inappropriate statements, but the real excitement occurred when the attorney “ask[ed] the deponent if he was ‘ready for it’ while positioning his hand near his hip” and later “displayed a firearm he had holstered on his hip to the deponent and opposing counsel.”5 While there are undoubtedly gray areas on this subject, the attorney at issue was clearly on the wrong side of the line. The ultimate disciplinary finding was that the attorney violated Nevada Rule 8.4(d),
which is identical to Tennessee Rule 8.4(d), in purposefully intimidating the witness and thereby “engag[ing] in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice.”6 On a side note, the attorney was representing himself in defending a defamation suit, so it appears the adage about selfrepresentation holds true. A law review article by Dru Stevenson, Professor of Law at South Texas College, is the closest thing to an authority on the matter that I could find.7 In his July 2020 paper, Professor Stevenson calls on the ABA to issue a formal ethics opinion, citing Rule 8.4(d) and declaring that “openly carrying firearms to adversarial meetings with other parties – such as depositions and settlement negotiations – is improper conduct for an attorney.”8 If the ABA took such a position, Professor Stevenson points out that attorneys could be in violation if they attempt to circumvent the Rule by having others, such as clients and staff, attend a deposition openly armed.9 Addressing the elephant in the room, Professor Stevenson notes that the Model Rules frequently touch on constitutional rights – namely sacrosanct free speech – and are still upheld.10 Your decision is yours, of course, but it seems the spirit of the Rules encourages firearm-free depositions. The Preamble of the Rules of Professional Conduct discusses a lawyer’s obligation “not to harass or intimidate others” as well as lawyer’s “duty to uphold legal process.” Rule 3.5(e) prohibits “conduct intended to disrupt a tribunal,” and Comment 6 expressly applies that Rule to depositions. Intimidation and disruption do not necessarily exist with a concealed weapon, but even if you are comfortable with your own personal restraint, do you trust your client to make the same levelheaded decisions in a heated moment? I personally would not want to explain to the judge that my client placed his hand near a firearm and asked if opposing counsel was “ready for it.” Until there is further ethical guidance, law firms can post a “no firearms” sign at the entrance pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1359, which allows private businesses to ban firearms inside establishments. As for me, I am including “please don’t bring a weapon” to the list of instructions to clients before a deposition, adding to the host of things that I never thought I would have to say out loud. 1 2 3
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Tenn. Att’y Gen. Op. 22-01 (Jan. 24, 2022), at 1. Id.; see also Tenn. Att’y Gen. Op. 19-07 (Jun. 18, 2019). Bramblett v. Nick Carter’s Aircraft Engines Inc., No. 294, 1991 WL 12284, at *7 n.4 (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 7, 1991). In the Matter of Discipline of Pengilly, 134 Nev. 956, 425 P.3d 381 (2018), reinstatement granted sub nom. In the Matter of Reinstatement of Pengilly, 451 P.3d 85 (Nev. 2019). Id. Id. Dru Stevenson, Ethical Issues with Lawyers Openly Carrying Firearms, 10 St. Mary’s J. Legal Mal. & Ethics 290, 296 (2020). Id. at 299. Id. See Rule 8.4(a). Stevenson, supra note 7, at 323-25.
About this column: “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.” This old expression refers to the fact that a busy cobbler will be so busy making shoes for his customers that he has no time to make some for his own children. This syndrome can also apply to lawyers who are so busy providing good service to their clients that they neglect management issues in their own offices. The goal of this column is to provide timely information on management issues. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Caitlyn Elam at 546-4646. April 2022
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AROUND THE BAR By: Bridget Pyman
Arnett, Draper and Hagood, LLP
Isaac Westling
Law Offices of James A.H. Bell, P.C.
HIGH SCHOOL MOCK TRIAL COMPETITION The High School Mock Trial Competition occurred during the first weekend of March. One hundred nineteen competitors comprised nine teams from eight high schools representing Tennessee Districts 2, 3, and 4. The competing schools included Knoxville Central, Farragut, Jefferson County, Knoxville Catholic (Gold), Knoxville Catholic (Green), L & N STEM Academy, Powell, Sevier County, and Webb School of Knoxville. All nine teams participated in four preliminary rounds. The Knoxville City County Building hosted the competitors, their coaches, and their friends and families on March 4th and 5th. The students competed in the courtrooms that the Knox County Judiciary members generously made available for the event. We extend our gratitude to Judges Deborah Stevens, Bill Ailor, Jerome Melson, Greg McMillan, Scott Green, Kyle Hixson, Tony Stansberry, and Steve Sword for permitting us to use their courtrooms, providing the competitors with an encriched and realistic mock trial experience. During the preliminary rounds, the following competitors stood out among their peers and were recognized for their exceptional mock trial skills: • James Long (Knox Catholic Gold) as Best Advocate for the Prosecution; • Isaac Katz (Central) as Best Advocate for the Defense; • Andrew Beatty (Powell) as Best Witness for the Prosecution; and • Hannah Simmons (Powell) as Best Witness for the Defense.
After the preliminary rounds concluded, Farragut and Knox Catholic Green prevailed as the competition frontrunners and advanced to the District Championship held on March 6th at the Lincoln Memorial School of Law. The Championship featured a highly-qualified panel of scoring judges comprised of attorneys Marty McCampbell, Nate Ogle, and Daniel Herrera, each of whom evaluated the competitors’ performances as advocates and witnesses during the mock criminal trial. The Honorable Suzanne Bauknight presided over the Championship as Farragut prosecuted the case and Knox Catholic Green advocated for the defendant. Knox Catholic Green triumphed at the District Championship, earning a spot to compete in the State Mock Trial Tournament slated to take place on March 25th and 26th in Nashville. Without our roster of dedicated volunteers, it would have been impossible to make this great event a reality. Thank you, again, to the judges, attorneys, and law students who served as presiding judges,
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scoring judges, bailiffs, and to those who were willing to lend a helping hand whenever the need arose. We likewise thank Judicial Clerk Esther Roberts and the staff of the Public Building Authority for their assistance in arranging and securing the Knoxville City County Building facilities; Allison StarnesAnglea and Lincoln Memorial University School of Law for hosting the Championship round; and Marsha Watson, Chandler Fletcher, and the KBA Staff for all the support they provided us over the past several months as we all worked to ensure a smoothly run competition. We are truly privileged to boast such an involved and supportive bar association. We leave you with one final sentiment with the intent to provide insight into the impact that your participation in this event has on the student competitors; in the words of a coach, “You should all be proud of the work you did to provide all of our students with an exciting and professional exposure to the practice of law. They were excited, tired, and overwhelmed at times, but they will never forget their time thundering about the courtroom.” Attorney Volunteers Jimmy Snodgrass Dillon Zinser Allison Starnes-Anglea Hon. Suzanne Bauknight Marty McCampbell Nicole Turbinton Daniel Herrera Elaine Herrera Nate Ogle Meagan Collver Jason Collver Rachel Hurt
Courteney Barnes-Anderson Emily Horton Charles Sharrett Kelsey Reilly James Bell Jacob Refner Robert DeBusk Katie Ogle Jenny Rogers Brian Sableman Donald “D.T.” Christmas Matt Knable
Law Student Volunteers Elizabeth Luminoso Ira Lee Regan Nease Megan Burgess Kayla Long Thomas Gutwein Andrew Short
Bree Conner Kimberly Trotter Landie Kitts Holly Nehls Lindy Harlow Isabelle Thibault Micalah Soileau
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April 2022
L E G A L U P DAT E By: Luke P. Ihnen
Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, Inc.
HEMPHILL DECISION REAFFIRMS “BEDROCK CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION” In April 2006, a street fight in the Bronx led to gunfire and a stray bullet killed a two-year-old child. The bullet was fired from a 9-millimeter handgun. NYPD, aided by witnesses, identified Nicholas Morris in the shooting, and after executing a search of his apartment found a 9-millimeter cartridge and three .357-caliber bullets. The State charged Morris with the murder and with possession of a 9-millimeter handgun. Then the case took a turn: one of the witnesses recanted, instead identifying Darrell Hemphill as the shooter. Morris moved for a mistrial after opening statements, which the State did not oppose. Approximately six weeks later, the State agreed to dismiss the murder charges if Morris pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of criminal possession of a weapon. But instead of pleading to the existing indictment, the State filed a new charge alleging that Morris had possessed a .357-magnum revolver—a fact that the parties agreed there was insufficient evidence of absent Morris’s admission. In exchange for the plea, the State recommended a time-served sentence, which Morris accepted over his attorney’s advice. In 2011, the State discovered that Hemphill’s DNA matched to a sample from a blue sweater police recovered in a search shortly after the April 2006 shooting. Eyewitnesses to the shooting had described the shooter as wearing a blue shirt or sweater. In 2013, Hemphill was arrested and charged with the murder of the two-year-old child. At trial, Hemphill blamed Morris for the shooting, and his counsel explained that police recovered a 9-millimeter cartridge from Morris’s apartment after the murder. The State countered that police also recovered .357-caliber bullets from Morris’s apartment, and that Morris plead guilty to possessing a .357-magnum revolver. Because Morris was unable to testify at Hemphill’s trial, the State introduced, over objections, Morris’s plea allocution which suggested that he was not involved in the murder and guilty of only possessing the .357 revolver. The state court ruled that the hearsay testimony was admissible, despite Sixth Amendment concerns, because Hemphill “opened the door” and, under state precedent, it was “reasonably necessary to correct a misleading impression made by the defense’s evidence or argument.”1 The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment2 is a “bedrock constitutional protection afforded to criminal defendants.”3 In Crawford v. Washington, the United States Supreme Court held that “the Framers would not have allowed admission of testimonial statements of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior opportunity for cross-examination.”4 Rather, the Confrontation Clause “commands, not that the evidence be reliable, but that reliability be assessed in a particular manner: by testing in the crucible of cross-examination. The Clause thus reflects a judgment, not April 2022
only about the desirability of reliable evidence. . .but about how reliability can best be determined.”5 In other words, the Confrontation Clause is a procedural, not a substantive guarantee. At Hemphill’s trial, Morris was unavailable to testify because he was out of the country. So, the State sought to introduce his plea allocution based on a state court precedent. But Hemphill had not had a prior opportunity to cross-examine Morris. This was crucial, because the crossexamination would have been important since there was insufficient evidence for the charge Morris ultimately plead to: possessing a .357 magnum revolver. In Hemphill, the Court found that the precedent relied on by the trial court was not merely procedural, as the State insisted, but rather “a substantive principle of evidence that dictates what material is relevant and admissible in a case.”6 In doing so, the Court reaffirmed the Confrontation Clause’s procedural guarantee: “If Crawford stands for anything, it is that the history, text, and purpose of the Confrontation Clause bar judges from substituting their own determinations of reliability for the method the Constitution guarantees.”7 The holding also reaffirmed the principle that juries, not trial judges, are in the best position to weigh testimonial evidence.8 Justice Sotomayor, writing for the majority, looked to the text of the Sixth Amendment for support: “[The Sixth Amendment] admits no exception for cases in which the trial judge believes unconfronted testimonial hearsay might be reasonably necessary to correct a misleading impression.”9 With its holding, Hemphill reinforces the precedent that the Confrontation Clause “requires that the reliability and veracity of the evidence against a criminal defendant be tested by cross-examination, not determined by a trial court.”10 The decision reaffirms an important protection for accused defendants: the right to confront the witnesses against them. In the end, Justice Sotomayor was able to convince seven of her colleagues that this precedent should live to fight another day.
