The Last Word Column by Nick McCall

THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall

Q: The Knoxville Bar Association has several members in locales and jurisdictions outside Knoxville and Knox County, but we have very few truly international members. You are the most long-distance member of the KBA by our records. What inspired a Canadian attorney practicing law in Ontario to join the KBA?

A:

Brian Abrams Canadian member of the KBA, practicing with Templeman Menninga LLP in East Kingston, Ontario

You may find my response odd, but here you go: Bluegrass music. My sons, John (17) and James (14), are up-and-coming stars in the world of bluegrass music. I'm trying to be modest, but they are my kids. You can check them out at www.theabramsbrothers.ca. They are the youngest Canadians to ever play the Grand Ole Opry at 15 and 12 respectively, the only Canadian brother act, and the only Canadian fiddle players to grace that grand old stage.

In the past couple of years they have played around the world from Europe to Israel, Texas to Maine, California to Nebraska, and across Canada, but East Tennessee and South West Virginia seems as much like home to them as Kingston, Ontario.

My interest in your local bar association came about a few years ago when the boys were playing the noon hour "Blue Plate Special" at WDVX. As I was sitting at the radio station I thought to myself: I had better start to get acquainted with his city because I may end up spending a great deal of time here in the future. So, I returned home and took steps to join your association.

I get all of the e-mails regarding upcoming CLE and hope to be able to make it down to meet other KBA members in the near future. “The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

February 2008

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall

Q: A:

Your professional life has been varied, and you've retired recently from service as the General Counsel of Bush Brothers. Is there "life after law" for John Porter and, if so, what does that mean for you?

JOHN PORTER Former General Counsel of Bush Brothers

I graduated from UT College of Law in the spring of 1969 and promptly took the $482 I had, got on my motorcycle and went directly to the West Coast. I ended up at the FTC Regional Office in San Francisco and stayed there for the next twelve years as an antitrust/trade regulation lawyer. For the next 17 years, I was Associate General Counsel for Philips Electronics, and for the last 10 years as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Bush Brothers & Company. I retired from Bush Brothers in November 2007, one month before my 64th birthday.

The day I retired is the last day I have given any serious thought to anything related to my former profession. This is not because I didn't enjoy my time as an attorney or enjoy some success over the years. The case is quite to the contrary. The fact is that I have a multitude of interests outside the profession which I have never had time to pursue fully. When I wake up in the morning, I am overjoyed at the thought of no more meetings, phone calls, multiple problems to solve, airplanes to catch, depositions to attend, and hands to hold. I have, during the first four-month period of retirement, "decompressed" from the stress and responsibility that all of us in this profession experience.

What do I do with my time? Fortunately, for years I have pursued a wide range of interests in which I have not had time to fully engage

myself. These include wood and metal sculpture, antique car restoration, travel, playing the banjo, reading, boating, visiting historical places, and other pursuits too numerous to mention. At the end of each day, I truly wonder how I ever got anything done during the years I spent in our profession.

My philosophy, in a nutshell, is this: During the first quarter or so of our lives, we were not lawyers. The fact that we spend the next half of our lives in the profession does not mean that we have to spend the last quarter doing the same thing. If you have no other interests, develop them. The fact that you are good at what you do doesn't mean that you won't be equally good or better at some other pursuit that may offer you more satisfaction in retirement. Leonardo da Vinci, the ultimate Renaissance Man, was a scientist, mathematician, sculptor, inventor, engineer, painter, architect, writer, and botanist. The fact that he was one of the greatest painters and sculptors of all time didn't deter him from pursuing multiple interests in totally unrelated fields.

I have talked with many of my colleagues who are afraid to retire because they won't know what to do with their time. For me, it is a new-found freedom and the beginning of a new and exciting phase of life.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

April 2008

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall

Q: A:

From your experiences, what do you consider to be a lawyer’s quintessential “shining moment” in court?

Hon. Wheeler A. Rosenbalm Circuit Court Judge, Division III

Over the years, I’ve certainly seen lots of dramatic moments in court, but the most vivid was one that occurred before I came to the Bench and which, coincidentally, involved our current Supreme Court Justice William Koch.

East Tennessee State University had decided to build an indoor football stadium. I represented V.L. Nicholson & Co., the general contractor for the work. Two lawsuits originally stemmed from this construction project: one dealt with the drilled-pier caisson system used for the foundations, while the more significant was a claim involving the roof installed. As you can imagine, this roof had to cover an enormous area of space. The architect, in conjunction with Kaiser Aluminum Company, developed what turned out to be a rather experimental roofing system to achieve the purpose. It involved an aluminum “skin” made up of many small panels; the design called for this skin to be attached to the building by mounting stainless steel clips to a wooden frame; these panels then were clipped on to the stainless steel clips by use of a “zippering” system.

Not long after it was installed, the roof began to experience systemic leaking. After substantial investigation, it was revealed that the stadium’s roof was expanding and contracting with changes in temperature, sometimes six to eight inches in a day. With each expansion or contraction, the steel clips were rubbing holes in the aluminum skin. Before project acceptance and final payment were made, the State challenged the work and refused to pay the substantial retainage it was withholding, asserting that my client, as general contractor, was responsible for correcting the problems. My client commenced litigation against the State, the architect, the roofing contractor, and Kaiser Aluminum in Chancery Court. The State entrusted it’s case to a young lawyer serving in the AG’s Office named Bill Koch.

During the pendency of the case before trial, ETSU’s campus facilities manager called Bill Koch to tell him that a storm had arisen in Johnson City, and that with the high winds and rain, pieces of the stadium’s roof were blowing off. As a result, Bill got a video camera and was able to film bits and pieces of the roof blowing away in the storm. When the case finally came up for trial, Bill Koch presented the videotape. The effect it had on the jury had to be seen to be believed.

I’ve seen lots of highs and lows during my life in court. To this day, this videotape still stands out as being absolutely the single most dramatic piece of evidence I’ve ever seen: direct proof of the exact subject matter of the litigation, quite literally falling to pieces in front of the jury’s very eyes.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

May 2008

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall

Q: A:

Is technology the "friend" of the legal profession?

Glenn Reynolds Professor of Law, UT College of Law, Instapundit, and "Godfather of the Blogosphere"

My answer to that question would have to be both "yes" and "no." Small practitioners may find that technology offers more advantages to them than to large firms for two reasons. First, at the individual level, small firm lawyers benefit from the increased efficiencies of technology: they can do away with much of the infrastructure of existing law offices, save money, and do a lot of stuff that used to require a big law firm to handle. For large firm lawyers, it mainly impacts their quality of life. Those changes have been incremental in a sense. Years ago, legal documents were all sent by first class mail; then it became FedEx, then fax, and now e-mail. As a result of the spread of mobile technologies like the Blackberry and heightened client expectations, now lawyers are on call "24/7," 365 days a year, which is just ruining their quality of life.

That's a bigger problem for bigger firms, because their clients have higher expectations.

Competitively speaking, now that more small firms can afford more reasonably the technologies that used to be available only to the larger firms, the playing field has been substantially altered. So, on balance, for small firms, technological advances are a mixed blessing, but mainly a blessing; for large firms, they, too, provide a mixed blessing, but maybe more of a curse.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

June 2008

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

What are the most significant differences between practicing law and serving as a federal magistrate judge?

Robert P. Murrian Reeves, Herbert & Murrian

The first thing that comes to mind is relearning the business aspects of a law practice. Judges, of course, do not bill hours or collect contingency fees, and these are pleasant aspects of being a judge. Judges hear cases, arguments, research and write, and strive to come up with what the facts and the law require to resolve legal disputes. Magistrate Judges have relatively few administrative duties; one of the best things about serving in that capacity was that I was able to immerse myself in my cases. On the other hand, the Chief Judge of the District Court, and other district judges, spend a considerable amount of time administering the court’s business. As a practicing lawyer, there’s just no way around the business end of things. Having to deal with clients as a practicing lawyer can be very satisfying but also can be frustrating at times.

I’ve been asked, “Why did you go from being a judge to a lawyer? Isn’t that a step backwards?” I answered, certainly not. I’m reminded of Harry S. Truman, who, as he left the Presidency, said that he felt he was getting a promotion because he was a private citizen again and finally out of the limelight. I certainly enjoyed my years of public service, but I also enjoy my privacy and freedom. Judges’ lives can be somewhat cloistered: they can interact with one another, their families, and their law clerks, but their interactions with members of the bar must be governed by discretion. For most lawyers, many of your best friends are other lawyers and when you are a judge, a bit of separation from the bar is appropriate and actually expected from the bar, I believe.

I had more control over my schedule as a judge. It was not total control because I was always on-call for criminal law matters but, as to setting trial dates and routine matters, I had a lot of flexibility. Private attorneys’ schedules are always subject to others persons’ schedules: courts, clients, other lawyers. Now, I have much less time for contemplation, if you will--phones ring, letters and e-mails come in. Judges generally have more time to research, write, and ponder things: as a judge, you can always tell your secretary to hold all calls so you can work on a case. As a private lawyer, there are just some things that you must immediately attend to when they happen.

More philosophically, practicing attorneys have to start with all the raw materials—clients, statements, witnesses, interrogatories, other discovery—to build the case from scratch, trying to discern what’s important from what’s not, while representing the client zealously. Judges more or less depend on the attorneys to frame issues and develop the facts. What’s expected of the judge is to administer justice and apply the law and facts, fairly and evenhandedly, regardless of the personalities and who wins or loses.

I now have to get CLE hours; as a federal judge, we had our own CLE. Also, once a judge steps off the bench, the judicial immunity that protects the judge within the prescribed jurisdictional limits is lost. (I’ve noticed that my jokes just aren’t as funny now as they used to be, too.)

I think one of the best things about private practice is this: any lawyer ultimately has the ability to turn down work. A wise lawyer once told me, “The quality of your practice is determined as much by what you turn down as what you take on.” Judges have no such luxury.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

August 2008

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

As a chief financial officer, what’s your advice as to how lawyers can improve their law firms’ bottom line?

Bill Kunkel CFO of Lewis, King, Krieg & Waldrop, P.C.

The answer really involves three things: organization, communication, and financial management/staying on top of the key metrics proactively.

As to law firms’ organization, the “old school” model for professional firms of all kinds (not just law firms) was much like a country club. That model doesn’t cut it in today’s competitive environment. To be efficient, the new model requires the firm to be organized to bring about proactive leadership and promote operating efficiency, utilizing best business practices and accountability for financial returns to the stakeholders.

The next component, communication, is what is lacking in most law firms, from my perspective. The firm’s leaders need to paint a clear vision of where the firm is going over the next three years and continuously reinforce that vision to all. Law firms often do not share critical financial information and metrics throughout the organization. Many have a good reason to be exclusionary with this data: they are underperforming at all levels--at the partner and associate level; in their back-end operations; and relative to their competitors. Good law firms are learning that transparency is important to team-building, and knowing the financial score is part of building effective teams. Properly leveraged firms are more profitable than those that are under-leveraged, and communications is a key part of getting that leverage to function at peak performance.

Now, as for key metrics and financial management: If the extent of your firm’s financial and operational data is your monthly financial statements, monthly summaries of attorney billable hours, collections and originations, then you are not managing your business, and your firm is falling behind the power curve. Monthly financial data arrives far too late in the operating cycle to monitor key activity and effect attorney performance changes.

Successful people skills require action in a timely fashion; waiting for obsolete data after month’s end benefits neither the individual nor does it increase the firm’s profitability. Key performance metrics at both the practice group/team and individual attorney level on billable time worked, investment time, fees collected, receivables and work-in-progress need to be on the attorneys’ desktops on a daily basis. “Dashboards” are a common way of delivering this information in today’s electronic world.

Key performance metrics need to be based not just on what was done during the current year, but what is expected. And, what is expected needs to be based on firm standards that are part of a long-range strategic or financial plan. Financial management needs to be in the hands of a CFO who is accountable to the firm’s president or managing partner for strategy, execution and results. Too many firms have no idea of what a CFO does and while they may have someone with that designation, more likely than not, he or she has never worked outside the legal industry and probably adds little value outside keeping score. An effective CFO should add value--not just produce financial statements or monthly data that is stale and of marginal use--in managing today's law firm.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

September 2008

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

Knowing now what you didn't know then, what are the "lessons learned" that you've derived from starting your own firm?

David Eldridge and Tasha Blakney of Eldridge & Blakney

First, find yourself a very good banker; secure as large a line of credit as you can; and then, try your darndest not to use it! Your banker won't necessarily like that, but having that in place is one of the things that will let you sleep at night. Even better, along those same lines, work hard to keep enough in the coffers to pay yourselves, your staff, and pay your expenses for two months. This makes sleep even easier than a line of credit.

The second piece of advice is also financial: take whatever you think your overhead will be, and then double it. Chart out all your planned and historic expenditures on a monthly basis, and you will easily find that those will double after you begin your firm. Expenses have a way of breeding; from our experience, we found that within three months of starting the firm, the expenses were twice what we had budgeted.

Don't be a spendthrift but, if anything, worry more about the revenue side than the expense side of the ledger. It starts with every client and, if you consistently deliver the best quality service you can, the revenue side will take care of itself. In building a practice, referrals should always be recognized. One should make a point to express appreciation to your colleagues who make referrals, whether by a call, a letter, or an e-mail. It's an honor and high praise to receive a referral, and each referral does make a difference as you build and grow your practice throughout your career.

When you choose your office staff, focus on things like each person's reliability, ability to work with others, honesty, and work ethic--those are so much more important than the applicant’s extensive experience (or what is purported to be extensive experience). You can always teach your staff the technical details, but honesty, responsibility, and work ethic are more important than one's years of experience.

It just doesn't matter what you do as you plan for your Internet service, it will get botched up. Trust us on this. Despite all the planning in the world, glitches will still happen when setting up or changing your Internet service.

As for computers and other technology, you'll need to get good, reliable computer people, a healthy dose of patience, and a basic level of understanding yourself. Check their references--particularly if they have experience helping other lawyers and firms. Computers and IT set-up are not a do-it-yourself project! Some things may be "DIY" when you're setting up shop, but friends, the technological infrastructure of the firm isn't one of those items.

A real treat, which we had the opportunity to do, is to design your own space and then move into it. This process is complicated and there were many bumps in the road, smoothed out some by frequent “moving meetings” over a beer. Several lessons we learned here: (1) there are never too many electrical plugs, phone connections, or dataports; (2) interior designers and architects know what they are doing (at least the ones we used) – just sit back and be willing to write the check and it will turn out alright; and (3) Tasha: purple-painted walls can work for a conference room.

Dave: Actually, I thought the color is eggplant.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

October 2008

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

How do two competitive, high-energy lawyers like you two maintain a law practice and marriage together without killing each other?

Paul Hogan and Janet Hogan of Hogan & Hogan, P.L.L.C.

Janet: You know what we say? We don’t fight for free!

Paul: We get paid to argue all day, so we don’t argue at home. Who needs that?

Janet: Besides, we handle entirely different legal matters, so it’s not like we directly work together all that much of the time. The big stresses, competition and power struggles and money can fracture some law partnerships.

Paul: So, you don’t have that kind of stress to contend with when your spouse is your partner.

Janet: Having been in various private practice settings and as a government lawyer with TVA, I can definitely say that it helps in raising your kids to be in practice with your husband as your partner. Our goals are the same, as are our finances, needs, and ambitions.

Paul: And, besides all that, we can bring our dog to work [nodding to their Weimaraner, Hilda]. We sometimes call our firm Hogan, Hogan & Hilda.

Janet: Originally, most of our work was insurance defense-related, but we rarely worked the same file. I am more analytical, and Paul is more practical and has exceptional trial skills, so we welcome input from one another.

Paul: Over time, our mix of work has changed, too. I do mediation almost exclusively—I don’t do arbitrations because someone will get angry with me--so mediation appeals to me.

Janet: I like to be the “decider,” so I like working on arbitrations, and I also have branched into plaintiffs’ work. Our office space arrangements help considerably, too. When we built out our office, we built it to be a retreat as well as an efficient workplace. We have a studio apartment upstairs that we use for football games and parties, as well as for mediations.

Paul: You’ll notice that we don’t have a lot of closed-off offices and lots of fancy diplomas hanging on the walls here, like you’d see in many other law firms. That’s not the look that we wanted to capture when we opened our office.

Janet: We may renovate this place; if we do, we’re thinking about gutting the first floor and moving our offices down into the now unused basement; then, we’d convert the first floor into our home. That way, we’ll have our home and office fully integrated, and all downtown.

Paul: We don’t mind having our work and home lives integrated: in fact, we find it’s usually easier to manage things that way, than when the two parts of our lives are all divided up.

Janet: Besides, I never had to worry that my partner was mad at me for having to take time off for a kid’s swim meet—even if I did sometimes carry work with me….

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

November 2008

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

How have you survived so many years of building Habitat for Humanity homes for the KBA without suffering a traumatic injury?

Sam Doak, Greg McMillan and Norm Templeton The KBA’s “Habitat Guys”

We didn’t. We have!

Sam: Norm: I’ve sliced every finger I have, at least once.

Greg: I’ve gotten four stitches: that’s the worst I’ve faced.

The “best” accident I remember was on the last KBA house when you were working on a roof, Greg. You stepped on a piece of roof sheeting Sam: that someone forgot to nail down and it went flying; I looked up to see Greg about to come down through the trusses, and I thought to myself, “Oh, my God”…and then you did a perfect four-point landing on the trusses, like a cat. Then, you just got up and moved on.

Jason Long had a good one once: he put his foot through the tar paper covering the hole for the ridge vent on the roof, and down he went, Greg: all the way up to the top of his leg.

Sam: Yeah, I remember seeing this leg coming down at us, right through the roof.

Carol Anne won’t let him work on rooftops anymore after that one.

Greg: Once I was training to be a crew chief, and I was working on a porch. I took a swing with my hammer and hit my left-hand middle finger Sam: instead. Because I was in polite company, I just grunted and made noises to myself. I’d smashed it bad, though; blood was everywhere. My friend Jose just looked at me and said: “Oh, no—you got in a hurry with your hammer. Never get in a hurry with your hammer!” I tell all the new Habitat recruits that one.

Norm: “Measure twice; cut once.” Those are other good words to live by on Habitat projects.

Yes, it seems no matter how carefully you’ve measured how long the piece of siding should be, somebody will “move” the window you’ve been Greg: working on right after you’ve cut the siding.

Sam: Once, I decided that my one-pouch tool belt didn’t hold enough, so I bought myself a new dual-pouch belt. I loaded it up so much, it must have weighed 75 pounds. After lugging it around on ladders all day, I ended up being on my back for two weeks. I’ve since gone back to the old single-pouch belt.

Norm: But, you know, after five Habitat houses, we have yet to have a “lost time incident” and we’ve never had any overnight hospital stays.

Goes to show you that left-handed folks like me can work on Habitat homes, even if all the power tools are right-handed.

Sam: Norm: One of the things we’re still proud of is that 2000 house blitz. We had a week to get ours done and, you know, we had it done by Thursday.

We sent our folks down to help the docs from the KMA finish their house, too. Of course, the Home Depot guys had theirs done by Tuesday! It helps to have the right tools.

Greg: And, it helps to be allowed to use them.

And, you know, after working on the KBA’s five Habitat projects one thing has become very clear, it’s a great opportunity for lawyers with Sam: varied skill sets and practices to get together outside the courtroom and work together to make a difference in our community. Plus, you can learn fun and valuable skills that you can put to use later around your own house. Our next Habitat project for the KBA, by the way, is upcoming in 2010.

Besides, what else would I be doing on a Saturday morning? Somebody who’s been trained is always there to help teach you and ensure that Greg: you’re doing things right, so there’s a real safety net for our projects.

Norm: Hey, guys, I just got a new miter saw.

Is it compound?

Greg: Norm: Yes… Nice!

Sam:

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

December 2008

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

With you having demonstrated remarkable "emceeing" skills at the recent KBA Ethics Bowl, Tom, DICTA wanted me to follow up with some questions for you.

Tom Jones Game Show Host

TOM:

Ask away.

NICK:

How precisely did you cultivate these skills and talents?

TOM:

My parents were circus performers. We traveled all over the country while I was growing up. When I was young I was the “barker” for their performances, and it just took off from there. Pretty soon, I was emceeing the whole dang circus.

NICK:

So why law school after that?

TOM:

Well, there was this ugly incident between the bearded lady and the fire sword swallower, we all ended up being witnesses, and I just became fascinated with the court system.

NICK:

Are you suggesting there are some similarities between litigation and a circus?

TOM:

Now, Nick, you behave.

NICK:

Is there a possible future in game-show hosting for you?

TOM:

I auditioned in Los Angeles after Bob Barker retired, but television makes my face look full. I mean, look at Don Bosch on Sunday mornings.

NICK:

Good point.

TOM:

But in fairness to Don, he had to do TV. This is a one-newspaper town, and this one newspaper already has its one lawyer.

NICK:

Who? Greg Isaacs, right?

TOM:

Right, so Don had to do something. And Channel 10 makes him wear socks, which he was okay with.

NICK:

So what is it about that no-socks thing?

TOM:

Nick, I thought this interview was about me.

NICK:

Sorry.

TOM:

Nick, may I ask you a question?

NICK:

Hey, I’m the columnist, so I ask the questions here…but--seeing that I’m feeling magnanimous today--sure. Fire away.

TOM:

Do I get more CLE credit for this?

NICK:

Is any bit whatsoever of what you told me true?

TOM:

Well, no.

NICK:

Well…no.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

January 2009

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

For a busy lawyer like yourself, how does having a pet and keeping a pet at your office contribute to your practice and your life?

ANNE McKINNEY Founding Partner, Anne M. McKinney, P.C., and feline aficionado

Oh, it helps in so many ways. My husband is allergic to cats, so I can't keep a cat at home. Because I spend so many hours at work, we compromised: I'll just have my cat join me at work!

Having a cat in a law office is my "reward" of sorts for practicing in a smaller firm. In larger law firms, it would be much harder to keep a pet at work.

My Siamese cat, Boo, is very stress-relieving for me, but also for clients and staff. Boo has some dog-like traits: he follows me from room to room. His favorite place is in my office. If I ever forget him, he sits outside my door and cries. I ask my staff to always inquire if clients or visitors are cat-allergic. Boo's very friendly and attentive, and most of my clients like him.

Boo's predecessor, Willie, was a different cat for two reasons. If there was a glass in the office with any liquid in it, Willie would find a way to tip it over, just to watch its contents spill. After coping with soaked stuff on several occasions, we learned never to leave a drink in a glass if Willie was around! Second, while Boo has his own room in our office, has an automatic feeder, and is comfortable being left alone, Willie hated being alone...especially on Sunday mornings. I learned this when my brother called to ask if I'd been working at 5 a.m. one Sunday morning because he had gotten a strange call from my office at that hour. As best we could tell, Willie had figured out how to punch the redial on my phone: he was lonely and he wanted to hear some human's voice! The last number I had dialed was my brother's. After that happened several other times, we figured out that the last number I should dial before leaving work was the Knox County Public Library. So whenever Willie got lonely, he could hit the redial and hear the nice lady's voice on the answering machine talk to him awhile about library hours, locations, etc.

Having a pet in the office can be a real icebreaker. When clients visit, they so often deal with very serious matters--how to handle assets and savings, inheritance, tax questions, and, frankly, they often face issues that force them to confront their own death--and having a pet nearby can be very reassuring and a stress relief to persons coping with such difficult questions. Boo likes to climb onto peoples' laps and sit in chairs while we have conferences, although on one occasion, he surprised a client. It was a very somber ceremony--the signing of her will--and Boo had sneaked into the conference room while nobody noticed. As my client seated herself, she gasped as this little head suddenly peeked up at her from across the table! We all laughed, and it made a serious moment easier for our client.

Most of my clients ask: "Where's Boo?" He's usually curled up in a chair in my office, soaking up the sun.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

February 2009

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THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

What's your ultimate "last word" as outgoing KBA President?

Adrienne L. Anderson of Kramer Rayson, LLP, Immediate Past-President of the KBA

A: My “ultimate last word” has to be: “Thank you!” I think that I received more benefits out of serving as KBA President than I conferred! I generally think that when one is given a wonderful opportunity, one shouldn’t pass it up, and service as President of the KBA is precisely one of those opportunities. Years ago, I once thought I wouldn’t necessarily want to serve as KBA President, but then I was asked to be Secretary. After that, each time I was asked by the incoming President if I wanted to continue to serve in the KBA’s leadership, I said “yes.” I am glad that I did.

Q: How about the time expectations? Aren’t those an issue for anyone who wants to be President?

A: It certainly can be time-consuming. There are the monthly Board of Governors’ meetings to attend locally, and conference calls and other meetings of course. But, so long as one is good at time management and juggling commitments (or has a fantastic legal assistant) being KBA President is “do-able.” In the last few years, we’ve had several lawyers who had just opened up brand-new law firms, and they were able to serve as KBA Presidents. Even with the obligations, I was still able to provide a healthy year of service to my clients. I admit that there were plenty of nights when I was bone-tired, though!

One of the best things about serving the KBA is that you get a better appreciation for some things that may not always be perceived by the public.

One of those is a renewed appreciation for the high level of professionalism and commitment of the members of the Board of Governors and other KBA leaders. So often I have been impressed by their desire to do the right thing, and the deliberation and time taken by our colleagues who serve on the Board in deciding what is the right thing to do, and how to get there. That effort is especially visible in the more difficult decisions that sometimes have to be made by the Board in leading the KBA. So much of the KBA’s day-to-day work is done by the committees and sections, and the time and energy spent by their members also is phenomenal. One of the very best things about being President of the KBA is that it can powerfully renew a lawyer’s faith in our profession and what we do for the good of our entire community. It also can be, quite simply, a lot of fun!

Q: Any further advice for future KBA Presidents?

A: The principle that I strived to remember and act upon consistently was that what mattered most was the answer to this question: “What is in the best interest of the Knoxville Bar Association?” The KBA’s officers and Board of Governors aren’t there to represent special interests or any particular practice group or practice setting or, for that matter, necessarily even a majority view of the lawyers in Knoxville: they understand that when decisions are made, it comes down to deciding what is in the best interest of the Knoxville Bar Association.

Also, don’t be afraid to delegate! We are blessed at having a fantastic KBA staff: Melanie Connatser, Robin Cox, and Tammy Sharpe, and the best and most incredibly effective executive director of any bar association in Tennessee, Marsha Wilson. I wasn’t afraid to simply ask Marsha, on many occasions, “Well, what do you think?” With her skills and talents, she accomplishes so much that it is mind-boggling.

Finally, although it may go without saying, be proud of how much this organization achieves for both its members and the community. For example, recently I’ve had a renewed appreciation for our Lawyer Referral and Information Service. After meeting with bar leaders from across the State, I’m convinced that this service is second to none in Tennessee. It is an asset not only to our lawyers, but to the community and public at large. It is just one example of the many successes of the KBA!

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

March 2009

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

Can you tell us how you became involved in founding the Suffrage Memorial on Market Square, and some of the “hidden history” aspects of the women’s suffrage movement?

WANDA G. SOBIESKI Partner, Sobieski, Messer & Associates, PLLC

It's worth noting that the Market Square monument is dedicated to the "Suffragists." People often mistakenly call these pioneers "suffragettes" when the women themselves preferred to be called suffragists: the French suffix "-ette" is a diminutive suffix that stands for a lesser or imitation version of something, so “-ette” has a demeaning aspect about it. The suffragists also took pains to refer to their movement as being Woman--not Women's—Suffrage because they really saw themselves acting on behalf of women as living, breathing individuals, not as some anonymous collective.

I became interested in this topic in the 1970s while involved in the Equal Rights campaign. I was shocked by some of the arguments against constitutional equality for women. A colleague claimed: "That's exactly what they said about woman suffrage--that it would destroy the American family." I couldn't get my mind off that, so I began researching the campaign for women’s right to vote.

We forget that it took a 72-year effort for American women to get their voting rights. Often, we also forget exactly what that effort entailed--particularly, women's legal rights. In those days, women had few legal rights, were thought to be unfeminine if they spoke in public, could not serve as witnesses or on juries—in fact, Susan B. Anthony could not even testify in her own defense at her own trial for the crime of voting! Most women did not have independent funds because men controlled their money. Women did not even have rights to their own children: children belonged exclusively to the father, who could simply give them away without the mother having any say in their fates. So, the legal status of American women in those days was staggering. What's amazing is that this campaign was won non-violently. So often, people around the world have only gotten rights to vote through bloodshed, civil war, or profound violence.

After realizing how unprecedented the suffragist movement was historically, I began collecting memorabilia, including original primary sources.

(One of my favorite items is my collection of "melting pot" photos. Because of the difficulties in fundraising, suffragists sometimes held parties at which they would melt down gold jewelry in special pots; then they could sell the gold to raise funds for the campaign.) And, I couldn't help but become aware of the role that Tennessee--particularly, East Tennessee--played in ensuring the final success of woman suffrage. East Tennessee is rightly called the Birthplace of Suffrage. After all, had Harry Burn, a young East Tennessee congressman, not cast the tie-breaking vote, making Tennessee the 36th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, who knows when women would have gotten the right to vote?

About 1995, a friend casually said, "Have you ever noticed there are no statues to women while there are plenty for men, mostly military heroes?"

So, it became clear that we needed something appropriate to recognize the energy and vision of these heroic and dedicated women.

As we began considering a memorial, we knew that we needed to recognize a suffrage leader from each of Tennessee's Grand Divisions. That's why there are three women on the memorial; Lizzie Crozier French, the leading statue, was an East Tennessean. Note too that the banner they carry--patterned after the National Woman's Party's banners--is also divided in threes, containing the names of other suffrage leaders from each Grand Division. Rather than have a pedestal for the statue that would provide no context, we took pains to develop panels to provide the history and a better understanding of Tennessee's suffrage campaign.

To have the woman's suffrage campaign be decided based on leaders and efforts in the South--after so much effort was expended in the North--is in its own way a special tribute, I suppose, and something for which we can all be proud.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

April 2009

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

True or false: Being an in-house lawyer does not necessarily equate to a way to improve one’s golf handicap?

TRACY EDMUNDSON

JOHN ARNOLD

General Counsel, DeRoyal Industries

President, EdSouth

John: It does not equate to even playing golf, in my case!

Tracy: I'd have to agree with that. It lessens, not increases, the frequency with which I play golf.

John: Unless the best stick in your golf bag is a pencil-and-eraser!

Q: Don’t you think that many lawyers have misperceptions as to the experience of in-house work and life?

John: That’s true to some degree. Some lawyers think that because you can focus on “just” one client--and no billing pressure—that the in-house life must be relatively easier than practice in a law firm. However, as an outside lawyer, you can often get to drill down in the weeds and focus your energies and outlook on specialized cases or topics. For many in-house practitioners, our work load can radically increase; most in-house law departments just don’t have the depth or manpower to staff up all of their projects like law firms would. Law firms can use a team approach to examining and tackling issues; with fewer lawyers to do the work, in-house corporate counsel can find that their workload actually increases--not only because there is more work to be handled, but because of management’s expectations for the in-house counsel to save legal bills and keep more legal work handled internally rather than outsource it to an outside law firm.

Tracy: I agree with all that, plus, there’s no self-limiting factor like a law firm invoice which limits utilization of outside counsel by management.

Once you become “overhead,” more utilization is always better than less utilization, in the eyes of management.

Q: So, if the workload can be greater than that at a law firm, then why would one want to be an in-house lawyer?

Tracy: I like being part of the business team, of being more than “just” the legal hired gun who’s brought in to deal with a narrow part of the project.

Also, not having to keep track of billable hours removes one of the constant “hassles” of private practice.

John: You get to find out first-hand that the hard work justifies the end result; you learn how to be an effective part of a bigger team, and when you are really part of a team, you find that just makes it all that much harder to walk away from things. You’ve learned your client so well that you have become a critical part of the client, and you can see its projects through from start to finish in a way that’s often less visible to outside lawyers. As an in-house counsel, I’ve gotten to see 90% of the company’s projects, whether the project was killed at the outset or made it through to completion; you get to be a part of setting and reorienting goals to help those projects and corporate goals be achieved. All of that, and working closely with non-lawyers in a highly business-oriented setting, makes you a better team member and lawyer, as well as benefitting your corporate client.

Tracy: Plus, it’s exciting to work in–house: you never know from one day to the next what you’re going to face at work.

John: Nine out of ten times, you get to pick a field of law you like or enjoy. Even if the workload can be intense--and you can try to get outside counsel involved to lessen that load or take on the more highly specialized legal tasks--you still can get to focus in-house on that area of law that you like the most, while still taking on a whole host of other issues that can move you outside of your “comfort zone.”

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

May 2009

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

As one who has devoted your law practice for some years to the pursuit of civil litigation, how did you begin cultivating a criminal defense practice recently?

FRANCIS L. LLOYD, JR., Kramer Rayson LLP

When I was in law school from 1978-1981, I worked during two summers in my home town of Winchester, Virginia for a solo practitioner, Mr. Gunter, who did criminal defense work. At that stage in my life, what I was doing was very exciting. I recall working with Mr. Gunter on a motion to suppress the fruits of a search on the basis of a deficient affidavit in support of a warrant. To my pleasant astonishment--considering we were before a very conservative Virginia circuit court--Mr. Gunter won the case, and all the fruits of the search were suppressed. It was exciting for me to be a minor participant in a case upholding an individual’s constitutional rights.

But, along the way, I became convinced that I needed to do other things. Like so many of us, upon graduation from law school, I was concerned about making a living and paying off student debt, and I may have lacked some of the necessary confidence at the time to try to make a go at establishing a criminal defense practice.

Over time, I have developed an increasing concern that those of us in society who do not enjoy all of the advantages that others do, do not get fair treatment and equal justice under the law. I became concerned, for example, about fair treatment of some of our fellow citizens who have been subjected to surveillance under the Patriot Act. When I read the British international law writer and human rights lawyer Philippe Sands’ book Torture Team, I became concerned that the republic of my birth, the republic that we have inherited from Jefferson and Madison, is not merely ignoring fundamental principles of fairness and respect for individual human rights, but that there are some who would set us on a path to disavow those principles.

With these concerns, two things came together for me to work towards shifting my practice to criminal defense and advocacy for human rights.

First, commercial and other civil litigation now produces fewer trials, and that’s just not satisfying to me. Second, at the latest Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference, our district judges issued a call to lawyers to become involved in Criminal Justice Act work, to represent individuals in cases in which the Federal Defender has a conflict. I heard what the judges said, and I felt that I had to respond to it.

One of the senior lawyers in Kramer Rayson, where I practice currently, G. Wilson Horde, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, keeps on his desk a paperweight with a Michelangelo quotation: “I am still learning.” The fact that a senior lawyer like Wilson Horde keeps that on his desk is inspiring to me, as I too am learning every day.

I very much enjoy how my practice is changing. When I encounter clients--often they are in custody--I have an opportunity to speak with them as individuals and to let them tell their stories. I find it fascinating because I enjoy learning about individuals and the seemingly infinite varieties of situations in which they put themselves. I also find it has been very helpful to me to encounter and try to help people who have experienced very adverse circumstances and who, in such cases, sometimes remind me of relatives and other people with whom I grew up. I find that these experiences reaffirm and enhance my own humanity, which I believe can be easily lost in the course of practicing law.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

June 2009

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

It’s been said that “Sid does not just practice law; he lives it,” so what has it been like to live in downtown Knoxville, as well as maintaining a law practice downtown?

SIDNEY W. GILREATH Gilreath & Associates

I’ve lived all over this area from Farragut, to Dandridge (a one-hour daily commute each way). Being able to walk to work is nice!

My first taste of downtown life was living in Kendrick Place during the World’s Fair while our house was being remodeled. Downtown has really changed since the early 1980s, but that experience gave me an idea of how it could work. My thinking was also influenced by my friends in my favorite city, Chicago, who live and work downtown.

While it may not work for everyone, downtown living allows me to integrate my life and law practice in ways that may be difficult for other lawyers to envision. For instance, I now live an easy four block walk from my office. The fuel savings alone are fantastic: I can drive for a month on one tank of gas. I can do most everything I need to do without having to get in the car. I even walk to the Downtown YMCA, which has a magnificent workout facility. I do have to drive to the grocery store and drugstore but I would have to drive to those no matter where I lived in Knoxville.

A casual stroll offers a great selection of good restaurants covering everything from American, Cuban, French, Chinese, and Italian, to an English pub and first rate sushi -- with more options on the way. There are so many entertainment and cultural opportunities downtown now: I can easily walk to the movies, or shows at the Tennessee Theater and Bijou; visit the local art galleries and enjoy “First Friday” events and exhibitions; and I’m close to activities at the Convention Center and on campus. The Farmers’ Market on Market Square is also a great way to spend a Saturday.

Raking leaves, cleaning gutters, and mowing the grass are three things I don’t miss in downtown living. I’ve heard it said that there are three things a person over 50 shouldn’t have: a tractor, a ladder, and a horse. Growing up on a farm in Sevier County, I don’t miss any of those, either.

One of the best things about living downtown is how friendly most of the people are in this neighborhood. It is nice to have the time to get to know the people living and working downtown who I encounter on a regular basis in stores and restaurants. I love to wander about and see all kinds of different people, and enjoy the sights and activities on Market Square.

The older you get, the more you come to appreciate and value the importance of time. The ability to spend virtually no time commuting, gives me more time to devote to my practice and the things that matter to me. This is something that I treasure about downtown life.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

August 2009

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

How does being an amateur sports car racer jibe with being the executive director of a large legal aid organization?

DAVID YODER Executive Director, LAET

Well, let me clarify that, since “amateur sports car racer” may conjure up an exaggerated image of what I do. This isn’t the 24 hours of Daytona!

What I do is called SOLO II or, by some, autocrossing. It is one car at a time around a tight course set up with orange cones over a large parking lot.

It is a timed event, with cars divided into competitive classes. A typical event provides for 4-8 attempts at running the course. The typical run is from 30 to 60 seconds, depending on course length and complexity and the car and driver.

In years gone by, I used to be involved in TSD rallying, drag racing, and Pro Rally as a worker (“pre-sweep” is another story). SOLO II is a very safe form of racing. The East Tennessee Region of the Sports Car Club of America takes safety very seriously. The most serious injury I’ve seen yet was to a spectator who broke her ankle falling down the hill from which she was watching an event. I’ve seen some broken suspensions, a Camaro parked around a telephone pole, and a few encounters with curbs. There’s only so much that you can do with some folks.

I don’t know if SOLO II exactly “jibes” with being the ED of a legal aid program, but let me offer some thoughts. Being ED of LAET, I find it hard to mentally and physically get away, but in SOLO II, for 30-60 seconds a lap, I have nothing else on my mind. A driver must know exactly where they are and where they are going, but also must look far ahead on the course to be successful. By the same token, nothing is as irrelevant as the rearview mirror. “Situational awareness” is everything.

SOLO II is preparation, practice a/k/a “seat time,” and concentration. It probably requires more hand-and-eye coordination than the practice of law! It’s a great group of people--a diverse mix, too--who, by and large, are great to be with and compete with. They have a unique knowledge base and perspective on their craft: caster and camber, understeer, oversteer, push and rotation mean as much to them as res judicata and stare decisis do to lawyers. It is incredibly competitive, but not usually adversarial. I’ve had many drivers offer to let me drive their cars; I’ve never had opposing counsel offer to let me compete using their oral argument.

There may be some kind of equivalence between driving an older, inexpensive car against newer and more experienced competition, and representing poor folk against government, corporations, or the occasional rich landlord. Some in the class in which I now compete have spent a fortune on their cars. There may be something in common about doing more with less; about surprising people when you win; about working hard at your craft.

I am learning that SOLO II is, at some point, not about getting better or faster with age. I also serve as a safety steward, which calls into play many lawyer’s skills. And, while cheating and racing are often viewed as synonymous, as a driver as well as a lawyer, I cannot cheat. If I cheated and got caught in SOLO II, the rap would be: “He cheats…and he’s a lawyer.”

I’m not done yet--in either my work or my hobby--but I can see a day. A bad day is still a bad day, and I hate to make a mistake or lose a competition. But, all in all, great experiences; great memories; great friends, all-around.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

September 2009

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Q: A:

You often reflect on the Book of Micah’s verse: “Do justice, love mercy, and walk in humility with your God.” Would you care to elaborate as to how that translates into your life as a Criminal Court judge?

THE HON. MARY BETH LEIBOWITZ Judge of Division III, Criminal Court

In Criminal Court, we deal with human beings on a daily basis—some are bad; some are sad; some are pitiful; some are arrogant or obnoxious—but the common thread is that they are all human beings, reflecting all the aspects of the human condition. And, we are asked to apply the law to human beings every day. Therefore, we criminal judges tend to be less oriented towards the typical stuff of daily life and law, and more towards those elements of society and behaviors that average folk ought never to have to see—but, again, everyone with whom we deal are humans.

Some of those humans need to be put in a penitentiary forever; others need a chance; some have mental health issues that both our society and our courts are ill equipped to handle. While I never took psychology, I am a student of anthropology and, every day, I have to work to understand these folks who show up in court —all of them—the victims and the witnesses—even the lawyers. I have to be balanced and even-keel and try to project a laid-back demeanor while remaining a plain person like everyone else.

As a Jew, a woman, and a Democrat in Knoxville—especially, the first two of those things—the Constitution of the United States keeps me free and gives me an enormous opportunity that I would never have had anywhere else in the history of the world. So, I have sworn an oath to support that Constitution for that very reason. I’m a second-generation American, and I am my grandparents’ American dream. They would have flipped, I’m sure, if they’d ever known that I would be a judge. So, I feel like I have a duty to them and to the citizens who put me here, and to everyone who walks into this courtroom, to do what I‘m here for: to do justice, to know who I am and where I came from, and to do mercy.

So, what’s mercy? It can be as simple an act as stopping a lawyer and asking, “How are you doing today?”, or remembering somebody, or giving the jury a little more time to decide—in other words, treating the people appearing before the court with dignity. (I’ve even had to supply toilet paper to a jury on occasion.) These are all “justice” and “mercy” things.

I think the criminal justice system in Knox County works pretty well at the moment. We’re not here to serve up vengeance, but to do justice, and we have to do that in each and every case. The trial courts are averaging 1,000 cases a year, and each defendant is as important as the next one or the last one.

But, you know, it is a lot of fun to be a Criminal Court judge. Funny things do happen just about every day to give us a laugh. If not, and if we lost our senses of humor, we’d lose our edge. Those humorous moments help—maybe it’s the defendant who, when asked if he’d been drinking, said he had “had six good beers.” (The jury hung. We still talk about that one.)

I love the courtroom better than anything; it’s what keeps me going. I consider myself a lawyer first and foremost; being a judge is the role in which the people have asked me to serve. I tell everyone that I’m on duty 24 hours a day. Like other elected and public officials, the people have those expectations for me.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

October 2009

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

For what things do you feel thankful during this Thanksgiving holiday season?

Bob Bailey, Bailey & Bailey, PLLC: I am thankful for having met so many interesting and diverse people during my 30 years of practicing law.

While the law is an adversarial profession, I have constantly been impressed by the civility of the Knoxville bar and the friendly and helpful nature of the people of East Tennessee. The practice of law is stressful, but it helps that most people in this area have a healthy sense of humor that allows us to survive the tough times. I also tell young lawyers that they should be thankful for lunch, as it will probably be the highlight of their day.

Suzanne Bauknight, U.S. Attorney’s Office: For what am I truly thankful? First and foremost, I am truly thankful for God’s mercy and grace, which are real in my life as evidenced by my beautiful and healthy Tessie Mae and Sarah Grace; a husband who could not be a better teammate and soulmate; and colleagues with whom I can share professional and personal victories and challenges.

What more could anyone ask?

Rev. Charles Fels, The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, & Of Counsel-Ritchie, Dillard & Davies: I am grateful for the unexpected discovery that we all continue to grow, regardless of age.

Marcia Kilby, DeRoyal Industries: I am thankful for the love and support of my family and friends; for a wonderful husband who has followed me around this year as I have tried to follow U2 around; and for a house that is still standing despite the best efforts of Annie, our new puppy.

Barbara Muhlbeier, Pinnacle Financial Partners: This Thanksgiving season, I am deeply grateful for friends and family, including my Pinnacle family, for their support and thoughtfulness over the last several months. I had surgery in August, and I have been overwhelmed by the many expressions of concern and offers of assistance. During a tough time, some very dear people have rallied around me, and for that I feel truly fortunate.

Mary Ann Stackhouse, Lewis, King, Krieg & Waldrop: I am thankful for the life I have been given, but I realize it is a charmed life. I am thankful for my devoted husband, hardworking daughter, and the opportunity to see life through the prism of my grandson’s eyes, full of wonder and mischief; for my brother, with whom I share memories of growing up, getting in trouble, and living to tell about it; and for my friends and colleagues who endure my foibles. I am thankful to live in a country where I may offer these remarks with no fear of reprisal, and to be a member of a profession whose goals of justice and service I hope to never dishonor. Lastly, I am grateful for the disciplined and joyful example my parents set for me and the faith they offered. First-generation Americans, my parents worked hard, smoothing a nearly pebble-free path. There are many who have not been as fortunate. I only hope I may walk as faithfully with others as others have walked with me.

Last but not least:

Marsha Wilson, the KBA’s Executive Director: I am thankful that I have supportive friends and family, that I have a roof over my head and that I am in good health. I am thankful that my sons are growing up strong and healthy, and working hard in school. I am thankful for the KBA and all of the attorneys and judges that make up the Association. I am thankful for the contributions of our diverse and conscientious Board of Governors. I am also very grateful to our Committee and Section Chairs for their patience, hard work and good humor. I am constantly amazed at the amount of time our dedicated volunteers give to this association. I am thankful that I have had opportunities to work with the young lawyers in our community. They constantly keep me on my toes, never cease to amaze me, and remind me that the future of the legal community is in good hands. And, I am thankful for the KBA staff. Anyone who meets our dedicated team knows that they bring a level of professionalism to the KBA of which we can be really proud.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

November 2009

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

“Tis the season,” as they say. Would you please share with DICTA’s readers the tale of your worst holiday-season job experience ever?

JOHN WILLIS Fox & Farley

(Editor’s Note: John’s tale is kind of a cross between Charles Dickens and Upton Sinclair; think of young Scrooge’s days working for Mr. Fezziwig in “A Christmas Carol” meeting “The Jungle.” Fans of holiday ham and for those who are easily grossed-out, take warning.)

It was while I was in law school, I needed money to take a ski trip with a group of buddies, and a couple of these guys suggested I work with them at a certain company that sold baked hams with a good, sweet glaze. As I found out, you can't underestimate the number of hams this place sold over such a short period of time. Needing the money, I agreed; the day after my last December exam, I reported for work at 6 a.m. I would work 10 days straight, 18 hours a day.

Let me say that this was the most impressive, efficient operation I have ever seen. While the hams had already been baked before arriving at the store, we spiral-sliced them, cut them in half, and glazed them there in the store.

The division of labor would have impressed Henry Ford! There was definitely a hierarchy in terms of the labor. At the bottom were the guys who simply carried the hams from the glazing station to the wrapping station. That's all they did, all day long. At the top were the glazers, brandishing blowtorches all day long in that devil-may-care way. I ran the spiral slicer. If you had a job, that is what you did, and nothing else, all day long. There wasn't time to leave for lunch, so they fixed lunch for us. You guessed it: ham sandwiches. To increase morale, the supervisor would hand out blow-pop suckers at different times during the day.

Man, was that a treat!

At the end of the day, around midnight, the last thing we did after cleanup was to roll out fresh cardboard on every square inch of floor for the next day. The second-to-last thing we did was to roll up the old cardboard, with ham shavings about three inches deep -- I wore leather boots that smelled like ham for two years after working there -- and took the old cardboard out to the dumpster in the back. Word had spread among the various groups of feral cats in Knoxville, and out at the dumpster, waiting for that ham-stuffed cardboard burrito, were about 30-40 cats waiting to chow down. Then it was off to home for a few hours of sleep until the next morning.

The bad: I was surrounded by so much ham in such a short period of time that I just couldn't eat the stuff for about three years. It was on your clothes, on the floor, inside your shoes. I think the smell clung to me so long, I attracted wild animals for weeks. Also, I'd never operated on less sleep for so many days. And, because guys would quit throughout the days leading up to Christmas (just too much ham, I guess), as it got busier, we had less folks to do the work. So, it really got hectic. There was no down time whatsoever through the day.

The good: This is hyperbole to some extent, I know, but there really was a foxhole mentality that formed in that little kitchen, with the blades slicing and the blowtorches going. We had rock-and-roll playing loudly on the radio. It was a time of intense bonding among the few, the (not so) proud, the ham workers. (I half-expected our supervisor –- he was named Bubba, no kidding -- to walk in at 6 a.m. with no shirt on and say, "I love the smell of swine in the morning," in our own ham-slicing version of “Apocalypse Now.”) Also, I made enough money to go skiing.

Let me add that I'm disappointed DICTA doesn't give you an expense account to conduct these interviews properly over martinis and a steak dinner somewhere.

Nick: Let me add that I share your disappointment, John, but we of the KBA are a fiscally prudent group. Can I treat you to a beer…and a ham sandwich?

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

December 2009

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

Was it watching too many episodes of “Magnum, P.I.” or “Hawaii Five-O” that made you want to try out surfing in Hawaii on your family vacation a while back?

Norman G. Templeton Egerton, McAfee, Armistead & Davis, P.C., and noted surf aficionado

We decided to go to Hawaii last year because my oldest son Ian was preparing to begin his senior year at Farragut High School; before he and my other three children started off to college, we wanted to take a special trip. We thought about the Caribbean, but once we tallied the cost for Wendy and I and our four children, we decided, why not Hawaii?

So we planned a two-week trip with a few days on Oahu and the rest on Maui. Although I can be spontaneous, I have learned that planning is a good thing with four children because if you don’t, most of the surprises tend to be of the unpleasant variety. I’ve also learned that you have to be flexible and not be so rigid that you can’t change your plans as you go along.

We stayed on Waikiki Beach while on Oahu with a great balcony view of Diamondhead. One of the first things we did was to walk down the beach to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (Waikiki’s famous pink hotel), depicted in many movies and the opening scene for the “Hawaii Five-O” TV show. We spent most of one day at Pearl Harbor, where we not only visited the Arizona, we also explored the submarine USS Bowfin and the battleship USS Missouri. It is an incredible feeling to be in the harbor at the Arizona memorial where that Great War started for our Country, and then a short time later to be on the “Mighty Mo” where Admiral Nimitz, Admiral Halsey, and General MacArthur accepted Japan’s surrender, ending World War II. As one who has family members who fought in the Pacific Theater, and as a student of history, it was an indescribable feeling of awe, reverence and gratitude for those who gave their lives fighting for our Nation in that very harbor and all over the world in that great conflict.

We traveled to Oahu’s north, including beautiful Waimea Bay and the “Bonsai Pipeline” where so many great surfing competitions take place, and the home of the 30-foot waves. Since we were there in late May through mid-June, we did not get to experience the legendary waves (they occur in the wintertime), but it was still a beautiful and private beach that was well worth the trip. My boys went cliff-jumping off the volcanic rocks jutting into the bay (my daughter Sarah opted to catch some rays and take pictures instead), and we experienced a sunset straight out of a movie. I could see in my mind’s eye all of those surfing competitions on ABC’s Wide World of Sports “from beautiful Waimea Bay.” That night, we ate at an off-the-beaten-path restaurant frequented by surfers. Surfing memorabilia was everywhere. That, plus the afternoon we had just spent, got me thinking about surfing. As part of our advance planning, we had booked surfing lessons on Maui for all of the kids. We also planned to go snorkeling out to Molokini, the beautiful, half-sunken, crescent-shaped volcanic crater southwest of Maui; the kids and I also planned a trip to the rim of Maui’s Haleakala volcano to watch the sunrise and then to bike ride down the mountain (Wendy opted to sleep in for that one).

We stayed at the Grand Wailea resort on Maui’s southwest coast -- I’ve stayed in some nice resorts before, but this one was simply exquisite -- in a townhouse on top of a hill at Haleakala’s foot, looking over the bay where you could see Molokini and the islands of Lanai and Kahoolawa. If you go to Maui, don’t miss the opportunity to stay at the Grand Wailea.

The big day came for my kids’ surfing lessons. When we arrived, Wendy and I couldn’t resist -- we just HAD to jump in and take lessons ourselves. Whether it was “Book ‘em, Dan-O,” Wide World of Sports, or all of the Duke Kahanamoku paraphernalia I had seen on Oahu, or just a mid-life man wanting to feel 20 again, I grabbed a board and rash-guard shirt and joined in. It was a blast! Of the six of us, the one who picked up the sport the fastest was . . . Wendy! I had been wake-surfing on the lake -- which is done on a short surfboard -- and I could ride for a long time, while Wendy had not been able to get the hang of it despite a number of attempts. But on the waves, she was the Queen of “hanging ten.”

Eventually, all six of us learned to paddle out, catch a wave, get up on the board and ride all the way to shore; every one of us loved it. (It’s always special when you find something that all your kids enjoy).

I could write more about snorkeling to Molokini; our bike trip to Haleakala’s rim and then back down; swimming out to Black Rock (Pu’u Keka’a) at Kaanapali Beach to jump off the cliffs where ancient Hawaiians believed that their spirits left this world; and many other experiences. Of them all, learning to surf was truly a highlight that our entire family will always remember.

I did make one important discovery while in Hawaii -- I am actually Polynesian! It is just some cruel twist of fate or God’s sense of humor that I was born in East Tennessee of Scottish, Irish, German, and English descent; on the inside, I am really Polynesian. The next time I get ready to visit my Hawaiian “homeland,” if you want to join me, just give me a call, and I promise you a great tour. Aloha nui loa!

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

January 2010

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THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

So, Karen, how does a “high-octane” lawyer become an equally high-octane collegiate-level women’s softball coach?

Karen Weekly Co-Head Coach of the UT Women’s Softball Team, and lawyer

I knew as a 9 or 10-year-old child that I wanted to be a lawyer. Like many others, my quest to right injustices fueled this desire. I often told my parents that I was going to be the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court. I've also loved sports of all kinds and competition for as long as I can remember. I began to play organized fastpitch softball when I was 8. Basketball, however, was my true love; as a Seattle native, I dreamed of being the first girl to play for the Supersonics. My father built a basketball court in our backyard, complete with lights so that my sisters and I could play long into the night. In high school I lettered in tennis, basketball, and softball, playing travel fastpitch softball in the summers.

Collegiate athletic scholarships for women were scarce in the early 1980s, so other factors motivated my higher education choices. I attended Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington where I started on both the basketball and softball teams. My skills were more suited to softball, and I earned All-American and Academic All American honors in that sport. Our softball team advanced to the National Tournament during both my junior and senior seasons. I also received an excellent education, double majoring in history and political science.

In fall 1987, I entered the University of Washington School of Law. During my first semester, I really missed being part of an athletic team.

Since sports had been a huge part of my life for so long, I sensed a great void. So, during my "1L" spring, I volunteered to help with my former softball team at PLU. I continued that throughout law school. Even if I could only make a couple of weekly practices, it satisfied my desire to stay involved in athletics.

I graduated from UW in 1990 and accepted a position with Williams, Kastner & Gibbs, a large Seattle law firm. The hiring partner was a PLU alumnus and had played baseball there. He also organized the firm’s men’s slowpitch softball team. During the hiring process, they noted that my athletic experiences and achievements illustrated an ability to goal-set, work within a team, persevere through adversity, and multi-task, and these attributes set me apart from other candidates. I still maintain that their need for a second baseman on the men’s team was the deciding factor in my hire! Over the next four years, I developed my skills in civil litigation, focusing on insurance defense, employment, and environmental cases.

As a young law firm associate, I had little time for coaching. During my years of volunteering, however, I had developed a close relationship with my future husband Ralph, who was PLU's head softball coach and an assistant football coach. Through that relationship I remained involved with the team, and we were eventually married in July 1994. Shortly thereafter, Ralph was offered the head softball coach position at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. About that same time, he was selected to the USA National Team Coaching Pool. We moved to Chattanooga in autumn 1994, and I joined the Grant, Konvalinka & Harrison firm.

In summer 1995, Ralph was selected to be an assistant coach for the first-ever USA Olympic Softball Team which would compete in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The team spent spring and summer of 1996 touring and competing throughout the US in preparation for the games in late summer. Also in the summer of 1995, a position opened in UTC's School of Business Administration, teaching Legal Environment of Business. I saw an opportunity to teach, which is something I always believed I would enjoy and which offered the flexibility to share fully in this once-in-a-lifetime Olympic experience with Ralph. Thus, I began a teaching career that spanned the next six years. The more flexible schedule of a college professor allowed me to resume volunteering on the softball field. From 1996 through 2001 Ralph became more involved with USA Softball, working with them on a full-time basis for a two-year period. I assumed UTC's head coaching duties alongside my academic schedule, during his absences. During seven years at UTC, our teams won six regular season championships and five tournament championships.

When Joan Cronan, UT's Women’s Athletics Director, called during the summer of 2001 regarding the softball coaching position, she made it clear that she wanted to hire both of us as co-head softball coaches. She also emphasized that the job demands would not allow me to continue my teaching activities. It was tough for me to leave both the academic side of higher education and working in a legal-related field. But, we were excited about the opportunities to work together, build a championship-level program at UT, and impact the lives of so many young student-athletes.

I never left a career or job because I didn’t like it. I am fortunate in saying that I've thoroughly enjoyed every position I held. My journey from the law to sports has been more one of seizing new and exciting opportunities when they arose. I still miss the intellectual challenges of practicing law, as well as being a faculty member and the classroom exchange with students. But coaching continues to feed my passions for teaching and sports.

And I am blessed to coach in one of the nation's premier athletic programs in a beautiful state that has truly become home.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

February 2010

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Q: A:

By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

As one who has been a pro football player, lawyer, and now a Juvenile Court judge, how did you get to become a local rock-and-roll celebrity with “The Chillbillies”?

The Hon. Timothy E. Irwin Knox County Juvenile Court Judge

The way I got started with the band was by singing with them. Our drummer, Teddy Phillips, and our keyboard player, George Massengill, asked me if I’d be interested in performing with them.

When we got started, we weren’t yet The Chillbillies—that name was decided upon later—and early on, we used to play lots of nights at the old “Dog House” restaurant in Rocky Hill. We also played at other places locally for the door cover; then, people liked us and began asking to hire us for weddings, parties, and other big events. Soon enough, we got to be the opening act for several big-name performers, like Hank Williams, Jr. and Aaron Tippin, and our name recognition was starting to get around out there. The next thing you know, we were being booked for more “big-time” events.

Maintaining a certain level of fun: that’s what I’d say is The Chillbillies’ number one most important distinguishing characteristic. We pride ourselves on being a serious and talented band of musicians, but we do this for the fun. Our drummer, Teddy Phillips, feels exactly the same way about this that I do. Our keyboardist, George Massengill, is from the Cookeville area. George now lives in Knoxville, and I tend to characterize him as a bluesy singer who plays with a lot of classic rock, and does a great job on Delbert McClinton songs. Larry Patton, our bass player, is an old picker from San Antonio who now lives in Cookeville. Larry’s very versatile and provides much of the harmony for The Chillbillies as well as being lead singer. Don Taylor, our saxophone player, was one of the original members of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s horn section: he sings high harmony when not playing the sax. Our second guitar player, Lewell Molen, has been going strong with us for four or five years—he owns his own recording studio and before that, he played four or five years for Lorrie Morgan’s band. Besides being a great singer, Lewell can play just about any type of music that’s out there.

Our common denominator is that we play a lot of classic rock and blues and also lots of country music, all for the fun of it. If you want to hear slow, romantic tunes: all I can say is that you had better call us well ahead of time! I figure that we are one of the very few bands out there that can play “My Girl,” a Johnny Cash medley, then “Sweet Home, Alabama,” and top that all off with Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World,” and do it all back-to-back without taking a break. We tend to change gears a lot, musically speaking. You know, we’ve never had a complete song list, simply because the list is constantly changing.

One other distinctive thing about us: while we practice individually, we never practice together as a band. We just show up and decide what we’re going to play about twenty minutes before the gig begins. If anybody is curious about us and want to learn more, just look us up at www.chillbillies.net.

As much as I love music and The Chillbillies and as big a release as playing music is for me, I’m pretty sure that I will be hanging onto my “day job.”

It’s nice to go out with the band, share our music, and have some fun. It is a great stress reliever from the issues I face on a daily basis in Juvenile Court.

By the way, do you see that picture of us wearing our bowling shirts? That’s The Chillbillies’ equivalent of tuxedoes. We’re really playing somewhere big-time if we’re wearing the bowling shirts.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

March 2010

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THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

It’s a change of pace for you from your years of service as a UT law professor, but what can you tell us about the Baker Center and what it has to offer for Knoxville lawyers and citizens?

Professor Carl Pierce Interim Director, Howard H Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, The University of Tennessee

Our focus at the Baker Center is on facilitating research on public policy issues, furthering public knowledge of our system of governance, and highlighting the critical importance of public service, for the benefit of policy makers, citizens, scholars, and students. Our mission statement says it best: “The Center is dedicated to promoting and understanding the responsibilities and rewards of public service and the importance of each citizen’s active involvement in the democratic process. It emphasizes teaching civility, leadership, and open-mindedness upon which bipartisan public policy can be built.” Along with various departments and constituencies of the University of Tennessee, we have forged partnerships with ORNL, TVA, and the Y-12 National Security Complex to help us explore a number of important public policy program areas, particularly in the areas of energy and the environment, global security, and health.

As you can imagine, the Center looks both outwardly to the community and inwardly to the University of which it is a part. Within the University the Center seeks to collaborate with a host of academic programs across UT in the development of research projects and programs.

Senator Baker and Chancellor Jimmy Cheek are committed to the Center becoming an integral part of UT and contributing to campus-wide educational programs across UT-K, in addition to building connections to the larger community through the Center’s many public programs. With respect to the understanding and improvement of our unique system of governance and the formulation of sound public policy, I see the Baker Center as a wonderful and unique bridge between the University and many communities it has always sought to serve.

For public programs, we feature speakers, public workshops, and conferences intended to bring in experts for purposes of improving knowledge and understanding of various subject matters. We also think it is important that our public programs afford citizens the opportunity to share their ideas with the experts and policymakers.

The Center promotes research: while we are not an academic program per se, we seek to work with UT’s other departments to aid in developing a public policy-based core curriculum of courses for those academic programs. The Baker Center’s staff works hard to coordinate and provide support to the UT faculty members and students and outside experts involved in the substantive academic work. Our staff ’s challenge is to engage and coordinate the human resources with the requisite expertise and experience in those areas of endeavor in which the Center is focused.

It also helps that the Baker Center has an absolutely wonderful facility: meeting spaces, classrooms, a top-notch museum with incredible artifacts, and Presidential-quality archives. Our holdings in our Modern Political Archives, or “MPA,” currently include, among others, the papers of Senator Baker, Estes Kefauver, Bill Brock, Fred Thompson, Victor Ashe, former Tennessee Chief Justice Riley Anderson, Governors Dunn and Sundquist, Harold Ford Jr., and Judges Hull and Taylor. (In fact, we currently have a student working on a program based on Judge Taylor’s papers.) We are always working to promote and support research using our MPA archives, as well as adding further to its (MPA’s) collections. We promote use of our Museum—which has some incredible political mementoes, many from the Senator’s own collection—as an invaluable teaching tool for K-through-12 classes on the American political system and what makes it so unique.

The Baker Center is currently conducting a national search for a full-time director. Senator Baker and Chancellor Cheek agree that the goal of the search to find the best possible leader for the Center in its next important phase of growth. In this regard, I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the Center’s first Director, Alan Lowe, who laid the groundwork with excellent public programming, several significant conferences, the development of the Center’s programs, and the construction of our magnificent facility.

When I was asked to assume the responsibility of being the Interim Director, it was a privilege for me to accept the appointment. It has certainly been a new adventure and is a very important undertaking. Working closely with Senator Baker and Chancellor Cheek in forging new directions for the Center has been wonderful.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

April 2010

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THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Nick McCall Tennessee Valley Authority

What special challenges and opportunities do you encounter in working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office?

Charles E. (Chuck) Atchley, Jr., Suzanne H. Bauknight, and Loretta S. Harber Assistant U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee

SUZANNE: Those “challenges and opportunities” can vary somewhat between the Civil Division (in which Loretta and I serve), and the Criminal Division (in which Chuck serves).

However, there’s at least one thing that both groups, and the Appellate Division, have in common: that is the opportunity to do justice. That’s what we’re all about. On the civil side, if a case needs to be tried, we try it; if it should be settled or referred back to the client, that’s Suzanne Bauknight and Chuck Atchley what we do. Throughout our office, we take very seriously our role in doing justice, whether (not pictured Loretta Harber) that is by defending suits against the Government, pursuing civil penalties, or prosecuting criminal cases. We like to ensure that we wear the “white hats” as we go about our work.

CHUCK: Being a lawyer is difficult work, no matter where you practice. However, I can’t think of a better place to work than the USAO. It’s a great place; I don’t know of any law firm that has the varied roles that we have--both civil and criminal—and we have the best client in the world, the U.S. Government and its citizens. As far as criminal practice goes, the work is very rewarding. I think it is important, though, for us to sometimes remind ourselves (as well as others in the bar) that our number-one priority and goal is to do justice. It’s not about winning cases, but doing the right thing. I know it sounds corny, but we have an entire office of persons dedicated to that goal. One of the first AUSAs I met when I joined our office was Loretta; I know she takes that goal seriously.

LORETTA: I think I can safely speak for all the line attorneys—Suzanne is Chief of our Civil Division, and Chuck is the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division—in saying that we scrutinize very closely whether a civil case needs to be tried, or to be settled and sent back to an agency for reconsideration. In the context of disability cases involving the Government, these are often tough calls. People with medical or mental infirmities are in need and may be hurting. But, the question is not whether they “are” or “are not” sick: it’s whether their situations are such that the Government can and should provide them benefits. It can be difficult--after all, these are our fellow citizens, with tough needs--and we sometimes ask our agency clients to take another look at the situation. But, if an agency decision needs to be defended, we defend it.

SUZANNE: Coming from a big firm, I can testify that our office does high-level, sophisticated work. We’re both specialists and generalists: we have Civil Division lawyers with expertise in fraud, Social Security/disability law, employment, torts, and bankruptcy—but at the same time, given the breadth of the U.S. Code, anyone here can be called upon to handle anything that comes in the door—things we may or may not have ever seen before.

As Chuck said, but also in terms of breadth and diversity of our work, this office is second to none.

LORETTA: The camaraderie we have here is deep and sincere, too. Our colleagues freely share with each other what they know, and vice versa.

Because “knowledge is power,” sometimes lawyers can be less than generous with sharing their wealth of information. Here, though, we really burn up the carpet walking between our offices to share info and talk through things. That kind of camaraderie and generosity among our co-workers is one of the greatest benefits of working here.

SUZANNE: Another challenge, which we welcome, is this: we know that some federal judges will hold AUSAs to a higher standard. We know we have the power of the Government behind us, and we equally know that’s an enormous responsibility and duty. It’s sometimes frustrating when opposing counsel might not follow the rules. However, we know that we have to adhere to the highest standards, regardless.

LORETTA: To that point: on the civil side, sometimes members of the private bar just assume that because we represent the U.S. Government we will just “automatically” settle. We absolutely do not!

CHUCK: We won’t—we can’t—give away other people’s money. We have a duty to protect the U.S. fisc and policies, and that money comes from our nation’s citizens, after all.

LORETTA: And, one other benefit is that we do work in a beautiful building.

CHUCK: If you’ve ever been in our Federal Courthouse, you know how nice it is!

SUZANNE: Visitors from Washington and elsewhere always tell us how amazed they are at the quality of our space here.

CHUCK: You know, it’s an awesome responsibility to be an AUSA. We know we are held to a higher standard, and that’s the way it should be. It’s a duty we don’t take lightly. We are proud of our oral advocacy and our written product: we work hard to keep up our standards. This is the kind of office where you can find lawyers who arrive at 6 a.m. and don’t leave until 10 p.m.—just like at any big law firm. We put in lots of extra hours to keep our standards high; that all goes back to the pride and sense of privilege we take in our positions as AUSAs. SUZANNE: There are no dollars or billable hours to drive our work as AUSAs; it comes back to doing justice, and doing things right. Our office may not be perfect—we sometimes do make mistakes—but it operates so very well because of the high standards we set for ourselves.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at jhmccall@tva.gov.

May 2010

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THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

What’s it like to build a new law school from the ground up, as you are doing with the Duncan School of Law? Dean Sydney Beckman LMU Duncan School of Law

When LMU decided to start a new law school, it did not have a particular model in mind. They had determined that there was a need for a new local law school, but they did not have anything specifically in mind in terms of what was needed to build it. LMU acquired the beautiful Old City Hall building as an appropriate venue for the school. Ultimately, LMU approached me with an opportunity to build the school as I thought appropriate.

I’d venture a guess that most people involved in legal education did not spend a significant amount of time practicing law. I have, however, spent a number of years as a domestic relations litigator, and a portion of that time as a municipal judge pro tem, so I did have a great deal of exposure to the practice of law. I had taught skills-based, practice-oriented courses both as an adjunct professor at Texas Wesleyan and later as a full-time teacher at the Charleston School of Law. While at Charleston, I developed similar concepts to what we’re putting in effect here at LMU. So, I already had a lot of ideas before LMU approached me.

Gordon Russell, our Associate Dean and Director of the Law Library, and I spent three years discussing what we would do if we had the opportunity to create our own law school. Most new ideas can’t just be grafted easily onto an existing law school, so we benefitted from LMU’s desire to build a new law school from scratch. We knew we wanted to do certain things differently--to find ways to inject technology into teaching in such a way that could enhance the effectiveness of law teaching. For starters, many students use computers while others do not, and there are many different kinds of computers. We issue laptop computers to all our students and pre-load them with the necessary software, which allows standardization across our student body. If a laptop has an issue, we have an on-staff tech person who can help fix things. That helps alleviate a lot of stress!

Also, because students can get so focused on recording everything happening in the classroom, they become stenographers; it’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the way things have always been done. To counter that, we record every classroom using the MediaSite system, which captures digitally all that’s said and shown in the classroom. (If you visit our school, you’ll notice we have no blackboards or dry-erase boards; we use computers with digital screens in lieu of those methods, which also allows us to save the images.) Students can call up the lectures of all our instructors, not just those teaching their particular courses. We require all the instructors teaching the same course to use the same texts and the same syllabus, so that all the students course-wide have a common framework for learning. Our classes are 90 minutes long, and students can check, take practice questions, and access the audiovisuals and slides from each class.

Technology lets us make our classes very interactive. All of our instructors ask online questions in each class to ensure that their students understand the assignment and lectures, and they can run reports (approximately 60 different kinds of reports) to focus on individual students’ efforts.

We also give mid-terms in each class. These tools allow instructors to offer better, individually focused academic support to any student who might be struggling in a course, well before the final exam. We try to do as much as we can to offer our students the tools they need to learn better and succeed; we know that we all have different learning styles.

Our library is also advanced. Our holdings are largely digital - 95% of it is online - so our students and professors can access these assets anywhere, at any time. Our law review will be an online publication, as well. Since the younger generation is always connected, our students can even download their classes onto MP3 players or iPods. That’s a great advantage for students who commute from long distances (we have several who have a two-hour-each-way trip to attend classes). We also use instant messaging; all our instructors are online, too, and the students just love it because the can ask their teachers questions and get rapid responses. It’s no longer the old case of “If I’m not at my professor’s office during his or her office hours, I won’t be able to ask my questions.” Accessibility is highly critical to us, and, we think, provides better learning, so our instructors are very accessible

by IM and e-mail.

All of our instructors have some law practice experience - ranging from a few to 17 years. We think that helps bring better practical perspectives to the classroom. Having handled criminal cases helps one teach criminal law better, for example. Our teachers are also accomplished scholars, with writing and research across various areas.

Our students’ backgrounds are extremely diverse: we have non-traditional students who have been out of college for 5, 10, or 20 years, and who have been professionals, teachers, entertainers, even a vintner. This requires different ways to reach out and teach, and we’re constantly experimenting with new teaching methods and technologies. Imagine if you could download all of your textbooks and Black’s Law Dictionary on a virtual “shelf ” on an iPad; that’s something that we’re investigating now. The whole building is wireless, and we have lots of power connectors. Nobody has to worry about running out of power around here!

With 73 part-time, night students now, we have a phenomenal student body. We’re adding a day school this fall with about 100 daytime students plus another 60 nighttime students for 2010-11. Next year, we’re moving into the ABA accreditation process. We are trying to create something different here. We have unique opportunities to develop this school in really unique and sophisticated ways. This is a neat and exciting place to be.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

June 2010

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THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

What is involved in the appointment and reappointment process to be a Federal Magistrate Judge?

The Hon. C. Clifford Shirley, Jr. U.S. Magistrate Judge

I was initially appointed to serve as a Magistrate Judge eight years ago, February 13, 2002. In the original process, I applied and was one of 45 applicants who were screened by a Merit Selection Panel that was appointed by the District Court. The panelists reviewed the applications and references and obtained information on the position and what it entails, and then interviewed the finalists. The Merit Selection Panel then recommended the names of five finalists for submission to the District Judges. The District Judges interviewed each of the five finalists, and ultimately, I was the fortunate candidate selected for the vacancy.

The reappointment process that I just completed was somewhat different from the initial appointment process, though every bit as thorough. It begins approximately one year (give or take a few weeks) before the expiration of the Magistrate Judge’s eight-year term. First, the District Judges decide if they want to reappoint the incumbent Magistrate Judge and if so, whether the incumbent is willing to be reappointed. If the incumbent agrees to be reappointed, public notice of the reappointment process is sent out via the local newspapers, the KBA, etc., soliciting input and comments from the general public as well as from attorneys.

The District Court next constitutes a Merit Selection Panel, which this time only reviews and evaluates the incumbent. In general, the Panel looks at the incumbent’s overall body of work and performance in office for the previous 7-1/2 years. More specifically, they review comments received from members of the bar and the public, and the panel interviews persons who know and are in regular contact with the incumbent and who are in positions to provide and to evaluate the incumbent’s reputation, legal ability, character, judgment, demeanor, temperament, and commitment to equal justice for all.

My Merit Selection Panel was chaired by Bruce Anderson and the vice-chair was City Law Director Debra Poplin. The other panel members were criminal law practitioner Don Bosch; AUSA Tracee Plowell; civil litigator Clarence Risin; and, as community representatives, The Very Rev. John Ross and Bill Lyons.

After conducting these kinds of interviews and performing its own evaluation, the Merit Selection Panel makes its recommendation to the District Judges as to whether or not to reappoint the incumbent. The District Judges then make their decision whether or not to reappoint the incumbent. In my case, I was blessed to be reappointed for another eight-year term.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

August 2010

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THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Ken, you and your spouse have been seriously studying ways to improve your home’s energy efficiency. How did that come about, and what kinds of things are you considering?

Kenneth F. Irvine, Jr. Assistant DA, Knox County District Attorney General Office (and “green-thinking” lawyer)

In a way, the genesis for all this began about 15 years ago, when we bought our house. It’s in the historic Fourth and Gill neighborhood and was built in 1904 as a single family home. Over the next hundred plus years, it’s been through several incarnations--six apartments, then four apartments, then a two-apartment duplex, and finally when we bought it back again to a single-family dwelling.

Over the last fifteen years we have already done the kinds of energy-efficiency changes that can be done fairly easily and “reasonably” from a price perspective. For example, the first thing we did was to replace the windows. We replaced all the old single-pane windows with double-paned, insulated windows several years ago. Next, we installed a tankless hot water heater. This technology has a greater up-front cost but can provide real savings over time. At the time we installed the tankless hot water heater, it was still regarded as a fairly new and “cutting-edge” technology, but it’s increasingly more common now.

When my wife Terri and I bought our house, we were told at the time that the foundation had some issues. So, as the first order of business (and the most dramatic), we’re planning for the house to be jacked up and physically lifted off its foundations, and then an all-new foundation will be constructed for it. The foundation and new basement walls will be very energy efficient. We are exploring the possibility of having radiant heating in the floors of what will be our new basement.

After considering these steps, Terri and I kept brainstorming and throwing out different ideas. Now, besides the foundation rebuilding effort, we’re actively planning/considering several additional “green” steps that we think will help our house’s energy efficiency, although some will doubtless be potentially trickier to implement than others. First, we’re studying if it will be possible to install geothermal heat and air. For a small (50-foot by 100-foot) urban lot, that will pose quite a challenge! Next, we’re looking at adding a tank or cistern system for rainwater retention, to collect rainfall for watering our yard and plants.

Solar collection is also something Terri and I are seriously looking at doing. In terms of installation, the fact that our house is located in a historic neighborhood like Fourth and Gill poses issues because any exterior changes that substantially alter the house’s historic appearance must be pre-approved. Of course, in 1904, there were no such things as solar panels, so that’s going to pose a challenge as far as historical overlay approval goes!

One thing we’re exploring that might work, though, are shingles that serve as solar panels. It’s still a new technology--so it’s hard to tell right now how this might work out-- but a company in California has designed a solar collection device that can be “hidden” in a terra-cotta roofing shingle.

Currently, our roof has concrete shingles that are close to 100 years old. No one has yet developed a comparable solar device that can be placed in concrete shingles yet, so we’ll just have to wait and see. We are considering adding a sun room that would be hidden from view, so we may be able to get approval to install some kind of panels there, where they would be almost invisible to passers-by. Several people have figured out ways to hide solar collectors in the “valleys” of tin roofs, so that might be a possibility. Another issue we hope to address is that our house effectively has zero exterior insulation--it’s just siding, then straight to the underlying wood framework--so we’re trying to remedy that, too.

Doing all this potential work on the house basically requires a three-step process. First, we plan and “brainstorm” the broad, conceptual changes; next, we look at what it would actually take to make these changes, and will they really work. Then, finally, we get with our builder, architect, etc. to sketch out what goes where and do the blueprints to make things happen. That all takes some time to do it right.

Of course, the other thing it takes--and the biggest difficulty for us, as for anyone thinking about doing this--is the cost. Geothermal and solar energy systems are very expensive. However, the costs can be offset by significant federal tax breaks- 1/3 tax credits--which are a nice incentive. Plus, if we end up installing solar panels and can generate enough electricity, TVA’s “Generation Partners” program might give us a “green energy” incentive as well.

All in all, though, there’s no way a person can do this without making a personal commitment first. That kind of commitment takes into consideration more than just the monetary issues. We have faced this issue before. For example, Terri drives a Prius. The gasoline savings helps offset the higher initial cost of the car (we took it on a vacation across the South recently, and it averaged about 48 miles per gallon) but even more important to us, it doesn’t pollute as much. The same thing applies to other “green” technologies: if you invest in them now while they are still fairly costly, you are doing what you can in a very personal way to take real steps to help the environment.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

September 2010

DICTA

25

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Now that you’ve recently retired as U.S. Attorney after years of service as a prosecutor in both the State and Federal systems, what’s your “last word” for DICTA’s readers?

James R. (Russ) Dedrick former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee

It was, in every respect, a great experience; I was about to say “awesome,” but that word is one that’s overused a lot these days. Not very many people can say that they represented the United States to start with, and then end up being responsible for 2.6M persons across 41 of Tennessee’s 95 counties. It was also a wonderful experience to work with and lead our staff and attorneys, too. I think the KBA and its members should be proud of the attorneys of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s and their work; the quality of legal representation they provide is top-notch.

Of course, there can be conditions of stress in the day-to-day work, between extensive travel and “24/7” availability to deal with crime and other issues like terrorism and public corruption--things that most folks normally don’t have to deal with in their daily lives and legal practices. Being on someone else’s schedule all the time creates its own tensions as well: having a schedule that’s fully booked up three months out, and then with projected dates for the next six months afterwards gets old after a time, even when a person enjoys the work. So, retirement has been a relief, in many ways, from the demands of keeping that kind of schedule for so long.

I dealt with hundreds, if not thousands, of cases and investigations over the years. As you can imagine, that involved a lot of classified information involving some of the most serious offenses and offenders imaginable--many of which I can’t talk about, and I’ll likely never be able to talk about them. One of the challenges of the office is that you are exposed to just so many unbelievable cases and situations--often, which seem to pop up on a moment’s notice--that can involve violent criminals, corrupt public officials, and complex legal issues, etc.

It’s hard to single out just one instance, from all the hundreds of cases, of what I’m talking about, but one pretty good example of this is the case of Jerry Lequire from the early 1980s. He was married to the daughter of a Colombian drug lord and ran an air importation ring for drugs, finally being captured in Miami. A self-taught “bush pilot,” Lequire contracted with other pilots to fly loads of cocaine into the U.S. from South America. To cover up and hide his operations’ secret landing strips across the Southeast, his gang paid off local police and sheriffs’ officials. So, his network grew to involve corrupt officials as well as other drug organizations. Ultimately, there was a shoot-out with U.S. Customs officers at the Madisonville airport, and his fingerprints were retrieved from a logbook. Hundreds of individuals as well as Lequire were implicated, and Lequire received multiple life sentences in Federal and state cases. He even wire-tapped a Federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama and attempted to extort the U.S. government by threatening to blow up several nuclear facilities, as well as targeting a Navy facility in Jacksonville, Florida and blowing up several power towers outside Atlanta. His organization’s activities spread all across the Southeast, but he was undone here in East Tennessee.

I began my work in Knoxville in 1976 after having served four years as an Army JAG officer, so I have seen a lot of changes in our local bar. I always try to encourage lawyers, however, to stay involved in the local bar and to cultivate good relations with other local practitioners. As large as the Knoxville bar is now, you might not get to know all of the local lawyers, but it always helps to get to know as many as possible of our fellow professionals. One of the other great things about being the U.S. Attorney was that it also afforded me an opportunity to meet and work with lawyers elsewhere in Tennessee as well as across the Southeast; you get few opportunities in this day and age to have those kinds of opportunities.

One thing that I often tried to stress to my lawyers is to take time to be with their families and to be involved outside the day-to-day job, whether with outside organizations, church, or the Bar Association. Don’t be so totally consumed with work that you lose your perspective and your appreciation ne of the reasons why I think the KBA is so for the other things in life. It can be very easy as a lawyer to have that happen if important . . . it can help us as lawyers to keep one‘s not careful. That’s just one of the reasons why I think the KBA is so important: it can help us as lawyers to keep perspective, and develop and perspective, and develop and broaden our broaden our connections outside the office. connections outside the office.

After 38 years of pretty much non-stop work without a real break or a sabbatical, it’s nice to have no major obligations for a time and to get to travel.

I’ve already been to Canada, Michigan, and a couple of times to Florida, and I’m planning on traveling to New York and New England this fall and then, in the winter, to Hawaii. Not being on someone else’s schedule anymore and having more control over my own life for a change, as I said, is also priceless. For now, having the opportunity to relax, travel, and learn something about things like carpentry from the man who’s working on my place in Florida--all that provides me with some opportunities to learn and relax that I haven’t had in a long time. But, I still have a lot to offer--I still think that I have an obligation to share my expertise and experience with others--and I look forward to ways in which I can do that, with the KBA and with other local organizations and groups. I intend to keep cultivating old friendships and connections, as well as making some new ones.

I look forward to retirement as a time to share my experience and volunteer my time to help others. God certainly has blessed me throughout my career, including giving me the opportunity to serve and help others and providing many lasting friendships with the members of the Bar in Knoxville.

O

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

October 2010

DICTA

29

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

For this month’s feature, we thought it might be appropriate to solicit input from several KBA members who themselves are veterans of military service. The question presented to them was: When you think of Veteran’s Day, what thoughts and reminiscences come to your mind?

Their answers follow.

John A. Lucas:

Robert P. Murrian:

When I think of Veteran's Day, I think of one thing and one thing only: my friends and comrades who never came home from Vietnam. Almost all were between 19 and 24 years old when they were killed. I think about how most of them missed the opportunity to love a wife, go camping with their son, walk their daughter down the aisle, or live a long life. The country neither appreciated nor understood what they did. But, that may be slowly changing.

Veteran’s Day is set aside to remember deceased veterans and to thank and honor living veterans who served honorably in the military, whether in wartime or peacetime. It is a day to remember veterans like actor Jimmy Stewart, star of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and many other major films, who put his acting career on hold to fly twenty combat missions over Germany piloting B-24 Liberators. In 1944 he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions in combat and the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. He was also awarded the French Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) with palm in 1944 for bravery in action in liberating France. He retired from the Air Force Reserve as a Brigadier General.

L. Caesar Stair III: I am reminded of a day in July – 1968 – Vietnam – hot – unbearably hot – an operation – a firefight – dead – wounded – helicopters.

Then my CO yelling: “Lieutenant, I’m outta here!”

I said: “Captain, you’ll never make it.”

I turned away – I glanced back – he was running – the chopper lifted – he jumped – grabbed – clung – he was in – up – plucked from the fight – airborne – door gunners blazing – gone – his 13 months done.

I was now in charge.

Later, I learned he was choppered with the dead and wounded to DaNang – got the first flight to Okinawa – the next to San Francisco – a short flight to Cheyenne, Wyoming – hitched a ride to LaGrange – and within 48 hours was dropped off at his mailbox.

He got out. It was hot – unbearably hot. He walked the long, graveled road to his front porch. He was greeted by his father: “Son, get on that tractor. The fields need plowing.”

And he did.

Andrew S. Roskind: My Great Uncle died on June 6, 1944.

My grandmother survived Auschwitz, and I still remember the first time I asked her why she had a number tattooed on her arm. I was fortunate to meet a man from Huntsville, Tennessee who was forced to make the Bataan Death March twice. I also know a local seven-year-old girl who has only seen her father twice -- literally twice -- in seven years. Veteran's Day is a day to remember -- to remember sacrifice. Sacrifice takes many forms and is shared not only by those who serve, but also by their families.

Please take a moment to pause and remember the service and sacrifices of all of those who have served on behalf of our country--both in war and in peace, both the living and the dead--on this Veteran’s Day 2010.

[In] the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It’s about sunlight. It’s about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things that you are afraid to do. It’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow.

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried (Houghton Mifflin 1990), 90-91.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

November 2010

DICTA

21

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

You’ve published one book of fiction recently and you’re now working on a second. How did you get hooked on writing fiction, and how do you go about your writing?

ROBERT W. GODWIN

Funny things can really happen when you work in domestic relations and family law, and you don’t want to embarrass anyone or you just can’t talk about it in a non-fictional way. Having seen interesting and bizarre things, and having had similar things occur to me and my own family, several friends would say: “Hey, Bob, that’s quite a story; why don’t you write about that?” So, how does a person like me write an autobiography? I didn’t know how to do that in any way that seemed satisfying to me, so I turned to fiction. The result was my first book, Alias Baby Girl. I’m working on my second now.

I’ve written a newsletter column--“Biking with Bob”--for the Knoxville Track Club for about 22 years. I used to run a lot and do triathlons; I don’t anymore, but I still bicycle, including going with a group to France on occasions. Doing that column for the KTC got writing into my blood. I’ve kept all my old columns, and I go back and read them to see how much bicycling has changed.

Anyway, as I got more interested in fiction and creative writing, I began attending a writing class led

by Don Williams, who lives in Sevierville and who had a longtime column in the News Sentinel. I fell in love with that process, as did some other fairly frequent attendees who I’ve seen there over the last four or five years.

I am blessed to have met through these classes a great editor Cathy Kodra; Cathy is now editing my second book. (My secretary for the last 42 years, Janet, is also good enough and dear enough to question and correct me on my word and grammar choices.) My publisher and I will do a line edit on the second book when I get it in proper shape to submit. One word of advice I’ll offer to a would-be author: truly, don’t ever submit anything until it’s the best you can possibly do. A good editor helps you learn enormously. I’m enjoying the editing process: it is work, but my writing is improving.

One of the things I’ve appreciated is the power of family stories. My grandparents were born in the 1870s--they lived until the 1960s--and my grandmother moved to Dayton, Ohio many years ago. Out of the blue, while wondering about her life there, I once just asked her: “Grandmother, when you lived in Dayton, did you ever know the Wright Brothers?” Without batting an eye, she just said: “Oh, yes; they owned the bicycle shop down the street from my house.” Just like that! We’d had no idea.

One of the questions I get a lot is how I came up with the names of my characters, especially that of the hero, Casey Stone. (The second book is going to reprise a lot of the characters I introduced in Alias Baby Girl.) Picking Casey’s name was the only really tough one. I ran through various versions and had to do some checking to ensure that there would not be risks of confusion with other characters’ names in the public domain, and I just had to work and keep thinking until I found a name that seemed comfortable to me. The other characters’ names just came out of nowhere, stream-of-consciousness style. (In my second book, I had to change some names because my editor noted that I was creating too many character names that began with “C.” I guess that’s just a beginner’s mistake.)

I do most of my writing at home on a yellow pad, not on a computer. My living room is a 150-odd-year-old log cabin originally built on what is now the TVA Norris Dam property. Other parts of my home come from the John and Mariah Smith family of Smithwood, including the smokehouse, built in the 1830's. Mariah was the granddaughter of John Adair, first white settler in the Fountain City area. Inside my home, I was able to install pieces of the old residence; it’s tangible evidence of that kind of history of my family and our community.

My house has frequent “visitors” of an animal sort: we have a den of raccoons nearby, sometimes I’ll see a fox, and possums are always getting into the basement. A family of flying squirrels has taken up lodging in part of the old wall. Unlike regular squirrels that are only active in the daytime, flying squirrels are most active at night, and that’s how we were able to tell what kind of squirrel they were. (My wife and I have also learned that flying squirrels love pasta: we sometimes find them sound asleep, lying on their backs, bellies stuffed from eating macaroni, in one of our kitchen drawers. They really freak out when they wake up, but they scamper away and somehow find their way back to the nest.)

I like to wake up early and write for one or two hours. The best day’s writing I did was on a Saturday morning when I woke up, went outside to the patio with a cup of coffee, and just sat down and began to write. I wrote for seven hours straight; what was even better was that at the time, I knew that what I had written was good. You know, you can tell the difference when you’re forcing yourself to “just write something” versus when the writing just flows naturally. This was one of those good days.

It’s always nice to get feedback, of course, when someone likes your writing. I have received uniformly favorable comments, both on my website and on Amazon, both accessible through the book title. It just doesn’t get any better than when you get a comment from somebody who you don’t even know that’s as good as the kind of praise that your own momma gives you.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

December 2010

DICTA

25

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

For this month’s “Last Word,” we interviewed several local financial industry professionals to get their perceptions on current economic trends and their impacts on small business, especially law firms.

Participating in these interviews were Susan Williams, CFP® The Trust Company and Greg L. Wilson Regional President-Maryville, First Tennessee Bank

Q: What is your 2011 economic forecast or outlook for small business growth, hiring, and development in Knoxville and East Tennessee?

A-Susan: The Tri-Cities area has a lot of manufacturing, which is closing down. As such, their economy will continue to struggle. While Knoxville has historically experienced a very level economy, it will struggle somewhat and expansion is not expected for some time. There is no new industry coming to these areas to replace these lost jobs. Chattanooga is very fortunate, thanks to the addition of a Volkswagen production facility that is expected to add $1 billion to their local economy. Nashville, where health care plays a vital economic role, will probably remain stable.

Q: Small businesses, including most professional service and law firms, depend on their banks for financing through credit lines and term loans.