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Hemphill v. New York, 142 S. Ct. 681*, at *687–88 (Jan. 20, 2022) (citing People v. Reid, 971 N.E.2d 353 (N.Y. 2012)). “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right. . . to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” U.S. Const. amend. VI. Id. at *690. 541 U.S. 36, 53–54 (2004). Id. at 61. Id. at *691. Hemphill, 142 S. Ct. at *691–92. Id. at *692 (“[I]t was not for the judge to determine whether Hemphill’s theory. . . was unreliable, incredible, or otherwise misleading. . .[nor] was it the judge’s role to decide that the evidence was reasonably necessary to correct that misleading impression.”). Id. at *693. Id. at *694.
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DOBBS V. JACKSON’S WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION
AND THE ANTICIPATED END OF FEDERAL ABORTION RIGHTS Pro-life advocates appear close to the reversal of Roe v. Wade1 and the ending of federal abortion rights. This is because the Court’s conservative majority has signaled this to be the likely outcome of Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, involving the constitutionality of a Mississippi statute that directly contravenes the current federal abortion rights framework.2 In the meantime, Tennessee and twenty other states have successfully petitioned appeals courts to lift district court injunctions to restrictive state abortion laws that were enacted after the most recent changes to the composition of the Supreme Court..3 Roe provided that no woman could be denied an abortion in her pregnancy’s first trimester, with an expansive maternal life and health exception applying to state abortion restrictions in the pregnancy’s second and third trimesters.4 By comprehensively and legislatively addressing the legality of abortion restrictions, Roe effectively foreclosed the ability of state legislatures to further address the issue. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey,5 the Court revisited the abortion rights issue and replaced Roe’s trimester approach governing abortion restrictions with one based on fetal viability.6 It also replaced Roe’s strict scrutiny approach to abortion restrictions with a looser undue burden standard allowing state governments to implement broad regulations on abortion providers, including waiting periods, informed consents laws, and the disallowance of public funding.7 The Casey plurality opinion, co-authored by Justices O’Connor, Kennedy and Souter, focused on stare decisis, or the principal of following established precedent, as its rationale for affirming Roe. Casey, however failed to stem the tide of abortion rights polarization, which resulted in certain states exploiting the laxity of the undue burden standard to undermine abortion access by measures designed to make abortion more elusive, but still legal.8 This process of increasing abortion restrictions at the state level resulted in Texas implementing the two abortion access restrictions that were at issue in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.9 The first imposed
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a requirement that all abortion clinic OBGYN’s within the state have admitting privileges at hospitals situated no further than 30 miles from the abortion clinic and the second required that clinics include costly surgical centers to address abortion-related complications.10 In a 5-3 majority decision authored by Justice Breyer,11 and joined by Justice Kennedy, the Court concluded the two provisions at issue improperly imposed a substantial obstacle to a woman’s due processbased abortion rights. In doing so, the Court expanded upon Casey’s definition of abortion rights by concluding that abortion regulations must satisfy heightened scrutiny review.12 Whole Woman’s Health seemed to anticipate stability in the area of abortion rights jurisprudence. Abortion Rights under a More Conservative Court After the additions of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the Court revisited the issue of federal abortion rights in June Medical Services v. Russo. At issue in this case was a Louisiana’s Act 620, which was almost word-for-word identical to Texas’s ‘admitting privileges’ law that was invalidated in Whole Women’s Health.13 Once again, the Court rejected the opportunity to reverse itself on abortion rights, this time because the Chief Justice, who dissented in Whole Woman’s Health, concurred with the majority, based on stare decisis and his concern with protecting the Court’s institutional legitimacy. Once again, it seemed that the Court had cabined the issue of abortion rights for the foreseeable future. However, the abortion rights issue came up again when Justice Ginsburg died in September 2020 and replaced, on an expedited time frame, by the conservative leaning Justice Amy Coney Barrett. This gave the Court a decisive 6-3 conservative majority and led some states to resume their legal challenges to district court injunctions against restrictive abortion laws that textually violated Casey and Russo. Mississippi, for example, enacted a bill in 2018, called the Gestational Age Act, that prohibited all
DICTA
April 2022
COVER STORY By: M. Akram Faizer Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law
abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy that was blocked by a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.14 After Mississippi’s appeal in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization15 inexplicably sat on the Court’s docket, the Court’s conservative leaning justices granted certiorari and heard oral argument on the matter in late November 2021.16 After the conservative majority signaled a willingness to end federal abortion rights, Justice Sotomayor, using very strong language, questioned “[w]ill this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?”17 Being mindful that Court watchers have been proven wrong before, especially when it comes to abortion rights, most are expecting the Court to end federal abortion rights when its decision is issued in June or July 2022. Since then, the Court majority, anticipating a decision in Dobbs to end federal abortion rights, has seemingly stopped policing conservative courts of appeal that refuse to enforce the current federal abortion rights framework. In re Whole Woman’s Health,18 involved the Court refusing to enforce its previous ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson.19 Jackson involved a challenge to the Texas Heartbeat Act that empowers private individuals to bring civil actions against those who perform or assist with abortions in situations where there is embryonic cardiac activity, which can manifest in as little as six weeks from a woman’s last menstrual period.20 After defendants sought to have the case dismissed, the Court concluded that the case can proceed and ordered a remand by the Fifth Circuit to the district court for adjudication. Here in Tennessee, Governor Lee signed two abortion bans into law in 2020. The first makes it a felony to perform a previability abortion in situations where a fetal heartbeat is detected (“previability bans”),21 while the second makes it a felony to perform an abortion if the provider knows the woman is seeking an abortion based on the sex or race of the fetus or a test indicating the fetus has down syndrome (“reason bans”).22 After the district court enjoined both sets of bans, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Memphis Center for Reproductive Rights v. Slatery,23 voted to lift the district court’s injunction on the reason bans and refused to hear the case until after the Court issues its decision in Dobbs, presumably because Dobbs would govern adjudication of the previability bans.24 In dissent, Sixth Circuit Judge Nelson Moore writes that the decision to stay the district court’s preliminary injunction “showcases a growing trend among federal courts to use facially neutral laws to delay adjudication of laws that significantly impair constitutional rights,” especially in cases concerning abortion. Her concern is that future courts will continue to abuse this trend to undermine “whatever right next falls into the disfavor of a then-reigning majority.”25 The Court issued Roe v. Wade in an attempt to facilitate consensus on the abortion issue. Nearly fifty years later, it can definitively be said that this has not happened. In this author’s opinion, exploitation of the abortion rights issue has arguably worsened political polarization April 2022
and problematically undermined the integrity of the federal judicial nomination process. Five conservative justices see Dobbs as a potential means of resuscitating the Madisonian framework to, over time, facilitate a consensus on the issue. The sixth conservative, Chief Justice Roberts, fears that by continuously revisiting the issue of federal abortion rights, his conservative colleagues, motivated by a goal of protecting the Court, may inadvertently undermine its institutional legitimacy. Finally, the Court’s liberal minority is concerned about what a reversal of federal abortion rights would mean for women in states with strict anti-abortion laws that were enacted or have remained on the books. Only time will tell.26 1 2 3
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410 U.S. 113 (1973). No. 19-1392. At the time of this writing, 21 states are poised to immediately ban or dramatically curtail access to abortions if the Court ends federal abortion rights. Id. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992). Casey concluded that all women have a pre-viability right to an abortion that states cannot unduly burden, while Roe had concluded that all women have first trimester abortion rights that cannot be restricted. Casey concluded that wait times and informed consent laws are constitutional. Public funding, which has been disallowed by the federal Hyde Amendment, was found constitutional in Harris v. McCrae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980). Measures implemented by conservative state legislatures included parental consent laws, longer waiting periods, intrusive informed consent laws, the requirement of transvaginal ultrasounds, admitting privileges requirements at public hospitals for abortion doctors and the requirement that abortion clinics be turned into ambulatory surgical centers. Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, 579 U.S. __ (2016). Id. at 2300. Justice Scalia’s sudden death in February 2016 created a court vacancy that the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate refused to fill before the November 2016 general election. Id. David Brooks, The Abortion Memo, NY Times (Feb. 1, 2018), https://www.nytimes. com/2018/02/01/opinion/abortion-democrats-compromise.html (The New York Times columnist and public intellectual David Brooks attributes Donald Trump’s election to the single issue activists who want pro-life judges). https://www.npr.org/2021/05/17/997478374/supreme-court-to-reviewmississippi-abortion-ban. No. 19-1392. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/politics/supreme-court-mississippiabortion-law.html. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/politics/supreme-court-mississippiabortion-law.html (Justice Sotomayor also asked “How will the Court survive?”). 142 S. Ct. 701 (2022). 142 S.Ct. 522 (2021). Id. T.S.A. 39-15-216 (2020). T.S.A. 39-15-217(b)-(d) (2020). __ F.4th __ (2022). Id. Id. According to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, an end to federal abortion rights would mean that 21 red states would have laws that would dramatically restrict abortion rights, https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/abortion-policyabsence-roe.
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HOW TO THRIVE IN LAW AND LIFE By: Emily Hierd, LPC, MHSP Vantage View Coaching
HOW TO MASTER YOUR MINDSET Welcome back to the How to Thrive in Law and Life column. The article from February covered treating yourself as your most important asset, the need to release stress daily, and developing healthy habits. A more crucial component to reducing stress and thriving is mastering your mindset. What is mindset? It is a set of beliefs that you carry around in your subconscious mind and the framework we use to make sense of the world. Mindset is the way you think about events and the assumptions you make. Your brain creates shortcuts and automatic thought patterns to increase its efficiency. Most of the time, you are not aware of these patterns. Why is this important? Your mindset plays a critical role in how you cope with life’s challenges. Our thoughts create our emotions, which lead to our actions. Simply put, you feel what you think. This is directly tied to your quality of life and well-being. You can probably identify people in your life that are generally negative and miserable. And others who are smiley and upbeat. The difference? Their mindset. Lawyers are trained in law school to “think like a lawyer.” I call this the Lawyer Brain. It includes: • spotting issues and looking for problems •
figuring out what is wrong or could go wrong
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thinking in binary terms of winning or losing
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• • • •
using imperatives such as should, must, and shall in legal writing and persuasion focusing on the 5% that may be faulty, mistaken, risky, or problematic and dismissing the 95% that may be fine scrutinizing others’ motives and intentions challenging arguments by others
maximizing control over aspects of a case.
In psychology, these thought patterns are called Cognitive Distortions: unhelpful and irrational ways of thinking. They lead to feelings of anxiety, anger, disappointment, shame, guilt, and depression. Many of these distortions lead to a person adopting a pessimistic mindset and a negative view of the world. The Lawyer Brain is necessary for legal strategy, but it hinders managing stress and thriving in your career and life. The culture and environment of the firm depend on the mindset of the individual lawyers. These thought patterns are not beneficial for other roles a lawyer may have to fulfill: mentor, colleague, supervisor, committee member, marketer, and firm leader. Your mindset also affects your relationships with friends and family. Being cross-examined by a lawyer spouse in an argument is not a pleasant experience nor an effective way to resolve interpersonal conflict. Mastering your mindset and harnessing the power of an optimistic mindset vs. a pessimistic mindset will unleash your potential and transform your overall state of well-being. Optimistic does not mean always being positive and ignoring reality. Cultivating a positive mindset includes: • focusing on what you can control and what is working •
expecting the future to hold good things
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focusing on the strengths of yourself and others
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being kind
trusting others
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giving others the benefit of the doubt
generally focusing on the good in any situation.
A positive mindset helps build mental toughness and resiliency (adapting well in the face of adversity). Athletes routinely discuss the importance of their mindset training; many say it is more important than their physical training. Navy Seals and NASA astronauts are selected based on their ability to master their minds over their physical capabilities. They must push beyond their perceived limits and emotionally regulate in stressful situations. Both of these require mastery over their thoughts. You, and only you, have the power to decide how you will think about events. It usually does not feel this way to clients when I first start working with them. Thoughts are fast and automatic, and most people believe whatever they think. But those thoughts may not be true or accurate. However, we can rewire neural pathways and create new automatic thought patterns through brain plasticity. It takes self-awareness and lots of practice to retrain your brain, but it is possible! You can not control what comes into your mind, but you can choose what you do with your thoughts. World-renowned psychologist Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, famously said, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” How you perceive demands and stressors impacts your emotional experience. Stress is the perception we don’t have enough of a resource (e.g., time, energy, knowledge, money, help) to complete a task. In her book, The Upside of Stress, Dr. Kelly McGonigal discusses how her research at Stanford showed that viewing stress as a helpful part of life, rather than as harmful, is associated with better health, emotional well-being, and productivity at work – even during periods of high stress. It is not the stressor itself but how you think about it that matters. The physical benefits of adopting a positive mindset include a longer life span, lower chance of heart attack, better physical health, improved immunity, lower blood pressure, and better pain tolerance. The mental benefits include more creativity, better problem-solving skills, clearer thinking, better mood, better coping skills, and less depression. Cultivating a work environment with positive mindsets leads to greater well-being of employees, greater productivity, increased earnings, more creativity, higher employee retention, and better employee engagement. Your mindset impacts every aspect of your life – and others around you. 5 ways you can start to improve your mindset: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Become aware of your thoughts. Create space between your thoughts and reactions. Reframe your situation and look for alternative interpretations. Focus on what you can control in any situation. Accept the circumstances you can’t control. Create quiet time daily for reflection.
Focus on your strengths and adopt a growth mindset. (Read Growth Mindset by Carol Dwek.) Practice gratitude.
People often look for external circumstances to change to make them feel better - a move, a new job, a fresh start - but long-lasting change starts with the 6 inches between your ears.
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April 2022
SCHOOLED IN ETHICS By: Judy M. Cornett
UT College of Law
REPRESENTING MULTIPLE CRIMINAL CODEFENDANTS James Dale Holcombe owned a lucrative business, Cash for Cards. He bought stolen gift cards from individuals and sold them on the Internet. Holcombe and his three employees were arrested and charged with dealing in stolen property. Holcombe was also charged with a RICO offense. The four codefendants engaged two associated attorneys to represent them. Although counsel presented the court with written signed waivers from all four codefendants, the court strongly cautioned each defendant about the dangers of proceeding with joint representation. Two of Holcombe’s codefendants took plea deals and agreed to testify against Holcombe. Although Holcombe’s counsel would now have to cross-examine two of his clients in order to defend the third, the court made no further inquiry of the codefendants. At trial, Holcombe’s two codefendants testified, and his counsel cross-examined them, although they were also his clients. Holcombe was convicted. On appeal, he argued that he was entitled to a per se reversal -- because his counsel labored under an actual conflict, he did not have to prove deficient performance.1 The Florida courts rejected Holcombe’s claim, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert, Justice Sotomayor dissenting. She opined that the conviction should have been reversed because the initial potential conflict ripened into an actual conflict when the two codefendants agreed to testify for the prosecution. At that point, the trial judge “should have taken the precaution of advising the defendants to confer again with unconflicted counsel regarding the propriety of the representation and should have directly explained the serious dangers of continuing with an actually conflicted attorney.”2 There is also an ethical dimension to the representation of codefendants in a criminal case. Tennessee Rule of Professional Conduct 1.7( c) provides: (c) A lawyer shall not represent more than one client in the same criminal case or juvenile delinquency proceeding, unless: (1) the lawyer demonstrates to the tribunal that good cause exists to believe that no conflict of interest prohibited under this Rule presently exists or is likely to exist; and (2) each affected client gives informed consent. Comment [35] provides: “The potential for conflict of interest in representing multiple defendants in a criminal case or in juvenile delinquency proceedings is so grave that ordinarily a lawyer should decline to represent more than one co-defendant.” However, the representation may be consentable if the lawyer can persuade the tribunal that the potential conflict posed by the joint representation will not ripen into an actual conflict.
At this point, defense counsel usually proffers the codefendants’ signed consents, which they are asked to affirm on the record. Even though Rule 1.7( c) does not require written consent, Rule 1.7(b) requires that “each affected client gives informed consent, confirmed in writing.” To obtain informed consent, the lawyer must “communicate[] adequate information and explanation about the material risks of and reasonably available alternatives to the proposed course of conduct.”3 Therefore, the lawyer must explain the risk that an actual conflict will develop if one codefendant is offered a plea deal and the risk that the lawyer could be disqualified or be required to withdraw if an actual conflict develops. The lawyer must also explain the alternative of separate representation. In Potka v. State,4 the Court of Criminal Appeals held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in disqualifying counsel for four codefendants, despite the codefendants’ written consent. The court noted that (1) the four codefendants faced different charges; (2) “there was a ‘different plea offer for three of them as opposed to one’”;5 (3) three of the codefendants were noncitizens and were subject to deportation; and (4) three of the codefendants “were able to communicate only through an interpreter.”6 The court held that “a trial court has wide-ranging authority to disqualify counsel from representing multiple defendants if there is an actual conflict of interests or a serious potential for conflict.”7 In Hanley v. State,8 the Court of Criminal Appeals denied a petition for post-conviction relief by a defendant who was jointly represented along with his codefendant by two associated attorneys. The two attorneys “share[d] office space, including the same secretary,” and one of the attorneys worked as an independent contractor for the other, receiving a weekly salary as well as a percentage of business that he brought into the firm.9 The trial judge engaged in a thorough inquiry under Rule 44(d), finding that the codefendants “had executed valid waivers of their right to conflict-free counsel.”10 The trial court found that the associated attorneys “have been sensitive to the potential for conflict of interest since the beginning of the representation, have exchanged no information with one another, and will continue to exercise independent judgment in the representation of their co-defendant clients.”11 Despite the active role of the trial court in addressing conflicts of interest in joint representation of multiple criminal codefendants, lawyers should remember that “[a]voiding a conflict-of-interest situation is in the first instance a responsibility of the attorney.”12 1 2
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Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 44(d)(2) provides:
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(2) Court’s Responsibilities in Cases of Joint Representation. The court shall promptly inquire about the propriety of joint representation and shall personally advise each defendant of the right to the effective assistance of counsel, including separate representation. Unless there is good cause to believe no conflict of interest is likely to arise, the court shall take appropriate measures to protect each defendant’s right to counsel.
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Holcombe v. State, 312 So. 2d 132 (Fla. Ct. App. 2020). Holcombe v. Florida, 595 U.S. ___ (2022), slip op. at 5 (Sotomayor, J., dissenting from denial of cert.). Tenn. R. Prof. Conduct 1.0( e). 2002 WL 65993 (Tenn. Crim. App. Jan. 18, 2002), perm to app. denied (Tenn. July 15, 2002). Id. at *1. Id. at *4. Id. at *3 (disagreeing with State v. Parrott, 919 S.W.2d 60, 61 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1995) that “[a]n actual conflict, rather than the mere possibility, must be established prior to any removal or withdrawal of counsel.”). 2001 WL 1452178 (Tenn. Crim. App. Apr. 1, 2000). Id. at *2. Joint representation includes representation by attorneys who are “associated in the practice of law.” Tenn. R. Crim. P. 44(d)(1)(B). Id. at *4. Id. at *5. Fed. R. Crim. P. 44 advisory committee comment.