What one thing can these firms do to improve their prospects of securing additional financing in this cloudy economy?

A-Susan: Credit is still tight and is likely to remain so for some time, especially for small businesses. Regulators are keeping a watchful eye on financial firms and lending practices. In order to obtain credit, small businesses will need to have good credit, larger down payments, and better collateral than in the past. Real estate with good cash flow may serve as collateral while other real estate will remain less worthy. Some lenders are focusing more on the health of a company’s industry while avoiding other industries altogether. Some institutions are lending primarily to professional practices such as physician, law, and accounting groups. The Small Business Jobs Act, passed in September 2010, is the most significant piece of small business legislation in over a decade. The new law provides funding for the extension of increased guarantees and reduced fees in the two largest SBA loan programs. It should put more capital in the hands of entrepreneurs and small business owners.

A-Greg: Two things come to mind: (1) Prepare, gather, and provide your banker all or as much financial information about your business and yourself so as to give your banker a better opportunity to understand your history, current situation, and your financing needs. This will enable your banker to create the financing options that will meet your needs; and (2) Prepare a realistic business plan presenting thoughtful consideration of all potential consequences (both positive and negative) that may result from your financing need or business opportunity.

Q: What tax-savings tips would you recommend for small business and professional service firms for 2011?

A-Susan: Acquire needed business assets now. For 2010, businesses can take advantage of bonus depreciation and deduct 50% of the cost immediately.

The remaining 50% is recovered through regular depreciation. Bonus depreciation can be claimed on assets with useful lives of 20 years or less. This tax break ends in 2010. Alternatively, rather than use the bonus depreciation at 2010 tax rates, you can defer them to 2011, which is scheduled to have higher rates, unless Congress extends the Bush tax rates.

Q: What key governmental or stimulus policies are available to a small business owner in 2011 that would help grow and expand his/her workforce?

A-Susan: The HIRE (Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment) Act offers an exemption from Social Security payroll taxes for every worker hired from 2/3/10 to 12/31/10 that has been unemployed for at least 60 days. The maximum value of the credit is 6.2% of wages up to $106,800 (the FICA wage cap). There is also an additional $1,000 income tax credit for every new employee retained for 52 weeks, to be taken on the employer’s 2011 tax return.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

January 2011

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Can you give us a sense of what the “life and times” are like of working in an intellectual property law firm in East Tennessee?

MARK S. GRAHAM Partner, Luedeka, Neely & Graham, P.C.

How our firm got started is an interesting story. It begins with Ed Luedeka, a Chicago native, and the smartest lawyer I have ever known. Now deceased, Ed began his professional career as a Chemical Engineer at the ALCOA facility in Alcoa, Tennessee, in the late 1930’s. After serving as a PT boat captain in WWII, Ed graduated from John Marshall Law School in Chicago. He then helped develop Chicago’s largest IP law firm, representing many fortune 100 companies in significant IP disputes in courts all over the country in the 1950’s – 60’s. Ed became an internationally respected patent litigator, at one point even being in the running for Commissioner of the USPTO. Ed even saved the KRAFT trademark in Cuba, when the Cuban government tried to give the mark to Castro’s brother.

Ed’s work for Kraft took him all over the world, but his time away from home in a high-profile case in San Francisco was too demanding. Ed’s wife, Ann, “gently” encouraged him to make a lifestyle change. Ed fondly recalled his time at ALCOA in East Tennessee, and what he thought was a “patent vacuum.” So Ed convinced his Chicago partners to open a satellite office in Knoxville (the first IP practice in Tennessee), and he and Ann “resettled” here.

Most of Ed’s early work in Knoxville emanated from Chicago, but gradually he built up the local practice. In 1978, the Knoxville office formally separated from the Chicago group. One of Ed’s early partners, Paul Hodges, eventually left to become Vice President at DeRoyal, an early client of the firm, which helped Pete DeBusk obtain his original “walking boot” patent during the infancy of the company.

Andy Neely and I joined the firm in the early 1980’s, around the time of the World’s Fair. When I joined the firm, we had three lawyers and three staff. LNG now has 16 IP lawyers and one patent agent, and a total staff of over 30. LNG is the largest IP boutique in Tennessee, and ranks high among IP firms in the Southeast.

The era of the World’s Fair was important to the growth of our firm, as it was to many local businesses. Early clients like Chris Whittle and Sandy Beall began their companies with the help of LNG. Our work with Whittle Communications and Ruby Tuesday and other emerging area companies helped us grow and flourish.

We found our current home at Riverview Tower’s 18th floor in 1998, which helped us expand further. Several litigation matters in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s also helped spur our growth. An especially significant case involved a large Chinese conglomerate and its manufacture of the long plastic-topped folding tables like you see in schools, banquet halls, and the like. The case was litigated in Southern California against Lifetime Products Corporation, a Utah-based company with a bevy of patents said to cover all new banquet tables with “blowmolded” plastic tops. As it turned out, this was about 99% of the world’s production of banquet tables since the early 2000’s. This became a multi-million dollar litigation in which our client ultimately prevailed. This victory allowed our client to expand significantly, with sales of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of these tables worldwide.

Our success in the California case and other significant IP disputes has been a key factor in LNG’s ability to grow and attract significant IP business from international companies with large patent/trademark portfolios. The firm’s mix of clients now includes companies like Lexmark, Afton Chemicals, Novartis/Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, LSI Logic Systems, Team Health, International Paper Company, Bryce Foods, McKee Bakery, DeRoyal, Dollywood, Pilot Oil, Clayton Homes, Babcock and Wilcox Tech. Services (Y12), and the University of Tennessee, to name a few. Our significant mix of smaller local/regional business clients and individual inventors also provides rewarding/challenging IP work. Our work with UT, for example, keeps us busy assisting the UT Legal Department with various IP issues for the “Power T,” VOLS, and LADY VOLS marks, among others.

Our lawyers have engineering degrees in all major disciplines for handling diverse technologies, but biotech and life sciences/pharmaceutical patent work is one area in which we plan to expand. Another involves so-called “business method” patents. Both are growing exponentially.

Although controversial, the USPTO’s issuance of patents like Amazon’s famous “One-Click” patent [US Patent No. 5,960,411] fueled tremendous interest in patenting new ways of doing every conceivable method of business. The backlog of “business method” patent applications in the USPTO is now so bad that the average pendency in many business method USPTO examination groups is as long as 8 to 9 years!

Very little that is part of daily life is not affected in some significant way by patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Although poorly understood, IP law is probably the most pervasive aspect of the legal system in terms of its effect on people and in the improvement of everyday life.

For me, personally, IP practice is a labor of love. Every day I am privileged to work on fascinating new technologies in pharmaceuticals, chemical processes, biotechnologies, and other arts, and the range of IP practice also affords me a rewarding practice in trademark and copyright law as well as litigation in all areas of IP. Experienced IP lawyers who acquire the requisite skill in litigation practice make exceptionally effective advocates for clients in patent, trademark, and copyright infringement disputes.

I feel blessed to have found this vocation. I have had the privilege of practicing with other superb IP lawyers at LNG, including my excellent partner for 25 years of practice, Andy Neely, and the early years with my mentor and “law hero,” Ed Luedeka.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

February 2011

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Would you tell us a little about the “life and times” of the Federal Defender’s office in Knoxville?

ELIZABETH B. FORD Community Defender, Federal Defender Services

The Criminal Justice Act requires each U.S. District Court to have a plan for furnishing representation for indigent criminal defendants. In 1991, the number of such defendants appearing in the Eastern District of Tennessee had “hit” the number necessary to trigger the CJA’s requirement for establishing a federal defender’s office. Leah Prewitt, a private practitioner with a general practice, decided to do some research on her own. When she found that the numbers were there, she approached then-Chief Judge Hull with the idea of starting a defender organization here.

There are two kinds of federal defender offices. The most common across the nation is a federal public defender organization. Those offices are staffed with full-time federal employees, with the Federal Public Defender being chosen by the Court of Appeals for the applicable circuit for a four-year term. The other kind is a community defender organization: these are non-profit organizations with a board of directors, and the board chooses the Community Defender. This second kind of organizational structure tends to put some distance between the organization and the courts.

That aspect appealed to Judge Hull, so this was the format selected for our office, and it has been the way since we were incorporated in 1991 as Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, Inc. (FDSET).

Our office’s first appointment was in March 1992. That gentleman was probably the best represented parole revocation client ever, since he received the benefits of having the full and undivided attention of Leah and Kim Tollison as his lawyers; for a time, Leah and Kim had no other cases to work on but his! As a result, they literally spent days preparing for the hearing: their client obviously got the best representation that money cannot buy. Kim had joined FDSET in mid-March 1992; I joined the office at the end of March 1992. There are 5 of us who have worked at FDSET since 1992.

We have three offices in the Eastern District of Tennessee, with one in each division of the district. We have a total staff of 37 across our three offices, fourteen of whom are lawyers. Our staff includes paralegals, investigators, and administrative staff. About eleven years ago, we added a Capital Habeas Unit. We currently have fourteen clients represented by this unit of our office, the final round of appeals from a state imposed death sentence, as you know, being sent up to the Federal courts.

Our “traditional” cases unit handles a wide range of defendants, including drug dealers, bank robbers, and various other kinds of defendants. Of the folks we represent, bank robbers are a very unique group: that is the crime of absolute last resort. Think about it: you have the FBI chasing you, your photo in the newspaper and on Post Office signs; it’s very high profile. A person would have to be in pretty dire straits to rob a bank. Many of them are unarmed: they just have notes saying “Give me your money,” and tellers are trained to do just that and not put up a fight. While it must be horrifying to be a bank teller confronted by one of these guys, with very few exceptions, the bank robbers are very desperate, pitiful people who rarely receive much money.

What happens on a national basis in terms of economic and crime trends happens here, too. One of the areas in which we have seen a significant increase is in cases alleging fraud, especially mortgage fraud. When things turn bad in the economy, generally, fraud and robberies increase correspondingly--but, we also see increases in what we can call, simply, “folks doing dumb things in the parks.”

Because the Great Smoky Mountains and Cherokee National Forest fall into federal jurisdiction, we end up representing people who are so often surprised they are landing in Federal court and facing Federal imprisonment because their DUI, open-container violation, dog not being on a leash, etc. happened in Cherokee or the Smokies. We’ve also gotten maybe a half-dozen “sangers”--persons trying to illegally harvest ginseng, or “sang”--on U.S. park property, from time to time, although our Greeneville office tends to get more of those cases. We once represented a Lacey Act [16 U.S.C. §§ 3371–3378, a conservation statute prohibiting illegal trade in protected wildlife, fish and plants] defendant in a case involving red-spotted newts that he was illegally collecting in the park and selling. As one of my co-workers said recently, “You can’t make this stuff up.”

It’s a really a fun job to do what we do here. One of the challenges is to keep things fun, motivational, and lively for my colleagues, and we try to do that in various ways: for instance, today is Monday, so it’s yoga day in our office. We also have social events such as Orange Food Day, and we were recognized last year for fundraising that we did for the Ronald McDonald House in Chattanooga. To do what we do is certainly about something more than just the money. Working as a federal defender has certainly exceeded all my expectations.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

March 2011

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Judge Witt, would you tell us what you know about the antecedents of what has become the annual Supreme Court Dinner?

The Hon. James Curwood Witt, Jr. Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, Eastern Division

More than fifty years ago, the annual pilgrimage of members of the Tennessee Supreme Court to the Tellico Lodge in Monroe County was a well-attended, storied event.

The fete was hosted by the lawyers and judges of the old Fourth Judicial District, which was then composed of Blount, Roane, Loudon, Monroe, McMinn, Polk, and Bradley Counties. It was organized by General W.H. Eagle, then clerk of the supreme court, and by local promoters, who likely included General Beecher Witt, who served as district attorney general from 1926 to 1958; his son, criminal court Judge James C. Witt, Sr.; and Judge Witt’s predecessor, Judge Sue K. Hicks, a veteran of the “Scopes Monkey Trial” and legendarily the inspiration for the Johnny Cash song, “A Boy Named Sue.” Located in the Cherokee National Forest on the upper Tellico River, near the North Carolina line, Tellico Lodge was a huge, rambling log/lumber/shingle hotel with an authentic mountain ambience. It lay between the North River and Sycamore Creek tributaries and was a center for bear and boar hunts in the winter and trout fishing in the other seasons.

Although the bar event featured a dinner in the lodge’s rustic dining room lit by kerosene lanterns, surviving participants of these gatherings recall that the prevalent activities involved “free flowing spirits and a poker game.” One such participant recalled that his colleagues often quipped that the supreme court, to accommodate the essence of the occasion, annually “put down an order temporarily moving the North Carolina-Tennessee line [westward] to Bald River.”

Available surviving participants were not old enough to recall when the annual tradition began. They generally agree that it ended in the mid-1960’s. The event probably occurred in September.

Some participants arrived early in the day and fished or enjoyed the scenery. Some stayed overnight after the dinner. Despite the rustic setting and the compelling mountain scenery, the dinner itself was a coat-and-tie affair.

The lodge was located approximately 80 miles from Knoxville. The road from the lodge down the river to Tellico Plains was a narrow, anfractuous1 thoroughfare, challenging at night for even a stone-sober, if not white-knuckled, driver--and much more so for one who had imbibed during the afternoon and evening hours.

Rumor holds that on some of those evenings, the Monroe County Sheriff stationed himself in Tellico Plains to nab inebriated lawyers and judges making their way back to Madisonville and points beyond. No rumors hold that any arrests were made, however.

In those days, Madisonville boasted one taxi cab, a Mercedes Benz driven by a lady who was reputedly a relative of Tom Black (the owner of Tom’s peanuts and chips company). In the evening of one of the bar events, she was summoned to the lodge to carry an intoxicated attorney home. Reportedly, during the drive down the river road, he initiated an amorous advance, only to suffer the discomfort of making the remainder of the trip with the barrel of a revolver poking him in the ribs. Apparently, “pistol-packin’ mamas” were more than myth in the Monroe County of those days.

Tellico Lodge burned to the ground in the 1970’s. Surviving photos, several of which are reproduced here, help the memory of this lodge and its scenic surroundings.

1 Defined as “full of windings and intricate turnings; tortuous.” Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 85 (1985).

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

April 2011

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Why do you feel improving access to justice is so vitally important?

The Honorable Cornelia A. Clark Chief Justice, Tennessee Supreme Court

I believe that a community is only as strong as the justice it provides to its weakest citizens. It should not be limited to those who have the greatest power or the fattest wallet. Equal access to our courts is a basic right that should be available to all people regardless of race, class, education, or disability.

Yet, in our great state and country, people are denied access to our courts because they can’t understand our complicated system, they don’t speak the same language, or they quite simply can’t afford an attorney. This is a tragedy of epic proportions.

The statistics are undeniable – 70 percent of low-income Tennesseans experience some type of legal problem each year. One million Tennesseans currently need legal counsel of some kind and cannot afford to hire an attorney. These people feel shut out from the legal system. They do not turn to the system for solutions because they believe the system will not help them, or that it is too complex, too costly, and too slow.

For the past two years, the Supreme Court has been articulating this message to raise the level of awareness about the serious need for civil legal assistance in Tennessee. We have talked about the problems of those who are without competent help at critical times in their lives – income issues, employment, adequate housing, personal safety, access to health care, and sometimes even life itself. But I am not sure I really understood the challenges these individuals face until I recently encountered travel complications when returning from a trip out of the country.

When I landed in Miami, I discovered that my flight, and most other flights that day, had been cancelled. I stood in long lines with hundreds of other passengers to try to get on a new flight. I eventually used my smart phone to book a new flight for the next day to avoid the long line. And, despite waiting in more lengthy lines, I was able to get a hotel room that night, thanks to my preferred credit card.

When I arrived at the airport the next morning, I again hit another snag – the flight I had booked on my phone wasn’t booked properly with the new airline. After standing in more long lines, talking to agents from both airlines, racing back and forth across six concourses, and convincing a baggage employee to help me, I was able to get on my flight with just a few minutes to spare.

It took me 26 hours to get home from Miami. And those hours of discomfort, uncertainty, standing in line, and struggling to understand airline regulations, gave me just a bit different perspective on why we, as lawyers, need to offer our services to others. If the Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, with years of legal training, a high-limit credit card, a sophisticated smart phone, “frequent traveler” status with major airlines and hotels, and general savvy about the world sometimes has a hard time solving the problems of daily life, think about what other people go through every day who have none of those resources.

In that airport, I saw scores of families with children who may not have had the money to stay in a hotel overnight. I was without my medications for one day, but know of many elderly people who skimp on their medications every day because they cannot afford their prescriptions. If my desperate run through the airport had resulted in a heart attack, I would have had adequate health coverage to get me admitted quickly to a Miami hospital.

However, many people around us have no health coverage and must deal every day with stresses and fear of developing health problems without the means to address it.

I cannot pretend to fully understand the plight of those who have difficulty accessing our courts. But, my experience shed a new light on what it must feel like for a pro se litigant to navigate our complex court system without hope of finding a solution.

I believe that, as attorneys, we are the people who should care the most about whether all persons receive justice. Our profession places a strong emphasis on service by imposing the responsibility to help others as a condition of enjoying the privilege of our right to practice law.

If we are truly to live up to the “common calling to promote the public good”; if we are to have any hope of providing liberty and justice for all; then we must embrace, and celebrate, our obligation to devote professional time and civic influence on behalf of our brothers and sisters who need our help. The Tennessee Supreme Court believes that pro bono service is critical to each attorney’s fulfillment of his or her obligation to the profession.

I challenge each of us to do our duty as lawyers, and our duty as community leaders, to celebrate the opportunity to advance those ideals which can truly make our community better: to promote justice and the public good.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

May 2011

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Tell us about your and Don Bosch’s scuba diving trip awhile ago, in the spirit of “what did you do on summer vacation?”

David M. Eldridge Eldridge & Blakney, P.C.

First, Don and I are good friends. That might seem unusual to some because we do compete from time to time, but we also work on cases jointly and have been friends for ages. Before my kids were born, Don encouraged me to take scuba lessons. (Doug Trant tells me that SCUBA means “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.” Bet you didn’t know that.) Don’s been an accomplished scuba diver, as well as a great UT swimmer, for many years, and he’s dived in Aruba. Mexico, and across the Caribbean. Don prevailed on me to take the classes, which I did from Jimmy Wheeler at Ski-Scuba Center on Sutherland Avenue.

So, I take a weekend crash course from Jimmy to get the basic classes in one weekend at Ski-Scuba Center, and for the required open-water dives we are going to take a field trip with Don and a bunch of equally skilled former UT swimmers. And, I am a complete rookie: not only have I never done an open-water dive before, I have the least swimming skills of anyone else on this trip. I go out and buy all the gear—mask, snorkel, fins, wetsuit, knife, buoyancy compensator—the works; all but the $500 dive computers that everyone else has.

We flew to Fort Lauderdale on a Thursday to board a “live-aboard” dive boat, the Sheerwater. It had a captain, a cook, and maybe one or two other crewmembers. Now, at the time we were doing this, a hurricane was churning its way across the Caribbean: not close enough to cause a cancellation, but definitely close enough to churn the surf to the point that there were serious swells and waves. We would dive the next day and on Saturday and Sunday, too. Once you get on a live-aboard, it’s basically you, the crew and other divers, and blue water for days. (The first land we hit was Lucaya in the Bahamas.) But, on Thursday night before we sailed, we went to a Mexican restaurant for our last meal on dry land.

When we set sail, there were, without exaggeration, 12 to 14-foot swells. We’d had the good sense to pack Dramamine, but the waves never calmed down. It got to the point where I was seasick for the whole time or, at least, felt really bad. Don and I bunked in the bow, on curved Naugahyde pads with sleeping bags on top. It actually felt like “Camp Scuba.”

It’s my first open-water dive. We get up Friday morning on a boat that’s been rocking all night, and we (at least, I) were feeling none too good. I put on all my bulky scuba gear. While I’m doing that, the UT “fish men” have already launched. They all had spear guns and were swimming like sharks, looking for hogfish, snapper, and lobsters. Just Jimmy and I are left on the boat; Jimmy says: “Just do exactly what I do.”

Jimmy gives me my last pre-dive briefing and checks me out. I watch him get his gear on; waddle to the back of the boat; clean and put on his mask (the whole time he’s doing this, the boat is pitching like a amusement ride, back and forth, up and down); get to the edge of the boat and grasp the side to jump in—and all of a sudden, he rips his mask off; throws up; and then recovers and jumps in.

And, so, Dave… waddles to the back of the boat; cleans and puts on his mask; steps to the edge; grasps the side to jump—and all of a sudden, on the back of this bucking bronco, I have to rip off my own mask and throw up, as big as life. (Later, Jimmy said, “You didn’t have to do everything that I did!”) I get my act together, recover, and jump in—and, for the first time since I’ve been on this boat, I’m not seasick. I’m underwater; it’s peaceful; and for the next three days, the only time I don’t feel queasy is when I am diving.

The “predators” came back with beautiful fish and lobsters and hauled them on deck, and the crew helped clean and cook them. We had great meals—if you could eat them, that is.

Once, the captain hurried us to jump in with our fins, gloves and masks, and for 30 minutes, we swam with a pod of dolphins. It was an once-in-a-lifetime encounter with true wildlife; they were genuinely curious as to who we were. Swimming at us at what seemed like 100-mile-an-hour speed, it was like they were “playing chicken” with us. I never did get to touch one, though; they were too nimble.

I made two dive trips with Don. I still remember getting off the boat: as I had never been more grateful to see dry land in my whole life, I actually kissed the ground.

(I also was very happy to get cell reception again, too. I had to stand on the very stern of the boat, waving my cell phone around to try to catch a signal. Don gave me grief about being a “Type A lawyer”—until, that is, I caught him doing just the same thing.)

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

June 2011

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Larry, can you tell us a little about your and your wife’s travels across Italy?

LAWRENCE P. LEIBOWITZ The Leibowitz Law Firm, PLLC

My interest in Italy was really sparked by my wife, Kay. A few years back, she went with our youngest daughter, who was helping with a company on its tour of Italy. Kay fell in love with the place and began taking Italian classes at UT. UT’s summer school in Italy is held in the city of Urbino. Kay went to Urbino and asked me if I wanted to meet her there; it didn’t take much to fascinate me, as well. Kay June 2009 in Paestum, Campania, Italy goes to Italy every year; I just get there whenever I can.

When we travel, Kay’s focus is on art and architecture; mine tends to be on history, and the two tie together well. Urbino is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was the capital of Federico da Montefeltro, the “Great Duke,” and a fascinating man. In his day, 2,000 of Urbino’s 6,000 citizens were Jewish, and Kay and I often look for artifacts of Jewish life in Urbino and elsewhere in Italy. Urbino has also been a university town for five centuries. Urbino can also boast of the famous painter, Raphael. We often use Urbino as a “base of operations” for our travels.

Over the years, we’ve visited Rome; San Leo (a mountaintop fortress near Urbino); Urbania; Ancona; Pesaro; Senigallia (a beach town and the home of Cesare Borgia’s fortress; the local kids don’t go there at night, as they say it is haunted by the ghosts of Borgia’s enemies whom he had slaughtered there after a lavish feast); Maratea; the port city of Bari; and Paestum, among many other town and cities. Paestum is full of Greek temples and ruins; Matera features ancient caves that have now been converted into unique and swanky lodgings for tourists like Kay and I. In the town of Noci, we stayed in a “trullo,” a round stone hut, with figs growing outside our windows. In the town of Venosa, we visited Jewish catacombs from the 4th to 9th centuries A.D. Altamura (Italian for “high walls”) was founded by the Emperor Federico II and is known for its incredibly tasty bread.

In the city of Trani, we visited a working synagogue, albeit a tiny one. Kay had found the man who had the key, Avram Zechillo, and we met him in the old Jewish quarter of Trani. He spoke passable English; he explained that in the 1200s, Trani was 80% Jewish. In fact, Avram could trace his family’s lineage in Trani back to 132 A.D., when his ancestors were forcibly resettled there by the Romans after the final fall of the Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue is tiny—much too small for the 200 or more Jews in the area who wanted to worship there on the high holy days. Avram showed us four nearby churches that had once been synagogues. After the local bishop refused permission to “loan” one of the churches, Abram met with a childhood friend of his who was now one of the local parish priests. And, so—the priest announced that one of these churches would become a non-denominational museum, but its main room would be available to any local group needing a meeting place…including, but not limited to, the local Jewish congregation. (“We’re all related here,” Avram added.)

Southern Italy is remarkable, and I sometimes think it’s similar to our South 50 or 60 years ago: the people are friendly and outgoing, the food is just wonderful, and folks will really go out of their way to help you with directions or show you the local sights. Plus, there are fewer tourists.

When we travel north, we often stay in Mira, near Venice. We’re friends with a local family of hotel-owners. Several of the buildings in the area are works of the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, which–with that history/art-and-architecture thing that Kay and I have going—helps give our travels a focal point. We stay in Mira for day trips to Venice, Verona, and Padua, and other cities around Venice. In Verona, you can sit in a 2000-year-old Roman amphitheater and listen to beautiful arias from “Aida” being sung before the opera begins—by the crowd members! (It’s almost like a UT football game but without the athletes; strange, but true.)

In Vicenza, north of Venice and the site of a big U.S. air base, you will find Palladio’s most famous villa. Called “La Rotonda,” it looks strangely familiar to an American, and then, you get it: it resembles Monticello. In fact, Jefferson’s ground plan for Monticello is based very closely on that of the Villa Rotonda. Its floors and ceilings are covered with the most fantastic, jaw-dropping murals I’ve ever seen. Once we visited the Villa Manin in Codroipo, the summer home of the last Doge of Venice, we went to see a piano concert was being given by Giovanni Allevi, a young Italian composer, only it was more like a rock concert than anything classical, and the grounds were filled with chairs, lights, and people.

Besides the beautiful art and architecture, food, wine, and gelato, it is the people and friends we have made that bring us back to Italy as often as we can.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

August 2011

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

You've represented some controversial clients in your practice. Would you share with the readers of DICTA some of the issues and concerns that can arise in representing 'unpopular' clients?

MIKE WHALEN

That comes up A LOT. As a criminal defense lawyer, I deal with some pretty dubious folks. Someone much smarter than me once said about my profession, and it’s true: “We, as criminal defense lawyers, are forced to deal with some of the lowest people on earth, people who have no sense of right and wrong, people who will lie in court to get what they want, people who do not care who gets hurt in the process. It is our job--our sworn duty--as criminal defense lawyers, to protect our clients from those people.” --Cynthia Rosenberry But you were asking about my clients, right? Sorry. Unpopular clients. Truth be known, all my clients are unpopular. I think if you will look, you'll find that unpopular is in Webster's definition of criminal defendant. Once a person gets charged (with the exception of certain Hollywood types or athletes), they tend to be immediately unpopular with the general public.

I try and remember what Bob Ritchie used to say about that, “No one should ever be judged by his worst day.” I’d expand on that to say, or worst decade or, uh, two.

It goes back to the beginning. When the founders put together the Constitution, they left out the protections we now find historical evidence of in studying the old Bill of Rights. But the citizens (you know, wealthy, white, male land owners) knew what it was like to be railroaded by a powerful government. (And that was pretty impressive when you consider that locomotives hadn't even been invented at that time!) So when the Constitution was sent out to be ratified, the citizens insisted on some PROTECTION. (Then some of those same citizens eventually got appointed to the Supreme Court. and looking at original intent, realized that the founders never intended for those rights to exist so they did away with all that, but that's a story for another day.)

So when my clients get arrested for drug dealing (entrepreneurship) or murder (as Jimmy Buffett would say, just a human crime of passion, messy and old-fashioned) or for getting stoned and singing (too loudly for the neighbors) all night long, they’re just carrying on an American family tradition. So who am I to judge? I've got a job to do. By the time I get involved, the bad stuff has already happened. I can't undo it and neither can the client. So I leave the judging to others. I get the case, do the work, and get ready for trial.

Given that the public and most in the system believes that once a person is charged they must be guilty of something and are thus a bad person (until of course it’s little Jimmy, who just made a mistake or is misunderstood), there is no reason for the criminal defense lawyer to think about whether or not the case or client is controversial or unpopular. Anybody can represent popular folks. Where's the challenge in that!

You hear some defense lawyers say, “it’s my job to make them prove it.” And that's partially true, but it is also my job to resist any and all attempts

by THEM to take short cuts, lie, cheat, and steal to try and prove it. Then, we try to convince a jury that (a) we didn't do it, (b) there is reasonable doubt that we did it, and if that fails, (c) that the dude deserved killing and we were the only one in a position to do it.

The job gets tougher as the legislature passes more and more tough-on-crime laws. (A name chosen because they know it would be unpopular to call them tough-on-citizen laws.) Then they underfund the system. (No increases in the pay to defense lawyers appointed for indigent defendants since 1994.)

Casey Anthony was charged with murdering her child. Looks bad. But there is no evidence of cause of death and there are a couple of plausible scenarios. The presumption of innocence works, and she gets acquitted. The public forms a lynching party. In the last couple of decades, over 120 individuals have been released from DEATH ROW. Not for technicalities but because EVIDENCE proved they were actually INNOCENT. And there are lots of states TODAY that still resist allowing inmates to have DNA testing done post conviction. Now, when you have to release that many folks off DEATH ROW for innocence you KNOW that innocent people have been executed. Did you see the outrage over that? Now, that ought to be unpopular!

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

September 2011

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Would you tell us about your involvement in TLAP and what it does for lawyers in the community?

CHRISTOPHER A. HALL Holbrook Peterson Smith PLLC

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about the Tennessee Lawyer Assistance Program (“TLAP”), which is one of my favorite topics.

Our Supreme Court issued Rule 33 in January 1997, creating TLAP. The stated purposes of TLAP are to protect the interests of the public from harm caused by impaired attorneys and judges; assist impaired members of the legal profession to begin and continue recovery; and educate the bench and bar regarding substance abuse and other mental impairment issues.

TLAP would not exist had it not been for the vision and hard work of Justice Janice Holder, and all of us who have ever been affiliated with TLAP in any capacity owe her a debt of gratitude for her efforts.

TLAP’s business involves trying to help transform “impaired lawyers” into “repaired lawyers.” We try to direct people toward appropriate channels of help, which may be in the form of an alcohol and drug treatment center, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a family counselor, or another health care professional.

The consequences of untreated mental impairments, including addictions, can be loss of career, loss of family, and, ultimately loss of life.

Ironically, the prospect of such dire consequences can actually serve as a motivating factor for someone to make the decision to actually get help that was certainly the case with me.

I graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1979 with a degree in English, from the University of Memphis in 1982 with a law degree, and from the University of Florida in 1983. Throughout all of these academic pursuits, I drank heavily – frequently in the company of my fellow students.

At this point, my “fun” drinking ended.

For the first five years I practiced law, I drank heavily and felt powerless to stop.

Fearing that my drinking would cost me my career, I asked for help and entered into a treatment center at the age of 31.

That was 23 years ago and, by the grace of God and the efficacy of the program of recovery they “encouraged” me to pursue, I have not had a drink since.

About ten or eleven years ago, my sponsor called me to tell me that the Tennessee Supreme Court, at his recommendation, had appointed me to the TLAP Commission, where I had the opportunity to serve for approximately nine years – with three of those as Chairman.

But nothing is as fun and challenging as trying to work with members of our profession who need the very same help that I was able to find when I simply asked for it.

It is quite gratifying to see so many people in our legal community whose lives and careers have been saved as a result of TLAP. This includes not only members of our profession who asked for help, but also members whose partners or family called TLAP to stage an intervention and members who have been subject to TLAP monitoring as a condition to their licensure.

TLAP is completely confidential, so anyone can call us with no fear of discovery.

Thanks again for this opportunity to share about TLAP.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

26

DICTA

October 2011

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Justice Lee, would you please share with DICTA’s readers the story of your interest in “The Greatest Generation” and the veterans of that generation?

THE HON. SHARON G. LEE Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court

I grew up in a patriotic family. My dad faithfully flew an American flag in our yard for many years. My mother was a state and national officer in the American Legion Auxiliary, and I occasionally went with her to conventions in exciting places like Nashville, Memphis, and even Knoxville. I sold little red paper poppies on our courthouse square on hot summer Saturdays to raise money for the Auxiliary. As a high school junior, I was a delegate to Girls State and, dressed in red, white and blue, was elected county judge. I knew it was important to honor veterans and that my dad had served in World War II, but I did not understand why my family was so patriotic. As a child, when I found an old blue mug stashed in a closet, I began to ask questions, and my mother told me: “That is your dad’s mug from his prison camp, but we don’t talk about the war.” And we didn’t --it was off limits.

My dad and many others like him returned from the war, went to school on the GI Bill, started a business, and began raising their families. The war was just too painful to talk about, and they needed to make up for lost time. Some fifty years after the end of the war, when my dad was in his 70's, he became actively involved with the American Ex-POWs organization. As he began meeting other POWs, he started talking some about the war. I learned he had volunteered for the Army Air Corps after high school and served as a waist gunner on a B-17 bomber. On his sixth bombing mission out of England, his plane was shot down over Germany. He and his crew survived the parachute jump, but were captured and held as prisoners by the Germans for 366 days. My dad received no medical treatment for his injuries, lost down to 90 pounds, and endured a 10-day ride in a cold, crowded railroad box car. Later, he occasionally spoke to school and civic groups about his war experiences. One of the last times I heard him speak was to a group of Kiwanians, and he began to cry while telling them about his capture. Although the war had been over for nearly 60 years, the memories were still very painful. I had never seen him cry, and it hurt to watch.

My interest in WWII was sparked by a book, Soldiers and Slaves, that Chancellor Goldin from Memphis suggested that I read. It was a fascinating story about Chancellor Goldin’s dad’s prison camp at Berga, Germany and its mistreatment of Jewish prisoners. This book launched my “journey” into WWII. Later, I researched and prepared a presentation entitled American Heroes with Common Bonds, which described and illustrated the prison experiences of the fathers of four Tennessee judges and a lawyer: David Goldin, Hugh Ross, Harold Leibowitz, Charles Lee, and Bruce Foster, Sr. While these soldiers had very different prison experiences, different backgrounds, and religions, the common traits and qualities they shared helped them survive and endure their time as prisoners. They were optimistic, uncomplaining, and disciplined. They had a strong desire to return home and be reunited with their families. They had an enormous desire to live. They considered it an honor to serve their country. Even though they earned medals in the war, they did not see themselves as heroes. To them, the real heroes were the soldiers who did not make it home. These men came home after the war and quietly, without fanfare, became hardworking, productive members of their communities. They raised families and instilled in their children a sense of patriotism and a desire to serve.

Writing the American Heroes story gave me a good reason to talk to my dad about the war. I finally understood why he and many other veterans did not whine and complain, were grateful to be alive, proudly displayed the flag, did not allow cooked cabbage (the main ingredient in the soup du jour/entree in prison camp) to be served at home, and did not tolerate wasted food. I have given this presentation to well over 1,600 judges and lawyers, Boys Staters, Kiwanians, Rotarians, Methodists, and University of Tennessee graduating seniors (and anyone else who would listen).

This spring, my WWII journey took me to Washington, D.C., as a guardian with Honor Air Knoxville and 129 WWII and Korean veterans to visit the WWII memorial and other national monuments. One of the most poignant and emotional moments of the trip was seeing a veteran who was in his 90s, who had survived the Normandy invasion, and who had been captured in the Battle of the Bulge, openly weep at the WWII memorial for his friends lost in combat. It had been over 60 years since the end of the war, but the memories were still painful and raw.

Finally this past summer, a trip to the Normandy beaches and the American cemetery was checked off my bucket list. Walking on the beaches where so many brave young Americans made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and seeing the rows of white crosses at the cemetery was an emotional experience which further deepened my appreciation and respect for our WWII veterans.

If you have not embarked on your WWII journey, I urge you to sign up soon. Our WWII vets are truly the greatest generation, and there is much we can learn from them. They are dying at the rate of 1,200 per day. While you still have the chance, learn what you can from these WWII veterans.

Get on board - it is a journey that will open your eyes and heart to some wonderful stories and experiences. Remember also to honor and thank all our veterans for their service to our country.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

November 2011

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

There is just something about model railroading and train sets that, for some, can evoke the holiday spirit. Would you mind sharing with the readers of DICTA your love of the hobby of model railroading, and how it came to be?

TERRY ADKINS Trammell, Adkins and Ward, P.C.

My passion for trains and model railroading came from my relationship with my grandfather, Albert Adkins.

He was a career employee of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and its successors from the age of 15 until he retired. He started as a maintenance of way worker building L&N’s line and structures from Knoxville to Jellico.

He was promoted to engineer and ran local trains north and south out of Knoxville.

As the only grandson with eight female cousins, I had a pretty close relationship with my grandfather. As a little boy I used to go with him to the downtown station in the summertime. In 1968, at the age of 5, I was standing on the passenger platform when the last southbound passenger train out of Knoxville called the Southland pulled away from the station and into history.

My grandparents lived in West Haven just south of Western Avenue where the construction of I-640 later took their home. I loved to spend the night at their house. On Saturdays, I would sit outside and wait for the train horns as the engines passed over the grade crossing at Western Ave. and Division St. I used to run down from their home to where the tracks now go under I-640 and watch the trains as they chugged up-grade to Amherst.

I just fell in love with trains and railroading.

When I was 7 years old, my grandfather gave me my first HO Scale train set for Christmas and a subscription to Model Railroader magazine where I learned all about the hobby. With a father that was a home builder, I had pretty good access to plywood. And there it was. My first model train layout was 4' x 8' sheet plywood. It was really basic, but I was hooked.

I have kept my subscription to Model Railroader magazine now for 41 years, and my love for the hobby has grown to a 15' x 30' train room where the layout is double decked with a hidden helix that takes each train from one level to the other. My model train layout is prototyped after that portion of the L&N Railroad between Knoxville and Jellico during the summer of 1955. That era lets me run both steam and first generation diesel engines that are custom painted and numbered for those that actually ran through Knoxville during that era. That locale gave me opportunity to model downtown Knoxville, the rural areas between Knoxville and Jacksboro, and the rugged mountainous portions from LaFollette to Jellico.

My first train set had a transformer that powered the track and let you run one train. Now, even this hobby has joined the digital age. The engines have circuit boards with memory and a hand-held controller the size of a credit card gives you the capability of running as many trains as you want, at the same time and in different directions. I have been able to collect the actual passsenger and freight train timetables for the L&N in Knoxville during that era. So, when I run trains I have a prototypical schedule. It is like running a real railroad.

Like most trial lawyers, I have difficulty mentally leaving the job at the office. But the train room is my escape. When I go to the train room and start on a new project or just to run trains, I have found it is the one thing that can really take my mind off of files. Also, as a husband and father of 3 teenaged daughters, it is the only place in the house that I can truly call mine!

In a way, the hobby has allowed me to pay tribute to my grandfather and the heritage of a bygone era.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

December 2011

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

It’s January and it’s time for those New Year’s resolutions, and “getting in shape” is so often at the top of those resolutions. An increasingly popular fitness program is “Zumba.” Can you share with us what Zumba is, why is it so popular, and “your life in Zumba”?

JHASTA A. MOORE The Bosch Law Firm

Yup. “Attorney by Day; Zumba Instructor by Night” is in fact what my Facebook reads!

So, what is Zumba? Zumba is an exhilarating, effective, easy-to-follow, Latin-inspired, calorie-burning dance fitness program that blends international music and contagious steps to form a "fitness-party" that is downright addictive. Since its inception in 2001, the Zumba program has grown to become the world's largest – and most successful – dance-fitness program with more than 12 million people taking weekly Zumba classes in over 110,000 locations across more than 125 countries.

I’ve been involved with Zumba Fitness since I tried my first class in Spring 2009 at The Rush Fitness Complex. While bored on the stair climber, I looked over into the GX (Group Exercise) room and saw it packed full of people having fun while getting a great cardio workout at the same time. And the best part – they were DANCING!!! [For those of you that know me well, you know that I grew up in the dance studio and that I went on to coach several local school dance teams (Powell High, Farragut High (Nationally Ranked!), and Farragut Middle) before beginning my journey as an attorney. Dance has always been a hobby, a passion, and an aspect of my life.] Well, the following week I tried Zumba for the first time and fell in love with it. From the music, to the rhythms, to the movements, to the endorphins . . . to the laughter, to the smiles, and to a fun and energetic instructor . . . it was everything I ever wanted in a fitness class.

Well, while I was loving (and still do love!) being an attorney, I was REALLY missing my glory days of teaching dance. Going to Zumba class filled that void of missing ‘dance’ in general, but I still wanted an opportunity to instruct and lead others. Shortly thereafter, as luck would have it, The RUSH needed Zumba instructors! So, I sat down with my MacBook, went to www.Zumba.com, found information on how to become an instructor, travelled to Canton, GA, and became a Certified Zumba Instructor in July 2009. I then got the position at The Rush, and the rest is history!

I have been instructing Zumba classes at The Rush Fitness Complex since September 2009, and I can honestly say that I’ve loved every aspect of it. Not only do I get the opportunity to do something I love and get my own workout at the same time, but I get the opportunity to inspire, move (literally), and make people smile and laugh every Monday and Thursday evening. I’ve seen people use Zumba as a fitness regiment, as an expressive outlet, as a means to drop clothing sizes, as a way to escape for a moment, as an excuse to see their friends, and as a lifestyle.

As for various formats aside from basic Zumba, the Zumba program currently offers five other types of Zumba classes (see complete descriptions on www.zumba.com): 1) Zumba Gold (for the active older participant), 2) Zumba Toning (with a focus on body sculpting), 3) Aqua Zumba (known as the Zumba “pool party”), 4) Zumbatomic (designed exclusively for kids ages 4 – 12), and 5) Zumba in the Circuit (30 minutes of latin-inspired dance-fitness moves combined with circuit training).

Zumba really IS for everyone – regardless of fitness level, sex, or age. If you haven’t tried a Zumba class yet, sign up for one today! As the Zumba lovers say - Ditch the Workout and Join the Party! Check out www.zumba.com to find a PARTY near you. Peace, Love, Zumba.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

January 2012

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

How does a two-lawyer couple keep their busy personal and professional lives on track?

NED MORGAN General Counsel, Voices Heard Media, Inc. and Heather Morgan, COO, SmartBank

Ned’s response: We both had the same answer to your question: Google Calendar.

Seriously. Even though we both are lawyers, we have very different careers (she’s a bank COO; I’m general counsel for a technology company). Therefore it’s important that we over communicate when it comes to planning our non-work lives. Heather is involved in a lot of extra-curricular activities, like sitting on non-profit boards and participating in philanthropies, while I am an extremely poor listener with almost no short-term memory. Google Calendar is our saving grace.

Using Google Calendar is beyond simple. When scheduling something outside of normal business hours, simply send your spouse an invitation to said event. Granted, most of Heather’s invitations read something like “Wednesday, April 3 – Heather dinner at Ruth’s Chris with Investment Committee – Ned watching baby and eating beans from can.” Also, I eventually learned that clicking the “decline” button to a Google Calendar invitation is of no practical legal effect in our family. Google thus far has ignored my suggestion that they stop fooling around and add a “whether you like it or not” option to Calendar.

Beyond hyper-coordinated schedules, there are definite advantages to being in a two-lawyer relationship. I can’t think of any right now, but there must be. I say that because we know so many two-lawyer couples. Forget Naples Restaurant. The UT Law Library is hands-down the most romantic spot in town! I swear the career services office doubles as a dating service after hours.

Anyway, I don’t claim to speak for all lawyers who married lawyers (LWML), so I asked a few LWML friends how they kept their personal and professional lives on track and definite patterns emerged. Only one, David Luhn, asked not to be identified.

First, most work in a different field or profession than their partners. This makes sense. It doubles the amount of stuff to complain about after work (isn’t that why we all went to law school after all?). And when you think about it, it really speaks to the variety of what it means to be a lawyer.

A transactional attorney probably has more in common with a CPA than with a criminal defense lawyer. It follows that marrying a lawyer in a different field is almost like marrying a non-lawyer. Being a lawyer is just like any other profession, except the general public tends to hate us more.

Second, and more interesting, is that none of them really considered being a LWML to be much of an issue. At this stage, most of our LWML friends are dealing with kids (who, let’s admit it, are even worse than lawyers). Being married to a lawyer is easy compared to living with a crazed, ewok-like creature with a five-word vocabulary and a proclivity to throw itself off furniture.

In the end, I think being a LWML is a natural thing. Think of the self-selection that it takes to become a lawyer: College, LSAT, law school, the bar, the bar exam. It’s like the NCAA tourney, except rather than basketball, you whittle down potential mates until there’s only one person left who can stand to be alone in the room with you for more than a few minutes. Bam! You found a wife!

Heather’s response: Google Calendar From: Heather Morgan To: Ned Morgan Event: Ned - Reply to Nick McCall for Dicta / Heather - at wine night with the girls When: January 3, 2012 Who: You

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

February 2012

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Would you tell DICTA’s readers about your eventful flight to China last year that made national news?

HEIDI BARCUS London & Amburn, P.C.

Last May my father and I left our respective towns–Waco and Knoxville–to meet in Chicago for a 6 p.m. departure for Beijing. This father/daughter trip had been planned for two years. The year before, the trip was cancelled because an unsympathetic judge in a surrounding county scheduled a two-week trial the same week of my departure. Of course, the trial was continued and the trip was cancelled. This year, I was determined to let nothing get in the way. We both wanted to take the trip while my father was still able to climb the Great Wall. After two years of protecting the date of the trip, we finally arrived in Chicago. We made phone calls, dozed, and ate our last American meal. Each hour of the layover seemed like a day; I was so anxious and excited to begin.

Finally, we boarded an American Airlines flight. I slipped on the complimentary sleeping socks, adjusted the pillow, tucked my shoes under the seat, organized my gear, and unpacked all of my toys—books, magazines, travel journals, and iPod–for this overnight thirteen-hour plane ride. It wasn’t clear that I had enough to keep my mind off the number of hours I would be trapped inside this ever-shrinking plane. I hoped I would fall asleep quickly. Sleeping was the only way to survive this ordeal.