If you have an idea for Schooled in Ethics column, please contact Cathy Shuck at 541-8835. April 2022
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MONTHLY MEETING Plan now to attend the Barristers monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 13, starting at 5:15 pm at outdoor patio at The Firefly at the Hilton, located at 501 W. Church Avenue, Knoxville. Social time starts at 5:00 pm. Register by clicking April 13 on the event calendar at www.knoxbar.org. LAW AND LIBERTY AWARD The Barrister’s Constitution & School Outreach committee is accepting nominations for the annual Law & Liberty Award, which will be announced at the annual May Law Day luncheon. Nominations should be submitted to Richard Graves (rgraves@fmsllp.com) or Christine Knott (christine.knott@yahoo.com) no later than April 11, 2022. Nominees should: • strive to foster and maintain good relationships between the legal profession and community; • work to advance the understanding of the law and legal processes in the non‐legal community; • set an example of good citizenship; • give time for volunteer work, both within the legal profession and otherwise; • evidence high professional standards in his or her occupation; • express concern for the safeguard of personal, political, civil, and religious liberties; • and should be someone whose work is not normally recognized. Nominees do not have to be attorneys. Please consider those individuals in your firm, local civic and religious organizations, or in the community who have worked to improve our legal system and protect our civil liberties.
professional clothing from April 14-29, 2022. Items needed are jackets, slacks, skirts, suits, blouses, shirts, dresses, ties, and dress shoes. Multiple donation locations will be available including Gay Street, Main Street, law schools, and West Knoxville. Please do not donate clothes with holes, stains, or rips. Please refrain from donating undergarments, swimsuits, or other intimate apparel. Collected men’s and women’s clothing will be donated to nonprofits around Knoxville and LMU Law’s Career Services Career Closet. For more information, please contact Jordan Houser (jordan.houser@lmunet.edu) or Jimmy Snodgrass (jsnodgrass@kramerrayson.com). BARRISTERS DIVERSITY COMMITTEE CREATES SCHOLARSHIP FUND The Barristers Diversity Committee has created a scholarship fund to help with travel and lodging costs for diverse students who are invited to attend preview days hosted by the law schools. KBA members are asked to make a donation to help ensure that one student, who may not otherwise be able to afford to visit a law school in Knoxville prior to their enrollment, is able to attend a preview day. A more diverse and inclusive Knoxville Bar Association is only possible with a more diverse student population at local law schools. Your donation would help alleviate one of the barriers preventing diverse students from being able to visit campuses in Knoxville and see all that its law schools and the Knoxville Bar have to offer. Call the KBA Office at 865-522-6522 to make a donation. Also, the Student Council on Diversity and Inclusion at the UT College of Law will be hosting Diversity Week during the first week of April. Please reach out to Mariel Cooper (mcooper@qfjlaw.com) or Grant Williamson (gwilliamson@bradley.com) for more information on the scholarship fund or Diversity Week.
VETERANS LEGAL ADVICE CLINIC The Veterans’ Legal Advice Clinic is a joint project of the KBA/Barristers Access to Justice Committees, Legal Aid of East Tennessee, the Knox Co. Public Defender’s Community Law Office, the UT College of Law, LMU- Duncan School of Law, and the local Veterans Affairs office. This is a general advice and referral clinic which requires attorney volunteers for its continued operation. The next Veterans Legal Clinic will be held in person at the Knoxville Community Law Office on April 13. Sign up at https://www.knoxbar.org/?pg=Upcoming-Legal-Clinics. VOLUNTEER BREAKFAST COMMITTEE CONTINUES OPERATIONS The Volunteer Breakfast is a recurring event on the 4th Thursday of each month at 6:15 a.m. at the Volunteer Ministry Center, located at 511 N. Broadway, Knoxville, Tennessee. The Barristers Volunteer Breakfast Committee always needs volunteers to serve food or sponsor. The cost is $150 for sponsoring, and we need 4-5 volunteers. If you are unable to fund the breakfast, the Barristers will subsidize the cost of the breakfast. We meet at 6:15 a.m. and serve breakfast to approximately 30-40 individuals, generally leaving the site around 7:30 a.m. It’s a great way to serve the community! Please contact either Matt Knable at (865) 360-5044 or Laura Wyrick at (865) 297-5511 with any questions and/or about volunteering. HUNGER AND POVERTY RELIEF COMMITTEE HOST PROFESSIONAL CLOTHING DRIVE Spring Cleaning? Make room in your closet and help others at the same time! Barristers Hunger & Poverty Relief Committee is collecting
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BETTER By: Melissa B. Carrasco
Egerton, McAfee, Armistead & Davis, P.C.
THE QUALITY OF THE MAN Joel was a schoolteacher, at least that is where his heart was. But, after a couple of years of teaching, he learned what most schoolteachers learn: teaching may be a rewarding career, but the rewards are not monetary. At that time, teaching in rural Kentucky did not pay enough to cover the mortgage, so Joel left education and became a salesman.1 Joel’s job was to sell groceries throughout the Cumberland region of Tennessee and Kentucky.2 Since the year was 1869, there were not many roads running through that area—at least not roads that were passable by a motor vehicle. That means Joel had to cover his territory on horseback. He packed a clean shirt and a few supplies on one side of his saddlebag and the grocery samples on the other, and for the next twenty-eight years, Joel worked his way up to become the most successful grocery salesman in all of Kentucky and Tennessee.3 If you had visited the Cumberland region of Tennessee or Kentucky at that time, you would have found that there were not many creature comforts available. It would be almost ninety years before the first Holiday Inn would open in the big city of Memphis, Tennessee.4 It was over a century before motels would start popping up in rural Tennessee and Kentucky. So, when Joel was on the road, he had to rely on the hospitality of the good people that he met along the way.5 As it turns out, staying in different homes night after night was a very good thing for Joel. First, it gave Joel an insider’s track about what the buying public wanted. He got to spend time in a lot of kitchens talking to the people who were buying the groceries. In turn, he was able to make recommendations to the grocers in that area about what should be on their shelves. Second, he drank a lot of coffee. I mean a LOT of coffee . . . and the quality of the coffee varied a lot as well. At that time, coffee was sold green and unroasted.6 People would buy the green beans, roast them at home, grind them, and then make coffee—usually by pouring boiling water over the grounds.7 It was the Dark Ages. Coffee anarchy was at an all-time high. Some coffee was remarkably better than others. Some was remarkably worse. Joel started bringing samples of the good coffee grounds home with him. He started experimenting to see what combination of coffee beans, roasting techniques, and brewing produced a better cup of coffee. It wasn’t easy. One of the biggest challenges was finding a blend of coffee beans that produced a consistent flavor, since most of the beans were shipped from South America. Joel described in like this: “Way back yonder when I didn’t have money, I saw the possibilities in the coffee business. I knew that in my experiments in the coffee business, I had developed a blend of exceptional quality, and I believed I could sell it.”8 So, in 1898, he left the grocery business—by then, he was an owner— and founded the Nashville Coffee and Manufacturing Company which packaged, and sold roasted, ground coffee, according to Joel’s experimental formula.9 Soon after, he partnered with L.T. Webb, J.J. Norton, and J.W. Neal to form the Cheek-Neal Coffey Co., and they were in business.10 The business started small. First, Joel and his partners focused on getting the pre-roasted, pre-ground coffee blend into the Nashville market. That was easier said then done, but Joel was a salesman after all. He set his sights on having his coffee served at the most prestigious hotel in Nashville—the Maxwell House—and after weeks of work, finally convinced the hotel manager to brew and serve his coffee to the guests one Sunday morning.11 You don’t need me to tell you that the coffee was wellreceived—so well-received, in fact, that the Maxwell House allowed Joel and his company to use its name for the coffee blend.12 After achieving success in the Nashville market, they expanded across the South, setting up roasting, grinding, packaging, and distribution April 2022
facilities in Houston, Jacksonville, and Richmond.13 That way, those iconic cans of coffee could be placed on store shelves within days of the coffee coming out of the grinder. By 1921, Maxwell House coffee had conquered the South, but Joel was not done. He set his sights on New York and opened a roasting, griding, and packaging facility in the heart of Brooklyn.14 But, Brooklyn was not the South. By then, New York already had a number of coffee wholesalers selling their own varieties of roasted and ground coffee brands, and no one was interested in giving up shelf space to some coffee company from Nashville.15 So, Joel went back to his salesman roots and did what any salesman would do. He went big. The Cheek-Neal Coffee Company put up eighteen giant signs along Broadway, stretching from Forty-Second to Seventy-Ninth, advertising Maxwell House coffee. They hired a team of salespeople to spend every day going to retailers, persuading them to buy even a couple of cans of coffee. Joel and his partners were convinced that, if people would just try the coffee, they would never stop.16 They were right. By 1924, over 92% of grocery stores, delis, and restaurants in New York City carried the Maxwell House brand.17 Maxwell House coffee was so iconic that, one year later, the Cheek-Neal Coffee Company was acquired by none other than Marjorie Post and the Postum Company.18 In a 1924 interview, Joel O. Cheek was asked why Maxwell House coffee was so successful. “His answer was swift and unhesitating, ‘The quality of the coffee.’”19 That may be so, but it is only part of the equation. Cheek went on to say, “Business is an aspect of morality. If a business transaction is not based upon the intention of helping the other man, it is wrong, and because it is wrong, will lead to failure.”20 Certainly the quality of the coffee helped, but it was the quality of Joel Cheek himself that built an iconic business. The quality of the man built something better. 1
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Jeff Walter, The Maxwell House-Cheekwood Saga began with a Young Teacher in Debt, The Tennessean (Jul. 23, 2003), available at https://www.newspapers.com/ image/?clipping_id=22250891&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9. yJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjExMzYyMDIyNywiaWF0IjoxNjQ2ODU5MTE3LCJleHAiOjE 2NDY5NDU1MTd9.knKvHL3ATJd0dOPpgPbagwDA_1omPKehazooiTqySig. The Tennessean, Writer Traces Career of Joel Cheek and Maxwell House Coffee’s Rise (Marc. 9, 1924), available at https://www.newspapers.com/ image/?clipping_id=6729159&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9. yJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjE3ODM2ODAzNiwiaWF0IjoxNjQ2ODU4NjI4LCJleHAiOjE2N DY5NDUwMjh9.7VEj1E8UdlkG665xTrEtFfyTscB_Qcbo2VrRF5L3OWU. Id. Douglas Martin, Kemmons Wilson, 90, Dies; was Founder of Holiday Inn, NY Times (Feb. 14, 2003), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/business/ kemmons-wilson-90-dies-was-holiday-inn-founder.html#:~:text=the%20 American%20road.-,’’,lumberyard%20and%20two%2Dlane%20highway. Walter, supra n.1. The Tennessean, supra n. 2. Id. Id. Id. Walter, supra n. 1. Id. Id. The Tennessean, supra n.2. Id. Id. Id. Id. Gary Hoover, Forgotten Giant: General Foods, American Business History Center (Oct. 23, 2020), https://americanbusinesshistory.org/forgotten-giant-general-foods/. For more information on Marjorie Post and how she transformed the American food industry, see Freezing but not Frozen¸ DICTA (Feb. 2022). The Tennessean, supra n.2. Id.
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WELL READ By: Grant Williamson
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
LEARNING FROM THE GERMANS: RACE AND THE MEMORY OF EVIL, BY SUSAN NEIMAN In Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil, Susan Neiman, a moral philosopher and essayist, discusses the response of Germany to the evils it perpetrated during World War II and the Holocaust. What stands out to Neiman, is the way that Germans by and large have acknowledged their past and taken tangible steps to learn from the evil that Germany wrought as a country during this period. In the course of the book Neiman, a Jewish woman born in the Southern United States who lived in Germany for a period of time, interweaves analyses of how Germany chose to deal with its past and how the United States chooses to deal with its own past in order to make the case that a country can only truly move on from the wrongs of its pasts by acknowledging that the wrongs happened, understanding the full scope of what happened and why it happened, and keeping those wrongs in mind as decisions are made about what a country should look like going forward. Neiman’s book introduced me to a German word, vergangenheitsaufarbeitung, that roughly translates to “working off the past.” Rather than merely remembering the past only to enable ourselves to say that we will not commit the sins of our fathers or to simply say that the past is the past and therefore should be left behind, the book – and the concept of vergangenheitsaufarbeitung generally – advocates (in much more convincing, eloquent form than I could ever write in a brief article) that we acknowledge our past, both the triumphs and the evils, and work off, so to speak, the evils by struggling for and striving toward a society that is truly just and that leads with love and understanding. Inherent in that directive is the notion that we also continually work on the triumphs of our society to ensure that they do not fade and instead become more robust and fruitful. There is no singular moment or event that ever completely eradicates or eliminates a societal injustice, and, therefore, constant, intentional effort is needed to work towards not only the eradication and elimination of the vestiges of such injustice, but also towards the betterment of the lives of the people who faced the injustice – the lives of those people who faced the injustice and the lives of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who experience their own injustices because of the lingering, negative impacts caused by the original injustice. To ignore the original injustice, or to consider it an injustice no longer, is to forget that that an injustice is never a singular, quantifiable and identifiable thing: President Lincoln may have abolished slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation, but the injustice of slavery lived on, and still lives on, through discriminatory policing practices, through redlining practices preventing former slaves and their descendants from becoming homeowners, through segregation, and through countless other vestiges of the original injustice that slavery was. To work off the country’s past injustice of slavery is to first acknowledge that injustice and then to work each day to move a little farther away from the injustice toward a more just society. Working off the past is meant to be a declaration that a country, a group of people, an organization, or whatever other group or institution it might be, was not perfect, is not perfect, and will never be perfect. It is a declaration that its past contains flaws, imperfections, and injustices in addition to its bright spots, triumphs, and justices. But, most importantly, it is a declaration that there will always be work to do in the pursuit of liberty and justice for all. We have to choose to take on this work, and
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part of being able to do so is to acknowledge and understand fully the blemishes as well as the bright spots of our past. To be great is not to have always been without flaws; it is to work to improve on those flaws while continuing to champion one’s strengths. A quote from the book that I found particularly moving, and particularly relevant in American society today given the often heated discussions surrounding racial and gender equality, critical race theory, social justice, and any myriad of other hot button issues is the following: “We can be proud of the traditions of freedom and democracy, without averting our eyes from the abyss of the [Holocaust]. And we can be aware of our historic responsibility for the rupture with civilisation, without denying the pleasure in what we have achieved in our country.” As Americans, we can be proud of our traditions of freedom and democracy, without averting our eyes from the abyss of slavery, the abyss of the Trail of Tears, and the abyss of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. And we can be aware of our historic responsibility for the rupture with civilization, without denying the pleasure in what we have achieved in our country.
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April 2022
URBAN LEGENDS By: Sarah M. Booher Garza Law Firm, PLLC
ABIDING LOVE OF MANKIND: BEAUFORD DELANEY AND THE ART OF CRITICAL EXILE Rev. Renee Kesler announced in January of this year that the first residential building at the new downtown Smokies Stadium will be named after Knoxville-native Beauford Delaney1. Said the Beck Cultural Exchange president, “Delaney is by far the most important artist of the 20th century; his influence on the world of art cannot be overstated2.” Originally a resident of “The Bottom,”3 Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville in 1901 to a Methodist minister and a mother who had been born a slave in Virginia4. His mother’s talent as a singer and a quilter fostered a love of the arts in her children5. The eighth of ten children, only four of whom would survive to adulthood, Beauford first learned to draw as a child copying pictures from Sunday school cards and the family bible6. By age 14, he had completed his first commissioned painting7. Not long after, prominent local artist, Lloyd Branson, discovered him painting signs and mentored him before financing his move to Boston8. He studied there for a few years before moving to New York City, just days after the stock market crash9. His first one-man show occurred just a year later at the New York Public Library; he soon gained wide recognition for the precise realism in his pastel portraits of well-known African Americans, such as W.E.B. DuBois and Duke Ellington10. In Greenwich Village, Beauford formed close friendships with playwright Henry Miller, author James Baldwin, and artist Georgia O’Keeffe11. Professionally, he cemented his position among the innovators of the Harlem Renaissance. By the late 1940s, his paintings were primarily large street scenes of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, featuring broad areas of pure, bright color12. A private benefactor financed his first trip to Europe in 1953, but Delaney only made it as far as Paris13. Enchanted with the city and buoyed by Parisian racial equality, he settled in and spent the rest of his life there14. Influenced primarily by the techniques of Van Gogh, the color of the Fauves, and the design principles of abstract expressionism, Delaney’s works were never “merely derivatives of previous styles15.” Instead, he created a lyrically expressive style that drew upon his love of music and his improvisational use of color. It was this bold divergence in styles that kept him isolated in the art community, a darling of the international culture scene, but never at center stage16. And as the apparent joy in his abstract expressionist art increased, he himself sank deeper and deeper into turmoil17. Delaney’s mental health issues and alcohol abuse eventually began to significantly overwhelm his life. It is believed he likely suffered from schizophrenia18. Periods of lucidity would be interrupted with madness, paranoia, and hallucinations, and he attempted suicide in the late 1960s19. He died in 1979 in Paris at St. Anne’s Hospital for the Insane20. James Baldwin wrote of Delaney, “great art can only be created out of love” and that “no greater lover has ever held a brush21.” In 2009, writer and expat Monique Wells established “Les Amis de Beauford Delaney22.” The organization and online memorial site raised funds to preserve Delaney’s grave at the Parisian Cemetery of Thiais, erect a headstone, and install historical plaques in his honor at Rue d’Odessa and Les Mille Colonnes23. The Knoxville Museum of Art already owned pieces by Joseph Delaney, Beauford’s accomplished painter brother, but a growing market appreciation for Beauford’s work and no personal will made it initially very difficult for the museum to procure pieces in their own collection24. April 2022
However, they were finally able to acquire two of his watercolors in 2014, purchase his “Scattered Light” painting in 2015, and added a 1933 portrait of their mother to the permanent collection in 201525. The Museum also houses Beauford’s personal archives. Although the KMA is now home to the largest Beauford Delaney collection, his works can be found across America, including two Smithsonian Museums, the Art Institute of Chicago, and The Studio Museum in Harlem26. Said Stephen Wicks, KMA’s curator, “It would be great for young people here to view Beauford as East Tennessee’s Picasso. My hope is Beauford Delaney is the beginning of a larger story of the Delaney family in Knoxville. They had an important role here that would inspire generations27.” 1
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Melanie Vásquez Russell, 1st Residential Building at Knoxville Stadium to Honor Artist Beauford Delaney, WATE (Jan. 24, 2022, 11:19 AM), https://www.wate.com/ news/1st-residential-building-at-knoxville-stadium-to-honor-artist-beauforddelaney/. Id. Id. Eve MacNeill, Beauford Delaney: Biography, THE ART STORY (Dec. 15, 2018), https://www.theartstory.org/artist/delaney-beauford/life-and-legacy/#biography_ header. Id. Id. Id. Black History Month Artist Spotlight: Beauford Delaney, ARROWMONT SCHOOL OF ARTS AND CRAFTS (Feb. 4, 2021), https://www.arrowmont.org/black-historymonth-artist-spotlight-beauford-delaney/#:~:text=Beauford%20gradually%20 succumbed%20to%20alcoholism,man%20could%20be%20an%20artist. Beauford Delaney, SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM, https://www. americanart.si.edu/artist/beauford-delaney-1186 (last visited Mar. 9, 2022); MacNeill, supra note 4. Id. MacNeill, supra note 4. Smithsonian American Art Museum, supra note 9. Id. Id. Id. Jake Cigainero, Beauford Delaney Returns to the Scene, THE NEW YORK TIMES (Sep. 8, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/arts/international/beauforddelaney-returns-to-the-scene.html. MacNeill, supra note 4. Cigainero, supra note 16. Id. Id. Id. Id. Cigainero, supra note 16. Id. Id. Id. Id.