Takeoff was uneventful. That was the last uneventful moment of the day. Shortly after we reached cruising altitude, the stewardesses began marching with determination, two by two, down the plane’s aisles. They each cradled what looked like a Daytimer. (I know what those look like because I still use one instead of an iPad.) First, they moved from the front of the plane to the back. Several minutes later, they marched from the back to the front; then again, from the front to the back. Their smart navy uniforms moved back and forth, back and forth. As their feet thumped against the thin carpeting of the aisles in perfect unison, their steps echoed. (We have a law clerk who marches through the firm’s halls the very same way. It isn’t the least bit comforting.) For someone already on edge, this was very unsettling. I was troubled by the march of the stewardesses. I kept telling myself, “Self, you’ve never flown to Asia. This is how they do it.” I looked at my father and asked, “Is this normal”? He peered over his glasses and said: “Is what normal”? Right then, I knew I needed to relax. I breathed in deeply.

And then it happened. The pilot came over the intercom. It was worse than I could ever have imagined. On takeoff, with a full tank of fuel—enough fuel to get to China (I don’t know how much fuel that is, but it is more fuel than it takes to fill up a flight to Atlanta)–the tires burst, throwing shrapnel that took out the landing gear and some kind of steering mechanism. I don’t think I heard anything beyond “emergency landing” and “fire engines.” For the next 30 minutes, I watched the flight path animation, as we flew in circles and poured fuel into Lake Michigan. We needed to get rid of any incendiaries before attempting a landing. I don’t know what kind of environmental hazard that is, but it was the least of my worries.

Anyone under 250 pounds was moved out of the exit row, and replaced with a gladiator. (If they aren’t going to let me assist in the event of a real emergency, why go through that whole mess of asking if I am willing and able to assist every time I fly to Atlanta?)

Next, the stewardess began demonstrating the “crash position.” I had flashbacks of third grade, hiding underneath my school desk and protecting my head with my arms, in case a bomb was dropped. We each had to demonstrate our technique. Those who couldn’t lean all the way over were allowed to keep a pillow. Next, we each had to audibly answer two questions: 1.

2.

When do you get out of your seat?

What do you do when you get off the plane?

The answers seemed obvious. One by one, we said, “When you say so” and “Get as far away from the plane as possible.” How were we going to forget the second answer if the plane was in flames? I asked the stewardess if this had ever happened to her before. She said, “In 25 years of flying, I have never used the emergency slides. That’s why we were reviewing our flight manuals.”

After all of the preparations were made, the stomping stopped. All high-heeled shoes and eyeglasses were confiscated, so that nothing sharp remained in the cabin. As the plane approached the runway, we could see the flashing lights of the fire trucks as we “peeked” out from crash position.

We waited in silence for the bump of the landing or the sound of an explosion. But, it never came. We landed safely. I lay in bed all night and prayed. Should I cancel the trip for a second time? Should I fly again? Could this possibly happen two days in a row? The odds were in my favor.

We landed 48 hours later safely in Beijing, saw the Forbidden City, climbed the Great Wall, and enjoyed a dream trip.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

March 2012

DICTA

25

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

How did a busy litigator like you end up co-owning and running a local bookstore in her (scarce) free time?

MELINDA MEADOR Winchester, Sellers, Foster & Steele, PC, and co-owner of Union Ave Books

Well, I love books. Not only do I love what’s inside them, but I love the bindings, the dust jackets, the fonts, and the smell of books. I was one of the best and most devoted customers of Carpe Librum bookstore, which was located in Bearden, and it was a real disappointment to many of its loyal customers when it closed. One of its owners, Flossie McNabb, wasn’t ready to give up on the idea of an indie bookstore in town, but she needed a new partner, and she asked me if I would like to join her. Initially, I said no—between having my son, Jake, in college and practicing law, it just did not seem like an opportune time, and she was able to find another partner. But then, just two weeks before Union Ave Books was due to open, her partner backed out. Flossie called on me again; and this time, I said yes. I simply could not refuse.

I believe that every town of any size—especially, a community like Knoxville—needs an independent bookstore. So, we stepped in to try to fill that need, and locating the bookstore downtown just made sense to us. With so much business downtown, plus its residential revitalization, it seemed to be a natural location for a store like ours. It’s also much easier for me to get there, since I work every day in my law office a few blocks away!

Running a bookstore fascinates me, I think, because it engages a different side of my brain from the part which is engaged in practicing law.

Running a bookstore requires a lot more creativity in some ways than practicing law, but having practiced law for thirty years, it’s hard for me to think about giving up law. So, I fit the store in with my law practice, and—let me add here—the men with whom I practice law have been very generous and accommodating in giving me the latitude I need to be involved in the store.

My role at Union Ave Books is largely in planning special events, as well as overseeing the accounting for the store. I also administer our Facebook page and, to a lesser extent, the website—both are tasks that I can easily do from home. Lining up the store’s special events is where the creative part that I love so much comes into play: we have brought in some wonderful authors, and it is such a joy to spend time with writers whose books I have read and whose work I have admired for years, like Lisa Alther (who is originally from Kingsport, by the way) and Kentucky native Bobbie Ann Mason. We also invite our member customers to hold their own special events in the store after-hours.

I also plan some of our regular, monthly events. For example, we use our walls as gallery space and feature a local artist every month, with opening receptions on First Fridays. We’ve had some really interesting artwork over the past 6 months, and it’s a great way to connect with the art community. The regular event I love most, though, is Book and a Beer Night. Charlie Thomas, our former city councilman and my dear friend who works at the store when he isn’t in Guatemala, and I started Book and a Beer Night as a way to get people into the store in the evenings, and it’s become my favorite night of the month. We invite local folks to stop by and read their favorite selections on a particular theme or by a featured author. We’ve dedicated Book and a Beer Nights to David Crockett and Cormac McCarthy, and we’ve also done a Tribute to Baseball Night.

Basically, we read books aloud and drink beer. What’s more to love than that?

Flossie has her own pet projects that include our monthly book club, Bookaholics Anonymous, and Poet3, which features three local poets reading their poems on the third Sunday of each month at 3:00 p.m. Just recently, one Poet3 featured the KBA’s own Dawn Coppock, who is a truly gifted poet as well as a great lawyer and lobbyist.

We think of the bookstore as serving the community—that is the true essence of what a good independent bookseller does. The whole idea behind Union Ave Books is to bring community to booklovers in Knoxville. That’s our goal.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

April 2012

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Would you share with DICTA’s readers your experiences about your Fulbright studies in Jordan?

MAHA AYESH Knoxville lawyer now working in Amman, Jordan on a Fulbright Fellowship

I have long wanted to study or work abroad. In particular, my husband and I have often talked about pursuing extended travels in the Arab world. For different reasons, though, the timing never seemed quite right. It is a bit ironic that it was only after we both began new careers and had two small children that we finally decided that it was time.

My opportunity to work abroad came in the form of a Fulbright Fellowship to Jordan. The U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Program is an international educational exchange program that sponsors individuals to study, teach, conduct research, and carry out other projects in the U.S. and abroad. My husband and I were particularly interested in traveling to Jordan because we knew people who lived there and knew it was a good place to study Arabic. After doing some research, I discovered that there were international organizations working on the issue of human trafficking in Jordan and that the Jordanian government had recently enacted laws specifically criminalizing human trafficking and extending labor law protections to domestic workers who are often vulnerable to human trafficking. I applied to the Fulbright program in September 2010, proposing to research issues related to these legal reforms, and I found out in May 2011 that I had been granted a Fellowship to begin in September 2011.

Since September, I have been living in Amman, Jordan and working with an international organization on their counter-trafficking projects. I have helped perform an assessment of the information needs of labor migrants and the Jordanian public as the organization prepares for an information campaign on human trafficking in Jordan. I have been able to meet with groups of migrant workers and to hear personal accounts from trafficking victims. These include Egyptian farm workers who had worked under slave-like conditions, Filipina workers who were recruited to work in salons in Jordan only to find out after arriving that they were instead to work as domestic workers for half the promised salary, and underage Indonesian domestic workers, many of whom were not paid and/or were physically abused. I have also had the opportunity to attend meetings at Embassies and panel discussions with government representatives and have enjoyed working with an international staff that includes Jordanians, Americans, Romanians, and Iraqis, among others.

Through my work, I have become particularly interested in the treatment of domestic workers in Jordan. Like other places in the Middle East, it is very common in Jordan for middle- and upper-income families to hire foreign women to work as live-in maids and nannies. As the examples cited above show, these workers—recruited from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines—often are deceived by recruitment agencies about the nature of the work they are to do and/or the salaries they are to receive. They also are commonly mistreated by their employers and face conditions of forced labor such as physical and verbal abuse, confinement to the home, and withholding of their passports and other personal documents.

To be sure, these are not uniquely Jordanian problems, and the Government of Jordan seems to be making an effort to enhance legal protections for migrant workers and domestic workers in particular. (Even in most places in the U.S., labor laws do not apply to domestic work.) I hope, then, that by looking into how these issues play out in Jordan, some broader lessons can be learned. I am particularly interested in looking at ways to raise awareness among the Jordanian public, and domestic worker employers in particular, about the rights of workers. I am also interested in how counter trafficking laws and policies factor into the protection of domestic workers, who may or may not fit the legal definition of trafficking victims.

Although my Fulbright grant period ends May 31, 2012, my family plans to remain in Jordan another year, and I hope to continue exploring some of these issues.

As worthwhile and fulfilling as my work and research are, the experience of living abroad has, of course, been much greater than that. For the first time in my life, I am living outside of Knoxville and away from my extended family. In many ways, Jordan—Amman in particular—is very similar to the U.S., with many of the same modern luxuries and conveniences. But there are also many differences, from the mundane (centigrade temperatures, metric measurements, and the ubiquity of propane gas trucks that sound like American ice cream trucks) to the more significant (a culture that values family and community over the individual and religion that is expressed more publicly). Instead of trying to recreate the life we had in Knoxville, we are trying to take advantage of the chance to live a slightly different way and to teach our young daughters that there are different types of “normal.” As most people who have lived in another country can attest, we are sure that this experience will continue to shape our lives long after we return home.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

May 2012

DICTA

23

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Steve, tell us about your involvement with boxing and your friendship with Jerry “Ace” Miller, local boxing legend who died in March.

STEVEN G. SHOPE

L-R: Steve Shope, Ace Miller, and Joe Walsh (Director of City of Knoxville Parks & Recreation)–February 5, 2011 I started boxing for Ace in 1969 at Ace’s first gym off Central Avenue, across from Sears in the Happy Hollow neighborhood. I ended up winning the Knoxville heavyweight championship; Ace would later say that I was one of his first good heavyweights, and that makes a fellow feel proud. After awhile, I lost contact with Ace until one of my sons wanted to box. His gym had moved to Chilhowee Park, and Ace and I reconnected about 1990. After I got back involved, I also got involved with the Golden Gloves Charities. I’ve been President for about the last twenty years. So, Ace and I were close for a long time; after all, we knew each other for over forty years.

When a lot of folks think about Ace and his impact on boxing in Knoxville and the area, they tend to think about the “big name” stuff. Because of Ace’s reputation, Knoxville got to host a major prize fight in March 1980 at the Stokely Athletic Center. The match was carried on ABC Sports and was between “Big John” Tate and Mike Weaver. There must have been about 10,000 people there--I had no idea that the Stokely Center could hold so many onlookers--and the UT cheerleaders worked the boxing ring. Big John had won the World Heavyweight Championship in Johannesburg; it was quite a fight. Everybody had pretty much already called it for Big John before the fight began, and the match looked like it was his for most of the 15 rounds. That all changed in the last 45 seconds, though: Weaver hit him hard with a left hook, Big John hit the canvas head-first and never got up. And that was the match. (It was a traumatic thing because it also pretty well wrapped up Tate’s best boxing days.)

When folks think about Ace, they think of his role in getting that big televised match to Knoxville, or they think of other big name boxers like Bernard Taylor or Clinton Jackson. But, what was most important to Ace, I think, was helping young kids, especially ones who came from poor backgrounds or had nothing--and there were a lot of them that he helped out over the years. Without Ace helping them out, I wonder how many of these kids would have had any other chance in life.

How many at-risk or inner-city kids did Ace put through Golden Gloves? I have no idea--hundreds, I guess--but I can tell you, Ace worked hard to help make a difference in their lives. He’d take them in from 3 to 7 p.m., right after school when they needed something to do and not get in trouble, and he’d work and train them hard at the gym. So many of these kids had nothing to speak of and came from broken families. After Ace trained and coached them, at least they could start out by saying: “I may not have much, but I’m a boxer.” That gave them the start of some self-respect, pride, and discipline. And, a young man might start to think: “If I can box, I can finish school. If I can finish high school, I need to go to college.” So, how many lives can you change just by helping out one small kid who’s got nothing and help him to grow up and become a better person?

Ace himself had a tough life growing up, and maybe that was what helped him care about these kids and stay concerned for them. For over forty years, he ran a first-rate boxing program and made it something that was well known across East Tennessee and the South.

It was great for him to have a street and his gym in Chilhowee Park named for him. But what I think gave Ace the most happiness was providing the structure and discipline to all these boys and young men and giving them the basis to turn their own lives around. He’d get such a kick out of seeing these inner-city kids change their lives. And, it all started from a little gymnasium down in Happy Hollow.

Ace often said, “You know what the three toughest steps in sports are? Those are the steps you take when you walk into the ring for the first time.” Once a person can muster the courage to take just those three steps, then you’ve just begun.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

June 2012

DICTA

25

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Why did you go to work at the Knoxville Chamber and how do you apply the skills you learned in law school?

JENNIFER D. EVANS

Knoxville Chamber

When I was making the decision to go back to school after working in Washington D.C. and China, I decided on law school for a few reasons. I never intended on practicing law in a traditional sense but was convinced by several business leaders that the skills and prestige earned through the rigor of law school would be well worth the effort. I followed the transactional track at the University of Tennessee College of Law. Towards the end of law school, I was introduced to Mike Edwards, CEO of the Knoxville Chamber.

At our first meeting, I simply expected to have a short conversation with him about the industrial landscape of Knoxville and hopefully identify business opportunities I could pursue with my skill set. If you know anything about Mike, you know one of his passions is education. So it didn’t take long before he started talking about the failures of public education and how those failures could ultimately impair area companies’ ability to grow and compete globally, and make it particularly hard for us to recruit new companies to the area. I was appalled, as most people are, when they hear the startling statistics he shared with me, so I started doing some part-time research for the Chamber while I finished out my last semester of law school.

Five years later, I am the Vice President of Workforce Development & Education at the Knoxville Chamber. I was attracted to the work of education reform because of the enormity of the challenge. I was intrigued that the Chamber recognized and was willing to invest in my skills and background to tackle this challenge. Having the ability to identify issues, weigh the pros and cons of current policies and proposed solutions, and communicate a position are all valuable skills that I learned in law school and still use on a daily basis. While I do not have individual clients per se, I feel that I represent the business community and my arguments about why we should improve education are driven by that point of view. Improving education is a good thing to do and we should all care about the kids that are slipping through the cracks every day, but I am focused on making sure all children succeed because we are going to need every one of them to be productive, tax-paying citizens who are qualified for the jobs of tomorrow.

The reason I have stayed at the Chamber is two-fold. First, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that we have the workforce to meet current and future employer needs. We have made a lot of progress at the local and state level, but our community must continue to demand better outcomes, provide support where we can, and hold elected officials and educators accountable.

The second reason is that the Chamber has been an incredible place to work. People work hard here but it’s not about the billable hours; it’s about results and outcomes. The Chamber has encouraged me to grow professionally and provided me with the flexibility I have needed to also grow my family. Shortly after I joined the Chamber full-time I married a fellow UT Law classmate. Over the next three years, we had four children. We now have a two-year old and ten-month old triplets. I am able to do my job effectively and enjoy it, because I am afforded the autonomy to get things done when I need to. I realize that I can’t “have it all” on any given day, but I would argue that the Chamber and I both benefit from working together to make us both successful.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

August 2012

DICTA

25

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Culver, tell us how you became involved with the Annual Giving Campaign for Legal Aid of East Tennessee, what challenges LAET faces in these times, and how it plans to meet those challenges.

R. CULVER SCHMID

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C. and Chair, LAET’s 2012 Annual Giving Campaign

Last year, I worked with Dave Eldridge as co-chair for LAET’s annual fund drive; this year, I agreed to serve as its chair. Obviously lawyers are--and have to be--the core of our support, and we have to build support in light of the context of the times in which we live. Those times are, needless to say, challenging to all of us, and particularly challenging for LAET. Last year 40% of LAET's annual budget came from the Legal Services Corporation, or “LSC.” As Congress attempts to reduce its budget, LSC has been able to deliver less and less financial support to LAET over a period of years, but LAET’s budget and needs do not decrease. In times like these, in fact, the opposite is usually true.

Several years ago, a member of the LAET board of Directors asked me to contact Senator Bob Corker, a friend of mine, to assist LAET in finding out the status of LSC funding in a budget bill then pending in Congress. The political landscape at the time suggested LSC funding appeared to be headed for substantial reductions. I was able to obtain some useful information for LAET, but the message from my contacts in Washington appeared clearer: less and less funding via LSC could be counted on going forward for LAET and other legal service providers. As a cradle East Tennessee Republican, I told Dave that as a citizen I supported the reduced congressional spending but nevertheless understood the needs of LAET's clients did not go away. I suggested that the private sector would have to step into the gap and help bridge the shortfalls. With that perspective, I soon became involved in helping raise money from the private sector for LAET. Reductions from LSC in 2011 provided one measure of the consequences of these funding shortfalls to LAET. While no staff attorney positions were cut, LAET had to let go seven staff members, including four members of the management team, during the year. The needs for legal assistance from LAET's attorneys never decrease, but always increase in times of economic turbulence such as we now face. Put bluntly, more and more folks in our community need legal aid and LAET’s services.

Attorneys know the value of legal counsel to someone with a legal problem so they are the "normal suspects" to support LAET's efforts. Lawyers traditionally have responded not only with their legal skills and acumen but also their financial support. This year, we have initially enlisted the support of a group of about twelve dedicated young lawyers to call on our KBA members. We think it’s important to get our young lawyers involved: not just to “re-seed” our volunteer base, so to speak, but also to expose them to legal aid and the greater community’s needs for pro bono service early in their careers. To motivate and challenge these young lawyers, I asked Jimmy Haslam, CEO of Pilot/Flying J Corporation, to speak to this group as they set out to make their calls. Jimmy, whose company and family are substantial supporters of Legal Aid, expressed his appreciation to these lawyers for their commitment to this good cause and encouraged them by outlining ways to enlist the community's financial support. As the first line of the LAET fundraising effort, these young lawyers will help us to secure support and pledges early this giving season.

One of our themes in 2012 is to stress that not just lawyers, but also local business and civic leaders have a stake in LAET’s success. The needs of pro bono service obviously are the community’s needs, not merely legal system needs, so we also plan to call on local business leaders and seek their support for our annual campaign by telling them what LAET does and can do, and why it is a cause that a business needs to support. Since I practice corporate and business law, my goal as Chair of the campaign is to be able to use my skills and contacts to help broaden the base of support for LAET into the greater business community and “grow the pie” of support from more sectors than just the legal sector. It only makes sense. Dave Yoder and I are currently visiting these business leaders to make the pitch for LAET. LAET raised $140,000 during last year’s campaign. Our target for this year is $200,000. It will take the support of lawyers, our traditional base of support, but also more sources as well to help us meet that challenge. If your clients contact you and ask you what LAET is about, please help us “spread the word” and remember: this is a community-wide need.

And--should you get a call by a lawyer on behalf of Legal Aid-- just think for a moment about the challenges of “cold call” fundraising, and remember that another lawyer like you is taking the time out of his or her busy day to help us rise to these challenges. A nice word, just a few moments of your time, and financial support for LAET, would be appreciated by all involved in this effort.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

September 2012

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Would you tell us about your family’s 2012 Olympics odyssey, and what it has been like to be the parent of a gold medalist?

DWIGHT E. TARWATER

Paine, Tarwater and Bickers, LLP

Frankly, it was all a bit surreal. There were times when I felt like I had been plucked out of my world and dropped into an entirely new one!

Davis’ career has been pretty well chronicled in the local press, and I will not recount that here, except to say that he has been quite accomplished, and prior to 2012 had represented the USA on every U.S. national team, except the Olympic Team. He had always dreamed of being an Olympian, and he swam in the Olympic Trials and failed to make the team in 2000, 2004, and 2008. The 2008 Trials were particularly painful as he was a heavy favorite not only to earn one of the two spots in the 200 fly but to also medal in Beijing. That was a very tough loss, and we all felt it almost as keenly as he did.

Between 2008 and 2012, several significant things happened in Davis’ life. In 2009 he volunteered to help Tennessee coach Matt Kredich with the Lady Vols. Matt also resurrected Davis’ career, and he qualified for the 2009 World Championships where he won gold as a member of the relay team. He was accepted to Oxford, and he earned his Master’s Degree in Latin American Studies in 2010. Along the way, he became a man of faith through his friend Doug Banister of All Souls Church here in Knoxville. Through it all, the Olympic dream never died. With the encouragement of his Oxford friends, particularly Rucker Culpepper, an Annapolis graduate who’s now serving as a Marine Corps officer in Afghanistan, Davis contacted Auburn’s former head coach, David Marsh, who was coaching an elite postgraduate team in Charlotte. Coach Marsh agreed to take him on.

He went back into training, and while in Charlotte, he worked for a “think tank” whose mission was to facilitate commercial lending in underdeveloped Latin American nations.

Which brings us to this summer and the 2012 Trials in Omaha: the Butterfly is Davis’ best stroke, and he entered both the Butterfly events where again he missed making Team USA by inches in both the 100- and 200-meter Butterfly. But this time he also entered the 200-meter Freestyle, an event he had never swum at Olympic Trials before and one that he had only swum four times in the past year. The top six in this event would be eligible to swim the 4x200-meter relay for Team USA. Davis was seventh.

After his last race in Omaha, Mary and I tearfully stood to applaud him as his career had seemingly ended. As we left the pool, I got a text from Davis. It simply said: “Let’s go celebrate a new beginning.” We caught up with him and as we walked out, he said, “Dad, I have done all that I can possibly do. I have no regrets. It’s time to move on.”

I knew then, as a father, that he was going to be okay. And that was my best moment in all of this, even above the great swim he had in London.

His loss in 2008 was rough, but it was different this time. Davis was in a different place to deal with it. He laughed and said, “Let’s go get the biggest steak in Omaha. My obesity program starts tonight!” Later that night, he said his goodbyes to teammates, coaches, and friends. Early the next morning, he flew back to Charlotte; Mary and I started our long drive home from Omaha. I guess everyone’s heard what happened next: Michael Phelps scratched the 200 Free. Davis went from seventh to sixth–and he was now on Team USA. He was actually munching on a big cheeseburger in Charlotte when Coach Marsh called him and said, “You’re an Olympian. Go back to Omaha!” Then, he called us while we were driving and gave us the news. Davis told me then, “Now by grace, I have another chance. I’m going to work as hard as I can to earn my spot. I’ve got to get back to chopping some wood.”

Relay spots are up to the discretion of the coaches. Davis had no guarantee that he would be selected to swim either in the preliminaries or the finals. While Mary and I were getting a tour of Parliament, I got a text from Davis: “I’m going third tomorrow.” That was the first we knew that he was on the relay. He swam the fastest 200-meter freestyle of his life, and the third fastest of all 64 relay legs swum by the best freestylers in the world.

He blew a close race open, the USA easily qualified first, and Davis became an Olympic Gold Medalist when the USA won in the finals that evening.

If I had to say which emotions have been strongest these last few months, they are twofold: thankfulness and humility. We are thankful that the coaches gave him the opportunity and that he did his job well, and we are humbled by this blessing. I have never felt less in control of things during any period of my life–bar none–than I have since June.

Davis shared a few nights back that his personal experience has been more powerful than the medal itself. He noted that Tolkien, another Oxford man, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, thematically portrayed the power of the ring to take over the soul of anyone who wants to possess it. A gold medal can be like that: it can become not merely a goal, but a kind of idol, the pursuit of which can consume a person’s self-worth and dignity. Davis gets that, and while he has not decided exactly what he will do with his medal, he knows this much: he does not plan to put it in a big case on his wall and worship it.

Mary and I are still processing, in our own ways, what all this means, but, for now, I can tell you that I have learned much about life, faith, and perseverance from my son. It is an honor to be his father.

P.S. Yes, Davis did appear a couple of times in the “Call Me Maybe” music video. After seeing him dance in a Speedo, I don’t think he is any threat to the Chippendales.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

October 2012

DICTA

29

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

I have heard a legend of a shadowy organization of identically dressed lawyers and their friends and families called "Team Swanson," devoted to truth, justice and the UT Volunteers.

Is there any truth to these tales; how long has this annual rite of game day team shirts been going on; and what is it with the "power of the Team Swanson shirts" business, anyway?

"TEAM SWANSON" Charles Swanson, Pam Reeves, Sarah Sheppeard, and Memphis visitor/diehard Vols fan (and bona fide KBA Fan Club member) Bill Haltom (a collective answer, preceded by an equally collective sigh):

Pam: I don't know how long we've been doing this–since back in the '90s, at least?

Sarah: I think it first started sometime between 1988-91. It used to be mainly just the guys.

Charles: The numbers have varied, too, across the years. There were 20 or 23 of us when Team Swanson was in full bloom. Back then, we used to be mailing the annual "team shirts" all across Tennessee and the Southeast, and as far west as Colorado!

Bill: You've gotta understand that, in my book, there are only two true holidays: one is Christmas, and the other is "Shirt Day." That's the day every year when I get the latest Team Swanson shirt in the mail. It's now known as being a festive day not just across my law firm, Thomason, Hendrix, but all across Memphis. I think they even talk about it in the schools there. It's at least as good as Santa Claus day to me.

Last Word ("LW"): These shirts sound like they are something much more than the average UT fan's shirt....

Charles: Shirt Selection Day is quite a ritual, too! Typically, two Fridays before the beginning of UT football season, the Shirt Selection Committee meets. It's a very serious and highly exacting process....

Sarah: ...and the specifications can be quite precise and demanding. To be selected, the shirt has to have the right amount of orange--the shirt is not always solid orange, but if it's something other than wholly orange, it needs to have just the right amount of orange. The material used has to be just right, too....

Pam: And, at least one woman has to be on the Shirt Selection Committee to ensure that it will fit the women as well as it will the men. We got tired of wearing shirts that were cut for men and didn't look good on the women. Personally, the Hawaiian shirts were always my favorite.

LW: So, how many shirts can the Selection Committee evaluate before making a final selection?

Charles: It varies from year to year; we can look at and try on at least five or six styles before reaching a consensus. It can take up a good bit of a Friday to do this right, and it has to be done right. Too much pride is on the line!

Bill: And tradition, too; the right Team Swanson shirt is every bit as important to the team members as a good seersucker suit is to the wardrobe of a Southern gentleman, sir.

LW: You guys act like there's something almost magical about these shirts....

Charles (with a thunderstruck look): Magical, no; powerful, yes! You know, Pam and I are convinced that our wearing of these shirts was the principal reason why UT beat Arkansas in 1998 and got the Vols to the National Championship.

LW (with a bemused yet puzzled expression): Huh?!? Isn't that bit over the top?

Charles: You seem confused, so let me explain. In the fall of '98, while she was TBA President, Pam was invited to attend the formal opening of court in France. This is a really big deal; it is a very formal occasion. You've never seen so many robes, sashes and medallions in your life, and it's also a big opportunity for French lawyers to party. The first night we were in Paris, their equivalent of the Young Lawyers or Barristers threw a band party in a circus and carnival museum--if you've seen "Midnight in Paris," it was one of the places in the movie. Everybody's in tuxedoes and formal wear.

Although we're six hours ahead of Neyland Field time, we get the word: "The band's taking the field!"

We hang in at this party as long as I can stand it, and then, I just can't take it anymore. I shout to Pam: "Call home!" We run back to our hotel; Judy the babysitter's at our home, and she tells us: "Oh, it's not good...five minutes left, and Tennessee's losing." The score was 24-22, Arkansas-UT. Pam and I were beside ourselves. Pam hung up, over my objections and I shouted: "Quick: we need the shirts!!!" I stripped off my tux and put on my Team Swanson shirt, and Pam put on her shirt.

So, we sat there like this in our hotel room for about fifteen minutes before calling back--it was the longest fifteen minutes ever, I'll tell you that; I was going nuts--and then we called Judy back. She's screaming: "Pam, Pam, you won't believe it! Clint Stoerner fumbled the ball, we recovered, scored, and won the game!” And that, as they say, was the game.

Now, am I saying that this would not have happened if Pam and I hadn't put on the Team Swanson shirts while we were in Paris? I'm convinced that UT won that game and made it to the National Championship because we put on our game day shirts in France....

Sarah: Hey, I get an assist on this one, too! I was doing the Law Institute in Nashville; with UT behind, I raced back to my room and put on my Team Swanson game day shirt, too, and look what happened next....

LW: Clearly, these are some kind of game day shirts.

Bill: You better believe it, buddy! Final element of proof: Charles and I flew out to Tempe for the Fiesta Bowl a few years back. We festooned our rental car with all kinds of Big Orange flags and gear. We looked like a slice of Neyland Stadium on wheels. Well, we decided that while we were in Arizona, we had to see Tombstone. As we pulled off the ramp to Tombstone, an Arizona cop pulls up behind us, lights flashing. He walked over, took one look at us, and said: "You guys ain't from around here, are you?" And that was it, no ticket; no lecture; nothing. He just let us keep going. Never doubt the awesome power of the Team Swanson shirts.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

November 2012

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Is there any truth to the rumor that the Long household, during the holiday season, becomes a veritable Winter Wonderland that would put Clark Griswold (of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” infamy) to shame?

CAROL ANNE and JASON LONG

Christmas begins early in the Long household . . . mid-July, to be exact, when the Hallmark Keepsake ornaments debut. It’s a wonderfully exciting weekend for me, as I examine my new Christmas purchases, and it’s a little less exciting for Jason, as he examines the Hallmark bill. My wife is on a first name basis with all of the Hallmark salespeople. They send her personal “Thank you” notes every year. . . . That can’t be good.

Come mid-November, I begin pulling out the decorations. I know many people balk at the idea of decorating for Christmas before the Thanksgiving turkey has been consumed, but I find that if I wait until Black Friday to begin the decorating process, I can’t get it all done before my self-imposed deadline of December 1. This is a firm deadline. What’s the old saying? “If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Let me tell you, if December rolls around and our house doesn’t look like a winter wonderland, momma ain’t happy.

For the past few years, we have put up nine Christmas trees (I need to interject here. Nine? Doesn’t that seem excessive if your name is not Vanderbilt?

Honestly, I’ve lost track over the years, but I think she’s exaggerating): There are two eight-foot trees (one decorative, one with all of the family ornaments); one four-foot tree in the children’s playroom; three three-foot trees (one in each child’s room and one in my closet, decorated only with Barbie ornaments (Sigh)); one small two-foot tree in the upstairs hallway; and two four-foot trees on the front porch. Yep. She’s right. Apparently, we have nine trees . . .huh. This year, much to Jason’s delight, we are adding a tenth tree in our media room, which will have a movie and TV theme.

Might as well round up to ten.

In addition to all of the trees, I hose the house down with other decorations (“hose” may be the perfect verb here), with the goal of seeing something “Christmas-y” everywhere you look, including the bathrooms. It’s a little unnerving relieving oneself with baby Jesus staring up at me from the bathroom crèche. I think we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 large plastic bins that hold almost all of the decorations.

That’s a full day of getting boxes out of storage and a full day of putting them back . . . for those keeping track.

The decorating is extremely time-consuming and can be rather stressful (each year, I wind up with cuts on my hands and a massive headache from wrapping lit garland around our banister, and I swear I’ll never do it again – until the next year), but when it’s all said and done, nothing makes me happier than seeing the faces of our children as they light up with excitement from the presence of all of the decorations.

It’s true. My wife does make the place look pretty awesome and the kids love it. Thank you, sweetheart.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

December 2012

DICTA

25

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Mr. Chief Justice, as we begin the New Year, would you like to share some thoughts on how you began your legal career and, in particular, how you now view civility and professionalism in the bar?

CHIEF JUSTICE GARY R. WADE

Tennessee Supreme Court

In May of 1972, as I began my last year of law school, I knew that I wanted to return home to Sevierville to practice.

Sandy was teaching in Pigeon Forge, we wanted to start a family, and, to me, Sevier County was a great place to live. So I sent letters to two successful local practitioners, Robert L. Ogle, Jr. of the Ogle & Schmutzer firm, and John B. Waters, Jr., of Haily, Waters, Jarvis, and Sykes. John, one of my dearest friends today, was out of town at the time, and I did not hear from him for three weeks. Meanwhile, Bob offered me summer employment at $3 per hour (just a little more than I was worth), took me under his wing, and the rest is history.

In July, Circuit Judge George Shepherd allowed me to sit at counsel table during one of Bob’s personal injury cases – my very first opportunity to actually participate in a jury trial. In a close case, his forceful style, especially during cross-examination and final argument, had its desired effect on the jury, and his client prevailed. I was impressed. Popular with his clients and our community’s leading personal injury lawyer, Bob Ogle was handsome, athletic, had an authoritative voice, and was always immaculately dressed. Of the Ray Jenkins school of courtroom practice, he often relied upon his wits, side bar commentary, and closing summation to persuade juries to think his way. I would definitely describe him as an old school plaintiff ’s lawyer. He would often intimidate (or try to intimidate) opposing counsel, adversary parties, and sometimes even the trial judge. In a self-deprecating moment Bob described himself as “even-tempered . . . mad all of the time!” Never afraid to attack the credibility of an opposing witness, Bob rarely displayed subtlety in his approach and, at times, could be hard to love. As we say in Sevier County, he always “fit” for rights and interests of those he represented. I adored my old mentor (and eventual partner) – and miss him still.

A few weeks after my summer internship with Bob Ogle, during the fall quarter of my third year in law school, the U.T. Legal Clinic assigned Jim Bell and me to help Robert W. Ritchie in his preparations for a high profile criminal case in Knoxville. This Bob meticulously prepared the case (as I learned later he always did). No stone left unturned – as he put it. His courteous examination of witnesses and his charming manner with the court was a sight to behold. He won acquittals for his client on all charges. Again, I was impressed.

The two “Bobs” had completely divergent styles – one forceful and confrontational and the other polite and respectful. The only common thread – each met with success.

If I had to name one Tennessean in the legal profession as “Exhibit A” for civility in demeanor, whether in the courtroom or otherwise, Bob Ritchie would have to be the guy. He was easy to love – and so was his style of practicing law. Some of his adversaries were his greatest admirers.

Bob’s view was that every lawyer had the absolute duty to respect “the robe” – even when the rulings from the bench were unfavorable – or perhaps even wrong. For that reason, I never knew a judge who did not hold Bob Ritchie in the highest regard. He and other lawyers with similarly courteous styles had an enormous influence on the courtroom manner I eventually tried to emulate as a young lawyer. Many have aspired to conduct themselves like Bob, but he was unique. I recall a column that he wrote for DICTA some years ago on civility and professionalism. The article provided sage advice. Civility and professionalism translates into effective advocacy: Are we really hucksters and shysters, interested only in making money? Grasping, greedy people who care only about fomenting litigation so that we can become wealthy leaches of society?

Or are we caring people, concerned with the protection of those we represent, those who find themselves injured or oppressed, those whose lives and businesses are threatened by litigation, by criminal charges, divorce or other crises that bring them to your offices?

Are we the bane of society or are we like those who built this nation and who today strive daily and mightily to preserve its basic democratic institutions?

Bob quoted a passage from a 1770 census report in his effort to encourage attorneys to be good stewards of the profession and to enhance the reputation of the bar: Your Royal Majesty, Grafton County, New Hampshire, consists of 1212 square miles. It contains 6,489 souls most of whom are engaged in agriculture, but included in that number are 69 wheelwrights, 8 doctors, 29 blacksmiths, 87 preachers, 20 slaves and 90 students at the new college.

There is not one lawyer, for which we take no personal credit, but thank an Almighty and Merciful God.

Two last stories about Bob Ritchie. Anyone who knew Bob will recall that he loved breakfast at the Cracker Barrel – at any time of the day. The servers at the Merchant’s Road location were always delighted to see Bob and called him by name. He always ordered the same thing, and however hot the coffee was to begin with, Bob always wanted his cup to be microwaved another 30 seconds longer! Years ago, I sat with Bob on “plea day.” As we waited our turn to be heard, a young lawyer trying one of his first cases was asked how his client would plead. After responding, “Guilty as charged,” he then commenced to tell “hizzoner” why his client was really innocent and, therefore, merited only a light sentence. At that point, Bob leaned over and whispered with that charming smile, “Innocence is always a factor to be taken into consideration in sentencing!” I liked that comment so much, I had it printed, framed it, and kept it posted in my office for years. After I became a judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals, Bob would occasionally ask, “So, Judge, did you take innocence into consideration in any of your recent sentencing decisions?” A great friend, he was. If he ever had a bad moment, I never saw it . . . . As for myself, I have had a few, but I’m working on it!

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

January 2013

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Would you share with the readers of DICTA a few recollections about your and your wife (and fellow KBA member) Kim's recent travels through Japan?

JOSHUA HEDRICK

This past fall, my wife, Kim, and I had the opportunity to visit Japan. My wife’s sister, Andrea, has been teaching English in Japan for the past few years, and we decided it was time to go visit her and to see the country.

Our trip began with an uneventful drive to Atlanta, then several flights to get to the west coast, before we were finally over the Pacific Ocean, riding in all the luxury that coach class has to offer. Eventually we landed at the Tokyo Narita airport, thoroughly confused as to what day it was and why it seemed like it had been 4:00 pm for the last ten hours or so.

My first impression of Japan was amazement at how well executed the public transportation was. The train from the airport into Tokyo was comfortable, spacious, and had nice touches like power outlets at each seat. After arriving in Tokyo, we proceeded to our hotel, where we found a cramped but comfortable room. So far my plan of smiling a lot and nodding when people spoke at me was working well. Kim’s vegetarianism was not faring as well – when we told the waitress at dinner that she wanted the vegetable noodle bowl, we were cheerfully promised that they would bring one with “only pork, then.”

The next day, we were able to see the city, making use of the subway system. It was every bit as crowded as one would expect, and one is immediately struck by how homogenous the culture is. Unlike America, with our many different races and peoples, Japan is a nation of one people for the most part. Though the subway system was a bit daunting in its complexity, most of the important signs are printed in Japanese and English. It also helped that my wife is a nearly six-foot tall blonde woman, making it easy to keep up in the crowd.

By the end of the first day, we had explored lots of Tokyo, and had seen some impressive architecture, modern skyscrapers and digital advertisements often right next to a thousand-year old temple or shrine. We visited Tokyo Tower and the Tsukiji fish market (which unsurprisingly, smelled like fish). The people we encountered were friendly, and would often approach us to address us in English. Perhaps the most unusual encounter was when an older gentleman approached me and with open arms declared, “Tennessee!” I was speechless, until I realized I was wearing a “Memphis Law” t-shirt. He and I had a long (and somewhat unfocused) discussion about American geography, and we sang a few bars of John Denver’s “Country Roads”.

We moved on to see Osaka Castle, originally built in 1597 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a samurai who brought about the unification of Japan.

Though the current tower was rebuilt in 1929 (the original burned down a few times), the scale of the building was impressive, and the view from the top was amazing. The interior has been converted to a museum providing the history of Hideyoshi and the unification of Japan. At the end of the exhibits, we had our photo taken dressed up as samurai warriors. While having our pictures taken, other people at the museum asked if they could have their pictures with us dressed up as samurai. Several of our photos show us with unknown individuals while wearing horns and helmets.

We also were privileged to watch the Jidai Matsuri, or Festival of Ages, in Kyoto. An annual event held on October 22, the festival features a parade that displays the traditional dress and warrior armor of the people, military, and historical figures of Japan, spanning a thousand years of history.

The parade is also a way for people to pay their respects to the mikoshi, or portable shrines, of two of Japan’s emperors, Kanmu and Komei.

The history of the country was one of the most striking features of the trip, given that we had the opportunity to visit cultural and religious sites that were hundreds and even thousands of years older than what we in America would consider ‘historical’. We visited Todaiji Temple, which houses a bronze Buddha over sixty feet tall. The temple grounds are home to a herd of sacred deer. The deer are protected by law, as they are said to be guardians of the Buddha, but there has been a long-running tradition of visitors feeding them crackers. The result is that the deer have gone beyond friendly, and moved into downright pushy. A traveler must be careful to produce a treat quickly and on approach, or risk an assertive nudge or nip from a deer’s muzzle.

Of course, no trip to Japan would be complete without visiting Hiroshima, and the peace museum located there. To visit the city is a very moving experience, especially to see some remnants of the destruction preserved in the city as monuments to those lost to the atomic bomb. The museum was a similarly moving experience, and I urge anyone traveling to Japan to visit the city and tour the museum.

We finished our trip off with a dinner of authentic Kobe beef, which was a life-changing experience. After a quick ride on the Shinkansen, or bullet train, we were back in the air heading home.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

February 2013

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Many commentators bemoan the state of learning and interest in the topic of civics among the American public. Why does that matter, and what can lawyers do to help reverse the trends?

THE HON. H. BRUCE GUYTON U.S. Magistrate Judge

The most enjoyable duty of my job as a federal judge is to preside over a naturalization ceremony for new United States citizens. These joyful new Americans display an impressive knowledge of the history, government, and laws of the United States. Indeed, one of the requirements of citizenship is that each applicant must pass a test on these matters. I leave each ceremony with the feeling that these new citizens are well-prepared to be active and informed participants in our political process.

Unfortunately, our native born citizens do not have a similar level of civics knowledge. In 2011 Newsweek gave 1,000 Americans the official U.S. Citizenship test, and 38% of them failed. Thirty percent couldn’t name the vice-president. One person guessed “Ben Laden.” Few understood our system of checks and balances among the three branches of government, or even that the judiciary is one of the three branches. Most common answer: “President, Congress, and Senate.” Most had little grasp of Constitutional rights and responsibilities. Three out of four people didn’t know that the Bill of Rights protects religious freedom. Other polls have produced similar results.

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recognizes the problem. She has made the promotion of civics education her post-retirement focus. Justice O’Connor writes, “Increasingly, citizens do not know how our government works: national, state, and local.” To combat the problem, she led the charge to create “iCivics.org,” a website full of innovative tools designed to teach civics.

Why should we care? Because, in a democracy, citizens who are ignorant of civics become apathetic, cynical, and detached from the processes of government. Into the void step the activists at the extremes of the issues, who then dominate the process at hand, whether the matter be local or national. The solution is to have more citizens who are knowledgeable about civics, and thus prepared to engage in our civic institutions. James Madison knew this in 1788: “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.” Moreover, people who are well-informed tend to come together and reach agreements. We see this principle at work in our jury system.

In 2011, the ABA Journal published a cover article titled, “Flunking Civics: Why America’s Kids Know So Little.” The article noted that half of the states did not require high school students to take civics, and only three states required it in middle school. Thanks to recently enacted legislation, however, Tennessee has some of the strongest statewide civics education requirements in the nation. Tennessee students are now required to take three credits of social studies or civics classes, and they are required to complete a portfolio of civic work and community service learning requirements.

Hopefully, young Tennesseans will be prepared to participate fully in our democracy.

This increased emphasis on civics is good for students, but what about the larger society? I believe that lawyers, and judges, due to their education and experience, are in a unique position to make “teaching civics” a part of their careers. In a 2009 article in the William & Mary Law Review titled “Public Service Must Begin At Home: The Lawyer as Civics Teacher in Everyday Practice,” the authors argue that lawyers “teach civics” through the counseling of clients in the daily private practice of law, regardless of whether the matter relates to a transaction or to litigation. The authors note that lawyers also teach civics to their clients indirectly by example.

But much more can be done beyond the context of the attorney-client relationship. Lawyers and judges should look for opportunities to speak to civic groups, clubs, class rooms, and church groups. Ask your children’s teachers if you can participate in their civics instruction. Participate in bar association events designed to teach law and civics to the public. Write articles for publication in local papers and magazines on subjects such as constitutional rights and the courts.

Our popular culture enjoys lawyer jokes and lawyer themed T.V. shows, which often are not flattering to our profession. My observation, however, is that lawyers are well regarded in the community. They are respected for their education and experience. Put that respect to work, and be a civics teacher. Ask your non-lawyer friends if they have questions about law and government. You might be surprised what they’d like to know, what you are able to explain, and how pleased they are that you did.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

March 2013

DICTA

29

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

If you would, Jamie, tell us about your experiences as a runner and how you got into the sport.

JAMIE L. NILAND Knoxville Public Defender’s Community Law Office

Compared to the brief I’ve been working on for three weeks (after two extensions), writing an article about running should seem like a breeze.

But as I write, I keep fighting the tendency to sound overly enthusiastic. It has been brought to my attention, both subtly and not-so-subtly, that running talk can be really annoying to people, so I've tried to curb my enthusiasm. I try to find an appropriate audience and I try to gear the details to the listener. In person, I've learned to detect the signs of boredom and loathing, but on paper, well, I just will have to go on faith Growing up, Track and Field Day and the Presidential Fitness Award day were my most dreaded days of the year. I still have PTSD when I see a rope. As an adult, I went on a couple of hikes with Public Defender coworkers, which have since been referred to as The Trail of Tears. I learned not to hike with people whose legs are twice as long as mine. I also went to classes at the gym, which I enjoyed, but I never felt the need to restrain my gym tales. There just wasn't that much to be excited about in a gym.

On a whim, I went to a social run five years ago with a friend. Until that time, I had run only up and down my street, in the dark so that no one would see me, and only with a dog that would occasionally get out of its yard. I was apprehensive because I wasn't sure if I could keep up with the others or if I would be able to run the entire route. Thankfully, the social run was more social then a run. We ran downtown, from establishment to establishment, and I loved it. It was great to meet a new group of people, who were interested in a healthy lifestyle and who were outside the legal group in which I had spent most of my life since law school. I kept going back every Wednesday and eventually joined group runs on other nights.

My goals grew from running three miles, to running six miles, then to running half marathons. After saying for four years that I would never run a marathon, I signed up for one, ran it, and loved it. It really doesn't matter that I am usually in the back of the pack (unfortunately, there are no awards for persistence) or that I have on occasion been trailed by the sweeping police cruiser (at least I was safe). It is really just about doing a little better than the last time. Or getting outside, to a new location. Or meeting another "hobby jogger," as I was called one time. Running is not easy, but it feels great to do it and to be done, and that is the great reward. There is no large expense involved, except for needing to buy an entirely new wardrobe when the old clothes no longer fit! And the only learning curve involved can be managed with an issue of Runner's World and talking to a few local runners.

I hear myself preaching at this point, but I can't really stop now. We are so fortunate to be in this area and to have amazing greenways where we can practically run across the city without getting on a road. We have the Riverwalk, and Urban Wilderness, and Ijams, and we have groups such as the Knoxville Track Club to connect up people who want to meet to run. There are group runs almost nightly, and the groups are welcoming to new runners and runners of all paces. It can be hard to take the first step and to show up for something new.

I will close my sermon, as most good sermons end, with an invitation to join. I would be happy to give anyone interested more information or advice on how to get started. It has been the most positive change in my adult life, and I'd love to bring some people with me. Now go drink the Kool-Aid…. or Gatorade, perhaps. Cheers!

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

April 2013

DICTA

31

Q:A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

KEN BROWN Acting Chief Counsel, B&W Y-12, LLC in Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Q. Can you tell DICTA’s readers about your band, Dor L’Dor, and its take on Klezmer music?

A. Sure. First, let me answer the question I get asked most whenever I talk about the band: “What’s Klezmer music?” It’s traditional Jewish folk and dance music, played at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other festive occasions. “Klezmer” comes from the Hebrew words klei (vessel) and zemer (song). It wasn’t originally applied to the music, but to the musicians who played it, who were called “klezmorim.” So you get this beautiful image of the performers themselves as “vessels of song.”

Q. What does Klezmer sound like? How would I recognize it if I heard it?

A. Well, like most music, it’s hard to describe; you need to actually hear it. It originated in Eastern Europe, and it borrows from lots of different styles, including Romanian folk dances, gypsy melodies, religious liturgy, musical theater, and even American jazz. The clarinet is a featured lead instrument, so it sometimes has a certain Dixieland quality. Most importantly, it’s dance music, so it’s designed to get people on their feet and moving. That’s why, rhythmically, it’s very exciting. My favorite description of Klezmer is my brother Steve’s (our drummer), who calls it “barely controlled chaos.”

The most likely place you and DICTA’s readers may have heard Klezmer would be if you ever attended a Jewish wedding or the bar mitzvah of a Jewish colleague’s kid.

If they played any music at all, I can almost guarantee that you heard “Hava Nagila,” a classic Klezmer tune. Not hearing it would be like going to a UT game and not hearing “Rocky Top.” (By the way, our band has a “klezmerized” version of “Rocky Top.”) “Hava Nagila” is so classic that it now borders on the cliché.

If a TV show or movie wants you to know that some scene you’re watching is a Jewish event, they’ll play “Hava Nagila.” My favorite example is the movie Striptease, with Burt Reynolds and Demi Moore, where the sleazy Burt Reynolds politician character attends a fundraiser at a Jewish nursing home in Florida, and you can hear a cheesy version of “Hava Nagila” on accordion in the background.

Q. Tell us about the name of the band, “Dor L’Dor.” Is that Hebrew too?

A. Yes. Dor L’Dor means “from generation to generation.” We love that name for a couple of reasons. First, it describes the make-up of the band.

My wife Susan and I (piano and clarinet) started Dor L’Dor in 1999 with our children Michael (trombone), Daniel (bass), and Rachel (originally tambourine, now voice) plus my brother Steve on drums (Steve has been on the Knoxville music scene for some time, including playing drums for the Hector Qirko Band). So we’ve got different generations in the band. Also, as Klezmer grew up in the old country, there developed a strong tradition of the music being passed down from parents to children. We like the idea of bringing that tradition to Knoxville. We also like the name Dor L’Dor because we think this is music that appeals to different generations.

Q. Speaking of appealing to different generations, how in the world did you get your kids to be in the band?

A. Threats and bribes. (I can say that because I know that none of my kids will be reading DICTA.) But seriously, it wasn’t easy. It was especially hard with our oldest, Michael, who thought it was pretty un-cool to be in a dorky band with his dorky parents. So my wife hit on the stratagem of writing parts for two trombones, thus including Michael’s best friend, Brandon Armstrong, in the band. Brandon didn’t have Michael’s rebellious teenage issues because we weren’t his parents. He thought the music was great.

Q. How’s the market for Klezmer music in Knoxville?

A. Not bad. We do weddings and we do concerts at places like the Laurel Theater and the Knoxville Museum of Art. Sometimes we have to travel, for example, to Huntsville, Asheville, Chattanooga, the Smokeys, Toledo, and Boston. We’ve got weddings this year in Rhode Island and in Townsend. And we also play for international festivals in Oak Ridge, Nashville, Cookeville, and here in Knoxville. We’ve played at the Down Home in Johnson City and on Chancellor Snyder’s “Mighty Musical Monday” at the Tennessee Theater twice, and we’re scheduled to do it again on Labor Day this year.

And, partly out of necessity and partly out of design, we’re pretty ecumenical in our repertoire and philosophy. We’ve played for church events, and we’ve even played for Christmas parties at a Knoxville law firm and for the Law Department at Y-12. Those engagements included us leading the revelers in sing-a-long Christmas carols.

Q. I’ve listened to both of your CDs [Dance For Your Life and Not Your Father’s Klezmer Band], and I was surprised by the variety of styles and by some of the pieces that I never would have guessed have anything to do with Klezmer.

A. I take that as a big compliment. We love to surprise audiences by “klezmerizing” non-klezmer pieces. One of the biggest audience favorites at our concerts is our klezmerized version of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which gets nearly halfway into the piece before the audience realizes they’re listening to John Philip Sousa, who never sounded so Jewish. We recently played a concert at the Levitt Shell in Memphis (the venue of Elvis’s first public concert), where we combined “Hava Nagila” with “Heartbreak Hotel,” including a screaming electric guitar solo at the beginning. The Memphis audience went nuts when we played that one.

Q. It sounds like you’ve brought Klezmer into the 21st century. (Or, at least, into 1970s Elvis.) Where can people learn more?

A. We try to make it fun for us and for our audience. Klezmer is joyous, poignant, and very mischievous. We see ourselves as drawing from that tradition and adding to it, too. If people want to find out more, they can check out our website at www.dorldorklezmerband.com.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

May 2013

DICTA

31

Q:A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

P. EDWARD PRATT Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C.

Q: The popularity of TV shows like "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "Finding Your Roots" point to a renewed interest in family history and genealogy. How did you get interested in this, Eddy?

A: When I was thirteen, a 16x20 photograph of an older man and woman in an oversized frame came to me in a division of my grandfather's personal property. After a phone call to his sister, I learned my Grandfather Pratt was named for his Grandfather Pratt, the man in the photograph.

Later, while researching for a high school assignment, I heard Wilma Dykeman speak on the people of Appalachia and family history. She pointed to records in the public library where I found the alphabetized 1850 census. There, I located the man in the photo as a 13-year-old boy in his parents' household. I was hooked and have been for over 35 years.

History took an even more personal turn when I documented a stigma often associated with the Civil War, that in my East Tennessee family, brother had fought against brother. One of eleven children, eight boys and three girls, my great-great grandfather of the photograph had brothers fight both for the Union and the Confederacy. One brother, a Confederate veteran, moved to Tullahoma after the War. While working as a summer clerk in Nashville during law school, one Saturday morning, I drove to Tullahoma and located his descendants. One of them gave me a small photograph on glass (an ambrotype, probably taken by an army photographer during the Civil War) of a woman known only as "dad's Grandmother Pratt." By description, I could identify her by name as the mother of the eleven children, my great-great-great Grandmother Pratt, born in 1801.

Q: How far back is possible and what kinds of records are out there?

A: Surnames were first used in Europe circa 1000 to 1200 A.D. Only a rare number of families have documentation back to the time of the Normans, one example being the Ogles of Sevier County.

Most can only trace back about 250 years. Documentation to about 450 years is possible, but not common.

The English and Germans kept the best records. For example, when Henry VIII broke with the Sarah Jones Pratt, b. 1801 Roman Catholic Church in 1538, he required all parish churches in England to maintain records of all births, deaths, and marriages. The English parish church where my family originated has records from 1565, and I found entries for several generations of direct ancestors dating back to one born there about 1540. (Counting my son, this is a mere 15 generations). By comparison, many early courthouse records in the South were lost to fires during the War of 1812, the Civil War, and at various other times. For colonial times, some duplicate records were maintained in England, and some Quaker and Anglican church records still exist. Surviving county and state records show that the colonists carried on the English tradition of meticulous recordkeeping.

In the absence of a will or administration, inheritance laws and property records are useful tools for establishing family relationships. For example, for some 20 years following the Revolution, North Carolina intestate laws permitted only sons to inherit real property. That helped me use numerous deeds made over a 40 year period to piece together a 1779 North Carolina land grant of 640 acres to document three or four generations of direct male family descent. (Note: North Carolina made these land grants, in place of the King or his agents, at a time when the Revolution was being lost to the British.)

Since the advent of the Internet, access to genealogical information has drastically expanded. Many libraries, state and county archives, historical societies, genealogical groups, family genealogists, and even churches have posted files online. Ancestry.com, a paid subscription site, has the largest database of any of these websites. The 1940 U.S. Census was released last year; even a cursory check in the 1940 and earlier censuses can take a researcher quickly back several generations into the early 1800s. East Tennesseans have a tremendous resource: the McClung Collection, on the third floor of the East Tennessee History Center. It rivals the DAR's archives as well as those of other well-known reference libraries.

Q: Are there any new trends in family research?

A: DNA analysis. As a family history detective, in the absence of documentation, you have to make some assumptions and fit theories together. DNA can change how well some of these theories fit (or don't fit). The Y chromosome and its markers ("yDNA") pass from father to son; assuming fidelity among one's ancestors, the yDNA markers should flow through the male lineage in a person's family tree to connect men with a common surname to a common male ancestor somewhere between 500 to 1,000 years ago, depending on the number of matches vs. mutations and the length of the sequence tested. 16, 32, 64, and even higher marker tests are available. (By example, 6-7 years ago, I submitted DNA to a database; I had lots of matches, but only two of them with my surname. From the records, I determined the three of us were all descended from a common male ancestor christened in Virginia in 1677, but via three different sons of that ancestor; we were in Tennessee, Colorado, and West Virginia. It was positive proof for both of the other men of their lineage where before, they did not have a document to prove certain assumptions.)

Q: Why does genealogy matter?

A: For my generation and younger ones, I think in part it is because, as a society, our mobility has separated us from any identity with a community of family, recognized by almost every generation that came before us. Something in us desires "roots," a place or group to which we belong. In addition, whether we like it or not, we are genetically the sum of those who came before us. Most of our families made the history we study, in some form or another. To connect with our forbearers in the context of historical events helps us explain who we are and where we came from.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

June 2013

DICTA

29

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

THE HONORABLE THOMAS W. PHILLIPS United States District Judge, the Eastern District of Tennessee

Q: Judge Phillips, what are your “last words” for the readers of DICTA as you prepare to leave the active practice of law and the Federal bench?

A: I must admit that I do have mixed feelings about leaving the active practice of law. I have enjoyed being a practitioner; I have enjoyed trying lawsuits; and I have enjoyed being a federal judge. I cannot honestly say that I liked one role better than the others, but being a federal judge is much easier overall than being a practitioner.

I would like to encourage law firms to encourage their new associates to get involved in pro bono work. There are two good reasons for this. First, we have an obligation to our profession to provide legal services to those persons who cannot afford them. It has always bothered me that an individual caught selling drugs can get free, and very good, legal advice that the government pays for, yet an individual who works daily in a factory or a sawmill cannot afford to hire a lawyer just to write a will. That is a problem that I perceive with our profession.

The second good reason to get involved in pro bono work--and a reason why young lawyers should want to do pro bono work themselves--is that it gets new attorneys experience and involvement in the courtroom at an early stage in their careers. I think that we are losing the ability to try cases.

Young lawyers graduating from law school know the law--at least, they know the theory of the law--but they have no idea about the art of the law.

What I mean by “art of the law” is that part of legal practice that you only can get by doing it; in other words, the “on-the-job training” portion of practicing law. The art of the law is every bit as important as the theory of the law, in my opinion, and law schools are producing some very capable young attorneys, but they often have no idea of what a trial court looks like. There is simply no better way to learn the art of the practice than by trying cases in General Sessions courts. Whether one is trying civil or criminal cases there, that is a great learning experience.

Q: Do you have any immediate plans or travels after your last day on the bench?

A: My wife and I are going to spend three weeks in Europe. We plan on traveling to Scandinavia first, then to Saint Petersburg, and then to England.

After that, I’m not sure exactly what we will be doing--no firm plans. Having worked since I was nine years old, this is going to be very different!

One final thought. It is very important for attorneys to maintain the integrity of our profession. It seems that some members of our profession use their legal talents to frustrate the law, rather than carry out justice. It is important for all of us to hold the banner high.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

August 2013

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Rick, please share with DICTA’s readers how your practice in media and entertainment law came to be.

A:

RICHARD L. HOLLOW Hollow & Hollow, LLC

I was serving as Hamilton Burnett’s second law clerk when the City created the job of Deputy Law Director. I applied for and got the job--a good thing too, since my clerkship was ending! City Court then handled General Sessions criminal actions: there were over 500 cases in abeyance, with about $10,000 of forfeitures that had been left to languish, and many bail bondsmen were essentially practicing law. We set out to try those cases; we stopped an intolerable situation for City government. I attended all the City Council and Planning Commission meetings. Busy days: the City’s taxpayers got their money’s worth.

Several years later, Charlie Miller, UT Legal Clinic’s director, launched a new initiative, which he asked me to join. It sounded great: I’d get a raise, and I’d be a faculty member. So, we inaugurated the Neighborhood Law Office: with two locations which we and law students staffed, it handled criminal and civil cases for those in real need. It was “cutting edge” stuff. There was an uproar: some local lawyers were convinced the program would take away fee-generating cases. I offered anyone with concerns to come to the Clinic, look at the cases we had, and take any case they wanted. Guess how many took a case?

My undergraduate major was in journalism; I had contacts from college and in newspapers. It sort-of matured over time, but I guess what launched it in large part was an incident that occurred at UT in late 1969 or early 1970. The UT students’ Issues Committee wanted to invite the Black Panthers’ leader H. Rap Brown to speak on campus. UT’s administration essentially said, “No, we don’t think that’s a good idea.” The students protested this decision as an infringement of free speech.

The students’ original lawyer worked for UT; faced with potential loss of his UT job, he withdrew and gave the students my name. There was a small retainer, and the case looked interesting, so I took it and found myself teamed with William Kunstler. In a reported case from Judge Taylor, UT’s action was held unconstitutional--void for vagueness.

Although his reputation was that of a radical firebrand, he was quite a gentleman: Bill allowed me to take the lead, and his personality was very measured, calm, and polite. He was a lot of fun to work with. We and the UT lawyers tried the case on stipulated facts; thus, we were able to dig into the law to an extraordinary degree. It was fascinating to watch Kunstler strike a rapport with Judge Taylor, even while parrying the judge’s toughest questions. I learned the results when a News Sentinel reporter called me later to say, “You just won your case.” That was a good day.

Soon after, a Cocke County judge wouldn’t let a reporter review grand jury records. We got a writ executed, and I drove one Saturday morning to confront the judge. I left a copy of the writ with the local DA’s office in Dandridge. You’d better believe that judge knew I was coming long before I reached his office.

When I arrived, on each side of the courthouse door stood plainclothes-men, exhibiting all the characteristics of men you wouldn’t want to fool with in Cocke County. One asked: “Are you here to arrest the judge?” I replied, “No; I do have some papers for the Judge, though.” “OK. Go on in.”

I entered a small office, where the judge, a smallish and slender man, sat behind a metal desk. He said, “Here,” and tossed a thick docket book, which raised a cloud of dust when it hit his desktop. “This is all you need to see,” he said. I thanked him--and I was gone, careful to not exceed the speed limits, stay in my lane, and be a model driver all the way out of Cocke County!

In 1972, I became General Counsel of the Tennessee Press Association. Litigation goes in cycles, and the years 1970-79 was a dynamic cycle for the First Amendment, defamation, and the privacy torts. Nationally, we had Watergate. In Tennessee, we had a “Ray of Blanton sunshine” and his issues with the press, countered by the Reporter Shield Law and Sunshine Law. (We can thank Victor Ashe for those laws, as he played a critical role in their passage, and he has long championed government transparency.) The courts were modifying their view of the New York Times standard, through Gertz, Rosenbloom, Firestone and related decisions.

As part of a wave of defamation cases in the 70s and 80s, I represented Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler Magazine. One of these cases involved a young Hamblen County woman who claimed false light and invasion of privacy--her complaint was actually well-pleaded, if it actually had been true--alleging Hustler published topless photos of her. In fact, the photo was not of her at all; the source was a stock photo from a professional photographer, an East European émigré with photo studios in Paris and Corsica. The “friend” who had actually photographed the plaintiff was a biker...and his work? Let’s say it was much less professional. I got the real photos and negatives for $100 from the biker over a catfish lunch in the boondocks of Alabama.

A few years later, I was on an entertainment law panel with Flynt. He was--regardless of his reputation--a good client. He told me how much he paid his general counsel, an Ivy League lawyer. It was a considerable salary. Noting my surprise, he said: “Rick, I live and die in the courts.”

Through a friend with the UT College of Communications, I worked with a State Department program for foreign journalists to see American-style journalism. Once, I made a passing reference in my talk to Larry Flynt. At a party that night, I learned that a group of them wanted to meet me and have their picture taken with me. Why? Because I had represented Larry Flynt.

That astounded me. Larry’s reputation in the U.S., of course, needs no explanation, yet in the former Soviet bloc and other countries, he was a media icon and hero. In those former Communist countries, what was known was that he had stood up to the government in the name of the public’s right to know--and Larry Flynt was these reporters’ hero.

We Americans don’t always recognize the full influence of things. Flynt is seen by many here as only a purveyor of smut, but elsewhere he stands for the power of free expression. There seems to be a wide gulf between Larry Flynt and another client and a longtime friend, Alex Haley.

Maybe--viewed from a wider perspective--that gulf is not so wide after all.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

September 2013

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Doug, would you share with DICTA your thoughts on the role that lawyers have to play in the General Assembly?

A:

J. DOUGLAS OVERBEY State Senator, and Partner, Robertson, Overbey, Wilson & Beeler

While I believe lawyers have a particular role to play in the General Assembly, I think we should first look at the role lawyers need to be fulfilling in the realm of public policy. By that, I mean that lawyers need to be engaged in the political policy-making process, and not just when they are asked to make contributions – although that, too, is a part of the process.

Due to our training, background, thought processes, and our bent to be problem solvers, lawyers could be a valuable resource for policy makers at all levels of government. I would encourage my fellow members of the Bar to make a conscious effort to establish and build relationships with school board members, county commissioners, and city council members, as well as elected representatives on a state and local level.

As I have urged before, I hope my fellow members of the Bar will take the time to invite their elected representatives to their offices and talk with them in an informal and comfortable setting about issues of importance to them. The General Assembly begins on the first Tuesday in January of each year. Given the fast track upon which business has been done the last couple of years, I urge you to build bridges to these elected representatives now – not in January when sixteen hour days become the norm for members of the General Assembly.

I sometimes hear from lawyers on a few issues that hit the front pages of the newspaper or make the six o’clock newscast, such as tort reform and making workers’ compensation an administrative procedure. Many more issues, however, come before the General Assembly in general and the House and Senate Judiciary Committees specifically where involvement and engagement by members of the Bar could impact and improve upon our legislative deliberations and work product.

Because Tennessee has a citizen legislature, we should expect members with a specific background to weigh in on issues regarding their profession or business. In fact we look to members with expertise within a particular field for guidance and direction. I pay close attention to our insurance agent members on insurance issues, our banker members on bank issues, and so forth. So, your opinions on matters affecting the legal profession and court system in general matter a great deal.

It is also my hope that lawyers will consider seeking elected office on the local as well as the state level. We need good persons from all walks of life who want to serve for the right reasons to run for public office, and being a lawyer is not a prerequisite. Nonetheless, our training as lawyers in analyzing situations by looking at them from various angles and vantage points and then coming up with a solution can be a valuable resource for a legislative body.

Currently, seven state senators out of 33 identify themselves as attorneys, and two of the seven have announced their intent not to seek reelection in 2014. In the House, eight out of 99 representatives identify themselves as attorneys. Some may say that 15 lawyers in the General Assembly are 15 lawyers too many.

But whether it is 5, 15, or 55, lawyers as legislators can bring a lot to the table and help frame the issues. This is particularly true today when many bills touch upon federal and state constitutional issues. A lawyer’s training in constitutional law and the principal of stare decisis would be an invaluable resource to give context and content to these legislative proposals.

I want to be clear about one thing: as stated earlier, it is not necessary to be a lawyer to be an effective legislator. Good legislators come from all walks of life. And a lawyer who is a legislator should not be a lawyer acting as a legislator; rather, he or she should be legislator who utilizes his or her training to help solve important problems and frame the public policy debate.

Whether in elected office or as citizens, members of our profession need to become more engaged in civic affairs and issues of public policy.

During my service in the General Assembly, it has sometimes been that one telephone call, that one letter, that one meeting that has made a big difference in how I have approached and voted on an issue.

I challenge each of you to make that one phone call, write that one letter, or schedule that one meeting with your legislator that may make a big difference in how he or she looks at and votes on an issue of importance not only to you but to our State. And, then I challenge you to consider what you can offer – what positive difference you could make – as the person making those decisions and voting on those issues.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

October 2013

DICTA

29

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q:

As you look at retiring from UT Law and the UT Legal Clinic after some 38 years of service, Jerry, what are your thoughts and observations?

A:

PROFESSOR JERRY P. BLACK University of Tennessee College of Law and longtime Director of the UT Legal Clinic

I guess I have several main ideas that I’d like to share.

First, UT Law School is an amazing place. As far as I can tell, it really has set the pace for incorporating both practice and theory in legal education. When the UT Legal Clinic started back in 1947, nobody else was doing anything quite like it. Despite the pressures from legal education in general not to be what some would call a “trade school,” UT forged ahead with the clinic concept--and the rest of legal education is, at long last, only now beginning to catch up with what UT started.

I recall going with Dick Wirtz to an ABA Legal Education Section meeting some years ago. We tried to describe in some detail the clinic approach that was being fostered at UT and what we were doing. The dean of Duke’s law school said, “But where are the substantive courses?” The president of the Ohio state bar association was there, and he said this: “When I got out of law school, I was much better prepared to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court--for which nobody would have hired me--than to argue a case in General Sessions court, a place where somebody might hire me.” The kind of situation he described is not the case at UT Law. It was, however, true for me when I graduated from Vanderbilt Law School!

What I see is that UT Law has tried to instill and present all of its students with a practical opportunity. If you’re not interested in going into the courtroom, there’s a transactional track as well. Even in the Legal Clinic, we have business and non-profit clinical opportunities, so students can get hands-on experience representing clients in a non-litigation setting. We also have a mediation clinic, as well. I feel really fortunate to have been a part of all of that since I joined UT in 1975, back during Jerry Becker’s tenure as the Clinic’s director.

In no small way, both the bench and bar have supported these efforts, whether by serving as adjuncts or by just being there to support the Legal Clinic along the way. I never felt any reservations or reluctance on the part of the members of the local bar when we represented clients in court. There may have been times when they wished we weren’t there in court, I suppose, but it was not because we weren’t prepared and doing a good job! I hope that support continues. (Law school and running a legal clinic are expensive propositions. The ongoing financial support provided to UT Law is always a big help, too.)

It’s not only the practical part, but also the service component, that makes the Legal Clinic such a strong part of UT Law. Doug Blaze has led the way to make pro bono services a big part of the law school experience, and that has been tremendously significant. The local bar is doing the same thing, as well. One of the TBA’s leaders asked awhile back why it is UT’s students who always seem to receive the annual pro bono service awards from the TBA. I think it is because Doug Blaze has instilled in everyone the need--and rewards--for serving those in need by pro bono work. I should point out here that Doug has served as co-chair of the state’s Access to Justice Commission, so he brings a unique perspective to this role.

I think it helps enormously that the local bar stands behind the pro bono effort. When law students see lawyers in practice doing pro bono work, then they know it’s not just something to do only in law school. The bar here has been a real factor in showing and cultivating that level of commitment, and in underscoring what Dean Blaze is trying to get our law students to do. I hope that basis of support continues as well.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

November 2013

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

The pressures of year-end business demands and the holiday season increasingly seem to bring on worries and pressures of all sorts for many of us at this time of year. Please share with DICTA’s readers, Lucinda, your thoughts and experiences in the realm of mindfulness and meditation.

LUCINDA M. ALBISTON Albiston & Smith, PLLC

When you come home after a particularly stressful day at work, which would you rather do: self-medicate with a couple of drinks or practice mindful meditation for twenty minutes? Mindfulness does everything you're looking for, and more. Daily practice lowers your blood pressure, brings you to a deeper level of relaxation, slows your heart rate, and improves your memory because your body is able to reduce stress. (That memory thing? Something three glasses of whiskey will not do!)

What is mindfulness meditation? It is a form of meditation that, through practice, causes clear, non-judgmental awareness. It is a method of emptying your thoughts.

Think that is easy? Try closing your eyes and thinking of nothing for five minutes.

Okay, how about three? Not even one? Welcome to the world of "monkey mind," where your mind flips from one thought to another. Daily practice will cause those monkeys to go away.

James Lawler, Ph.D. and U.T. Professor, teaches a U.T. non-credit course on relieving stress. The course is given a few times per year and is once a week for six weeks. I highly recommend it. You can read Eckard Tolle or John Kabat-Zinn, but Dr. elcome to the can personally introduce and guide world of "monkey Lawler you in the practice. mind," where Mindfulness can be done at home or at the office. The practice calms you. Do you your mind flips from one then never lose your temper? My colleagues thought to another. Daily would look at me and say, "Not a chance!", but that's all right --- I'm on the path. Even the practice will cause those Dalai Lama has said he loses his temper ("... monkeys to go away. but only for a second," he has supposedly qualified).

Daily practice makes you a better listener and more invested in what you are doing at the moment. More listening, less talking, and paying more attention makes you more empathic, more interested in others and the world, and less judgmental in your opinions.

Try it for a month and you just might do it forever. And if you quit, you can start again. And again.

W

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

December 2013

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

It's the New Year, when thoughts turn to resolutions, like getting in shape in 2014. I've heard stories of an incredibly demanding workout regimen named "CrossFit." What are your experiences with this; does one need to be incredibly fit even to try this program; and is it true that it's like a kind of workout "cult" where the workouts are so intense as to be --how shall we say this--nausea-inducing?

MEGHAN MORGAN Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell, & Berkowitz, P.C.

PENNY ARNING Staff Attorney, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee

(Meghan): Several years ago, after being cajoled into attending a CrossFit class in a small strip mall shopping space, I left sorer than I had ever been and determined, if I could move the next day, to survive a second class. The second class turned into a routine. I am hooked. I will admit, I was scared at first. A gym without a treadmill? No mirrors? It was foreign. (I describe my gym visually as a "communist gym"- pull up bars, jump ropes, boxes, heavy weights, kettle bells and rowing machines). I also did not know the lingo. CrossFit comes with its own vernacular: WOD, "kipping," "scale," "AMRAP" and of course, from You Tube fame, "Is this Paleo?" If you have heard those sayings then maybe you have had an experience with CrossFit. Although to newbies it may seem intimidating at first, my gym, CrossFit K-town, is "more than a gym." It, like many CrossFit "boxes," is a place of camaraderie - think of it as a place of "shared suffering." CrossFit is a friendly environment for anyone, whether a seasoned weightlifter or an absolute exercise beginner.

CrossFit is functional movement. It is the sport of fitness. It is honing your body for anything and everything life could throw your way.

Strength and conditioning. It is not only a wonderful stress relief, and a ridiculous workout, but also a great place for pushing your physical and mental boundaries. It is a terrific environment for goal setting, reaching and resetting. Everything in CrossFit is a competition; workouts are "for time" or "for reps." It is a natural place for a competitive personality. You compete against yourself and others that endure a class with you. Classes are always different - keeping your mind and body fresh. Everything is "scalable," meaning if you are unable to do a workout or "WOD" "RX" (as prescribed) then it can be modified. Believe me, I did (and still do) a lot of scaling. Like any training, coaching is important. CrossFit coaches are trained and certified on movement and technique. Excellent coaches are essential in any workout regime - CrossFit included. Most days I leave with a true sense of accomplishment and thinking, "I would never have done that workout on my own." Join me anytime!

(Penny): I had heard about CrossFit from several friends, including Meghan, who were very enthusiastic about it and I had read a few articles in which CrossFitters raved about the overall fitness benefits they achieved from it. So, when I saw a CrossFit boot camp as one of the silent auction items at a benefit for my son’s school, it seemed like a great time to try it out. (Note to self: check out the silent auction items before having cocktails.)

I was curious and a little anxious. Was it really a cult? Was it like training with Navy SEALs? Would I throw up or need shoulder surgery?

The CrossFit gym has some of the same equipment you would normally find in a gym, such as rowing machines, medicine balls, kettle bells, and lots and lots of weights. Each class generally follows the same format. You warm up individually before the class starts by stretching and then either rowing or running a lap around the parking lot of the shopping center where the gym is located (about ¾ of a mile). The class officially begins with a group warm-up of various stretches, lunges, kicks, etc. Next, one of the instructors, or “coaches”, demonstrates a skill that is usually part of the “workout of the day,” or “WOD,” and it is almost always a type of weightlifting move. The WOD is outlined on the board each day, so you know what you’re in for; it’s also posted on their website the night before, which can sometimes be an incentive or disincentive to attend. The WOD is always different so you never get the same workout twice and, therefore, never get bored. A typical WOD might be: 5 rounds of 800 meter run, 15 power cleans, and 10 box jumps. Each workout is scaled based on your ability: Rx or prescribed, intermediate, and beginner. As you might expect, some WODs are harder than others. It usually takes about 20-25 minutes to complete the WOD. What I liked about CrossFit: As I said above, each workout is different so it is never boring and always challenging. Classes are offered at all times of the day from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., so there was plenty of opportunity to find a time that worked on most days. Everyone, especially the coaches, was friendly and encouraging. The coaches were especially patient with a newbie in explaining correct techniques. It was also nice to see people of all shapes and sizes doing CrossFit. On most days, I felt like I worked pretty hard, sometimes very hard, and was getting stronger overall. And, I never threw up. Also, CrossFit supports the Wounded Warrior Project and each Friday’s workout is dedicated to the memory of one of our troops.

What I didn’t like: CrossFit is a lot of weightlifting, which is not in my wheelhouse so it was very difficult for me. There were some WODs that were exclusively or almost exclusively weightlifting, which was challenging, but not difficult aerobically. (If the WOD includes “man-makers,” that’s a good day to skip; I was pretty sure I had separated both shoulders.) Also, while the 20-25 minute WOD is efficient, I prefer a more aerobically, as opposed to anaerobically, challenging workout for my limited time.

Overall, I liked CrossFit. If I had time, I would add it to my exercise routine and I would encourage anyone to try it.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

January 2014

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Kyle, how did you become a reserve officer of the Knox County Sheriff ’s Office?

KYLE A. BAISLEY Associate General Counsel, Pilot Flying J

I started my freshman year of college at Furman University on September 11, 2001, with no education or career agenda. I was truly a blank slate and highly impressionable. I returned from my 8:00 a.m. Spanish class just in time to see the second hijacked airplane crash into the World Trade Center’s South Tower in real time.

Moments after witnessing that travesty, I made a vow to do my part to make our nation and our community safer.

My studies and hobbies immediately turned to those areas that would better equip me to do so. Political Science, an internship on Capitol Hill in D.C., a study abroad in some of the less desirable parts of Africa, and a pre-law curriculum seemed to be a good start.

I entered UT Law’s Class of 2008 with the idea of joining the military as a JAG or seeking a position as a field agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I was looking at my protective role in a super macro kind of way. I was single at the time and did not know if I would be calling Knoxville home for much longer. Then, I married my wife Mandy and it seemed that my world quickly became much smaller. We decided to make Knoxville our home upon graduating from law school and I immediately began looking for ways in which I could use my law degree to make my immediate community, Knox County, a safer place to live for my friends and family. It was at the same time that I discovered that the Knox County Sheriff ’s Office had a Reserve Deputy program that I might be able to contribute my time to. So, in July 2008, with all of my spare time between studying for the Tennessee bar exam and learning how to be a first year associate at Baker Donelson’s Knoxville office, I decided to enroll in the KCSO Reserve Academy. At the time, the Academy met virtually every Monday and Wednesday evening and some Saturdays at the KCSO Regional Training Facility next to Three Ridges golf course for about four hours from July through February (not to mention one straight week, ten hours per day, of firearms training in the middle of that timeframe… certainly more fun than being sprayed in the eyes, nose and mouth with Freeze +P, which is pepper spray on steroids, and being tased at nineteen 50,000 volt jolts per second for five straight seconds). During the eight month KCSO Reserve Academy, we covered, on a part-time basis, the same material that the full-time KCSO Academy covers over two straight months. It was challenging, sometimes painful, sometimes fun, but always rewarding.

You might be surprised to know that the Knox County Sheriff ’s Office has over one hundred deputized officers in the Reserve Unit. The Reserve Officers wear the same uniform and perform most of the same tasks as a full time KCSO Officer, and they have the training to do so. Most Reserve Officers with KCSO put in around thirty hours of volunteer work per month, all unpaid. You have probably encountered numerous KCSO Reserve Officers out and about in Knox County and didn’t know the difference. The only way that you would know that you were dealing with a Reserve Officer, as opposed to a full time Officer, is if you look closely on the patch on their uniform or the bottom portion of their badge. The words “Reserve Officer” can be seen if you look closely. Unfortunately, there are many “bad guys” out there that do not care if an Officer does it for free, as a Reserve Officer, or for pay, as a full-time Officer, nor do they care how long it took them to complete their training. When they pull their gun or knife on that Officer, they aren’t going to stop to read what is on the bottom of their patch or badge. That is where I come in.

While in the past I took part in some of the more interesting work that that KCSO Reserve Unit assists with, including patrol duties, jail duties, transport duties, and undercover/plain clothes duties, my present role with the Knox County Sheriff ’s Office is to train all Reserve Deputies and some full-time Officers on the law and how legal principals govern what they can and can’t or should and shouldn’t do in light of the dire circumstances that they deal with on a routine basis. I update the Reserve Unit periodically when state or federal laws change or new case opinions are issued that may impact the way that they carry out their responsibilities as law enforcement officers. I now have taken on a much larger responsibility in assisting Chief Mike Ruble and Special Counsel Butch Bryant with the KCSO Reserve Academy, and even the Blount County Sheriff ’s Office full-time Academy (through the KCSO Regional Training Facility) in teaching Officers on the TN statutes that they will be charged with enforcing and the constitutional principles that limit the way in which those statutes are enforced. We train with airsoft on use of force principles and run through countless scenarios to give practical and real-life experience (where the consequences are getting yelled at or shot with a plastic BB moving at 800 fps versus having a 9mm hunk of lead and copper scooting at you at 1,400 fps). It is amazing how the desire to not get shot with one of those plastic BBs drives Officers to do things that they otherwise would not be aware of doing during those training exercises, allowing them to learn skills and lessons that may one day save their life or the life of another.

The most satisfying part of my job as a KCSO Reserve Officer is being one of the few attorneys that is looking out for the Officer, which, in turn, is looking out for our community and the people that call it home. Law enforcement officers have a split second to make some decisions, many of which are life or death decisions, and we lawyers have the luxury of discussing over the next five years whether that split-second decision was right or wrong, justifiable or careless. I want to make sure that those Officers have the training necessary to make the right decision in that split second and to enter every situation equipped with the legal knowledge required so as to not doubt themselves. I constantly urge local attorneys to have a better understanding of the great level of responsibility and stress that has been put on our local law enforcement officers and to try to put themselves in those Officers’ shoes when observing their actions, either directly or indirectly. All Officers risk their lives on a daily basis to better our community and make it a safer place for our children to grow up in, and many do it for free.

I take pride in my involvement with the Knox County Sheriff ’s Office and the outstanding training program that is run by Cpt. Mike Brooks and fellow KCSO Reserve Officers Lt. David Sikes and Sgt. Kevin Green. I can assure you that Knox County Officers are some of the best trained law enforcement officers in this nation. I welcome any opportunity to discuss what the Knox County Sheriff ’s Office does for the community and how local attorneys can get involved to help out with that mission.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

February 2014

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Would you mind telling the readers of DICTA about your pursuit of photography and how long you have been enjoying this hobby?

THE HON. HAROLD WIMBERLY, JR. Knox County Circuit Court Judge, Division II

Oh, I’ve been doing this for about three years. Well, okay, maybe more or less than twenty years.

I’m really indebted, first, to the folks with Thompson Photo Products. They can do remarkable stuff with photos, from making high-quality prints from cellphones—they can splice three iPad images together to make a museum–quality print on archival paper that should last 100 years—to using metallic paper, which gives a glow to a photo that is hard to describe; you really have to see it to appreciate it fully.

I did a show last year at The District Gallery and Framery in Bearden, and I’m appreciative of The Gallery for all its support. The show was called “Welcome to Hackberry,” and it featured a series of photos that I shot in a tiny, blink-once-and-miss it Arizona place called Hackberry. Some Arizona friends of mine told me about the place. One of my favorites is of a door in Hackberry; it is straight out of the Old West. In the middle of the door is a notice, saying: “! Cowboys! Scrape [****] from Boots Before Entering.” My next show at The District Gallery is set for March.

Sometimes I go on weekend trips just to take pictures. Las Vegas is a favorite: where else can you see a bail bondsman’s shop on one side of a building with a full gospel redemption church next door, or the Blue Angel Motel? On one trip there, I met the original Flying Elvi—they swore they were the real deals—from “Honeymoon in Vegas.”

One of my current favorite photos is one I took in a tiny, deserted cemetery in Arizona. I was mainly focusing on a flowering tree next to a grave, as clouds hovered over a ridgeline in the background. When we developed the photo, a moustached face clearly appears in the clouds. I call this photo “My Name Is on the (grave) Stone.”

There’s another recent photo, one I took in Portland, of a woman dressed in an Alice-in-Wonderland-like dress, playing croquet. But, she’s playing croquet with a sledgehammer and a bowling ball. Bowling balls being bowling balls, they don’t go very far, and bowling balls being bowling balls, they can take a lot of abuse from a sledgehammer-as-croquet mallet.

Jeff Hood, The District Gallery and Framery: One of the great things about the Judge’s photography is that his sense of humor really comes out in his photography. So do his technical skills; he is a virtuoso photographer. He has a real passion for this. Conceptually, he has a keen eye for design and for style, and he has achieved some striking effects in his work.

Thompson Photo’s staff makes an excellent team with him. They have a knack for developing his photos in a way that meshes exactly with what it is that he sees and thinks when he takes a photo. The metallic paper adds not just a different look, but a unique feeling to the photos. Different nuances and light qualities, almost a sensation, are perceptible in his photos that have been printed using that kind of paper.

The Judge is willing to travel to places that most people would seldom go, just to take photographs. He keeps a crazy travel schedule, but it’s because he really is passionate about his photography; he will fly out west for two or three days just to get to some unique place. “Tenacious” is the word I’d use, knowing some of the unusual places where he has been. After all, how many people would specially go to a hole-in-the-wall place like Hackberry, Arizona?

He often shoots for a unique vision or has something specific in mind when he takes a picture, and if the viewer gets it, he loves it. He showed me a photo he had done of two old children’s dolls in a battered rocking chair. When I saw it, I immediately said, “That’s depressing.” The Judge replied: “You got it!” That was exactly the effect that he was trying to achieve. Other examples of his work are, as noted before, tongue-in-cheek and can be kind of ironic and funny.

He also loves trivia of all kinds; just ask him.

Judge Wimberly: If somebody said, “If you go down that street, climb up that hill, and go to the top of that building, and you will see something incredibly cool,” well, wouldn’t you do that? Now, if that same person said all of that but added, “Go do it without your camera”…well, that may be another thing entirely for a guy like me, and I might just say, “Hell, no!”

Jeff talked about how I enjoy trivia. Here’s something I’ll bet you didn’t know. On a trip to Las Vegas early this past December, I saw Trigger, Roy Rogers’ horse. He was stuffed in 1965, and he was bought in 2010 for about $300,000 by RFD-TV, the “cable station of choice for rural America,” after the Roy Rogers Museum closed shop. Roy’s dog Bullet is there, and so is Buttermilk, Dale Evans’ horse. You can go and see them all.

I’ll also bet you didn’t know that Trigger was in an Errol Flynn movie, “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” before he was teamed up with Roy. Olivia de Havilland rode him in that movie. Trigger was called Golden Cloud at the time.

Editor’s Note: An opening reception for Judge Wimberly’s next photography show will be held on March 7, from 5:30 to 9:00, at The District Gallery and Framery in Bearden. More information is available at www.thedistrictgallery.com.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

March 2014

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

IN MEMORIAM:

DONALD F. PAINE Paine, Tarwater, and Bickers, LLP; adjunct professor and lecturer, UT College of Law; the Tennessee Law Institute; and co-founder of LAET’s Saturday Bar Program, among other achievements, roles, and service to others.

Of all of the “Last Word” contributions since the inception of this column in February 2008, this is the hardest and saddest one that I have been called upon to prepare. While this is being submitted for a special DICTA issue, these words are written just one day after many of us learned of the death of Don Paine, as memories and stories are fresh on the minds of those who were touched by this unique man’s life, talents, and works.

One of the biggest fans and supporters of this column was Donnie Paine. Although he habitually referred to it as “The Last Call,” Don was an inspiration in locating contributors and in adding part of the flavor of what “The Last Word” has come to be. Of course, that should come as no surprise to anyone who knew Don. He was so many things, but in each way, he was an original, and in each he excelled. Don will be remembered as a mentor and teacher; fierce advocate for his clients of all walks of life; punctilious legal scholar; frequent writer and contributor to so many publications (including DICTA); the guiding light behind, and erudite interpreter of, so many of Tennessee’s statutes and codes; and the heart and soul of LAET’s Saturday Bar for so many years and a passionate pro bono lawyer.

He certainly, and justly, had a loyal following, and not merely of law students, judges and attorneys. After all, how many persons – much less professors or lawyers – had a table dedicated to themselves in the old location of The Sunspot restaurant on the Cumberland Strip, which over time became a kind of shrine to Don? (I will always recall Don’s tirade at a Knoxville TLI session in 2005, when he encountered some non-lawyers filching the food and drink from his paying customers. I will spare you his exact language, but rest assured, it was grade-A Don on the warpath, though.)

I’ll never know if he actually got to meet the object of some of his greatest affections, Emmylou Harris, but he loved her so much, he had to have been her biggest all-time fan. Don’s own fans were legion. And, besides his family and closest friends, his appreciation for his “co-pilot” in so many respects, Karen Roberts. It was only fitting that Karen also received a lifetime achievement award from the Supreme Court in 2009 for Don’s service as Reporter and member of the Rules Commission.

Brewer of beer and mead – the latter, truly a Renaissance art form – griller of steaks in the wee early hours as he read the latest cases and tear sheets, and a singer of songs (sometimes to his stuffed-animal “straight man,” Mr. Bear, as generations of UT Law students recall), Don lived life fully and bravely. He inspired countless others to do the same – including this lawyer and writer – and he outlasted all expectations in his war with cancer for many years more than his doctors had ever expected. “They’ve told me I’m a miracle case,” Don mentioned to me about seven years ago; that he was, in so many ways. He encouraged my own writing, not only of this monthly DICTA column, but several other pieces as well, and I was truly honored to serve as his co-author on several occasions.

I regretted never getting to ask Donnie what would be his own last words to share with his brethren and sisters of the KBA, and now, I will never have that opportunity. But, I have to think that he would tell us all to fight the good fight, keep the faith, love what we do, and press on…always, press on. He would urge us to take care of each other, as brothers and sisters in the law, and to never forget those less fortunate than ourselves and do our part to help them out. As the first-rate legal mind that he was, he would challenge us to learn and apply the law constantly, using our skills in the best way possible to help its development and growth, while recognizing its eccentricities and quirks (which, as we know, he so often relished and critiqued). And – of course – he would also remind us heartily to have fun, and live our lives fully and joyously, with a beer – or other beverage of one’s choice – preferably in hand, and a song in our hearts. If he was nearby while we enjoyed those refreshments, the bar tab somehow would miraculously disappear. The tab we owe you, Don, we can never repay.

Donnie Paine was an exceptional soul, and his like will not pass our way again. Our world, our community, and our bar are all lessened immeasurably by his loss.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

April 2014

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Greg, how did you get into aviation and become a private pilot, and what kinds of things go along with being a pilot?