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LEGAL MYTHBREAKERS By: Brad Fraser Leitner Williams Dooley Napolitan LLC
PRIVILEGED MUCH? Privilege in the Social Context Social media continues to swirl with social commentary (and memes, of course) about “privilege.” However, long before social media, John Fogerty wrote and Credence Clearwater Revival recorded an interesting song called “Fortunate Son.” Those of you old enough to remember the song know what I am talking about. Those who are not old enough to remember, don’t Google the lyrics, actually listen to the song. Released near the height of controversy of the Vietnam War (although it never specifically mentions the War), it was one of the starkest statements of social criticism about the ultimate “privilege” at the time: who got sent to war and who did not. Some folks are born made to wave the flag Oh, they’re red, white and blue And when the band plays Hail to the Chief Ooh they point the cannon at you, Lord It ain’t me, it ain’t me I ain’t no Senator’s son It ain’t me, it ain’t me I ain’t no fortunate one
As an attorney who primarily represents defendants, the issues of common interest privilege were of most interest to me. The common interest privilege has been recognized by the Tennessee Supreme Court for over 50 years. 5 As noted in the opinion, the common interest privilege is recognized as an “extension of the attorney-client privilege.” 6 I have heard this privilege referred to as the “common defense privilege”. However, it is important to understand it exists not only for defendants, but for any party involved where “pooling of information around attorneys representing parties sharing a common legal interest in litigation.” 7 This could be co-defendants, co-Plaintiffs, or even one Plaintiff and one Defendant in a case involving third parties in the litigation. The importance of the opinion to me is that it further details how information subject to the privileges is handled in discovery and at trial. As noted in the opinion, If it is established that a portion of the requested documents are subject to the attorney-client privilege, a protective order as to those documents is in order... If it is established that a portion of the requested documents are work product, the burden shifts back to the party requesting discovery to establish that it is nonetheless entitled to the material. 8
Privilege in the Legal Context Of course, in the legal world, the term privilege generally refers to communications, not people or circumstances. However, the people and circumstances involved are usually what determines whether a communication is privileged. Tennessee Rule of Evidence 501 states that privileges are only recognized as provided by a constitution, statute, common law or other rules promulgated by the Tennessee Supreme Court. 1 The Advisory Commission Comments to the Rule contain a laundry list of several privileges that are provided by statute. However, common law privileges, for instance statements made in the course of judicial proceedings, are crucial for a practicing lawyer to know. 2 I read a recent opinion from by the Tennessee Court of Appeals about privileges with keen interest. Moore Freight Services Inc. v. Mize provided a veritable tutorial on numerous privileges, including attorneyclient, work product and common interest privileges. 3 A 38-page opinion, it is obviously too much material for me to properly address in this brief column. I highly recommend reading the entire opinion, if you are interested. The underlying case had extremely capable counsel and the learned Chancellor working to resolve communications and documents subject to numerous issues of claimed privileges. The trial court granted a Motion to Compel certain communications, but also granted a Motion for Interlocutory Appeal to resolve the following issue:
Many lawyers just utter “work product” to shield production of such evidence, when communications may actually be more adequately protected under a claim of common interest privilege. Since the common interest privilege is an extension of the attorney-client privilege (and subject to much more protection than work product), parsing out and properly characterizing these communications is critical. Another important distinction is that the privilege is not limited to the period when the proponents are “cooperating in a common defense.” It also includes prior confidential communications and documents “that are shared during the common enterprise.”9 Please note that this article is not an attempt in any form to set forth the legal requirements for claiming any of these privileges. The Court’s opinion in Moore Freight does an excellent job of that. Like John Fogerty, I am simply trying to spread awareness. And like his song, it seems to all depends on the people and circumstances involved.
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Tennessee R. Evidence 501. See, e.g., Lea v. White, 36 Tenn. (4 Sneed), 111, 114 (1856). Moore Freight Servids, Inc. v. Grant Mize, et al., No. E2021-00590-COA-R9-CV, 2022 WL 325595 (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 2, 2022). Id., at 1. Vance v. State, 190 Tenn. 521, 529-30, 230 S.W.2d 987, 990-91 (1950). Boyd v. Comdata Network, Inc. 88 S.W.3d 203, 212 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2002). Boyd, 88 S.W.3d at 213. Boyd, 88 S.W.3d at 221. In re Grand Jury Subpoenas 89-3 & 89-4, John Doe 89-129, 902 F.2d at 249-50.
April 2022
BARRISTER BITES By: Angelia Morie Nystrom, JD, LLM UT Foundation – Institute of Agriculture
RAISE A GLASS TO NORMAL AGAIN: EASY AND ALMOST HOME-MADE FOOD TO SHARE WITH FRIENDS In March 2020, Hugh and I were looking forward to a trip to France and Belgium while Trace was in Paris as part of an exchange program. We were also looking forward to hosting friends for dinner at our longplanned “Supper Club” where we wanted to bring together diverse groups of friends for a meal and good conversation. It was going to be a great year. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic ruined all of that. Our trip to Europe was canceled, and Trace did not get to go on the French exchange. Our plans for lively dinner parties with friends quickly became dinner for three for months on end. As Robert Burns once wrote, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” He wasn’t kidding-2020 was not what we had planned, and 2021 was not much better. This year, though, we are finally getting to do some of the things we had planned in 2020. We are cashing in the airline tickets and heading to Europe. We are spending more time with family and friends. And we are finally in the planning stages of our long-awaited “Supper Club.” With that in mind, I have been working on menu ideas for when we finally get our gatherings off the ground. When Trace was a baby, our “goto” for family get-togethers started with boursin-stuffed chicken breasts, accompanied by a salad and rosemary roasted potatoes. For dessert, I always made an “almost homemade” lemon poppy seed cake. I’m thinking that this may be a good meal to try out on our guests. I have always loved it because it is simple to make and tastes really good; however, it had been a while since I had made it. Since I am thinking about making it for friends, I decided to practice on our family to see if it was as good as I remembered. It was, and I thought I would share. For the salad, start with fresh spinach. Top with mandarin oranges (I like the ones from the snack packs, drained), crumbled feta cheese, and toasted almonds and toss with Brianna’s poppyseed dressing. It is simple and tasty. To prepare the boursin-stuffed chicken breasts, you will need 4 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1 cup melted butter, 2 cups white wine, 2 cups Italian bread crumbs, salt and pepper to taste, 8 tablespoons boursin cheese, 8 sprigs fresh parsley, and a dash of paprika. Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Cut each chicken breast into halves. Pound each piece of chicken with a mallet until of even thickness. Pro tip: ask the butcher to run the chicken through the meat tenderizer. The first time I prepared this dish, I hammered the chicken with a mallet and ended up with chicken pieces all over the kitchen. Combine the melted butter and wine in a shallow bowl. Place the chicken in the bowl and refrigerate for around an hour. Place the breadcrumbs on a plate. Remove chicken from wine and butter mixture and coat with breadcrumbs. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place 1 tablespoon of boursin cheese in the center of each piece of chicken. Roll chicken to enclose cheese; secure with wooden toothpicks and place seam side down in a buttered baking dish. Drizzle with a little of the wine mixture. Bake at 450° for 20 minutes or until chicken is tender and golden brown. Top with parsley and paprika. Serve immediately. The boursin-stuffed chicken pairs nicely with roasted rosemary potatoes. To prepare, I use red potatoes (cubed) tossed in olive oil, coarse kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and lots of chopped fresh rosemary. I bake them in the oven at 350° until they are crispy on the outside. While the chicken is amazingly good, the dessert is the star of the April 2022
meal. One of my favorite all-time desserts is my “almost homemade” lemon poppy seed cake. To prepare, you will need, 1 (18.5 oz) package yellow cake mix, ½ cup sugar, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, ¼ cup water, 1 cup plain non-fat yogurt, 1 cup egg substitute, 5 TBS lemon juice, 3 TBS poppy seeds, and a home-made lemon glaze. To prepare, combine the cake mix and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add vegetable oil, water, non-fat yogurt, egg substitute, and lemon juice. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer for 6 minutes. Stir in poppy seeds. Pour the mixture into 10-cup Bundt pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and drizzle with lemon glaze. For the lemon glaze, combine 1 cup sifted powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons lemon juice, stirring until smooth. Be sure that the consistency is such that it can be poured but is not runny. I like to serve it with a dollop of whipped cream. This meal reminded me exactly why it was my “go-to” for family events for many years. It is easy, yet tasty. And it is best shared with friends.