GREGORY BROWN Lowe Yeager & Brown

Did you know you can fly? I mean really fly. Yourself. You can drive down to the airport, get in an airplane, and fly around. You can fly loops, you can go look at Mount LeConte, drop into London, Kentucky, for dinner at the airport, and fly back. You can absolutely do it.

Did you know you can own a family airplane like you own your family car?

Did you know that monthly payments to own your own airplane can be less than lease payments on a Lexus?

Did you know that you can build an airplane in your garage? No joke.

Entirely legal and, with effort roughly equivalent to one year of law school, safe.

I spent my childhood driving past airports with my father saying, "Wouldn't it be fun if I got my pilot's license. We could. . . ." He never got his certificate, but the gift he gave me was the knowledge that flying, flying, was possible for an ordinary boy from the woods of Maine. In college I had time, but no money. In law school, as a law clerk, and as a young associate in Boston, I had neither time nor money. When I eventually had enough money, I was in courts across the country and had no time. Finally, in 2005, I completed a six-week trial and suddenly found myself with a 40% workload. With time and money finally coming together, I started lessons.

I still remember the first liftoff during my first lesson. We were rolling down the runway, things seemed to be happening very fast, and my instructor told me to pull back gently on the yoke (steering wheel). It was amazing, the best and strangest feeling when the wings took hold of the air and lifted me smoothly; it was better than . . . well, you know, almost anything. Francis Gary Powers (pilot of a U-2 spy plane that was eventually shot down over the USSR during the Cold War) wrote to his father of his first flight, “Dad, I left my heart up there.” I had the same experience.

As an associate at a large DC law firm, but with family in Maine and Knoxville, my wife and I purchased a four-seat airplane, a Grumman Tiger.

The payments were $450 per month. We flew north to Maine, south to Tennessee, west to Wisconsin. I flew to court and for depositions all over the Eastern United States. It turns out that if you are billing for your travel time, it's often cheaper to fly yourself than go through security, check bags, and wait for flights.

Now, eight and a half years after that first liftoff, I am still inspired every time I fly. There is unbelievable beauty from a higher vantage point, freedom unlike anything on the ground, and - believe it or not - a certain peace that comes from being suspended in the air. Wilbur Wright described it thus: “More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination.” A few decades later, in words that seem especially suited to those of us practicing law, Antoine de St. Exupery wrote, "I fly because it frees my mind from the tyranny of petty things." Amelia Earhart wrote in her pilot’s logbook, “[I'm] getting housemaid's knee kneeling here gulping beauty.”

Those reasons – beauty, freedom, and peace – are in part why I fly. I also fly with my family because it is often cheaper than other modes of travel (given the disappearance of cheap commercial fares), and faster. I fly for work because it is faster and cheaper, and gives me a flexibility and efficiency that allows me better to serve my clients, generally other attorneys and law firms.

Today, I own with partners a 6-seat, twin-engine airplane that is great for family travels. For just buzzing around, I have access to five different single-engine airplanes, partly through a flying club for which I pay $85 per month. In the past year I have flown myself to depositions and court appearances in Kansas City, Memphis, Washington, Orlando, and Ormond Beach, Florida. I have flown with my family to Hilton Head, Bar Harbor, Martha's Vineyard, Albany, and Washington. In each case I saved both time and money, for my clients or my family. The quality of life perks are pretty wonderful, too. There are no baggage claims, no security checkpoints. I drive my car up to the airplane to load my luggage. When I land, a rental car is driven right to the plane. We step out of the plane and into the rental car. That is pretty nice when I am by myself, but it is downright wonderful when I have multiple other passengers, especially kids, and luggage.

To the uninitiated, aviation may seem like an entire, unfamiliar world. In that sense, it is no different from the court system, golf, or anything else that has its own routines, lingo, written and unwritten rules and procedures. It seems foreign at first, but that is not a reason to avoid it: that is a reason to explore it until it is familiar.

Leonardo da Vinci is rumored to have written, “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." The “taste” of flight, and the beauty, freedom, and peace that comes with it, are available to everyone in this country. As an EAA Young Eagles (www.youngeagles.org) volunteer pilot, or as Legal Officer for Knoxville’s largest flying club (www.knoxflyers.com), I’m happy to talk to anyone who is interested in exploring aviation, so please call me.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

May 2014

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

JR, how does a Knoxville attorney find himself as a competitor on SyFy Channel’s “Opposite Worlds” reality show, and what was it like?

JAMES (JR) COOK Knoxville lawyer and reality TV show competitor.

It was a great experience, but the show I ended up on was not the show I thought I was applying for! I had read on an adventure website a notice that said, “’Fierce Competitor’ Casting Now.” “If you’re a fan of ‘Survivor’ ‘Big Brother’ or a thrill seeker, apply here.” I thought, “What are the odds of this happening?”, and I applied. I’m a big fan of “Survivor” and reality competition shows, so I filled in the online application. Well, the network contacted me; I did several Skype interviews. Several weeks passed; then, I was notified that I was one of the finalists for a show with 14 cast members. A car picked me up in the middle of the night, and I was flown to New Orleans, near where the show was being filmed.

I had very recently got engaged before I got the call to join the show, so the timing was not necessarily the best!

After spending many days undergoing physical and psychological exams and interviewing with the network executives and show producers, I was chosen as an official contestant. Next thing I know, I begin the competition and find myself in “The Past”—a cavelike setting—and I am dressed in furs, like a prehistoric person. I was also joined by 5 other teammates. We had no idea what to expect, and now we found ourselves placed in a setting like cavemen. We spent hours trying to build a fire, and even though two members of our team were former military veterans of Iraq, and Afghanistan it was tough for them, too. The biggest surprise of all came when all of a sudden, a curtain dropped, and we realized there was a glass wall dividing the house and the other side consisted of everything futuristic including a whole another team! We now learned the premise of our show: “Opposite Worlds.” One team was set in the primitive past, and the other was in the luxurious future. What a shock that was! It was like the Flintstones vs. the Jetsons!

The competition began with 12 competitors, six on each team, but as a twist, two more players entered the game. We were all individual competitors, but we were organized by teams, with only one person winning the $100,000 grand prize.

Each week, the teams would engage in a “Worldly Challenge”: the winning team of that challenge would choose in which world they would “live” for the next week, either the Past or the Future. The Past—where my team was for 21 days at first—was pretty awful: it really was like living in prehistoric times, with only furs for clothing, fire for heat, and minimal food; I lost 16 pounds in three weeks.

The Future, by comparison, had everything you’d want, including a jacuzzi, tempurpedic beds, and extravagant meals. As another twist, America played a big role, week to week, as the viewers would text, call, or tweet their favorite and least favorite players of the week. My fiancé did an amazing job of rallying our friends and family together to support me! In fact, I was America’s Favorite Player during week one and consistently stayed a fan favorite throughout the show. I even won a giant feast as a reward once. It sure beat eating stale bread, carrots and an occasional piece of fruit!

On top of America voting for their favorite and least favorite players, each week, each team could “protect” a player from being eliminated, and America would vote one of these two protected players to be the “Decider.” The Decider selected one player from each team to fight in a duel. The loser would be immediately eliminated from the competition. Early on, I realized the importance of avoiding the duels, which in turn avoided elimination, so I made alliances. Not only did I form an alliance with several of my own teammates, but I also formed an alliance with someone from the opposing team. He would occasionally throw me food over the glass wall and we would discuss strategy for eliminating the other contestants.

After 21 straight days in the Past, my team won a Worldly Challenge and switched worlds to the Future, which was amazing! Unfortunately, we lost the next Worldly Challenge and were sent back to the Past.

We were almost at our breaking point—when the polar vortex hit Louisiana, it was freezing cold; however, when it was hot, we were covered by mosquitoes-- so that week in the Future helped us greatly with morale and regaining some strength, but going back to the past was tough since we knew what we faced.

Ultimately, I made it all the way to the finale of “Opposite Worlds,” and I placed second. The winner, who won $100,000, was a huge beast of a guy from the New York Fire Department, six feet, three inches, 270 pounds.

The creator of “Opposite Worlds,” J.D. Roth, was behind “The Biggest Loser” and several other hit reality shows. The show debuted as the number one show world wide and was the most tweeted about TV Show. Some people recognize me on the street, and most say, “Hey, you were on “Opposite Worlds;” you’re a good guy!” but some maybe didn’t like my strategic game play.

I think I can say that my lawyering skills actually stood me in good stead and helped me further myself in the game. I was one of the smallest male competitors, and while I was confident in my physical skills, I knew I had to use strategic thinking as well if I wanted to make it to the end. In part, those skills involved being able to make solid, convincing arguments to win over my teammates. That turned out to be crucial to my game, and helped me make alliances. While all of the contestants were “fierce competitors” during the show, many of us left the show friends and continue to keep in touch.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

June 2014

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

How does a professional magician become a lawyer, Patrick, and what similarities have you discerned between your two lines of work?

PATRICK SLAUGHTER Knoxville lawyer and professional magician

Well, I suppose that God has a sense of humor. I’m living proof of that!

I always wanted to be an attorney, when I was young. I studied hard and did well in high school, and was in the top 10 in my class, but life had different plans for me, at least initially. I started college at Virginia Tech; after two years, I met a girl, dropped out and moved with her to Chicago. Of course as soon as we arrived in the city we broke up. Magic had been my hobby for years, but now I was broke and needed to make money.

There’s a well-known magic store in Chicago called Magic Inc.; it’s the oldest continuously family-run magic shop in America, and was owned by Jay Marshall, a famous vaudevillian comedian. One of the guys working there suggested I go out and perform magic at parks and on the street. So, I did, and guess what: I made some cash! I started at the Brookfield Zoo, where I did a few trick and tried to juggle. Honestly, I was awful at first, but there were gypsies nearby, selling trinkets and souvenirs, who came over and talked with me. The gypsies gave me some ideas of different things to try. I took their advice, kept at it, and I got to be pretty good—so good that I was doing ten shows a day and making about $1,000 on weekends. That wasn’t bad money for a weekend gig in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But, I never did get used to those Chicago winters: I had to leave.

My parents were well-educated and have post graduate degrees; they strongly encouraged (translated, “strong armed” me) to finish my undergraduate degree. I returned to Virginia Tech and earned a B.A. in Urban Affairs (think city planning). Next, I worked for the State of Virginia as a rehabilitation counselor for kids with disabilities. I loved the kids, but I hated the system. After a year, I was done with it, and I went back to magic full-time.

This time, I was picked up by the Club Med resorts. The entertainment director for the resorts in the western hemisphere saw me perform and liked my show. Club Med attracts a world wide clientele so they have to translate all of their shows into French, Spanish, and English. Because I performed a silent show, they didn’t have to translate and guests from different cultures enjoyed my performance.

I traveled all over with Club Med. I also was contracted out to theme parks; I did shows at Disney World and at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg.

This lasted from 1994 to 2006. I was good at it, it was fun, and it helped me avoid getting a real job!

After traveling over 100,000 miles a year, however, I felt like I was living on airplanes. 9/11 took all the fun out of travel– especially for a magicians.

We carry around some really weird stuff. (Try explaining fanning powder, a sound control device that looks like a bomb, and all the other weird little contraptions to the Transportation Security Administration folks!)

My wife-to-be and I were living in Virginia Beach at the time, and my mom lived in Bristol. As we looked around for places to settle down, we found Knoxville. When we first arrived I worked for Apple selling computers. At the Apple store I met a lot of attorneys who asked me, “Why don’t you got to law school?” One person in particular, Libby King, encouraged me to apply to LMU’s brand-new law school. When I learned that the then-Dean of the Duncan School of Law, Syd Beckman, was an amateur magician, I figured God might be telling me something.

I did well in law school. I graduated summa cum laude and number two in my class in May 2013. I was lucky in that my wife was incredibly supportive of me being in school, and I had a lot of time to be able to study. It was easier for me than most to learn the law because I learned the law in much the same way as I learned magic: by reading. I learned to practice magic skills by reading lots of books, some from the 1800s. Trust me; all “new” magic tricks are basically just modern recycling of tricks from a long time ago. Because I like to read, I transferred my love of reading magic books to law books.

What do I see as connections between magic and the law? I have a line that I use frequently when folks ask about my transition from magic to lawyering– “same show, different circus.” With all due respect to our Courts, lest anyone think I am being irreverent, what I really mean by that is that I’m not afraid of performing in front of people! That goes a long way in this business. Many of my friends from law school and other lawyers, both “rookies” and old pros, are terrified at appearing in court. To me, it’s just another performance, although a whole lot more is at stake.

There are some things I learned from performing magic that can have value and are transferable skills for all lawyers. There are lots of dramatic skills that transcend the forum, or even the specific area of the law at issue. A lot of us get so wrapped up in the law that we forget that a big part of our job is to communicate effectively in a presentational format to a group of people. You prepare as best you can, but then you still have to perform, and by “perform,” I mean communicate your client’s position in a way that hopefully will persuade the decisionmaker to see things your way.

A lawyer’s presence in the courtroom, their timing, and pacing of delivery, all go an awful long way in accomplishing these goals. The same thing goes for performing a magic show. Audience members decide whether they like you or not in the first 15 seconds you stand before them; I bet jurors and judges do, too. Theatrical skills, like those I learned in magic, can help make a lawyer more ingratiating to others and get them on your side early on, which can only help your case as a lawyer as well.

Currently Patrick is hanging out his own shingle. His practice so far is focused largely on criminal defense, family law, and immigration law. He is also interested in branching out into bankruptcy. Patrick can be seen frequently in the City-County Building. He generally carries some kind of close up magic tricks with him. So if you see him, say hello and ask him to see a trick if you have the time.

If you want to know more about Patrick’s magic, visit: http://www.thefuntastics.com.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

August 2014

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD RANDOM BRUSHES WITH CELEBRITY AND THE RICH AND FAMOUS

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q:A:

What famous persons/public figures have you encountered, and how did you run into them? (In one case, literally.)

Heidi Barcus, London & Amburn, P.C.: Richard Simmons (see photo). He was at Bistro by the Tracks in Knoxville to promote his new line of jewelry for Jewelry Television.

Tara Dalton, David J. Sneed & Associates: About ten years ago, in connection with the infamous “green onion” litigation, I was one of several Knoxville attorneys who participated in expert depositions in Monterey, California. At the end of the day, Martin Ellis suggested we have dinner at the nearby Mission Ranch, which was owned by Clint Eastwood. It was fairly early in the evening and the restaurant was not crowded. Halfway through dinner, we noticed a rumpled looking man in jogging pants and disheveled grey hair come in and sit at the bar; we quickly realized it was Mr. Eastwood himself. There may have been some gawking involved. Unfortunately, this was pre-group selfie, so there is no photographic evidence. On the plus side, we did not notice him rambling to any empty chairs.

Sally Goade, Law Clerk, Tennessee Court of Appeals: I ran into Mike Holmes of "Holmes on Homes" handyman fame at McGee-Tyson Airport about five years ago. I was on the phone with my husband, Dan, a huge Mike Holmes fan, when the man himself sat down across the aisle from me with a small entourage. I said into the phone to Dan, "You'll never believe who just sat down across from me." Mr. Holmes looked up and asked if I would like him to say hello to the person on the other end of the line. Of course, I handed over the phone, and Dan was over the moon!

Scott Griswold, Holbrook Peterson Smith PLLC: I’ve got two.

First story: Hillary Clinton almost hit me with a door. In undergraduate (Spring 2002), I was an intern for the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee. One afternoon I was dispatched to deliver a message to one of the staffers in a committee meeting. As I was walking down the hall, a heavy wooden door swung open into the hallway inches from my faces and out pops then-Senator Hillary Clinton, who nearly smacks into me. I almost snapped out something impolite about opening doors into people and then realized who it was. My first thought was literally, "Wow, I thought she'd be taller." She apologized, sidestepped me, and walked on. One of her staffers was following her. I asked him, "Was that . . .?" and the staffer just said "Yup" and ran off.

Second story: Prior to enrolling at UT College of Law, I visited Bloomington, Indiana to see its law school. Two friends of mine joined me because they knew some students up there and we decided to make a weekend of bar hopping out of it. We're walking down Bloomington's equivalent of the Strip, talking about John Cougar Mellencamp (who lives in Bloomington and gives a lot of money to the school). As we turn a corner, a really unique Mercedes SUV parks immediately in front of us—and John Cougar Mellencamp and his wife roll out of the vehicle. He's in jeans and white t-shirt. He has a cigarette perfectly balanced on his lip. It was surreal – almost out of a 1980s’ album cover. We all stop and stare in awe, and Mellencamp sees us, points at us and says, "Hello, guys," and then he walks into his bar. Being a long-time JCM fan, it was awesome.

No pictures of either story, sadly. It was before the age of selfies.

Bill Maddox, William E. Maddox, Jr. LLC: I am a big fan of the show “Justified” on FX. One of the main characters is named Boyd Crowder, played by an actor named Walter Goggins. I was in a bar after a dinner event with some guys I did not know. That show came up; one of the guys said that he knows Goggins from a project at HGTV years ago and showed me his contact info on his phone. To prove it, he texted him and got a response from Goggins. So, I asked to borrow his phone. I texted to Goggins, “How good is Ava’s fried chicken?” Ava is the name of Boyd’s wife on the show, and she is extremely attractive.

Goggins texted back: “Can you please return my friend’s phone back to him?”

Summer McMillan, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C.: I was in the Philadelphia airport earlier this year. I was preoccupied, checking the flight monitors and such, but as soon as I sat down in the gate area I heard a very distinctive voice behind me. I knew that voice. I turned around, and it was Bill Cosby! Of course, I immediately texted my husband, Greg: “OMG, Bill Cosby’s sitting behind me at the airport!”

Mr. Cosby was incredibly nice and posed for pictures with everyone. You were, however, required first to ask, "Mr. Cosby, may I have a photo taken with you?" One young airport employee sat down for a photo without asking, and was told "You didn't ask me if you could have a photo." He said, "Oh, my bad," and waited for his photo to be taken, but Mr. Cosby said (good-naturedly feigning annoyance): "You still have not asked. You just said 'my bad.'" At that point, the guy asked appropriately and got his photo.

On the flight to Atlanta, Mr. Cosby kept everyone laughing, especially with his wisecracks during the announcements over the PA. When we got to Atlanta, he didn’t take VIP treatment; he went down the escalator and got on the train like everybody else. He was really nice--just like you’d hope he would be in real life--and very kind. He even held my hand while our photo was taken. (See photo.)

Laura Mills: I was an intern in D.C. for Senate Majority Leader Frist back in 2003. Because of a connection, I was given the opportunity to meet President George Bush and see him take off in Marine One. I was able to watch him with other government officials take off from the West Wing of the White House in the Rose Garden. He waved to us and I walked in his direction to wave back. When I did, I not only stepped in but also kicked over a huge bucket of water for his dog Barney; it splashed all over me and the other attendees. I hoped President Bush had already gotten into Marine One, but when I looked up, he pointed right at me and winked. I was so embarrassed! Even Senator Corzine, who I had come to know closely, heard about it and was joking with me the next day. I didn't live it down my entire time there. (See photo, taken right before that infamous event.)

Editors’ Note: Nick has several more accounts besides those appearing in this issue, so there may be a “Part II” to follow. If any DICTA readers would like to contribute an account for a follow-up “Last Word” segment, let Nick know.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

September 2014

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

What was it like being interviewed for Dialogue on WUOT (NPR)?

CHRIS MCCARTY

To be honest, I would describe it as both stressful and thrilling. Like a lot of lawyers (and big mouths in general), I talk all the time. I’m in court. I’m doing seminars. I’m on the phone. But I cannot tell you how nervous I was about that interview. It was going to be for an hour, and it was going to be just me and Matt Shafer Powell (who was great) in a booth. I could be bombing, and I would have no way of knowing it.

In the end though, I had a great time. Matt and I talked about various aspects of social media and the law. The conversation jumped from employment issues to privacy rights to school discipline. It was odd at first because you are just sitting in a room with large headphones on listening to your own voice. Matt does a great job talking to you and asking good questions, but then come the callers. They jump on, ask a question or two, then jump back off. It’s as if you are then speaking with air.

I turned my cell phone off during the program (which aired live) so I would not be the guy whose phone started ringing on air. As I was leaving the station offices, I turned my phone on and was greeted by a number of nice texts complimenting me on the show. My favorite text came from my friend and fellow lawyer, Jennifer Noell: “Sophie [her daughter] and I listened and I am very impressed… Sophie thinks you have a Southern accent, so you’re like a smart hillbilly.” As a kid from Seymour, Tennessee, that was truly one of the nicest compliments I have ever received.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

Photo Ops

The KBA’s Annual Supreme Court Dinner was held on September 3, 2014 to honor and to thank the members of the Supreme Court for all they do.

October 2014

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

What’s life like, now that you have recently retired, General Nichols, and what does the future hold?

RANDALL E. NICHOLS former Knox County District Attorney General

It’s been a remarkable change, I have to say. I actually miss getting up early and going to work. Today, I had an 8:00 a.m. presentation at the Chamber Partnership; I was so excited about heading downtown that I got up early. You have to remember, for 52 years, I’ve been getting up early and going to work; well, now, I don’t. I’m not sure if most of us appreciate how quickly things and perspectives can change so suddenly. My wife has been building up a massive list of honey-do’s, to which she keeps adding things, so I’m busy that way. I’m also playing more golf than I ever have in my life!

But, I still miss the work and the active life of a lawyer.

Besides those things, I’ve spent a lot of time with my grandbabies, and we’ve gotten to do some fun things that I didn’t have time to do before with them. But, I’m looking at two or three opportunities that will let me do some things I want to do. I can see myself going back to work later this fall, maybe by late October or early November.

One thing in which I have been participating pretty actively since retirement is to lend my support in favor of Amendment 2; let me add a brief note in support of that crucial vote this November. In fact, my talk this morning to the Chamber was to its legislative group in support of Amendment 2.

My wife asked me, “Do you think very much these days about what you read in the papers on a robbery or crime? What do you think?” The truth is, nowadays, I’ll read the first paragraph or so when I spot some crime news, but I don’t necessarily read the entire article beyond that. It’s not that I don’t remain passionately interested in my old line of work, however--far from it. Governor Haslam has created a blue ribbon commission to look into criminal sentencing. I’ve followed that closely, and I’ve had some discussions recently with several judges about this effort. It’s certainly something in which I still have a keen interest; my love of criminal law and the justice system is not going to go away. But, from the perspective of looking at the newspapers and seeing the local news, I guess I’ve got a different outlook about these things now.

I read with interest how my successor and our new District Attorney General, Charme Allen, is reorganizing the office to change the manpower allocations there. For what it’s worth, I like the idea of having people concentrating on certain types of cases---you can only get better when you can focus and develop expertise--and I compliment her on that. I’ve continued to follow the heroin conspiracy case in Judge Swords’ court, and I’ve got a great amount of interest in seeing how that develops.

Some of the differences in my “then-and-now” life are big ones that I suppose I didn’t fully appreciate until the change came about. For instance?

I’d used an official car in my work for 22 years, and when I drove it, I got my gasoline from the County. Now, I’m having to shop for the first time in years for a new car, and I have to pay out of my pocket for the gas when I go to the pump. Let me tell you, the little things like that make a difference!

On December 10, former U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick and I will be giving a lunchtime presentation to the KBA Senior Section at Chesapeake’s at 11:30. I’m looking forward to that. Several of the members of that section are lawyers who helped me countless times in my own law practice; I still remember the Fridays when some of us would gather for lunch at the old Brass Rail to talk about our cases and compare (or brag about!) our weekly collections before we took them to deposit at the old Park National Bank. While a lot has changed since those days, I am still convinced that we have the best bar in the State of Tennessee, and certainly the most collegial.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

November 2014

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

John and Beth, your Christmas cards have become so legendary that you were interviewed by Abby Ham of WBIR-TV awhile back. What's the story on these incredible cards?

JOHN B. WATERS, III Long, Ragsdale & Waters P.C., and his wife, Beth Waters

John: Right after we married thirty years ago, we did our first card. Bear in mind that we do cards for only one holiday a year--sometimes, it's Christmas, sometimes another holiday--but our first was done right at Christmas.

Beth: It was six weeks after our wedding; our first Christmas card was made to look exactly like a wedding announcement--because who wants to get a wedding announcement right before Christmas? It had the double tissue, the double envelopes; it looked just like the real thing. And, we had just gotten a puppy as a wedding gift, so he was in the card, too.

John: The next year, it was a St. Paddy's Day card. We were about to have our first child, Spencer, and we wrote a limerick for that one. After the first few years, we realized that we really had something going. So, we just kept on going! In 1989, with our second baby, Alexander, we had a New Year-themed card. Our dog-- named Victor, for Victor Ashe-- joined in again.

Beth: In some of the early cards, John is frowning because he's trying to get Victor to behave!

John: After about six years, we started getting more elaborate because our friends had begun to expect a big annual production. Our kids still loved to dress up, so for Halloween 1990, we did a card where we dressed like characters from Warren Beatty's "Dick Tracy" movie that year. (Our favorite was Victor; we dressed him up as "Lips Manlis.") Beth was a driving force behind Fort Kid, so after its 1991 opening, our card was made at Fort Kid. Beth: And, since Fort Kid has been so extensively renovated this year, we're going to reprise the 1991 card there this year.

John: One of our favorites is the 1992 card, which was for Thanksgiving. We reenacted Norman Rockwell's Thanksgiving dinner scene for that one. We took the picture in July.

Beth: That was the heaviest turkey ever! No kidding, it weighed 150 pounds; okay, maybe it was 27 pounds....

John: One reason our family loves this card so much is that we had all of the elder members of our family in the card besides Beth, myself and the boys. It's poignant now, since so many of them are now gone.

Beth: For 1995, we made up our own holiday, "National Backyard Campout Day." That was hard to photograph because we took it at night. The shadows and the campfire's smoke made it tricky.

John: In 1996, we had an Olympics theme. We borrowed Pilot's biggest U.S. flag and took the pictures at the Tennessee Amphitheater.

Beth: We declared 2000 to be the "Year of the Pool." We had a big TVA lakefront warning sign--"DANGEROUS WATERS" (get the pun?)--photoshopped in, with a big plastic shark in the foreground.

John: Next year was Y2K, so we went all-out for that. We built a "survivalist bunker" downstairs and posed in camouflage with guns and survival gear. (Beth's "survival food" included plenty of cases labeled Diet Coke and Lipstick.) Our message was: "RU READY?" Beth: For 2002, we made a mini-family scrapbook, including a photo from a trip to Ground Zero after 9/11. For 2004, the card's theme was Doctor Seuss' "Oh, The Places You'll Go." The next year was a great one: Charlie Daniels did a special cartoon for us. Charlie said, "Don't tell your friends!" Of course, we told all of our friends....

John: In 2007, when Spencer was at the Naval Academy, he went sky-diving. So, what did we do next? For that year's card, the entire family went skydiving...and, I mean, all of us.

Beth: It wasn't on my bucket list, but yes, I did it. I think all my boys were impressed that I actually jumped out of a plane.

John: In 2008, it was a "Fine Dining With the Waters Family" theme, like a restaurant's menu. The next year, we really outdid ourselves. We did that one as a newspaper, "The Waters Family Post"; Spencer had just graduated from Annapolis, so the headline was his graduation announcement. It also included "Alexander Crowned King" (Pepperdine's homecoming king, that is); a Sports page; People and Parties; and an obituary (for our second dog, Crook) plus a birth announcement (for Scout, Crook's successor as the Waters family dog). 2010 was Alexander's big year: since he had put on a "Carnicus"-like play at Pepperdine, that year's card looked like a theater playbill.

Beth: After so many action-packed years in the cards, we just had to mix things up! So, "2011...We Ain't Done Squat": we're all sitting around a plastic baby pool and a pickup, barefoot and in shorts, sitting in lawn chairs in the driveway.

John: For 2012, we featured Spencer's wedding photo with all of us and his bride, Nicole. Then, last Christmas, to celebrate Alexander's law school graduation and joining our firm, we did a law-themed one. Alexander and I are looking like the lawyers we are, but Beth is dressed up with crutches and a neck brace to look like a personal injury victim. Our motto: "Injured? Let us stuff your stocking!" When we started these cards 30 years ago, we didn't expect they'd take on a life of their own, but now, all of us think all year long about the photos we've taken and which ones may be Christmas Card worthy.

Beth: The boys are really proud of the holiday cards, too. Spencer used the cards as the theme for his chapel talk when he was at Webb. The cards are our family's history. We have all thirty framed and lined up our stairwell. If the house catches on fire, you know what I will grab.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

December 2014

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

John, would you share with DICTA’s readers your thoughts on the retirement several months ago of Judge Bill Swann and his accomplishments during his tenure in Fourth Circuit Court?

JOHN K. HARBER Pryor, Priest, Harber, Floyd & Coffey

I think the Knox County community owes a debt of gratitude to Judge Swann for his 32 years of service. Bill was originally elected in 1982, then re-elected in each of 1990, 1998 and 2006. Bill’s last day on the bench was August 26, 2014; at that time, he was the longest sitting judge in Fourth Circuit Court.

Let me take you back to 1982, when Bill was first elected after Judge George Child’s retirement. We had no meaningful local rules of court then. We had no parenting plan law. We had no child support guidelines or worksheets. There was no such thing as rehabilitative or transitional alimony. There was no Family Justice Center. There was no mediation. We did not know what a parent education seminar was. We had an Order of Protection statute that was passed in 1979, but no one ever used it. We had no technology, no desktops, no laptops, and the cell phones that existed looked like walkie-talkies. We were all flying by the seat of our pants.

Soon after his election, Bill undertook the daunting task of adding much needed structure and predictability to the practice of domestic law. He quickly recognized two important social trends.

First, two-income families were becoming the norm. Second, the influx of women in the work force was ever increasing.

In 1990, Tennessee first adopted child support guidelines with a presumptive 80 days of co-parenting time to the noncustodial parent. But, there was no directive as to how the 80 days would be accomplished. Bill took the initiative and created Local Rule 17, which became the template for other domestic relations courts in Tennessee.

In 2000, Bill recognized that two days every two weeks was not enough parenting time for any noncustodial parent, whether the mother or the father, and Bill created Local Rule 26, which again became the model for domestic relations courts across Tennessee. In the late 1990s, a pilot program was launched for the newly proposed parenting plan statutes, and Bill arranged for Knox County to become one of only six judicial districts in this state to adopt the new parenting plan laws as a pilot program in this county.

Major revisions were made to our Order of Protection statutes, and Bill quickly realized that domestic violence was becoming the most common violent crime in our state. In 2003, Bill and Randy Nichols obtained a grant from the Presidential Family Justice Center to help victims of family violence. Additional grants were obtained in 2006 and 2008, and our Family Justice Center was established upon Bill’s initiative.

Fourth Circuit Court became the busiest Circuit Court with the highest caseload in the state. On Thursday OP days, Bill was soon running three courtrooms and disposing of hundreds of cases.

Bill made mediation mandatory before the statutes required it. Order of Protection forms were changing and improving constantly. We started off with a four-page form; today, it is ten pages. Bill learned as he went and changed Order of Protection procedures as needed to address related concerns.

Bill initiated mandatory Trial Management Conferences to more effectively manage the divorce caseload, and many more cases have been resolved without expensive costs or the necessity of trial.

Bill Swann has been a progressive judge. We are all proud of him. We are all thankful for him. We are humbled by his 32 years of service. And, we wish him all the best in his new life to follow off the bench.

The Knoxville Bar Association would like to wish the Judge a speedy and full recuperation as he recovers from surgery this fall.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

January 2015

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Joan, how did a longtime securities and corporate lawyer and UT Law professor become the faculty advisor for UT’s “Sex Week,” and what does that entail?

JOAN MACLEOD HEMINWAY W.P. Toms Distinguished Professor of Law, the University of Tennessee College of Law

A great joy of being a law school faculty member is counseling students. It is an important part of both teaching and service, two of the three principal aspects of the job of a law faculty member (the third being scholarship).

Honestly, counseling students is the part of the job that I would most clearly do for free. (But, don’t tell the Dean that!)

Law faculty members typically advise law students. Some also take on mentoring undergraduates who are considering a career in law. Few advise undergraduate groups. It takes something or someone compelling for a law faculty member to add that to her agenda. For me, that “something” was Sex Week and the “someone” was three people.

Dateline: July 2012. Enter: Jacob Clark, Brianna Rader, and Lynn Sacco. Jacob and Brianna were rising juniors at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and college scholars—Brianna, a Haslam Scholar; Lynn is a colleague in the History Department whom I knew from my experience as President of the UTK Faculty Senate. Lynn grabbed me at the Golden Roast (as I was finishing another appointment) to chat with her and Jacob and Brianna. She wanted me to talk to them, based on my Faculty Senate experience, about communicating with the campus administration about a new (about-to-be-formed) student organization, Sexual Empowerment and Awareness at Tennessee (SEAT) and its flagship program, Sex Week.

I first thought that I had misheard Lynn. A week of sex–or about sex–at UTK? If I hadn’t known Lynn to be a serious, substantive person (a lawyer, herself, by background), I would have assumed she was joking. However, the ensuing conversation was both serious and substantive. I was educated, in the matter of about a half hour, about sex-positive sex education and its promise in disrupting entrenched, harmful sexual conduct on college campuses. I was enlightened about the nature and extent of that undesirable conduct at UTK and the high rate of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections among Tennessee’s youth. And I was reminded of something that I knew well: that Tennessee’s public middle and high schools offer students, at best, abstinence-only sex education.

It was that last part that gnawed at me as I listened. I knew that neither of my children had been educated as well about sex in the Knox County Public Schools in the first decade of the new millennium as I had been educated about sex in the New York public school system in the 1970s. My son’s rough summary of his public school sex education is pretty damning: “They had this person come in and give us Chick-fil-A coupons if we promised to not have sex. Everyone took the coupons; many of the kids were already having sex.” Too little; too late . . . .

I learned that Sex Week also would cover sexual orientation and identity issues. UTK had already made positive strides by establishing the OUTreach: LGBT and Ally Resource Center on campus, but misinformation and silence on certain LGBT subjects persisted on campus. As an LGBT ally, I saw the need for more LGBT programming.

I then did what every self-respecting public servant would do. I asked how I could help with the effort. That’s how a business law professor became one of the two (together with Lynn) inaugural faculty advisors to SEAT. Despite the well-known controversies surrounding the first two Sex Week programs, I have never regretted my decision to sign on as a SEAT faculty advisor. To outside observers, it undoubtedly is an odd role for me. But it feels right. And I know I am doing the right thing–personally, and as a lawyer and law academic.

The Preamble of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct instructs that “[a] lawyer, as a member of the legal profession, is . . . a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.” In relevant part, the Preamble goes on to exhort lawyers, as public citizens, to “seek improvement of the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession.” Moreover, the Preamble provides that “[a]s a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law and work to strengthen legal education.” There’s more, but you get the point.

The issues addressed in Sex Week and in other SEAT programs—including the new Red Zone Campaign, introduced in the fall 2014 semester, which focuses on sexual assault education–engage routinely with law and the legal system. (The Red Zone is the four-month period at the start of the academic year during which about half of campus sexual assaults occur.) Criminal liability, civil rights, unlawful discrimination, and access to justice are interwoven in the many, varied programs and events. There has been a law-focused panel every year. My activities as faculty advisor to SEAT are consistent with my professional responsibility.

Also, as a law faculty member at UT Law, I take seriously the broader public service responsibilities of employment at a land-grant university. The UTK Faculty Handbook provides that, “[a]s the state’s leading comprehensive research and land-grant institution, UT’s primary purpose is to move forward the frontiers of human knowledge and enrich and elevate society.” The UT Board of Trustees’ policy on Academic Freedom, Responsibility, and Tenure further provides that “[t]he primary responsibility of a faculty member is to use the freedom of his or her office in an honest, courageous, and persistent effort to search out and communicate the truth that lies in the area of his or her competence.” My work as an advisor to SEAT fulfills these institutional and professional objectives. Although the SEAT students are the primary participants in moving “frontiers of knowledge” forward to communicate facts about sex to college students, my supporting role gives me a piece of that action.

Sex Week and the other SEAT activities, taken alone, are unlikely to have a measurable effect on detrimental sexual behaviors and the damaging outcomes of sex among young people. Nevertheless, the goals of the educational process that SEAT has undertaken are important to public health in Tennessee. As a lawyer, law teacher, and committed public servant, I am proud to advise the student leaders providing this education. The road has been (and is) bumpy, but I wouldn’t trade the journey for a smoother ride.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

February 2015

DICTA

27

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Anna, tell us how you got involved with the Law Practice Today Expo, and your thoughts and observations on the changing nature of legal management and office technology.

ANNA F. HINDS Stone & Hinds, P.C.

As a member of the KBA since 1967 (Stone & Hinds, P.C., is in the 100% Membership Club), and having become “of counsel” to the firm in 1998, I indicated as my first choice on Marsha’s sign-up sheet to serve on the newly-formed Law Office Technology & Management Committee. I did so, not because I am tech-savvy (which I clearly am not); rather, because I wanted to stay in touch with those who are, which brings me to the second part of your question.

Watching the changes in legal management and office technology over almost half a century has been amazing. For 30 years, the changes were gradual, incremental, and understandable. Since 1998, I have witnessed a technological sea change that reminds me of what I have read about the Industrial Revolution. Without resorting to the destruction of industrial machinery as did the Luddites of early industrial Britain, it is imperative that the individual’s right of privacy be protected amidst a burgeoning digital technological revolution.

Beginning with the evolution of office equipment, I recall the purchase of our first Xerox copier in 1973. Without a copy machine, secretaries turned out pleadings, contracts, briefs, and wills using electric typewriters, carbon paper, and multiple onion skin copies. In 1971, came the centralized magnetic tape selectric typewriter (MTST); in 1974, individual correcting selectric typewriters; in 1977, the centralized optical character recognition reader (OCR) with a daisy wheel printer, in 1988, the IBM System34, and in 1995, desktop computers. Now, the copier is so much more than a copier. It will copy in color, scan, and print in 3-D. The Health section of the Knoxville News Sentinel on the day of our interview featured a cardiovascular surgeon in Miami using 3-D printing technology to create a model of his patient’s heart to plan the child’s surgery.

Similarly, the devices for dictation and telecommunication progressed gradually and incrementally to become multi-purpose, leaving others, such as the telefacsimile machine practically obsolete. But it is the vanishing use of the telephone which is being replaced by e-mail and smart phones that I find counterintuitive and counterproductive. Perhaps staying connected around the clock helps lawyers work smarter. Today’s Barristers do lead a more balanced life than my career allowed. I possess, but rarely use, what the Supreme Court of the United States described as a “rudimentary flip phone,” noting further that what most people are carrying around is a mini, yet powerful, computer that happens to include a phone. The pitfalls and the advantages of such a tracking device are in the news, and in the courts, daily.

Inextricably linked to office technology is the legal administrator, without whom lawyers would have no time to practice law. Stone & Bozeman in 1967 was managed by the senior partners. Lawyers recorded their time (if at all) on the inside cover of their client’s manila file folder. I attended an ABA Law Office Management Section seminar in the mid-1970's after which we switched to timekeeping slips that were 3-part self-carbons (glued together by blind workers) with a backup sheet on a peg board. With the hiring of a legal administrator in 1986, the necessary software for billing became the responsibility of the office manager. Shifting the duties of billing, preparation of financial reports, personnel, and staying current with changing technology to a non-lawyer was definitely a positive move.

The Knoxville Bar Association’s award-winning Law Practice Today Expo is celebrating its 10th anniversary on April 16 and 17 of this year, and I am proud to have been a participant since its inception. See you there!

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

March 2015

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Kelli, as a young lawyer, you deposed James Earl Ray, the convicted murderer of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Tell us about the circumstances and the experience.

KELLI L. THOMPSON Baker Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C.

Shortly after I started practicing law, I gained valuable experience defending the Tennessee Department of Corrections (“TDOC”) and various prison officials. Prisoners regularly bring Section 1983 Civil Rights claims against various prison officials for everything from alleged assaults to bad food. I once had a prisoner mail me his lunch to demonstrate how bad it was.

Due to budget shortcuts, the Attorney General’s office referred almost all of the cases to outside counsel in the early 1990s, and I gained significant jury trial experience, as well as experience in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. It was my encounter with Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary’s most infamous prisoner that resulted in my admission to the United States Supreme Court.

James Earl Ray (“Ray”) pled guilty to the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (“Dr. King”), and shortly thereafter, Ray mounted a decades long effort to recant his confession. Dr. King’s assassination was a pivotal moment in American history. The civil rights movement had gained momentum in the 1960s with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. However, the 1960s also remained a turbulent time with the Vietnam War and civil unrest.

Dr. King’s cornerstone was nonviolent civil disobedience, but his assassination added fuel to the chaotic unrest that fueled the late 1960s.

Ray was a convicted felon who had served time for various crimes in California, Illinois, and Leavenworth. He was convicted of armed robbery in Missouri for stealing $120 from a Kroger store, and in 1959, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for repeated offenses. In 1967, he escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary by hiding in a bread delivery truck. Ray traveled to Mexico, California, Canada and wound up in Georgia. According to authorities, he traveled to Memphis, Tennessee a few days before Dr. King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.

Authorities found Ray rented a room in a boarding house across from the hotel, and after Dr. King’s murder, they located a rifle and binoculars with Ray’s fingerprints. Ray was quickly added to the FBI’s most wanted list. Ray fled to Canada, obtained a passport under a false name and was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport a little over two months after Dr. King’s murder. Ray was extradited to Tennessee, and he confessed to the crime in March of 1969. Three days later, he fired his lawyer and recanted his confession. Until his death, Ray maintained that he was an unknowing part of a conspiracy to murder Dr. King.

After Ray’s sentence of 99 years in prison, he was eventually incarcerated at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary (“Brushy”) and became one of Tennessee’s most infamous prisoners at its oldest and most notorious prison. In 1977, Ray and six other inmates escaped from Brushy by climbing a fence which resulted in Ray being placed back on the FBI’s most wanted list. Three days later, he was recaptured in the remote mountains of Petros, Tennessee, and he returned to Brushy. There, he was stabbed in 1981 and transferred to the main prison in Nashville. He returned to Brushy in 1987.

Ray remained there until March of 1991.

In his last stint at Brushy, Ray was part of the general population. However, prison officials believed that he was planning to attempt to escape.

So, Ray was reclassified and transferred to Riverbend Maximum Security Prison (“Riverbend”) in Nashville. It was his transfer that led to Ray’s Complaint against various prison officials, including then Warden Don Eberhart. Ray claimed his civil rights were violated because he was transferred without due process, and I had the opportunity to depose him in December of 1991.

Shortly before his deposition, Ray published Who Killed Martin Luther King? The True Story by the Alleged Assassin. In the book, Ray recounted how he believed he was framed for Dr. King’s murder. He admitted being paid to purchase the gun that was used to kill Dr. King as well as being in Memphis on April 4, 1968. However, he vehemently denied he committed the crime and sought to demonstrate there was a far greater conspiracy involved in Dr. King’s assassination.

The book provided me with a treasure trove of information related to Ray’s history of prison escapes, including his successful escape, albeit short lived, from a fortress of a prison in the remote mountains of East Tennessee. I deposed him in the meeting room of the Board of Paroles, in close proximity to the death chamber and death row. Prison officials even gave me a tour of the death chamber, and the electric chair, Old Sparky, was a frightening spectacle.

After deposing Mr. Ray, I had him sign my copy of the book. A little over a year later, my husband and I lost our home to a fire, and the book was destroyed along with virtually everything we owned or cherished, including our cat. As I was at the mall trying to replace much needed clothes and essentials, I came across a copy of the book at a bookstore. I bought it and mailed it to Ray explaining what happened. He returned it to me with a note explaining edits to the second edition. He dated his signature in the book – April 4, 1993 – the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

April 2015

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Tell us how you became interested in yoga, and what yoga’s benefits are for lawyers, in particular.

TAMMY KAOUSIAS The Kaousias Law Firm, PLLC, and owner of The Glowing Body Yoga Studio

Ever since three-martini lunches went the way of the dodo bird and double breasted suits, lawyers have had to find some other way to “manage” their stress.

Ideally, you would manage to eliminate unnecessary stress from your life. But, hey, you don’t need home runs for a high batting average. So, let’s bat to get on base and just try to break the stress cycle.

Break it you should ... stress is a killer. Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, memory issues, sleep disruption, and anxiety are just a few side effects of chronic stress. And those are just some of the side effects we KNOW about. I am sure there are many others. Stress has a direct physiological effect on every system of your body. You’ve probably heard it often … our biological response to a threat was meant to save our lives from danger. Once the danger has passed, the system returns to normal.

Intermittent stressors followed by periods of rest and relaxation tend to balance the system. This natural cycle allows the body to reset and renew – clean out the stress hormones and start with a clean slate.

The problem is that the body’s response to seeing a predatory lion is the same as the body’s response to filing deadlines, heavy workloads, technology glitches, getting the kids off to school, and even getting a golf game in. Whether a real danger or just continual irritants during a busy day, the body treats it the same. Once triggered, your hypothalamus starts a complex cause and effect of nerve and hormonal signals that trigger the adrenal glands to release adrenaline and cortisol. This in turn increases heart rate and blood pressure, increases glucose in the blood system, suppresses the immune system and effects the chemicals in the brain that influence mood. (Please, all the doctors and med mal lawyers in the room, keep a lid on it. This is a nutshell version.)

This is happening even if you are not aware of it. This is happening even though you are able to negotiate a deal, stay with it on a 2-hour conference call, write a brief or argue a motion. In other words, you do not have to be in meltdown mode for the pervasive, corrosive processes to take their toll.

So, if your instinct is to say “I’m fine” and you practice law, you are probably wrong. And that was not meant to be a bad lawyer joke.