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Address Changes WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Please note the following changes in your KBA Attorneys’ Directory and other office records:
THE KNOXVILLE BAR ASSOCIATION IS PLEASED TO WELCOME THE FOLLOWING NEW MEMBERS: NEW ATTORNEYS Louise M. Aponte Brittany E. Gilder Held Law Firm Bryce M. Hardin Bear Litigation PLLC Lindsey E. Lyle U.S. District Court
Brandon M. Allen BPR #: 038549 London Amburn, P.C. 607 Market Street, Suite 900 Knoxville, TN 37902-2226 Ph: (865) 637-0203 ballen@londonamburn.com
Carol Anne Long BPR #: 020854 U.T. College of Law 1505 W. Cumberland Ave. Knoxville, TN 37996-1810 Ph: (865) 974-2521 calong@utk.edu
Jessee E. Bundy BPR #: 032015 General Knox Law, P.C. P.O. Box 26072 Knoxville, TN 37912-9672 Ph: (865) 686-7789 jessee@creativecounselesq.com
Joshua R. Walker BPR #: 023073 University of Tennessee 505 Summer Place, UT Tower 1107 Knoxville, TN 37902 Ph: (865) 974-3245 jrwalker@tennessee.edu
Ian P. Hennessey BPR #: 026366 Alliance for Multispecialty Research 1928 Alcoa Hwy, 4th & 5th Floor Knoxville, TN 37920 Ph: (865) 305-3784 ian.hennessey@amrllc.com
Matthew Morris Moore, Ingram, Johnson & Steele, LLP Taylor L. Overton
NEW LAW STUDENT MEMBERS Brandee A. Dillingham Grace M. Ewell Jenna L. Henderson Isabelle M. Thibault Austin Wall
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April 2022
YO U R M O N T H LY C O N S T I T U T I O N A L By: Stewart Harris Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law
UKRAINE AND THE RULE OF LAW We lawyers often talk about the importance of the rule of law. Although the term does not appear in our Constitution, the concept is baked in. After all, what is a written constitution but a nation’s fundamental law? And when that constitution creates an independent judiciary, well then “constitution” and “rule of law” become synonymous.1 But ours is only one nation among many. And many of those nations do not have constitutions like ours. Even among those that do, the rule of law is, in practice, often absent. Why should we care about other nations? Why does it matter to us whether a nation is a representative democracy, like Canada or France, or an authoritarian regime, like Russia or China? Well, there are several reasons, ranging from simple humanity to practical politics. Most of us in East Tennessee call ourselves Christians. Didn’t Jesus tell us to love our neighbors? Other religions espouse similar values. On the practical side, authoritarian governments have an annoying habit of attacking representative democracies. Why do they do that? Why do dictators start wars with us? Well, theft is perhaps their chief motivation: They want our territory and our stuff. And then there’s racism: Authoritarians tend to think of themselves as master races, while the rest of us are only fit for slavery or death. And don’t overlook revenge: Authoritarians hold a lot of grudges. Hitler certainly did. Germany’s defeat in World War I was something he simply could not abide. He subscribed to the “stab in the back” theory, that Germany had somehow been betrayed by shadowy Jewish interests. It’s significant that, immediately after overrunning Paris in 1940, he forced the French government to sign surrender documents in the same railroad car used for Germany’s surrender in 1918. Then he raised his right leg and stomped his foot in triumph. Of course, Hitler was racist to his core: Not just the Jews, but the Slavs, the Romani—anyone who was not “Aryan”—was to be enslaved and murdered, as were gay people, the disabled, and other “subhumans.” And boy, did Hitler want territory—essentially, all of Eastern Europe. He called it “Lebensraum” or “living space.” The people already living in that space, well, we know what happened to them. Once he consolidated his power in Germany, notably by murdering dissident Nazi leaders, Hitler embarked on his series of conquests. Among his first targets was the fledgling democracy Czechoslovakia, where Hitler first demanded the Sudetenland, an area with a large German-speaking population. Hitler said he wanted to “protect” the German speakers from Czech oppression. After getting his way at the infamous Munich Conference of 1938, Hitler broke his promise to go no further and invaded the remainder of the country in 1939. And the rest is tragic history. But while theft, racism, and revenge are strong motives for authoritarian aggression, perhaps the greatest reason dictators hate free nations is our example. They don’t want their own people to see our wealth, our technology, our freedom. It might give them ideas.
So if authoritarian regimes are inherently hostile toward us, well, then, res ipsa loquitur: Clearly, it’s in our interest to promote democracy around the world. Countries like Spain and Sweden are not likely to attack us. And there is strength in numbers. That is why, after the Second World War, the victorious Allies created the United Nations. For all its flaws, the UN represents a wonderful idea: that international disputes should be settled not by wars, but by laws. And perhaps chief among those laws is that no nation has a right to launch an unprovoked attack upon another. Among the UN’s biggest flaws is that it has little enforcement power. That is why NATO exists. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in 1949, in the aftermath of Stalin’s blockade of Berlin. The U.S. and its allies broke that blockade with a concerted effort called the Berlin Airlift. After the airlift, the West realized that it needed to band together permanently to deter further Russian aggression. NATO works. Perhaps its greatest moment was when the “Evil Empire,” as Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union, fell in 1991. For over forty years of Cold War, NATO had stood firm, until the corrupt Soviet system collapsed under its own weight. But the Cold War did not really end in 1991. After a brief period of hope, Russia sank back into authoritarianism in 1999, with the election of a new prime minister, an obscure former agent of the Russian secret police. The new prime minister’s name was Vladimir Putin. Twenty-two years later, Putin has, like Hitler, consolidated his domestic power, imprisoning or murdering his rivals. Also like Hitler, Putin sees himself in grandiose terms, as a world-historical figure destined to avenge his country’s humiliation and restore its past glories. He has done everything he can to weaken NATO, spreading misinformation, sowing division, and even clandestinely supporting the election of a U.S. president in 2016 who was skeptical of NATO and friendlier toward Russia than toward America’s own allies. And that is why Ukraine is important. Putin’s invasion is an attack not just upon a fledgling democracy, not just upon innocent grandparents and defenseless children, but upon the entire postwar international order. As lawyers, as Americans, we must defend the rule of law. This is my last regular column for DICTA. Writing “Your Monthly Constitutional” over the past five years has been gratifying—thanks for all the kind emails and letters—and, I hope, useful. But it’s time to move on. Remember: You are a part of the American Experiment.
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“It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.” Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177 (1803).
Stewart Harris is the host of Your Weekly Constitutional, available for streaming and downloading on iTunes and Spotify. April 2022
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BENCH AND BAR IN THE NEWS How to place an announcement: If you are a KBA member in good standing and you’ve moved, have property to rent, or received an award, we’d like to hear from you. Talks, speeches (unless they are of international stature), CLE promotions and political announcements are not accepted. Notices must be submitted in writing and limited to 100 words. They are printed at no cost to members and are subject to editing. Email your notice to Marsha Watson at mwatson@knoxbar.org. HIT THE TRAILS FOR A HIKE ON APRIL 2 The KBA Wellness Committee is planning a monthly weekend hike. The first will be Saturday April 2nd at Ijams. Meet at 10 a.m. at the main visitor center area. The group will start from the Visitor Center, and take the Tower trail to the River trails and River boardwalk, and loop back to the visitor center for a length of about 1 mile. For those who want to walk further than 1 mile, there will be the option to add on and walk the Discovery and Serendipity trails around the Nature Center for about another 1 mile. So the total length will be 1-2 miles. It is an easy hike on paved and wooded trails and wooden boardwalks. This is intended to be an introductory hike and will be a great introduction to Ijams for anyone who has never visited. Kids, spouses, dogs welcome. Please RSVP for this free event by clicking April 2 under the Events Calendar at www. knoxbar.org. CAROL ANNE LONG IS NEW ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF UT LAW CAREER CENTER The Lunch and Silent Auction begins at 11:30 am followed by the Carol Anne Long has joined the UT College of Law as associate director of the Bettye B. Lewis Career Center. In her new position, Long will serve as the primary liaison with employers, maintaining relationships with hiring personnel and developing interview opportunities. She also will provide advising assistance to students and alumni. Long previously practiced civil and criminal defense litigation with two Knoxville law firms and worked as a judicial clerk for Judge Charles D. Susano Jr. of the Tennessee Court of Appeals and Judge James Curwood Witt Jr. of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. She is a 2000 graduate of the College of Law. Long was active in the TBA Young Lawyers Division and is a lifetime member of the TBA YLD Fellows. LMU BANKRUPTCY MOOT COURT TEAM COMPETES IN NATIONAL COMPETITION Congratulations to the Duncan School of Law 2021-22 bankruptcy moot court team for competing in the 30th Annual Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court competition held February 26-28 in New York. The competition team - Daryl Petersen, Shelby Beal, Chandler Horne, and Ryan Eldridge (alternate), with research team, Victoria Small and Jocelyn Mercado - fully researched, briefed, and expertly argued complex bankruptcy issues before panels of bankruptcy practitioners, professors, and judges. This is DSOL’s first time to participate in Duberstein, which is the only competition that focuses solely on bankruptcy law, and the team skillfully and effectively represented DSOL throughout the competition. LSC NOTICE OF GRANT FUNDS FOR 2023 The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) announces the availability of grant funds to provide civil legal services to eligible clients during calendar year 2023. In accordance with LSC’s multiyear funding policy, grants are available for only specified service areas. The list of service areas (and their descriptions) where grant opportunities are open are available at https://www.lsc.gov/grants/basic-field-grant/lsc-service-areas/2023-service-areas-subject-competition. The Request for Proposals (RFP), which includes instructions for preparing the grant proposal, will be published at https://www.lsc.gov/grants-grantee-resources/our-grant-programs/ basic-field-grant on or around April 11, 2022. Applicants must file a Pre-Application and the grant application through GrantEase: LSC’s grants management system. Please visit https://www.lsc.gov/grants/basicfield-grant for filing dates, applicant eligibility, submission requirements, and updates regarding the LSC grants process. Please email inquiries pertaining to the LSC grants process to LSCGrants@lsc.gov.
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JUVENILE COURT ASSISTANCE BOARD 2022 BASKET AUCTION & SPRING LUNCH – APRIL 8 The Lunch and Silent Auction begins at 11:30 am followed by the presentation of the Susan D. Kovac Award to Knox County’s Most Outstanding Child Welfare Attorney. The live auction begins at 12:45 pm. All proceeds to benefit the Volunteer Advisory Board and to assist with hosting the Annual Foster Care Appreciation Dinner for Foster Care parents and to help meet emergency needs of children in Foster Care. KBA MEMBER SHOUT OUTS As part of this year’s focus on celebrating our bar association’s diverse membership and exploring creative ways for members to connect, network, and experience fulfillment in the practice of law, we would like to highlight the accomplishments and contributions of KBA members who are making a difference in the legal arena and beyond. Send links to news to posts or articles, pictures, or just a blurb about what’s going on to membership@knoxbar.org. FREE CLASSIFIEDS AVAILABLE Did you know the Classified section on the KBA website allows you to add your resume if you are looking for a job or if you need to hire someone, you can post a job and search for candidates? Click on Public Resources and select “Career Classifieds” from the dropdown navigation. The Classifieds receive in excess of 8,000 page views each month so if you are looking for a job or a new position, make sure to check out this valuable resource. LEGAL HISTORY VIDEOS AVAILABLE In 2012, the KBA’s Archives Committee began interviewing senior members of the local legal community to capture their stories and perspectives on life and the practice of law. With funding provided by the Knoxville Bar Foundation, the KBA has been able to preserve this history for future generations of lawyers and other interested persons. It is important not to forget the contributions of those who built the local bar and sharing milestones and stories of great lawyers and judges provides new lawyers with historical perspective and inspiration. View the interviews online at www.knoxbar.org by clicking Member Resources and then Practice Resources. OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE: • Existing association of attorneys have available 1-2 office spaces in historical building 1816 Clinch Ave., across from Ft. Sanders Reg. Hospital to include parking spaces, conference room, reception area, receptionist, phone system, internet and Lexis access. Email cburks@ jnblawfirm.com or call (865) 522-4964 for inquires. •
1520 Highland Avenue in Fort Sanders Available - The offices are $1,000/month and includes a private office and access to a common area that includes a full kitchen, reception area, conference room and separate client meeting room, plus 1 free parking space in addition to free on street parking. The office is “Class A” space (there’s even a fireplace in the meeting room!) and it would be a great office sharing arrangement for up to 4 people who are starting out. Rent includes utilities, alarm, and internet. Contact Perry Childress at (865) 8032545.