In case you find this article to be a downer so far, I have not even gotten to the part about your spine sagging, your continual forward head motion texting, typing and phone talking, your collapsed chest, inelastic diaphragm and limited lung capacity, and your inevitable hip replacement caused by tight hip flexors and a host of related postural imbalances.

But hey, if I sound hopeless, it is because I know hope! And I am not referring to a place in Arkansas. I am referring to a yoga mat.

Instead of listing all the incredible science out there on the benefits of yoga, I will tell you one thing only. As long as you don’t treat yoga like another task to accomplish or another medal to win, it will help you.

The combination of yoga postures and breath tames the fight-or-flight cycle mentioned above and promotes the rest and relax response. Recent studies indicate this may be the effect of yoga postures and breath on the vagus nerve, the longest cranial nerve in the body. It travels all the way from the brain to the gut, and touches on all major organs in between. While more research needs to be done, Dr. Chris Streeter at the Boston University School of Medicine, recently released an article that posits yoga increases vagal tone – the body’s ability to successfully respond to stress. In general, people with a healthy vagal tone have an easier time moving from stress to relaxation. People with a healthy vagal tone get over that phone call with the annoying lawyer faster.

This allows your natural stress response to take a break when your body is in a period of relaxation. This reduces the accumulation of stress over time. Breaking this stress cycle will make you happier. It will make your staff much happier.

And the really, really good news is that you don’t have to practice a lot of yoga to reap benefits. While the studies are not conclusive, anecdotally, some studies indicate even 2 minutes provides benefits. But yoga is like anything: Practice a little, get a little. Practice a lot, get a lot.

So grab a yoga mat and put it anywhere. Your office, your car, your home. If you are losing your cool, try a forward extension. If you have an energy lag, try a down dog. If you need to lift your mood, try a backbend.

And for those high achievers out there – those of you who only want to hit home runs ... you can always forgo the yoga mat and go straight to a meditation cushion.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

May 2015

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Shannon, what’s it like to be a busy lawyer-mom raising quintuplets?

SHANNON F. VAN TOL Lewis, Thomason, King, Krieg & Waldrop, P.C.

Many adjectives come to mind when I am asked to describe the experience of raising quintuplets, not the least of which are: crazy, fun, rewarding, challenging, educational, expensive and exhausting. I admit that I was a bit naïve when I first learned that I would be having five children at once and assured my friend and mentor Larry Giordano and the managing shareholder of our office at that time, Judge Deborah Stevens, that I would need only twelve weeks off for the births.

Having never been a parent before, I was clueless about how my world was about to change.

Fortunately, Larry, Judge Stevens and the rest of my firm were understanding and supportive throughout my pregnancy and after --when my twelve weeks of leave turned into five years.

Like all parenting, each stage of parenting quintuplets has rewards and challenges and many lessons to be learned. Since Willem, Sean, Isabella, Ashley, and Meghan are my first and only children, the parenthood learning curve for me has been steep. I get immersed into each parenting stage with the stress of knowing that if I mess up too badly, the impact is times five. I have learned to just take one day at a time, to try to do the best I can, and to hope and pray for the best.

When the kids were small babies, the most significant challenges were getting them all fed every four hours and making sure that we noticed if there was anything drastically wrong with any of them. We color-coded bottles, charted amounts consumed after each feeding and even charted diapers. My husband and I were in survival mode and quickly learned to relinquish some of our independence and to understand that there is grace in receiving help from friends and family. I do not know how we would have survived those early days without the help of my loving mother, an invaluable parenting resource and the best multi-tasker ever, and the many other family members and friends that were so supportive. Along with the blur of bottles, diapers, and laundry, I remember that feeling of awe I had when I held each of my babies and how I wondered what talents and personalities each would develop. Though they were similar in size and appearance, it was apparent to me that each was unique, and I was eager to watch them grow and to get to know each of them better.

Just as I was gaining confidence at parenting babies, along came the toddler years and the need for military-grade baby proofing and saint-like patience for potty training. I was astonished at how such small kids with limited vocabularies could work together to defeat baby gates-- even the ones that required a step on a pedal (or as they did it, two of them sitting/pushing down the pedal with a third lifting the handle). Fortunately, my father-in-law, a retired engineer and devoted grandfather with the patience of Job, is fabulous at designing baby-proof solutions. My sweet toddlers surprised me with the amount of effort they would expend to take off their diapers and to play with the contents. I learned that duct-tape or packing tape around the top of a diaper could effectively prevent or at least delay the kids from removing their diapers even when they worked together. I also learned that having a shop vac around after meals was helpful and that each child is different when it comes to potty training. Though it may be helpful to implement a rigid schedule or to “bribe” by offering incentives (M&Ms, big-kid panties and the like), or to celebrate each occasion (with siblings dancing around and singing their pee-pee in the potty song), there is no guaranteed method for rushing success. You just have to take one day at a time, do the best you can, and hope and pray for the best.

Willem, Sean, Isabella, Ashley and Meghan are now eleven years old and finishing the fifth grade, and I am happy to report that they are all doing great. Parenting at this stage is a lot of fun but still often chaotic. This week’s chaos revolved around school science fair projects. I jumped at the offer when the science teacher said that my kids could collaborate on their projects. I was certain that doing two projects had to be easier than doing five. However, I gravely underestimated the independence of each of my children and their artistic differences of opinion. The projects the kids chose were simple enough. The boys chose “Deflate Gate”, a project centered around the effect air pressure has on the catchability of a football, and the girls agreed to determine whether it would take the least table salt, sea salt or sugar to float an egg in a cup of water. Though we made it through the testing phase with only minor skirmishes (about where and when the football was going to be passed and about who had the privilege of testing sugar rather than salt), full-blown war raged when it came time to assemble the project boards. Each of the kids had strong opinions about how the boards should look, and they were all overly critical of one another as they fought to promote their ideas.

It took literally hours of arguments and redos to get the projects assembled and ended with little doubt that there will be five separate projects for next year’s science fair.

As I shuttle Willem, Sean, Isabella, Ashley and Meghan to their various activities, help them with homework that I do not always understand, struggle to keep the noise level in our house below the sound barrier, and strive to find enough time to spend with each one of them individually, I know that there are still many more parenting lessons for me to learn. One day at a time, I will continue to do the best I can and to hope and pray for the best.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

June 2015

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31

Q:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Doug, as you step down from the helm of Dean of the UT College of Law, what are your “last words” in that role as to the nature of law, lawyers and leadership?

A:

DOUGLAS A. BLAZE University of Tennessee College of Law

Lawyers have been the source of most of the leaders in our society. For example, UT Law alumni have served - and continue to serve - as U.S. Senators, members of Congress, state legislators, federal and state judges, bar leaders, business leaders, public and nonprofit leaders, and leaders for our local communities and charitable organizations. Every one of us, almost from the time we started law school, has been pulled into leadership roles in our community organizations, our neighborhoods, our churches, and even our families.

But, when thrust into positions of leadership, many of us were ill-prepared and had to learn (or not) on the job. All too often our effectiveness suffered because we lacked both training and experience.

When we went to law school there were no courses on leadership, and after we graduated, there was limited opportunities for CLE or other training on the topic. As Professor Deborah Rhode of Stanford has noted, it is “ironic that the occupation most responsible for producing America’s leaders has focused so little attention on that role.”

Our society and our profession’s share a pressing need for strong, effective leadership. But where will our leaders get the needed training and experience? Law schools traditionally have focused almost exclusively on teaching substance and skills. Continuing legal education and other legal training programs lack any significant leadership focus, with only minor exceptions. In contrast, other disciplines – like business – have provided leadership education for years.

Fortunately all that is changing. Bar associations are beginning to embrace leadership and professional development as part of their continuing legal education curriculum. The TBA Leadership Law program is just one example. A few law schools, including UT, are becoming much more intentional about training our future leaders. In recent years, law schools such as Georgetown, Stanford, and South Carolina have developed institutes, centers, interdisciplinary collaborations, curricular offerings, and extracurricular programming to facilitate leadership preparation. At UT we have established the Institute for Professional Leadership that soon will provide leadership and professionalism courses during all three years of law school. Other schools are currently exploring or implementing such programs. Professor Rhode has noted: “We are, in effect, leaders of those who will become leaders. We owe it to our students, to our profession, and to our world to prepare them for that role.”

To be truly effective, however, the law schools and the profession must become more engaged with leadership training and development. Context and experience is critical to meaningful learning. As a result, leadership development and training after a few years in practice can be uniquely effective.

Leaders today face challenges of exceptional breadth and complexity. The pace of change worldwide is extraordinary. Civil discourse is virtually non-existent. Our profession is undergoing profound change due to economic, technologic, and international influences. In this environment, the problems we face as a society can only be solved by trained and committed leaders. Lawyers need to be trained, prepared and willing to provide that leadership. Working together, I know we can make that happen.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

August 2015

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31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Bob, you are now, as you put it, “sort of an artist,” and you will be exhibiting your recent “word paintings” at the Tomato Head restaurant on Market Square from September 7 to October 4 and at the Tomato Head on Kingston Pike from October 6 until November 2. (All proceeds from sales of the paintings will be donated to Ijams Nature Center.) So, how have you gone from being a TVA lawyer for many years to “sort of an artist?”

ROBERT H. THOMPSON

I’ve been “drawn” to art since childhood. For me, seeing someone’s art or making my own has always revved up creative energy. It seems to improve life in general. Having more or less retired from law, I now have the luxury of more time to give in to the urge to create art. Getting my art shown, and getting a feel for how well it energizes anyone besides myself, has been greatly helped by my being involved in some local arts groups with great folks – A1 LabArts, a small nonprofit with a cool gallery space on Emory Place (at the northern terminus of Gay Street), and the Arts and Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, the umbrella group which is based in the Emporium building.

In my experience there are actually a lot of similarities between art and law, at least as to the mental process of creating a work product. Both involve problem solving, although of course in art the problems can be ones you dream up for yourself rather than having them brought to you by clients. But both involve steps of: analyzing elements of the problem; visualizing and comparing possible responses; sorting things out; deciding on a basic direction and then plowing ahead; recognizing the need for corrections or complete changes of course as you go along; reaching the point of really not wanting to mess with it any more; fluctuating between satisfaction and disappointment with the end product you let out the door; and hoping that it communicates effectively.

And the communication aspect always includes the possibility of miscommunication. One of my word paintings is the word “Reality” painted backwards and partially hidden behind trees; in my opinion its still legible or at least decipherable, but someone told me they read it as “Bestiality.” I certainly hadn’t anticipated that, but it was a useful reminder that people might give your work no more than a passing glance and that they filter it in unpredictable ways.

I’ve always been particularly interested in lettering and words as graphic art.

A few decades ago the KBA ran a contest inviting members to design new logos for KBA and for Dicta magazine, so I jumped in on that. I got the impression from Marsha Wilson that my designs were the least bad of the entries. My Dicta logo, which was simply the word “DICTA” with the letter T drawn as a scale of justice, got used in the masthead for a while.

For my word paintings, I paint the words on old landscape lithographs – reproductions – which I buy from thrift stores and flea markets. The artist Wayne White, who grew up in Chattanooga and has become fairly well-known, has been doing this brilliantly for years. Making new art out of someone else’s old art (e.g., Andy Warhol’s silkscreen prints from photos taken by other people) is called “appropriation” in the art world. So I appropriated Wayne White’s approach to appropriation, but I try to do it well and in my own style. I work carefully with traditional drafting tools to make the words look like precisely constructed physical parts of the landscape, implying that their meaning is somehow relevant to the landscape even if you can’t quite put your finger on it. I aim for a dreamlike effect; you could call it secondhand surrealism.

As noted above, Bob’s work will be on display at the Tomato Head on Market Square from September 7 to October 4 and at the Tomato Head on Kingston Pike from October 6 until November 2.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

September 2015

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31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Carrie, tell us about your love of soccer, and how that came to be.

CARRIE S. O'REAR London & Amburn

Fall is my favorite season. I realize there are many people who agree with me, but everyone has their own reasons. The change in weather, Vol football, leaves, Halloween...the list goes on.

Even though I enjoy all of those aspects of fall, I came to love the fall because it meant that it was soccer season.

I have played soccer literally for as long as I can remember. In Knoxville in the mid to late 1970s, soccer was nearly unheard of. I began as an AYSO player with the traditional reversible jersey, which is one of my first, favorite memories. Game day was always the best day of the week. Even in my early playing days, I had a pregame tradition – watching the Smurfs while I geared up and ate a pre-game Sara Lee sweet roll for breakfast. Unfortunately, my pre-game eating habits did not improve over time. In high school, for example, I transitioned to a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and a Diet Coke. There is no chance on earth I could eat any of those things now and run for 90 minutes, but back then, it was part of the tradition.

Through my life, soccer has played different roles, but it has always been important. My family moved to Northern Virginia as I was getting more serious about the sport. Unlike Knoxville, soccer was well established there. Soccer introduced me to new friends, involved me in my new school, and provided my after-school entertainment. What I did not realize then was that soccer was providing me with more than the fun that I was actively perceiving. It was teaching me how to be a part of team, how to win and lose graciously, how to handle pressure, how to be respectful of others, and the importance of commitment and effort.

When we moved back to Knoxville in the mid-1980’s, soccer had not made much progress Portrait of Carrie O'Rear as a young in popularity. There was no soccer team for me to join. I tried basketball, but it just was not the soccer fan. same. A sport that was indoors and only had five people on the court simply was not for me. I was far too small, and it placed entirely too much pressure on me. Soccer is forgiving to kids who may not be the biggest or best athletes. The times that I have coached, I have derived the most satisfaction from seeing the kid who is not a natural and may not be the speediest person on the field have success. There is room for players who work harder and have more heart to beat a better player to ball or to score on a superior player. On the flip side, soccer is a humbling experience for someone who thinks she can succeed alone. With a large field, and eleven players on a team, it is impossible to win or lose by yourself. Once again, in the midst of experiencing these lessons on the field, I did not appreciate their applicability to life and work until I was much older.

When I was in the eighth grade, I was allowed to play on the high school’s first girls’ varsity team. Life was not perfect, but it improved tremendously. With each year that passed, I made new friends—not just on the team, but people who became interested in and followed the sport.

Playing soccer was a consistently positive aspect of my high school experience, even when other things seemed difficult.

It was not until law school that I realized soccer could serve another function for me. When I was asked to join a former high school teammate on an adult co-ed team, I was not sure if I was up for it. School imposed far too many obligations and was the ultimate consumer of time.

Nevertheless, I reluctantly agreed to participate. Immediately, I found that soccer occupied my mind and distracted me from the things that almost kept me from playing again. It was an ideal outlet, an opportunity to be outside, and a chance to be a part of a team of people with whom I had little else in common. Soccer games were the perfect setting to forget about the stress of school and to be absorbed in doing something that I really enjoyed that was completely different from my day to day.

I have spent nearly twenty years playing adult co-ed soccer, and along the way I have developed lasting friendships. I have also found that many people who I encounter professionally, including many fellow lawyers, play or have played soccer. If they do not, many of their children do. Even those that do not play often follow the game, particularly in light of the USA’s recent successes in the World Cup. I am so happy to see how accessible the sport that I love so much has become.

Apart from my family and friends, I feel like playing soccer has been one of the most influential aspects of my upbringing. Although I hope it will always be a part of my life in some form or another, my playing days are likely numbered. However, tonight, I am fortunate enough to be able to cheer for my god-daughters, who play on the high school team that their mother and I played on years ago.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

October 2015

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31

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall Thanksgiving is – or should be – the perfect holiday. When you combine its ingredients – great food, the Macy’s parade for the kids at heart, sports (i.e., football!), and Black Friday for the shopaholics, plus family togetherness and camaraderie – one should theoretically have everything you would want in a holiday, and more. The sleep-inducing power of tryptophan in turkey is the tonic to induce postprandial napping. The absence of the stresses of gift-giving can be a reward in itself, too. And, the essential meaning and origins of the first Thanksgiving adds another layer of meaning and deeper significance to all the feasting and merriment.

Whether an exploding turkey in the deep fryer, a crazed travel schedule out of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, a recipe gone awry, or a relative seeking to deal out a dollop of guilt along with the ladle of gravy: not all Thanksgivings are straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Then again, those offbeat Thanksgivings can be the most memorable.

So, in the spirit of the holiday: enjoy this sampling of non-traditional Thanksgivings.

Sally A. Goade, Law Clerk, Tennessee Court of Appeals: Before moving to Tennessee in 2006, my husband Dan and I lived in Wynantskill in upstate New York (adjacent to Troy and near Albany) for several years. We moved there as lifelong westerners with no idea of how rural and idyllic “upstate” could be. During our first fall, we made friends through the mountain biking club with a couple, Dick and Shari Gibbs, who owned a 130-acre farm, long known as “Hidley Farm,” in Wynantskill. They invited us to run and mountain bike on their land whenever we liked, and we discovered a network of beautiful and rugged trails that would delight us for years to come. We were also invited to Thanksgiving dinner with approximately 70 other friends of the Gibbs. People brought turkeys with all the trimmings, pumpkin soup, homemade rolls, pies, and all of their various Thanksgiving specialties. The only trick was whatever food you brought, together with whatever else you could carry, you had to bring to the “Hemlocks,” a relatively flat spot nestled in the woods more than a mile from the house. No matter the weather, everyone would gather (sometimes under tarps), play instruments, sing songs, mingle and shiver, and, of course, eat to our hearts’ content. The highlight just before the big meal began was when everyone would gather in a circle, hold hands, and sing the Shaker hymn, “Tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to be free, ‘tis a gift to come round where we ought to be....” We still receive an invitation every year and smile.

Troy S. Weston, Eldridge & Blakney, P.C.: When I was a freshman in college, I stayed in the dorm over Thanksgiving. The only place open to eat was O’Charley’s on the Strip, and they – believing I had no friends or family – felt so bad for me that they gave me my Chicken O’Tenders for free. I took my meal back to my dorm, where I was the only person staying over the break, except the folks the university had hired to make sure squatters didn’t take over, and watched Contact starring Jodie Foster and The Shining starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall on repeat until I fell asleep.

I also convinced myself that thieves were going to break into the dorm, find me, and kill me, so I barricaded the doors of my room with all the moveable furniture I had.

All in all, not a terrible Thanksgiving.

Angelia Nystrom, Director of Specialty Programs, the UT Institute of Agriculture: Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love to cook big meals, and often spend two days preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I generally will pick up the Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving recipe book (they give it out free every year) and then prepare every single recipe in the book (along with a couple of other favorites). I know the flavors “match” (i.e., blend well together) and no one food will over-power all of the others. I make it a big deal and a big production, right down to using the wedding china and my grandmother’s cranberry turkeys.

My most memorable Thanksgiving was decidedly more low-key. It was November 25, 2004. I remember this date because my wedding was two days later. I was in from Nashville and staying at my mother’s house. There was a party for Hugh and me later that night, and a number of his groomsmen were already in town and staying at his mother’s house, so he was entertaining them. My mom had to work in the laboratory at Cocke County Baptist Hospital during the day on Thanksgiving, and my sister’s husband and daughter (in from Pascagoula, Mississippi) were at her in-laws. Amy and I were alone at my mother’s house, making last-minute wedding preparations (i.e., filling bags with birdseed for the reception). We realized that (1) it was Thanksgiving, and (2) with the exception of some peanut butter, there was no food in my mom’s house. Amy and I went to Wal-Mart in Jefferson City, purchased a rotisserie chicken and a bag of microwave minute rice, and had our own Thanksgiving dinner while sitting in my mother’s living room floor (where we had spent hundreds of hours playing Barbies as children) and eating off of the Corelle dishes with the green flowers that had miraculously survived the two of us for more than three decades. It was certainly my most memorable Thanksgiving, and it was probably one of the most enjoyable because I got to spend it with Amy. Eleven years have passed, and I have only seen her on one holiday since then (Thanksgiving 2010, when our families took a Disney cruise together).

John A. Willis, Fox & Farley: Word association with Thanksgiving for me is much like it is for everybody else; family, food, gluttony, football. But an experience my family had in 1994 has forever added another word to that list: FLEAS. Fall 1994: I was approaching final exams of my second year at UT’s law school. My sister was living in Alabama, and my parents were back and forth between Knoxville and South Georgia while my dad taught for a while at Valdosta State University. We were scattered about, and my parents thought it would be a great idea to have Thanksgiving on St. George Island, just off the coast of Apalachicola, Florida. Nearby is the interestingly named “Tate’s Hell” State Forest.

This was before VRBO, the internet, and scoping out what a vacation rental might look like online to see if it was nice. The place my dad rented wasn’t. I’m not sure what measures he took to vet the rental agency or the property, but this place was a disaster. First, it was one of those late 60’s or early 70’s octagonal-shaped cottages with no real rooms, just open space and lots of windows. It was also dirty, as in nasty. I doubt the owners ever used the place themselves, and they certainly didn’t pay a cleaning service to do much. The kicker, as you probably have guessed, is that it was infested with fleas.

Of course, it was around 9 p.m. when we rolled over the bridge onto St. George Island, and, after a day of driving, we were beat and just wanted to go to bed. So I laid down on the mattress on the floor in the loft (yep, no bed frame!), pulled the see-through thin bedspread over me, and fell asleep.

I woke before dawn, scratching like crazy. As the sun rose, so did the rest of my family, also complaining about scratching. Then we realized what was going on. Fleas were everywhere.

It turns out Thanksgiving Day in 1994 in the vicinity of the small fishing village of Apalachicola is not a great place to expect 1) a responsive rental agency; 2) a pest control company to be open; or 3) even a store to be open where we could buy flea bombs. My dad and I had to drive halfway to Tallahassee to finally find a Wal-Mart type store that sold flea bombs. We bought every one they had, went back and set them off. I’m pretty sure we used about triple the amount needed for that house, but we were going to kill the $%@t out of some fleas. Of course, I am probably going to develop serious neuropathy one day from the exposure.

At any rate, we made the most of it. It turns out there’s no better place in America to get fresh seafood than Apalachicola, and we found a place that served up a fantastic Thanksgiving feast of the local fish and scallops. And we re-entered the house after most of the fog of the flea bombs had dissipated and were able to pull off a decent Thanksgiving.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if that place got bulldozed later on. Fleas and Thanksgiving do not mix.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

November 2015

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31

Q:

THE LAST WORD General Slatery, please share with DICTA’s readers your observations after your first year as State AG, and a sense of how that came to be.

A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

HERBERT H. SLATERY III Attorney General and Reporter of the State of Tennessee

A good place to start would be in December 2010, after Governor Haslam announced that I would be his counsel.

Then-AG Bob Cooper asked me if I’d like to spend a day with his staff. While my firm had dealt previously with the AG, I had little understanding of the breadth of law covered and the size of that office. (Currently, the Office has 176 attorneys and 150 staff positions.)

I spent a day with General Cooper. Each of the office’s 17 divisions gave me a “snapshot” of what they do. General Cooper is an outstanding lawyer. He was Governor Bredesen’s campaign treasurer and then his legal counsel before becoming AG. I had the same positions with Governor Haslam. General Cooper knew what I was getting into and wanted to help. I was impressed by the quality of the attorneys whom I met in his office. As a “new” lawyer entering public service, they did for me what Don Paine did when I took his bar review course. Don had a saying to loosen us up on tough subjects: “Relax; we are going to put the cookies on the low shelf tonight.” That day, General Cooper and his staff “put the cookies on the low shelf ” for me.

It was an incredible honor to serve as the Governor’s counsel. The quality of the people he has recruited is impressive. Having worked with them all, just one office down from the Governor, I miss the closeness of being in the “muck and mire” of staff discussions on policy, legislative decisions and judicial interviews with him and his staff. (My Deputy Counsel was Ashleigh Harb Roberts, who besides being a star is also Al Harb’s daughter). We frequently relied on advice from the AG’s Office, and I was nothing but impressed with them; they are outstanding advocates.

I have to admit, I wasn’t initially interested in becoming the AG. I loved my job, and I felt that the Governor and his team were accomplishing great things and making a real difference for Tennessee. If he is not the best Governor in the country, I would like to meet the one who is.

I am pretty methodical about making decisions. I was the Governor’s Treasurer for two years and observed part of the political arena before I thought about being a member of his team. Applying for the AG position was a much quicker decision: just a couple of weeks, as I recall.

Like anything else, timing is everything. The opportunity arose in the middle of the judicial retention campaign. There was a fair amount of tension between the judiciary and the legislative branches--too much tension to be honest. It became apparent that a transition was coming, and it needed to be smooth. The political winds were shifting at the time, and the question was: “If not Bob Cooper, then who?”

I never thought that my primary job as a lawyer was anything more than working hard for my clients and letting the chips fall as they may. But I hoped I could help bring some stability and calm the waters a bit. I already had good relationships with most of the General Assembly. So I felt I had built a rapport there. I knew and had worked with all of the Commissioners for the 23 Executive departments. As the Governor’s Counsel, you play a big role in judicial selection and appointments, so I knew a lot of the 184 trial and appellate judges.

Relationships drive the way I look at things. I hoped that this experience with all three branches of state government would be of benefit to the State.

The other applicants were all outstanding lawyers, but I thought that maybe the time was right for the mix of things I would bring to the table. I went home and talked with my wife; as I often say, I married way over my head. Her reaction was a “sine qua non” for me. If she wasn’t interested, I would not have done it. My daughter’s initial reaction to the idea was “Momma, he does not want to do that. The AG gets blamed for everything.” We still chuckle over that one.

I had several conversations with the Governor. After all, we came to Nashville with one purpose originally: that was to help the Governor and the First Lady be as successful as possible, so it was a very narrow, defined target. They were the only reason we made the move to Nashville. As AG, though, that would change. The Governor is obviously still a very important client, but he is one of many clients to the AG. I told him I wouldn’t apply if he was not ok with it and I meant it. Over a very few days we both reached a point when we thought it might be the right time to try. I finished the application and filed it the next-to-last day, I believe.

Then came the public hearing. Interesting. Judge Bivens and Judge Kirby had gone through the judicial selection process with the Governor not so long before, during which we interviewed them. Judge Kirby smiled and told everyone at the outset: “I just want to note for the record that the roles have been reversed, Mr. Slatery, and the shoe is now on the other foot,” to which I later replied, “I just hope I do as well as you did, Judge.”

To be selected by the Supreme Court as Attorney General is as high of a professional honor as I can imagine. It reminded me of a US Golf Association commercial, in which a teenager is playing golf at sunset. He makes a hole-in-one and jumps up and down, but nobody is there to witness it and share the excitement. Eventually, the course superintendent drives up on a tractor and says, “Nice shot!” To be noticed and selected by the Supreme Court… well, let’s just say it’s hard to describe the appreciation. It is pretty humbling. I took office on October 1, 2014.

A couple of other thoughts: First, almost every year, a bill is brought to amend the Tennessee Constitution to elect the AG, in a popular contested election or by the legislature.

Tennessee is the only state where the AG is appointed by the Supreme Court. In 43 states, the AG is popularly elected; in five, the governor appoints the AG; and one is a legislative appointment.

I think Tennessee’s system is the best (caveat: I thought this before becoming AG, as did the Governor). Why? As AG, I get up, go to work, and can focus on opinions, cases and the like. In other states, my peers often have to fundraise, campaign, and worry about their media presence – major distractions from their central job. It is much, much more of a political job for them. This makes a difference: Tennessee’s citizens get an AG who can devote his full time to the substantive parts of the job. And our attorneys do not worry about losing their jobs for political reasons. That kind of stability and continuity pays big dividends for the State. It all goes back to Tennessee’s method of selecting the AG. Second, your readers may be interested in knowing my first hire was, Andrée Blumstein, who is the first female Solicitor General in Tennessee history. Besides having a first-rate legal mind, she is a great teacher and mentor to our staff. It’s fun to see experienced lawyers knocking on her door for advice every day. She raised the bar for all of us the first day she walked into the office.

As you can see, we are trying to make the Tennessee AG’s office the best public service law firm in the states.

Please advise the KBA of the high regard I continue to have for the Knoxville Bar. I recently spoke to a large group the other day and recounted a lesson I learned from Bob Finley years ago. Many of your readers will fondly remember him.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

December 2015

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THE LAST WORD

Q:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Dave, as you retire as Executive Director of LAET, what are your thoughts and “last words” as you survey your career in legal aid?

A:

DAVID R. YODER Executive Director, Legal Aid of East Tennessee

I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing since I made up my mind and announced my “retirement” plans. Forty years: it has been a wonderful ride. I have met so many incredible people along the way, and many of them being the clients with whom I have worked. I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with all sorts of different people – in government, sciences and the humanities. Personally, I cannot think of anything else professionally that would have given me the opportunity to meet the incredible range of persons that I have in my forty-year legal career.

For example, years ago, I got to serve under the Governor of Michigan, Bill Millikin. He was a Republican. In spite of the local party chairman – who was just convinced I had to be a Democrat – the Governor appointed me to the Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board. Governor Millikin was the kind of leader and person that the GOP--or any political party, for that matter – needs now. He was an incredible and thoughtful leader, a guy who worked hard and did not yell, and who involved lots of diverse people in government decision-making. He thought more about the people of Michigan than he did about himself – all of the people. At “Bill’s Beefsteak Barbecue” – that was Governor Millikin’s birthday party – I met Barbara Bush. I still find her to be an incredible lady. I was really very impressed with her on that occasion; her energy, intellect and people skills at that event were just amazing.

During my tenure in Gary, Indiana, at the time that the Reagan Administration was gearing up to do away with federally funded legal aid, an effort was being made to eliminate LSC program’s access to training. I decided that we would host a first-annual regional “working conference” for legal aid; it would avoid violations of the new regulations by focusing only on substantive legal training for Legal Aid staffers. We held the conference in a former Sheraton Hotel that had been abandoned; the City of Gary opened and cleaned the place up just for our conference. If that was not enough, I had the incredible treat of getting to meet the late Julian Bond, who had agreed to serve – gratis – as our keynote speaker. I will never forget picking him up at O’Hare and driving him to and from Gary, enjoying a wide-ranging, thoughtful and inspirational discussion with him along the route.

I had the honor of working on the Haley Farm (Alex Haley’s 157-acre farm) project after moving to Knoxville and joining LAET, at the time, KLAS. During that project, I met Maya Angelou and also Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund. I spent several evenings volunteering with an absolutely incredible group of poets, writers, activists, etc. from around the world.

As I said earlier, mostly, I have found myself recalling the clients – so many of them. As I said at a presentation at the 2015 “Equal Justice University” in Murfreesboro in September, the clients are the ones from whom I have often gotten the strength to keep pushing. So many of them face incredible challenges – challenges, by the way, that would knock most of us completely off our feet – and yet, not only have they survived, but they keep going. Of those clients, the ones I want to single out for special recognition, and who have honored me the most by trusting me to represent them are so many of the victims of domestic violence. They often were scared as hell, and with good reason, but they trusted me to help them face it.

I recall, too, the “good old days” of legislative advocacy, at a time when we could often effectively convince state legislators to change laws that needed to be changed. From the legislation creating the Michigan Domestic Violence Board, to helping get nursing home and housing reform legislation enacted: these were richly rewarding experiences, and the impact they made for the benefit of low-income citizens was absolutely life-changing, for them, but also for me.

I have met wonderful lawyers and judges along the way. I have great faith in our profession. While I am disappointed by too many of our members who have not stepped up to the plate of our profession’s responsibility for access to justice, when you shake out the chaff and get to the grain, we have an incredible number of wonderful people.

Many of the finest clients, social services workers, United Way volunteers and staff, law school Deans and faculty, Bar leaders, lawyers and judges, state legislators and yes, Congressmen (though I still miss Pete Visclosky of Indiana), I’ve found in Tennessee. For the professionalism and friendship shown to me by all, I am truly grateful.

One last word, though, as we look forward to Congressional funding for 2016: While I will be retired by the time this may hit, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed an appropriations bill cutting the Legal Services Corporation’s budget by 20%. If that becomes the 2016 LSC appropriation, some $480,000 will be lost to LAET. Here is what that loss means in real, direct terms: In 1981, we had 81 Legal Aid lawyers providing service across the 26 counties of East Tennessee. Today, that number is just 21 – and, that is before the full impact of 2016 budgetary cuts may fall. Those 81 lawyers in 1981 were entirely funded by LSC and Congress. Today, LAET has to fund our 21 lawyers through forty different funding streams.

Obviously, I cannot tell what all the impacts will be just yet on LAET, but one frequent, incredible disappointment I have had during my 22 years here has not changed. That is the fact that few lawyers are willing to step up and take on the fight for fair funding for Legal Aid and, therefore, take on the fight for fair funding for access to justice. That remains a sore point and an area of critical need.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

January 2016

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Bill, if you will, please tell DICTA’s readers about the chapter of your career as United States Attorney.

A:

FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY BILL KILLIAN Shareholder, Polsinelli PC, Chattanooga, Tennessee

In the fall of 2008, I realized that Barack Obama might win the election. I also thought that I would have a resumé that could be good enough to get the appointment. My next thought was, “somebody would have to be appointed United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Tennessee.” Luckily, I was able to muster the necessary support from many friends and supporters to get the appointment. It was a relentless campaign, with a very restricted electorate. That process is interesting in and of itself, but this article is about my actual service as United States Attorney.

I had clearly underestimated the breadth and depth of responsibilities of the United States Attorney. Thus my first few weeks have been described as me “drinking water from a fire hose.” Even though I was inexperienced in office bureaucracies, I had tried many civil and criminal cases in federal and state court. The Eastern District has 46 Assistant United States Attorneys. There is an additional staff of approximately 62 other personnel. We process approximately 800 to 900 criminal cases per year and maintained approximately 2500 civil cases at any one time.

I learned during my tenure that the phrase I did not want to hear was, “we need to talk with you about something.” I knew that would have to be, whatever it was, a decision that I would have to make. I have a very competent staff and on a normal basis, I normally would not have to be asked to decide anything, as they proceeded to represent the United States civilly or prosecute someone criminally. Sometimes these matters were of a national security nature, or possibly higher level criminal matters. Other times, they could be ethical matters or just sensitive matters, which would require my personal involvement.

If I had to describe a slogan that would reflect the nature of the job, I would say: “Boredom is not a problem.” Sometimes some of the more interesting matters never become cases, or never attain a status where the general public can ever know. Some of these matters weigh heavily on you, due to their importance and the concern I had for making the right decisions. I did always have the comfort of knowing that I could call my fellow United States Attorneys and get their advice. Overall, the United States Attorneys are a very impressive group, and you can readily see how they obtained their status.

I was fortunate during my term to have Nancy Harr serve as my First Assistant United States Attorney. After my departure, she became the Acting United States Attorney, the first female United States Attorney in the history of the district.

In my view, being able to stand up in court and say, “Bill Killian, representing the United States of America,” is a proud moment of patriotism that is unequaled in my courtroom experience. The burden of representing our beloved country is heavy, because you always want to do the right thing, and not impose an injustice on anyone. We, like Sgt. Joe Friday in Dragnet, relied upon, “Just the facts.” Our opinions were driven by the facts, not vice versa. I suppose that all United States Attorneys, at one time or another, are accused of giving someone hell, as was I. However, we were like former President Harry Truman; when told that they were referring to him as “Give Them Hell, Harry,” President Truman said, “I didn't give anybody hell, I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”

The Eastern District of Tennessee broke records in total amount of civil healthcare fraud settlement, criminal asset forfeiture, criminal fine or penalty, and average amount collected over a period of five years, all during my tenure. We were in the top five districts in the country in prosecuting and convicting people for violations of gun crimes, all individuals who were prohibited by federal law from possessing or using guns. We convicted many violent and dangerous criminals, and processed many matters of national security. We forged, developed and improved relationships with federal state and local agencies in a cooperative effort to achieve the mission of the Department of Justice. We pursued outreach objectives and initiatives in several areas. Sometimes, some of these initiatives were not popular, but throughout the history of the country, enforcing the constitutional principles of our democracy has not always been the most popular position.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder told me, when I interviewed with him for the position, that I was about to enter into the best job ever. I said, “Including the one you have”? He said, “Including the one I have.” He was right.

Words cannot express the level of pride and honor that I have for having been able to serve as the United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Tennessee. As a lifelong resident of the district, the experience was beyond any dream that I could've had. I tried to apply the laws equally regardless of status, race, gender, age or any other factor. I do not think that was anything great, but merely what is required by our Constitution. After all, the inscription on the seal of the Department of Justice states, “Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur,” “Justice for One is Justice for All.” No one will ever be able to deprive me of this experience. As a lawyer, it simply cannot get any better than this.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

February 2016

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Alicia, how exactly did you and your husband Mike become the running pair known as "Team Bert"?

ALICIA J. TEUBERT Elmore, Stone & Caffey, PLLC

Long before my husband and I met, we both enjoyed running recreationally. Even as far back as middle school, we both would go out for a run for fun. As our free-time dwindled with college, law school and starting our careers, running unintentionally got phased out of our schedule. Just before New Year’s 2012, we realized how sedentary we had become and decided it was time to get active again.

It started with the 60-day Insanity Challenge. After a lot of sweat, we successfully completed Insanity. At that point, we asked ourselves, “Now what?” That is when my husband, Mike, threw me a curve ball and said, “You know, running a marathon has always been on my bucket list.”

Although I was always more of a distance runner (compared to a sprinter), I had never considered running a marathon. So, I suggested we try a half marathon first (to make sure we would not die). He agreed and we started looking for one to run.

Thanks to Google, we quickly learned that Knoxville had a half marathon, but it was only a month away. I thought “no way,” but Mike wanted to do it. I consulted with a friend who had run marathons in the past. She suggested that because of Insanity, it would not be a suicide mission to run the Knoxville Half Marathon as long as we started our training right away.

We trained for and ran the Knoxville Half in April 2012. It was hard and fabulous at the same time. We were hooked. Shortly thereafter, we were researching full marathons. One of Mike’s colleagues suggested considering the Apalachicola Marathon in Florida. With the lure of a flat course and beautiful ocean views, we made the commitment and registered.

We trained for and we conquered the Apalachicola Marathon in October 2012. By conquered, I mean we crossed the finish line hand-in-hand with a smile on our faces. Our goal was “do not walk” and somehow we made that happen. It took a week before we could run again, but training had become part of our routine. The more we trained, the more time we spent with each other. The Knoxville Marathon was scheduled for early April 2013 and we focused our attention on it.

Intimidated by the hills (even famous runners call our race the “KnoxHills Marathon”), we did not set a time goal. We just wanted to run it and do our best. We learned it really helps to train on the course you will be facing. We completed the KnoxHills Marathon almost 5 minutes faster than the “flatter than a pancake” Apalachicola one. That was when our competitive nature started to kick in.

Our next marathon (in Ann Arbor, Michigan) was only 2 months away and we set a goal of finishing it in under 4 hours (this would take more than 12 minutes off of our Knoxville time). I’m not sure whether it was (a) the nostalgia of being back in Ann Arbor (where I went to undergrad), (b) the fact that our families and friends came to watch or (c) that we were celebrating our 5-year wedding anniversary, but we completed the Ann Arbor marathon in 3:57:30.

We also began competing locally in some of the shorter Knoxville Track Club races. Being new to the scene, we joined the KTC’s “Socialites Team” and became acquainted with some of the friendliest and supportive runners in our area. The Socialites have team jerseys and almost everyone puts a nickname on the back. It did not take long for Mike and I to come up with our nicknames. In college, his fraternity brothers called him “Bert” and they would yell “Mrs. Bert” when I walked into the house. So naturally, “Mr. Bert” and “Mrs. Bert” went on the back of our jerseys. We became “Team Bert.”

I am not sure who thought of it first, but we set a goal for Team Bert: to run a marathon in all 50 states. As of the publication of this article, we have run 11 marathons in 10 states and our 12th race/11th state will be completed March 6, 2016. So far, we have done Florida (twice), Tennessee, Michigan, Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, West Virginia, North Dakota, and Hawaii. The March 6th race will "check off " Arkansas. Some of these races went really well (like Alabama, where I first qualified for Boston, and North Dakota, where I set a personal record by almost 15 minutes).

Other races did not go as well (like Mississippi, where we walked the last 6 miles in the blistering sun and humidity). Through the good and the bad, Mike and I keep working toward our goal, keep strengthening our bond, and keep internalizing our motto: “Team Bert: Together, No Distance Is Too Great!”

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

March 2016

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

In the September 2014 DICTA, we first asked the question: “What famous persons/public figures have you encountered, and how did you run into them?” Here is the latest saga of random, happenstance, or just weird, encounters with the “high and mighty.”

RANDOM BRUSHES WITH CELEBRITY AND THE RICH AND FAMOUS, PART TWO

Ed Summers, Haynes, Meek & Summers: A long-time friend in town, Jim Boruff, was a pilot who, for a period of time, flew country music stars to and from their shows. Among them were Merle Haggard and George Jones.

About 15-20 years ago, I flew with my friend Jim to Evansville, Indiana to a George Jones concert. The next morning he flew George back to East Texas. I had an enjoyable flight playing poker with George Jones, except for the $80 that I lost to him. A delightful, down-to-to earth man.

Terry Woods, Legal Aid of East Tennessee: In 1990, I was with a friend in an Indian restaurant in Chicago. We were both struggling with the menu when a Indian man and his girlfriend sat at the next table and graciously helped us choose a meal. We combined our tables to share dinner, whereupon our new friends imbibed more than a few alcoholic beverages. Around the time the man had gotten rip-roaring drunk, a large group of men dressed in black suits and bowties entered the restaurant. The Indian man said, “There’s Louis Farrakhan, the most dangerous man in America. Let’s meet him.” Mr. Farrakhan was very gracious, as shown in the attached photo.

Rob Frost, Arnett, Draper & Hagood, LLP: Long story short: both my late grandfather and my late father were concert promoters. From decades of them having shows all over the South and being in that profession, I’ve had lots of interactions with some artists. Here are some of them:

• • • •

• Sound checks (pre-concert warmups) for Billy Squire, Ratt, and other bands at Auditorium Coliseum in the 80s. Come to think of it, the ringing in my ears from the Billy Squire concert probably ended last week. For sound checks, it’d be me, a few friends and the band.

• For Ratt/Billy Squire: it was festival seating, meaning there are no seats; as soon as the doors open, fans rush in. Since we were already in for the sound check, when the doors were opened, we saw people jump probably 12 feet (or more) down to the floor of the Coliseum and then run to be at the front of the stage. So for the opening act, every time Ratt’s lead singer came close, we'd get sandwiched between the surging fans and the fixed wall at the base of the stage. We tried to turn round and round (coincidentally, the title of Ratt's one hit song ) to escape, but we couldn't until Ratt was done.

REM: their final practice warmup shows before they went on tour. Before REM headed out on tour, they’d put together their show, set list, lighting, etc. Some friends and I would be the entire audience.

Luciano Pavarotti: before he performed at Thompson-Boling Arena, he warmed up at the Tennessee Theater. He sung to me and my girlfriend (now, wife).

Liberace: the Regas would host post-concert private meals with Liberace and my family. Scott Thorson was there too (Liberace’s partner, but he wasn’t an artist). Liberace would go antiquing with my mother in different cities. Using my father as a straw man, he also tried to buy an antique here--the L&N Station (yes, the building)-- but he was outbid on it.

In no particular order: John Schneider, a/k/a Bo Duke of the “Dukes of Hazzard;” Anson Williams, a/k/a Potsie on “Happy Days”; the Indigo Girls; Robert Palmer; the Preservation Hall Jazz Band; Dwight Yoakum and his band; Lyle Lovett; Carol Channing; Mitzi Gaynor; Debbie Reynolds; Mickey Rooney; Don Knotts; Arlo Guthrie; Butterfly McQueen; Roger Williams; Ferrante and Teicher; Andy Williams; Hal Holbrook; Dixie Carter; Ann Miller; Barbara Eden; Tony Randall; Tim Conway and Harvey Korman; Louis Grizzard; David Copperfield; Harry Blackman; and Dick Van Dyke.

I also met E. Howard Hunt, a Nixon White House “Plumber.” He was friends with my late aunt and uncle in Miami. I enjoyed a few meals with him over the years.

Lastly, through the same late aunt and uncle: Joe Frechette, the head of security for the Miami Hurricanes football team during its NCAA rule-breaking, game-winning heyday (think of when the football team got off the plane in Tempe wearing camo; Joe was right there with Jimmy Johnson). When visiting, I would attend a weekly lunch with retired FBI agents and other law enforcement officials in Miami. Joe regularly attended.

A couple of years ago at lunch, Joe’s son (who didn’t know I was a UT alumni) was telling everyone about how they all got to go to the Sugar Bowl with his dad and the team when they took on the Vols. They then discussed how the Vols wiped the floor with the Hurricanes, and hearing “Rocky Top” played so much by the Pride of the Southland Band that they couldn’t get “Rocky Top” out of their heads for weeks. ☺ Donna Davis, Butler, Vines & Babb, P.L.L.C.: My husband and I were traveling with five other UT alumni, including Frankie Wade, formerly a KBA member, in South Africa. We were seating in the waiting room of the Johannesburg airport, waiting to fly to Hoedspruit for the safari portion of our trip. I happened to look over my shoulder, and there stood Ted Koppel. Without thinking, I got up, walked over to him and said, “ I do believe you are Ted Koppel.” He laughed and told me he believed he was indeed Ted Koppel. After a good laugh I introduced myself and we proceeded to have a very nice chat. He and his wife were heading on safari also and acted like they were our next door neighbors and not celebs. I have the photo to prove my story, but you will have to look at the other 1,000 from the trip in order to see it. It is the prize slide show finale!

Editors’ Note: If any DICTA readers would like to contribute an account for a Part 3 “Last Word” in this series, let Nick know.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

April 2016

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Miner, husband, father, hero; please share with DICTA’s readers your connections with 1st Lt. Alexander “Sandy� Bonnyman, Jr.