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Private office building for Lease at 5301 Kingston Pike. 1,907 square feet with 2 entrances, 4 offices, 2 conference rooms, and workspace located in the heart of Bearden! Space previously occupied by Landry & Azevedo. Email justin.cazana@avisonyoung. com or call 865-450-8883 for inquiries.
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April 2022
M I T C H E L L’ S M A L A R K E Y By: T. Mitchell Panter
Lewis Thomason, P.C.
AIN’T TOO PROUD TO BEG I join a group of my co-workers two or three times a week for lunch. Lunch usually lasts no more than an hour, and we try and constrain ourselves to Market Square or Gay Street. On occasion, usually at or near payday, we treat ourselves to an “off campus” lunch. Some of our more common excursions are El Chico in Merchant’s Drive, Louis’ in Fountain City, “Cheap Chinese” on Chapman Highway, and a few spots on Cumberland Avenue. (We are best described, collectively, as “low budget.”) Lunch conversation is mostly routine. We do our best to avoid case-related discussions. After all, lunch is for getting away from work, not carrying it with you. We sometimes touch on politics, which can get heated. We talk family, travel plans, current events, new movies, and the like. We also create scenarios that present insurmountable odds and insist on clear and decisive answers on the spot. As an example, one of our more exciting discussions, which we revisit from time to time, is what animal would you be in the event of an apocalypse? (The clear and irrefutable answer is the killer whale, and you don’t even have to attach a laser beam to their heads. They’re apex predators, can see above and below water, and have impeccable echolocation skills. They literally eat sharks.) When we’re done with our meal and conversation starts to languish (there are only so many permutations to the post-apocalypse/animal scenario), we almost always have separate checks unless there’s a birthday or someone forgets their wallet (which is usually me). While closing our tabs, two things almost always happen. First, someone complains about the rising cost of lunch, and, second, one of our regular attendees embarrasses the entire group with a measly tip of no more than two dollars. To preserve anonymity, I’ll refer to this scoundrel as “Voldemort.” Unlike anyone else I know, Voldemort tips on a pre-tax basis to avoid the server “double-dipping.” That’s a sentiment I don’t understand. Mostly because it’s stupid and wrong, which is a theme for many of Voldemnort’s ideas and opinions. Nevertheless, we all love Voldemort, so much so, in fact, that the rest of us sympathy tip to pick up the slack he leaves behind. I guarantee that annually, I spend at least $75 overcompensating for Voldemort’s poor tipping. All of us hate the way Voldemort handles the situation, and although we confront Voldemort regularly, it is to no avail. Voldemort’s core argument is this: “Why should I subsidize a restaurant that refuses to pay its employees a living wage?” I understand the rationale. If we all refused to tip, servers would quit. If servers quit, restaurants either change their ways or close. Still, there’s something cold about the practice, and while I see the inequity of the gratuity system (especially in the restaurant context), punish the restaurant, not the server. Like most things in life, though, my opinion is informed not by logic or economics. Instead, my own personal experience causes me to be an over-tipper. I waited tables in college at a fine dining establishment April 2022
you may have frequented once or twice in your life: Cheddar’s. As you know, tips are customarily calculated on ticket prices, and Cheddar’s average ticket for a family of four was less forty bucks, it took a lot of tables to make a living. It takes a lot of chicken tenders to break a $100. I had a couple that regularly came in on Sundays. The husband always ordered a ribeye—well done, of course, and insisted on a fresh, full bottle of steak sauce (you know the type). The wife usually ordered the chicken tender platter but would occasionally splurge for the Monte Cristo or the chicken pot pie. I assume her decision was based on how much money they stole from the Salvation Army’s collection bin. Over the course of the meal, they complained that things were too cold or too hot. There was never enough ranch. Her seventh diet coke was too flat, and I could never bring enough “pink packs” to make his unsweet tea thick enough. Their total bill was never more than $25, and the husband never tipped beyond what change would take his bill to the next dollar. The hostesses tried to rotate who got stuck with these people because at the rate they tipped, we were actually losing money. You likely know this, but most servers participate in a tip pool that requires a portion of their gratuity be redistributed to table bussers, hostesses, and the bartender. Typically, these tip pools are calculated as a percentage of the server’s total sales, which is designed to combat the simple reality that most servers don’t report all of their tips. After losing money on this deadbeat couple for years and being exposed, generally, to the server’s way of life, I’ve leaned into tipping culture and often do so in a manner that some would call “gratuitous.” Whether that’s the right approach is actually the subject of a long and storied debate. Indeed, “To tip or not to tip constitutes one of the oldest and nastiest debates surrounding America’s restaurant business.”1 In fact, there was even a “tipping abolitionist campaign” that rose to its peak in 1915, when Tennessee, South Carolina, and Iowa joined Washington, Mississippi, and Arkansas to pass anti-tipping laws.2 Georgia soon followed suit, but by 1926, each of these states repealed their anti-tipping laws under the belief that “it was . . . futile to police something that had gained a momentum of its own.”3 So, tipping took hold, and in 1966, Congress created the “tip credit,” which is the genesis for our modern-day wage of $2.13 for tipped employees.4 At this point, tipping is so engrained in our culture that it seems impossible to avoid—even at Pizza Hut. So, I remain convinced that the right thing is not to stiff the server. Sorry, Voldemort. 1
2 3 4
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Nina Martyris, Food For Thought: When Tipping Was Considered Deeply Un-American (Nov. 30, 2015, 3:58 PM), https://www.npr.org/sections/ thesalt/2015/11/30/457125740/when-tipping-was-considered-deeply-unamerican (last accessed March 9, 2022). Id. Id. Id.
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Serving the Legal Community in Assisting Low-Income Persons To Navigate the Justice System
PRO BONO SPOTLIGHT
FORGING JUSTICE 2021: Forging Justice 2021: Thursday March 3rd at The Standard
THURSDAY MARCH 3RD AT THE STANDARD
Thank you to everyone who came out to Forging Justice 2021, we loved finally getting to celebrate all the Thank you to everyone came outlast to year. Forging Justicethanks 2021, we finally todonors!! celebrate all the good work done goodwho work done A special ourloved sponsors andgetting auction last year. A special thanks our sponsors and auction donors!!
Jason Long, Meagan Davis Collver, Jason Collver, Charles Sharrett
Hall of Fame Inductee Judge Gary Wade and LAET Director Debra House
Bill Coley, Cecilia Petersen
Music by Roman Reese and the Cardinal Sins LAET Staff and LMU Duncan School of Law 2022 Interns
Knox County Public Defender Eric Lutton, David Eldridge, Bill Maddox.
Courtney Walker, Allison Starnes-Anglea, Allison Jackson
Cecilia Petersen, Betsy Meadows, KBA Executive Director Marsha Watson, Eddie Watson.
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Debra House, Tasha Blakney Nathan Wallace, Dean Matt Lyons, Judge Gary Wade
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April 2022
TELL ME A STORY By: Caleb A. Wade Morehous Legal Group, PLLC
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE “I thought about going to law school.” For any attorney or law school student this is something that they have heard countless times since getting the coveted acceptance. I have heard this many times from friends, family members, and the occasional random person on the golf course. Initially, it was a phrase that would bring an awkward smile and a “it’s never too late” response. It now brings a sense of gratitude for the experience that I went through and the fact that although there were many days where changing course seemed like the best option, I have stayed moving forward in this profession. And in moving forward I have learned a great lesson that patience is a virtue. In learning patience, I am forced to be grateful for timing. Timing is a tricky notion in the practice of law. Whether it be deadlines for filing in court, responding to a client in time, or any other expectation that a lawyer must meet, timing is crucial. That is the story that I have been telling for years and will continue to tell. Although my expectation does not usually meet reality, I have realized a pattern in my life. There are three instances that have established the pattern that we must be patient because the timing is very rarely what we would choose. May 2016 was the first instance of timing being important. I had graduated from Lee University and had been waiting on that acceptance and the word that I would have the chance to be a lawyer. After I had set up interviews for a myriad of backup options I was still hoping for some good news from the University of Tennessee. Then 2 days after I graduated, I got the call that I had been waiting on. I would be going to law school and starting my pursuit of a career in law. The experience of waiting taught me to appreciate even more the opportunity to go to law school and eventually practice. After 2 years of law school I knew I wanted to do something that would not only grow me in my career but also give me an opportunity to do something that may not be possible after graduation. In Spring of 2018, I applied for a job with the Atlanta Braves legal department. I went through 4 rounds of interviews speaking with human resources, general counsel, paralegals, and finally the chief legal officer. The waiting was excruciating as I knew this was where I wanted to work for the summer. A week after the semester ended, I got the call that I had gotten the job. Another example of waiting where patience was tested. This is where I not only improved my skills as a lawyer but did work that gave me the confidence to move forward towards graduation and a career as an attorney. After finally graduating and taking the Bar Exam, my life was on a track that I had been preparing for years. Without a job I had to continue to learn patience. Then a few days after the Bar exam I was hired for my first job. Another example of waiting. The lesson that keeps presenting itself in my life is that patience is a virtue. It not only is a personal lesson but a professional one. In practicing law, there are things that we, as a collective group, face with our coworkers, clients, and people who find out that we are a lawyer and want to get a little bit of advice “for a friend”. April 2022
The gratitude that I continue to feel when somebody mentions that they thought about law school is met by my gratitude that patience was taught to me through experience, even when patience was the last thing that I wanted to learn. In practicing law, I am determined to show patience to those that need it so that I am shown the same patience. Patience is not something that we as lawyers cannot stop learning. Though there are always lessons to learn such as; new laws, new jobs, and many other things, patience is one that will always be at the center of my story. I recognize that every story is different in the life of an attorney. There are those who go big law, in-house, boutique firm, government, and anything in between. One of the things that we all have in common is the patience that it takes to get to where you are now. And the thing that my story has taught me is that patience is a two-way street that when it is shown to others, it can be shown to you when you need it. I could not be more thankful for the lessons I have learned and the professors, bosses, and friends along the way to get me to this place.
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