ANGELIA NYSTROM UT Institute of Agriculture

I first heard the name Alexander Bonnyman in 1997, when the bridge across the Tennessee River was named in his honor. I was touched by an interview on WBIR with his cousin, Teedee Nystrom (who, years later, would become my mother-in-law). She spoke about what an honor it was to have the bridge named for Bonnyman, as his remains had never been recovered from the battlefield on which he lost his life. My heart broke for a family that I did not know (not realizing that it would become my own). I recalled my own grandmother’s words regarding my grandfather, who had been killed in battle in Germany in World War II: “I could never completely grieve until his remains were returned.�

After I met Hugh, he told me the story of his cousin, Medal of Honor recipient Sandy Bonnyman. Although born in Atlanta in 1910, the Bonnyman family moved to Knoxville when Sandy was two years old. After graduating from Mrs. J.A. Thackston’s School, he enrolled in Princeton University, where he was an outstanding football player and popular student. With a thirst for adventure following his time at Princeton, Sandy joined the Army Air Corps as a cadet, where he was known for flying too close to control towers on occasion. After his honorable discharge, he returned to Knoxville to work for his father’s coal company. By 1938, Bonnyman had acquired his own copper mine in New Mexico.

When World War II broke out, Bonnyman was exempt from military obligation due to his age (32) and his role in running a company producing strategically vital war materials. However, Sandy was determined that he would not sit idly while his country was at war. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942, and his battalion was sent to the South Pacific.

Following fierce fighting at Guadalcanal, his detachment was sent to Tarawa. On D-Day, November 20, 1943, the assault troops were pinned down by heavy enemy artillery fire at the end of a long pier. Bonnyman, on his own initiative, led his troops over the pier, obtained flame throwers, and blew up several hostile installations, saving the lives of hundreds of troops that were pinned down there.

On the third and final day of fighting, Bonnyman renewed his attack on the enemy, who were picking off U.S. troops from their positions in a cave. Realizing that the seizure of this bastion was imperative to make the Marine attack successful, Bonnyman pressed his attack and gained the top of the structure, flushing more than 100 of its occupants into the open, where they were shot down. Assailed by additional Japanese, Bonnyman stood at the forward edge of the position and killed three of the attackers before he fell mortally wounded. His men beat off the counterattack, and the island was declared secure later that day.

For his actions on Tarawa, 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. But his remains were not recovered.

For years, Bonnyman’s parents sought information as to the whereabouts of his remains. They were told conflicting stories: he was buried at sea, he was buried on the hill where he died but that the mass grave had been lost when excavating equipment was brought in to build an airport runway. They died not knowing what had happened to their son’s remains.

Grandson Clay Bonnyman Evans made it his mission to find answers for his mother and aunt.

Beginning in 2010, he worked with History Flight, a nonprofit dedicated to finding, recovering and repatriating America’s war dead. Last spring, Clay was researching a trench on Tarawa, which was known as Cemetery 27, believing that his grandfather’s remains would be there. As Clay watched, one of the researchers remarked, “We just struck gold�—the gold being Bonnyman’s distinctive gold dental work. His skeletal remains were amazingly preserved by the sands of Betio. His boots remained on his feet, and the Zippo lighter that was in his pocket and which bore his initials, still worked.

On that day, the Bonnyman family had closure. On that day, the remains of 32 other Marines were recovered. And on that day, 32 other families had the closure that had eluded them for over 70 years.

Last September, the remains of 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman, Jr. were returned to Knoxville to a hero’s welcome. I cannot think about the events of that weekend without having tears in my eyes. Hugh’s family finally had what it had sought for so very long. What struck me, though, was how much it meant to others.

On the day that Sandy’s remains were to arrive in Knoxville, we were waiting in a room at the airport when an elderly Marine in full uniform was brought in. C.J. Daigle, in his 90’s, had served on Tarawa with Bonnyman and later fought in both Korea and Vietnam before retiring from the Marine Corps. “I had to be here,� he told us. “I had to pay my respects.�

30

DICTA

May 2016

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

You have asked me about the longevity of the law firm of Frantz, McConnell & Seymour.

ARTHUR SEYMOUR Frantz, McConnell & Seymour

First I thought I would give you a brief history of the firm.

It traces its origins to 1892 when three local attorneys who would later be the founding members were practicing law or studying law in Knoxville, Tennessee in the same building. The first was Howard Cornick, who was practicing with his half-brother, Tully R. Cornick, Jr. The second was John H. Frantz, who was practicing law here in Knoxville also. The third, James B. Wright, was a law student under G.W. Winstead, attorney. All three had offices in the Deaderick Building here in Knoxville.

In 1902, the firm of Cornick, Wright and Frantz was formed, composed of the above three mentioned attorneys. In 1903, my grandfather graduated from the University of Tennessee law department and along with Thomas G. McConnell, both of whom were working with the L&N law department joined the practice.

In 1910, the firm became known as Cornick, Frantz and McConnell with offices in the East Tennessee Bank Building. Finally in 1920, upon the withdrawal of Howard Cornick from the partnership to move to Arizona, the firm name was changed to Frantz, McConnell & Seymour, the name it now bears.

The original partners under that name were John H. Frantz, Thomas G. McConnell and Robert M. McConnell, and my grandfather, Charles M. Seymour.

The interesting thing is that Thomas G. McConnell and Robert M. McConnell were nephews of John H. Frantz and my grandparents and the Frantzes were next door neighbors on Melrose Place here in Knoxville, so there were not only close professional associations, but family and neighborhood associations also.

In its earlier years, and even until today, the firm has handled a number of major cases.

The firm represented the Tennessee Copper Company in a case styled State of Georgia vs. Tennessee Copper Company, which was a direct action filed in the United States Supreme Court by the State of Georgia against the State of Tennessee and the two major copper companies operating in the Polk County, Tennessee. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes rendered the initial Opinion in that case, which resulted in an injunction by the state of Georgia against the copper companies and remained on the Supreme Court’s docket for enforcement and alteration of the injunction until 1935.

The firm also was active on behalf of the private power companies, in particular, Tennessee Power and Light in lawsuits against the Tennessee Valley Authority throughout the ’30s and ’40s.

One of the cases decided in the U.S. Supreme Court was Tennessee Electric Power Co. et al. vs. Tennessee Valley Authority, et al. which Tennessee Valley Authority won.

Although the firm has grown to 17 lawyers since the early days, it has never aspired really to be anything other than a Knoxville and East Tennessee law firm. During all of its years, it has maintained a very general practice, representing businesses, insurance companies and individuals. It has dedicated itself to providing excellent legal services for these businesses and individuals in almost all aspects of the law.

Obviously, a number of partners have different emphases on their practice, but the founders certainly believed a good lawyer ought to be able to represent his clients in most areas of the law.

When I came to work at Frantz, McConnell & Seymour in 1967 as a law clerk, the members in the firm included Robert M. McConnell, my father, Arthur G. Seymour, Fred Cagle and Bruce Foster. I was fortunate to learn what the practice of law really entailed from them. I continued work here until I left for the Army for two years and then returned in 1971, where I have practiced since.

The law firm has always emphasized good, solid legal work for its clients, along with its Knoxville and East Tennessee ties.

There is no major formula for longevity; however, you hire good lawyers, try to maintain collegiality and try to have fun practicing law.

To that end, I think we have been successful and hopefully will continue to be so in the future.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

June 2016

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

David, please tell DICTA’s readers about how Balter Beerworks came about, and how a longtime litigator becomes a local “brewing legend.�

DAVID N. WEDEKIND Of Counsel, Hodges, Doughty & Carson, PLLC, and founder of Balter Beerworks

I went “of counselâ€? with Hodges, Doughty & Carson ďŹ ve years ago for various reasons, none of which are pertinent to this subject. Although I enjoyed the practice of law and trying lawsuits for many years and enjoyed the camaraderie of our ďŹ rm, it was time for me to move on. One of the things I wanted to accomplish was to ďŹ nd a way to work with my son, Blaine. Much of how Balter “came to beâ€? has to do with the vision of Blaine; he is the youngest of Gail’s and my three children, all of whom live here in Knoxville. My daughter, Angie, and her husband Andrew Jedlicka work for RIVR Media, so they were in a great place. My daughter Sarah is married to Caleb Verzyden, a Canadian lumberjack; they own and operate Tennessee Tree Service.

Blaine had worked in commercial real estate for a year but brewing was what he had long been interested in.

He worked the “midnight shift� for George Sampson at Cherokee Distributing, learning the ropes of the beer industry. As I said, he was really interested in the brewing side of the business.

Interestingly, one of my best friends as a 1L at Memphis Law School was Allen Corey. He and his team at SquareOne Holding Company have been the key to our success. Allen transferred to Vanderbilt Law School and became a successful transactional lawyer at Miller & Martin in Chattanooga. After 15-20 years as a lawyer, he was one of the founders of Big River Brewing Company. It took off; Big River grew to several locations and was quite successful. Subsequently, his group connected with Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch.

Their group bought into Gordon Biersch Brewing Company. Allen became the CEO of the company and moved its headquarters to Chattanooga. Gordon Biersch ourished and became the largest brew-pub operator in the country; it built, owned and operated over 70 brew-pubs in and out of the country but principally in the western U.S. About three years ago, Allen sold his ownership in Gordon Biersch and started a consulting ďŹ rm, SquareOne Holding Company.

So, what does all of this have to do with Balter?

In 1988, I went to Tempe to watch the Vols win the National Championship and visited Gordon Biersch; it had great food, beer, service and operations – what you need to succeed in this business. I was hooked on the idea of craft beer in Knoxville but fully engaged with practicing law at that time. About four years ago, Blaine took an interest in craft brewing and home-brewing and, in fact, brewed a beer at my house and then we set up shop in his garage. Blaine was keenly interested in not just distributing beer but in making it. His friend Will Rutemeyer was the guy with the brewing experience with whom he had been home-brewing with yet some other buddies.

In 2013, I was visiting a friend (coincidentally, the same guy who helped connect Allen and me together at law school), King & Spalding lawyer Clay Gibson, telling him what Blaine had in mind. Clay said: “You need to call Allen.� I thought, “Aw, he’s too busy; he doesn’t have time for this!�

Clay updated me that, although Allen had sold his stake in Gordon Biersch, he was still in the game, so we called Allen. Blaine’s initial vision was focused on the production side of the business. When Allen asked Blaine about his vision--to “make great beer, the best in town�--and just focus on the beer, Allen quickly set us straight. Allen’s recommended recipe? To be successful with the beer, you also need detailed operations, great service, culture and great food.

Meanwhile, a property at Broadway and Jackson, where an old BP station was located, was on the market. Blaine and I took a look; we decided that while we might be shooting ahead of the bird, we needed to secure the site since it was a matter of time before that neighborhood would be redeveloped. We bought the site in a separate entity and now rent it back to Balter. Next, we contracted with SquareOne. Allen’s team delivered an enormously talented, high-energy consulting group, including experts in operations and a crack chef. Plus, Allen has been in the business himself for over twenty years. It was a real “soup to nuts� experience--especially for this recovering trial lawyer of about 25 years. We could not have done it without the SquareOne team. They are pros.

Construction ended up being a more arduous process than anticipated. We were originally to open in July 2015; work began in earnest 90 days before the target date, but the site conditions proved to be more challenging than expected. We engaged Tim Trapp, an architect from Boulder, Colorado (he’s worked on 35-40 brewpub designs) and a great local architect, John Sanders. They created a space unique to Knoxville. Strauss Construction of Chattanooga rebuilt an old gas station into a top-notch brewery and kitchen.

After missing the July 2015 original target date, we ran through a total of ďŹ ve “drop-deadâ€? deadlines before our opening on February 8, 2016. We now have a great staff of over 65 employees. We hired Jason Strobel, a talented local chef; our general manager with prior experience at Big River Brewing, Mark Chilcoat; and our brewmaster, Will Rutemeyer, a former TVA engineer. We sent the management team to Carolina Brewing in Chapel Hill for 90 days of training in a full brewpub/restaurant environment. This paid huge dividends, as Carolina Brewing has the kinds of systems and operations that we have adopted at Balter. Implementing the right systems is the key to success. “Balterâ€? is an Old English word that means “to dance without particular grace or skill, but with enjoyment.â€? You’ll see it on the back of our servers’ T-shirts.

Knoxvillians have been surprised at how good our beer, food and service are. We have four agship beers, which we plan to maintain at all times.

Brewing is an art; while the process may not seem complicated, the trick is to get and keep consistency. Will Rutemeyer brings his engineering mind and skillset to ensure we maintain the same avor and quality every time. He’s an incredible brewer and is highly detailed at what he does. The German-style KÜlsch is currently our biggest seller with the Firebelly IPA a close second. The Coffee Oatmeal Porter has a big following, as does the Maypop APA and the 86-Rye brown ale.

If there’s one thing I learned about balancing life and practicing law, it is that taking time out to have lunch is a good idea. I hope the legal community will come have lunch with us and for those who have not been to Balter, I think you will ďŹ nd there’s plenty of parking around to get in and out quickly. In addition, after a day in the trenches, a rousing victory or a crushing defeat, a cold beer and a great meal will be a perfect ending to the day. Prost!

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com .

August 2016

DICTA

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THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

What exactly got you interested in wildlife photography?

K.O. HERSTON The Herston Law Group, PLC

A: I always enjoyed photography and loved being outdoors. Around ďŹ ve years ago, I started really studying how to do it properly. I began with landscape photography but after my ďŹ rst encounter with a bear and two yearlings I was hooked on photographing wildlife. In the national park I have photographed bears, elk, wild boar, river otters, deer, turkey — you name it.

Q: Aren’t you afraid of being alone with bears in the wild?

A: No way! I prefer to be alone with them so I can really work the scene. It’s an incredible experience. Contrary to popular opinion, bears are afraid of people. Unless they’ve been fed by tourists, they want nothing to do with you. The only times I’ve been scared involved being surprised by a bear I didn’t know was there. For example, one time I was wading down a narrow, overgrown creek in waist deep water. I was hoping to ďŹ nd bears I knew frequented that area.

Unbeknownst to me, a bear was bedded down in the dense foliage a few feet to my right. Suddenly there was a loud commotion, the bushes were shaking, and I heard lots of hufďŹ ng and snorting. A few feet to my left, three cubs bolted up a tree. I found myself inadvertently between a mother and cubs in an area of the Smokies where there’s no one around to hear me scream, standing in waist deep water with heavy photography gear in my backpack. Let’s just say I was fully present in the moment! I made as much noise as I could and slowly retreated down the creek. Since that day, I now carry bear spray whenever I venture into the backcountry looking for bears. But anytime I’ve known where the bear is, there has been no reason to be afraid. I have lenses that allow me to photograph them at a safe distance.

Q: What’s the craziest thing you’ve done to get a photograph?

A: On Halloween night in 2014, a freak snowstorm was forecast. As soon as I left a Halloween party, I hopped in the car and drove to the Smokies, hoping I’d arrive before the rangers closed the roads, which often happens after a major snowfall. Around 1 AM I met up with a few photography buddies in the parking lot at Cades Cove. We slept in our cars. We woke up to 3-4 inches of snow and discovered the rangers had indeed closed the roads. We were “trapped� inside the park and had a snow-covered Cades Cove all to ourselves! We spent the day photographing what for that day was our own private national park.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com .

September 2016

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Cliff, please share anything you like regarding your role and the role of your ofďŹ ce and staff in preparing for and administrating the upcoming presidential election.

CLIFFORD A. RODGERS Administrator of Elections for Knox County

First of all, to place election days in a context most attorneys can understand or relate to, those days are, for me, like trial dates. Whether in my role for over two decades as a law clerk for the late District Judge James H. Jarvis, II, or as an attorney in private practice helping my colleague George R. Arrants, Jr., get ready for two separate week-long trials in federal court back in 2010, you cannot over prepare – period. And that statement holds true whether you are the court or trial counsel. No matter how hard and long you work, there is always something more you can do or feel you should do to prepare for trial. The same mindset holds true in preparing for elections.

With trials, there is always the possibility, if not likelihood, that the lawsuit will be settled, continued, or dismissed on a party’s motion. Not so with elections. They are coming straight at you and virtually all of the deadlines before and even after an election are nonnegotiable unlike trial dates when judges will more often than not grant extensions of time to accomplish various pretrial tasks. Very little forgiveness exists in the controlling law with respect to deadlines surrounding election days.

For example, our ofďŹ ce is required, not later than 45 days before a federal election, to mail or email ballots to our military and overseas (M & O) voters. Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-6-503 (a). Thus, with respect to the upcoming election, those ballots must go out no later September 24th. In fact, meeting this deadline could have been extremely problematic in this particular election because of the August 8th felony conviction of Joe Armstrong, the Democratic candidate who on August 4th won his primary election for State House District 15. Under state law, the Democratic Party had until 40 days before the election, i.e., until September 29th, to notify the Knox County Election Commission (KCEC) of the name of its new nominee.

See id. at § 2-13-204 (c). Had the Democratic Party utilized all of its allotted time, our ofďŹ ce would have been compelled to mail out one round of ballots (obviously incomplete) by the 45-day deadline and another round of ballots ASAP after we were formally notiďŹ ed of the Democratic candidate. Fortunately, the current chair of the Knox County Democratic Party, Cameron Brooks, had previously served on the KCEC, understood the ramiďŹ cations of these deadlines on our M & O voters, and was more than willing to accelerate the nominating process so that our ofďŹ ce was notiďŹ ed in writing re: the nomination of Rick Staples on August 24th, well in advance of that deadline.

Now, here’s where I make my ďŹ rst plug, at least for those of you who live in the City of Knoxville (COK). You will observe on the sample ballot on our website www.knoxcounty.org/election that one of the COK charter amendment questions seeks, at my request, to move the date of the COK’s Primary Election from the last Tuesday in September to the last Tuesday in August. Why do so? We need look no further than last year. In 2015, we held the COK’s Primary Election on September 29th; yet, even with an extension of the above 45-day deadline to a 30-day deadline in this non-federal election, see id. at § 2-6-503 (b)(1), we still had to mail the Regular (General) Election ballots to the M & O voters on October 2nd, a mere three days after the primary. This resulted in those ballots being mailed to the M & O voters before the counting board had completed counting the provisional ballots from the Primary Election and, in what appears to be an unprecedented action, before the KCEC had an opportunity to certify the Primary Election results. Keep in mind that state law allows the KCEC until the 3rd Monday after any election to certify election results, i.e., in this case, up to and including October 19th, see id. at § 2-8-101 (a); here, however, taking the full allotment of time would have been several days after early voting began, a totally illogical scenario, since the statutory expectation is that one election will be certiďŹ ed before the next one begins. For the record, the KCEC certiďŹ ed the election results on October 6th after staff worked overtime. But what if we had encountered a close election in which the outcome might have been decided by the provisional ballots? And yet, we might have already mailed out ballots to the M & O voters with the wrong candidate’s name on it, having been compelled to “guessâ€? at the winner while ballots were still being counted. Or what if an election contest were ďŹ led after the election had been certiďŹ ed? The date of the COK Primary as it is presently set does not allow for any of these possibilities to be addressed in an orderly manner; rather, it ensures the possibility of chaos and could saddle the taxpayers with the cost of another election.

Now, my second plug. I am assuming everyone reading this will be voting in the upcoming election (as to whether you vote in each and every race, well, that’s up to you). Regardless, I want to encourage each of you to seriously consider voting early (which runs from Wednesday, October 19th through Thursday, November 3rd) or if you are – like me – at least sixty (60) years of age or older, to consider voting absentee by mail. Yes, that means you never again have to stand in line to vote once you hit 60, at least in the State of Tennessee. (Word to the wise – bring your voter registration card as it really speeds up the process during early voting.) I’ve also heard from dozens and dozens of frustrated folks over the years who traditionally wait to vote until election day only to be unexpectedly called out of town on business or to have a deal with a family emergency or their own health issue or even car trouble – and the list goes on for all these folks who will not get a “do-over� to participate in that election. Just some things for prudent voters to consider. I can assure you that the folks whom I just mentioned will never again wait until election day to vote – and neither should you.

See you at the polls! And don’t forget your photo ID (from either the State of Tennessee or the federal government)!!

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com .

October 2016

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Judge Swann, please share your thoughts on who you think are the best people.

THE HONORABLE BILL K. SWANN former Judge of Knox County Circuit Court, Division IV

Who are the best people? Lawyers.

In 1972 Mary and I entered law school at UT with a two-year-old boy in arms. Mary worked very hard and made law review. I worked very hard and made father cum laude. Mary eventually died of MS; my second marriage (but for two ďŹ ne children) was a mistake; and my third marriage has been nineteen years of bliss and counting. There is perhaps a fourth marriage, or even more, which I will explain in a moment.

It was immediately clear to me the ďŹ rst day of law school that my fellow students were the best people in the world. Never in thirteen years of academia had I encountered such joy of life, such spontaneous friendship. It continued through law school and into eight years’ practice of law, and then through thirtytwo years on the bench. Lawyers are the best people in the world. And exible: back then when we didn’t have law licenses to lose, we often went to cock ďŹ ghts in South Knox County.

There we mixed with children and old men, talked with the ladies from the auxiliary selling hotdogs and grilled cheese sandwiches for the church. And with young wives and sons-in-law, putting “two on the gray,â€? or â€œďŹ ve on the little red.â€?

They were there for diversion, the society of friends, an evening off. They would break even, or win ďŹ fteen or lose ďŹ fteen. I like to think they were also there because they just would not be politically correct, would not buy the cultural imperialism of the sensitive elite. Would not tolerate being labeled rednecks, fools, misdemeanants, consorters with drug dealers and maďŹ osi. “For the Lord’s sake,â€? I can imagine them saying, “it’s the pennyrile pit in Lester’s barn. Let’s not get our pants in a wad.â€?

There are joys inherent in clothing a judgeship, sure. Two stand out. The ďŹ rst is the ability always to do the right thing, the best thing, for the facts of a case. The second is the continued association with the best and the brightest family lawyers in East Tennessee from 1982 through 2014, those thirty-two years of being a circuit court judge.

I taught many years at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada; many years for the Tennessee Judicial Conference; and many years for the TBA and KBA. Teaching lawyers is better than teaching judges – practicing lawyers still have the joy of life, while (we) judges tend to be a bit verklemmt – I guess “wedged� is the best English for the German word describing a constrained attitude toward life.

Of course, having your home shot up, being stalked, and being threatened in social media and otherwise are pretty good reasons to end up wedged.

And then there’s running for public ofďŹ ce. I like to say I have three doctorates – a Yale Ph.D. (German Literature), my beloved J.D. from the George C. Taylor School of Law, and a doctorate in Elected OfďŹ ce Politics (EOP). After four campaigns for those eight-year terms, my EOP degree comprises more hours of intense learning than formal training ever did. And it gave me a fourth wife, and possibly even more. (One of my opponents accused me of concealing various divorces from multiple wives, one of whom was stated to be “Kathy,â€? a nurse. I have searched throughout Tennessee for Kathy and been unable to ďŹ nd her, but she lives happily in Swann family mythology. Kathy is responsible for many of my omissions and errors. Indeed, if you don’t have a Kathy in your home life, you should probably invent one.)

The experience of the judgeship was the ultimate impetus for my 2016 book Five Proofs of Christianity.

You can read much of it for free at www.amazon.com/author/judgebillswann. Seeing so many lives pass before me, I needed to ďŹ gure out where I stood – if at all – as to Christianity. The little book is my take on that; if my journey interests you, or if you wonder about your own take on Christianity, or indeed whether you should bother with Christianity at all, you will enjoy my meandering reections. Scott Hahn and Allen Schwartz have each bought ďŹ ve copies.

I am happily at work on a second book, which will deal in depth with Knox County elected politics as seen from the perspective of an EOP degree holder. It, like the ďŹ rst book, will be funny and serious at the same time. My thirteen years as a German academic informs much of the serious content of the ďŹ rst and second books – a different perspective on life than most lawyers, the best people, have. Parenthetically, I maintain that an advanced (real) degree in anything is great preparation for the practice of law. Why? Knowing a different set of meticulous, demanding criteria helps you be relaxed about the arcane depths of legalisms.

But, I do not pine away for my lost contacts with attorneys. Because soon I will begin a mediation practice devoted only to family law, and once again I will have daily contact with the best people. I will limit the mediation practice to my expertise of thirty-two years, price my hourly for accessibility, and bring a judicial perspective to the process of “getting to yes.�

I look forward eagerly to being with all of you again. Of course, we cannot get together in South Knox County: Having law degrees now, we cannot go to cock ďŹ ghts.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com .

November 2016

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

After a year of contentiousness and lack of civility on multiple fronts – in our nation, state and even our legal system--it seems like civility and respect for our fellow citizens may be on the wane. What are your thoughts, Judge Thomas, on this topic, how the seminal case of Miranda v. Arizona relates to civility, and where we as lawyers, judges, and citizens can go from here?

THE HONORABLE D. KELLY THOMAS, JR. Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals

Conict resolution is the bedrock of our system of government and laws. It is what separates us from uncivilized societies.

This year, we celebrated the ďŹ ftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Miranda v. Arizona1. The theme underlying Miranda’s holding as to the right against self-incrimination is the principle that a government must afford respect and dignity to its citizens – even those who stand accused of a crime. How the government will treat its citizens taken into custody is a major theme of that case.

One of the problems suffered by discussions of what Miranda means in the national conversation is that most of these discussions arise after the fact. The press and public look at Miranda after someone is accused of having committed a crime and the Miranda rights have been invoked but law enforcement has not followed them, and then the accused person goes free. It is important to recall that the Miranda rule exists not to protect dangerous criminals; it exists to protect the rights and dignity of accused citizens. When Miranda is implicated, we do not yet know if the accused is actually guilty of a crime. I get tired of hearing that a case was “dismissed on a technicality� because the principles of Miranda have been applied. I wonder if the Framers thought that the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments were mere “technicalities.�

Q: Do judges and lawyers have a duty to treat individuals with civility during judicial proceedings in the same way the government must afford respect and dignity to its citizens?

A: The civility we expect judges to demonstrate to lawyers and litigants alike afďŹ rms the central concept of Miranda: the dignity and respect that government shows its citizens.

The judiciary is just one aspect of this, and the same dignity that is central to Miranda must be demonstrated in the course of judicial proceedings.

Citizens see in the courtroom how their government, through judges, treats conict resolution, and that informs the conclusions and views that citizens form of their government in action. These broader conclusions as to the legal process and how a case is resolved are every bit as important – maybe more so – than the observer’s conclusion as to the individual case’s outcome. A litigant or observer might disagree with the outcome of a particular case but accept that the process is fair and appropriate – i.e., not feeling cheated by “the system.â€? If, however, a citizen does feel cheated by the system that cannot be a good thing for the legal system at large.

The behavior of lawyers is also central to the public’s perception of the judicial system. Observers and litigants draw conclusions, too, as to how lawyers operate and if they cheat or do not, or engage in personal attacks on witnesses or the other lawyers. If a lawyer cheats for his client’s beneďŹ t, that client might be satisďŹ ed, but others who see that happen will form negative conclusions about the legal system and how it works.

Q: What is the consequence of judges and lawyers failing to treat individuals with respect and dignity in the courtroom?

A: We are all part of the same system in the public’s eye. When a judge or lawyer breaks the law or cheats, it erodes everyone’s conďŹ dence that citizens can expect to be treated fairly under the law. What kind of message does that send to our fellow citizens? Does that encourage some of our citizens to try “self-help measures,â€? to take the law into their own hands?

A loss of conďŹ dence in our legal system can breed fear and distrust. It can also, in the current environment, yield legislative responses that can create bad laws and policy decisions. If enough people get into their heads that the system is not working, there are legislators who may respond by adopting some pretty radical “solutions.â€?

Q: A:

So, what do we do?

We need to better inform people to ensure they understand the legal system.

First, our lawyers need to take every opportunity to speak in schools and take part in the education process. We need to inform students of what lawyers do, why we do it, and why it matters to everyone. Either that or students will get “the news� from those bloggers and tweets that are often nothing but misinformation.

Also, each of us in the legal system needs to remember – every day – that when a person is abused or not treated with civility, not only does it harm the person being wronged, but also it affects the judge or lawyer causing the abuse. Hurting others eats up the soul of the victimizer.

I am not advocating being anything other than a strong lawyer or a staunch advocate here – nothing is better than a good, fair ďŹ ght in the courtroom – but, that’s not the same as taking unfair advantages. This applies to all of us, lawyers and judges. Lawyers are expected to act in their clients’ best interest, but that does not give a license to cheat and break the rules.

All of us – lawyers (and judges too) – are more than just “hired guns.â€? It’s a total package: everyone involved in the legal system inuences the opinions of our fellow citizens. It directly affects the level of conďŹ dence that our citizens must have in our government and legal system. It really disturbs me that so many people seem to have such a low opinion of lawyers, when lawyering is a most noble profession; after all, the lawyers are the workers who esh out and support our system of government and laws on a daily basis. What could be more important?

1

384 U.S. 436 (1966).

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com .

December 2016

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Greg: in honor of the 82nd birthday of “The King,� tell us about your life and times as an Elvis Presley impersonator.

GREGORY F. COLEMAN Greg Coleman Law PC

My mom was a huge Elvis fan. Growing up, almost every day after school, I’d put on those old vinyl records (many millennials and Gen X’ers may not know or remember what those are!), and I memorized the words and lyrics. It became pretty apparent after awhile that I was a pretty good Elvis imitator. I did it by myself for some years and then I eventually got with a band – as good a group of musicians as one could possibly have; more on them in a bit – and things took off from there.

I went to college at Jacksonville State in Alabama on a music scholarship. I played the trombone in the school’s jazz band, and I was also a jazz vocalist. I still loved Elvis, though, and the ďŹ rst time I did Elvis ofďŹ cially was at a gig in Knoxville in 1986 while I was in law school.

I’d played around with my Elvis impersonations before then, but that really launched my Elvis impersonation career. Since then, I have done Elvis all around the world. I have two full costumes: Elvis’s Las Vegas whites, and the 1968 “Comeback Concert� black leather suit, plus the gold glasses and the scarves that he’d hand out during his shows.

I’ve done several Elvis shows locally. A few years ago, for a couple of years in a row, we put on a full show for the Knoxville branch of the American Cancer Society. It was billed as the “Viva Knox-Vegas!� event: it was in the main ballroom of the Convention Center, and charitable gaming tables were set up to enhance the Las Vegas effects, plus I brought my full band for that show.

Also, when President Bush and the Japanese Prime Minister were together in America, in honor of the Prime Minister and his love for Elvis, WBIR had me come in to sing an Elvis song. The last big gig I played in Knoxville was for Christmas 2014, for the Knoxville Academy of Medicine at the NV night club.

Our band is just second to none. Our drummer, Tim Paul, has a master’s from UT, and so does our bass player. The piano player used to play for the Lee Greenwood Theater, and our two guitar players are both seasoned session players in Nashville. For some shows, to add to the level of realism, I have my two “usual bodyguards� standing by my side!

When I get on stage: yes, I do feel like Elvis, and I go all-out to be Elvis: the voice, the looks, the moves, the songs. (The pelvis still works, although it is maybe not as young as it used to be.) We try to set it up like a real Elvis concert: the band plays the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey,� I come out at the big moment and break into “CC Ryder,� and we’re off. It’s a long show.

I played Elvis in Beijing before the 2008 Summer Olympics; besides that, I have also played Elvis overseas in Bangkok, Thailand, Malaga, Spain and Istanbul, Turkey. It’s very cool to do a gig in a place like Istanbul and while singing, look out to see women in full burkas dancing like mad to “Hound Dog.� (That was kind of a “Harum Scarum� moment!)

In some places overseas, the audiences are really something: they act like Elvis isn’t dead. In China, just before I got onstage, I recall my interpreter saying: “When I tell you when, you get onto the stage.â€? It was a hoot. The interpreter said the words, and I was in full Las Vegas whites, ready to go--and it took forever to get onstage: every person standing by the stage stopped me to take a picture of “Elvis.â€? When I ďŹ nally got up on the stage, it felt like an eternity since I had started moving. It was crazy to see the audience dancing to “Heartbreak Hotelâ€? and “All Shook Up.â€?

That’s what I love about doing this: Elvis Presley and his memories can still bring joy to so many, all across the world, no matter what language or culture. It’s a cool and fun thing to be able to honor Elvis in this fashion.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com .

January 2017

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Q: A:

What exactly is “Collaborative Divorce,� and is it available in Knoxville?

HEIDI PLEHN WEGRYN, JD, AND WILLIAM M. MORRIS, SR., CDFA, FINANCIAL ADVISOR

Heidi: As many of us are aware, January is the most popular month to ďŹ le for divorce. In fact, our local media recently reported on the January surge in divorces and speculated that the “new year, new meâ€? approach often applies to couples who have been contemplating a divorce and resolve to initiate the process at the ďŹ rst of the new year. What many couples in Knoxville don’t know is that they now have the option to consider a Collaborative Divorce.

The East Tennessee Collaborative Alliance is a newly formed organization of lawyers, coaches/facilitators, child specialists and ďŹ nancial professionals who serve divorcing couples, and others involved in family law disputes, in Knoxville and throughout East Tennessee.

While Collaborative Divorce is recognized as a legitimate and effective way for people to reorganize their families without the damage and cost of litigation, and while also being endorsed by professional bodies such as the American Bar Association, there are many who are still unfamiliar with the process.

Collaborative Practice is a client-centered approach to divorce and other family law matters that relies on respectful problem solving to reach a mutually beneďŹ cial agreement. The composition of the team is tailored to the individual needs of the family, but the end result is the same‌you make the important decisions, rather than having a judge make them for you.

If you are looking for an alternative dispute resolution process wherein you can protect your assets and safeguard your children from the potentially harmful effects of protracted court proceeding, then we would like to welcome you to learn more about Collaborative Divorce and the East Tennessee Collaborative Alliance.

East Tennessee Collaborative Alliance (ETCA) is Knoxville and East Tennessee’s practice group for the Collaborative Divorce process.

Collaborative Divorce offers separating couples a team-based, holistic way of dealing with divorce. We are an interdisciplinary group of professionals committed to helping families navigate the often stressful, confusing, and emotional waters associated with obtaining a divorce. Our practice group consists of practitioners who are required to regularly obtain continuing education so as to offer the highest quality of services to our clients.

Each case is different, so depending on the circumstances of each individual family the parties work with collaborative attorneys, mental health divorce coaches, ďŹ nancial professionals, and child specialists to assist them through the transition to becoming a divorced family. The cornerstone to any Collaborative Divorce is a written agreement that is signed by both parties and their attorneys, at the onset of the case, where everyone agrees to work together to resolve the parties’ issues without going to court.

The next question often asked by attorneys and other interdisciplinary professionals is “how do I become trained and involved in the Knoxville area as a Collaborative Professional?� The good news is that due to the enthusiasm surrounding Collaborative Divorce, and the outpouring of interest in our community, we have already offered several Collaborative Divorce trainings in Knoxville, and we have another training scheduled for March 9-10, 2017.

The ETCA is excited to include and invite our local attorneys, mental health professionals and ďŹ nancial specialists to join us at our monthly meetings and/or participate in the upcoming training. Please visit www.easttennessecollaborative.com for more information.

Bill: As a CertiďŹ ed Divorce Financial Analyst working with our collaborative team, I have developed a great appreciation for the many facets of divorce law and the emotions that often run wild. After all...determining the marital assets and dividing them down the middle is pretty simple and straightforward. Right?

One of the advantages of collaborative divorce is total disclosure of assets by all parties. After all, 2 plus 2 equals 4. Right?

Wrong! Maybe? What if it’s really 5 or 5.25 and it makes more sense for Mary to receive 3.25 while Sam keeps 2.0? Who determines the value of the asset and how much is marital? Is there a more tax advantageous method than a 50/50 split on the day of the divorce? If all assets are not split on the ďŹ nal court date, what guarantees are there that the agreement will be completed on time. Same for alimony. How is it paid? What protects the cash ow? What if the payor is disabled or killed?

For example, a recent case involved a stockbroker and his young wife. He just wanted to write a check for $1,000,000 and be done with the process. Under no condition did he want to pay alimony. Because of the disparity in income tax brackets, he was better off paying her alimony of $1,300,000 over nine years. The alimony was tax deductible and he would have needed to earn over $1,500,000 to have enough after tax cash to settle the divorce his way. Uncle Sam kicked in the extra $300,000 for her. Don’t hold me to these exact numbers. Sometimes a deep dive into assets, income, and attitudes can yield surprising options.

I know from personal experience that the thrill of leaving the courthouse a “free� man was tempered with all the tasks ahead to complete my divorce and begin my single life. I certainly did not want to hang myself on the loose ends.

The collaborative process is a great strategy for a low conict result, even though the process is not without ďŹ nancial challenges. The ďŹ nancial neutral’s responsibility includes discovery of assets, ďŹ nancial modeling of each parties’ needs, and then presenting various models to meet the future needs of both parties and their children. Rather than a legal determination of asset distribution, our responsibility is to develop the most ďŹ nancially feasible solution for all parties. Sometimes less is more, even when parties feel more is not enough.

Editor’s Note: We would like to thank Nick McCall for coordinating the Last Word column for DICTA since 2008. This marks his 100th column featuring fun and interesting stories about bar members.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

February 2017

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Having now retired, what are your “last words” on your work with the Pro Bono Project?

TERRY WOODS who retired last autumn as Director of the LAET Pro Bono Project

The best place may be to start with how I got to LAET. I was in private practice and feeling totally burned out. I wanted to do something else; specifically, I wanted to write for a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center. At the time, I was chair of the KBA Pro Bono Committee and had gotten to know Dave Yoder, who was executive director of what was then the Knoxville Legal Aid Society. I had the impression that Dave knew Morris Dees, founder of the SPLC; so I called Dave to see if he could introduce me.

Instead, Dave told me that the director of the Pro Bono Project had resigned that morning; and he asked if I’d be interested in the job. My gut reaction was that the job sounded awful. I had been active in the Pro Bono Project, and I’d enjoyed the cases I’d handled; but I didn’t even want to be a lawyer anymore. I certainly didn’t want to ask other lawyers to work for free. Still, I told Dave that I’d think about it.

After a couple of weeks (of, frankly, not thinking about it), Dave said he needed an answer; and I agreed to meet with him a few days later to talk about it. Truth be told, however, I still thought that the job sounded horrible.

On the morning we were set to meet, I remembered that I was supposed to have reviewed the “State Plan,” a long, boring-looking treatise Dave had sent to the Pro Bono Committee. I figured that it would be rude to go to the meeting having ignored the document, so I read it.

The State Plan turned out to be something hammered out by legal aid lawyers across Tennessee in response to a directive from the Legal Services Corporation. “Legal aid” is a shorthand way of identifying private civil law firms that are funded in part by LSC, the entity charged with distributing grant money Congress allocates to civil legal services. LSC had mandated each state to consolidate its operations and figure out how to serve more people.

The Plan proposed a comprehensive strategy for maximizing the impact of legal aid’s limited resources. In addition to continuing to provide direct client representation, legal aid would focus more on recruiting pro bono volunteers (lawyers, students, etc.), preventing legal crises by educating social service providers and low-income community groups, providing self-help instructions, and launching a variety of new initiatives to accomplish its mission.

A lot of the alternative delivery systems the Plan described mirrored much of what I had already been doing in my own practice by offering limited representation to clients who could not afford full representation. Conceptually, the ideas in the State Plan synched up well with the aspects of practicing law that I still actually enjoyed.

By the time I finished reading the State Plan and met with Dave, I had been reenergized as a lawyer. I wanted that job. I wanted to be a part of what Legal Aid was doing and what it wanted to become. That State Plan was not just an empty promise. It was a blueprint that made Tennessee a role model for other states in the Access to Justice arena. Thanks to the commitment of our Supreme Court, the Tennessee legal community is showing everybody else how it’s done. Through the collaborative efforts of the Court, local and state bar associations, and legal aid, our state has pioneered some very sophisticated initiatives that help make the justice system more accessible to everyone. I am very lucky that I came to legal aid when that collaborative process was really picking up steam, and that was a big part of what made being the Pro Bono Project Director such a great job.

Of course, being part of an extraordinary team didn’t hurt. I have worked in various environments over my 35-plus years as a lawyer, but I was solo when the job at Legal Aid opened up; and I think that’s the main reason I felt burned out. I enjoy the brainstorming that comes with being in a law firm, and there are a lot of opportunities for that at LAET because we don’t just work together within individual offices. The lawyers and paralegals in all of LAET’s seven offices are on advocacy teams, and they participate with the other three Tennessee legal aid firms in active task forces.

My Pro Bono Project work rekindled my love of the law and my admiration for lawyers. Most people hold this job for about one year. I think the reason for that is that we don’t like to ask somebody to do something. (I certainly didn’t like having to ask people for money, for example.) But, I did it for 16 years, and I think the reason I never had a problem asking someone to take a pro bono case is that I remembered how much fun I had in my own private practice doing pro bono work. I knew that a lawyer would get more out of doing pro bono work than he or she gave. I felt that I was giving the lawyer a gift, instead of just asking for something.

Of course, working for LAET or doing a lot of pro bono work carries the risk of “compassion fatigue.’ It is hard to witness how abusive people can be to each other, and I’m not just talking about domestic violence. I’m primarily referring to how the strong prey on the weak outside of the family arena. There is massive exploitation of poor people by many employers, landlords, retailers, and lenders. The Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services commissioned a study of how poor people addressed these problems; TALS found that a significant number of victims of exploitative practices didn’t do anything about it; they had become resigned to think “that’s just how things are.” It takes a toll when you see hopelessness in the eyes of your clients every day.

Over the past few months, I’ve seen the same hopelessness in the eyes of some of my friends and colleagues. We’ve been through a divisive election, and there is a sense of frustration that people on both sides continue to experience. I believe that we all want what’s best for our country and our neighbors, but we have very different philosophies about how to solve our common problems. Anyone who knows me knows that I am one of those big-government Democrats. And, when I talk to small-government Republicans, we rarely agree about how to address the problems facing millions of people in poverty. But, we always agree that we want to help that individual person who is poor. Most of the time, we even agree on how to help them.

I can attest to the fact that I could see my clients’ sense of despair lighten just by knowing someone was willing to try to help them. Maybe the antidote to cynicism is to take a pro bono case.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

March 2017

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Marjorie, would you tell DICTA’s readers about Justice Knox, what it stands for, and how it came about?

MARJORIE THIGPEN-CARTER organizer for Justice Knox

We don’t always know what changes our life’s direction, but it seems to be some strange mix of our own seeking, our own sense of calling, and some serendipitous event. One night I was somewhat casually searching job postings. I hadn’t really been actively pursuing a new job, but I came across a posting for the job of “lead organizerâ€? for a non-proďŹ t forming in Knoxville, dedicated to working for justice in the local community. The posting stated that “community organizingâ€? experience was preferred, and I did not have this experience.

I decided to take the risk and to package my background as public interest lawyer, former community center director, mother of three, and church staff person as “community organizing experience.� Before I could think twice about it, I was hired.

I am a lawyer who has practiced special education law, representing clients with simultaneous delinquency and school cases at The Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn and through the Public Defender’s Community Law OfďŹ ce here in Knoxville. As such, I have seen myself as a worker for justice. Nonetheless, as lawyers, we often work client to client, and systemic justice or systemic injustice, if it crosses our minds, can often seem beyond our power to address. Yet, our code of professional responsibility does call us to have our eyes not just on individuals but on a greater good: a lawyer, says the code, pursues “a learned art‌as part of a common calling to promote justice and public good.â€?

I, though, am not just a lawyer. I am also a person of faith, and, as a person of faith, I am called in a different way to the work of justice: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?â€? Micah 6:8 Led by local clergy frustrated by overwhelming community problems, Justice Knox formed in response to this biblical mandate to “do justiceâ€? – to hold the kings, nobles and ofďŹ cials of our day (i.e. the mayors, the school superintendent, the police chief, etc. . .) accountable for the fair treatment of all people, especially the poor.

Uniting congregations of diverse faith backgrounds and community organizations with a common purpose, Justice Knox seeks to change structures in our community that breed injustice. We believe that change is possible through the power of organized people. While as individuals and even as individual congregations we can feel dwarfed by powerful and entrenched institutions and interests, together we can demand reform and hold ofďŹ cials accountable for that reform.

Justice Knox is a local non-proďŹ t organization identifying and addressing problems in our own local community. While in a typical nonproďŹ t, priorities are set by the Board of Directors and staff, Justice Knox is set up in a democratic, bottom-up, grassroots model. Congregations and community organizations join Justice Knox, and their members identify community problems through an annual listening process.

Last fall in our inaugural listening process, people gathered in 40 house meetings throughout Knoxville to talk about what worries them most and what makes them angry in their communities. On Nov. 14, 2016, 230 people from 14 congregations gathered to form Justice Knox. At that same Assembly, the people voted, after sharing stories from the house meetings, to address problems of mental health care and education in our city. On April 24, 2017, we will gather an assembly of 1200 people at Central United Methodist Church, and we will demand that public ofďŹ cials make changes in these broken systems.

Justice Knox continues to seek member congregations in order to build our power, and we have grown to include 17 participating groups. We have begun research in the areas of mental health and education so that we can understand the problems in our local community and so that we can identify best practices and effective models of change from other communities. Every year we will engage in research toward action. We will always work toward speciďŹ c solutions that our annual action assembly will press upon public ofďŹ cials to adopt and implement.

Justice Knox is following a national model of organizing put forth by the DART Center. We have afďŹ liated with DART because this model has been successful in other cities like ours in getting powerful systems to make effective changes. Just up the road in Lexington, Kentucky, twenty-seven congregations got the City of Lexington to invest $2 million a year to set up an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. In Jacksonville, Florida, thirty-seven congregations got the Duval County School system to assign more than 8,000 students to a proven diversion program called restorative justice instead of suspending them out of school. Across the country, congregations through justice organizations have successfully tackled housing, payday lending, drug treatment, mental health treatment, public transportation and many other community problems.

It is hard to believe that it has been only 8 months since I viewed the job posting that led me into this work. In this short time, Justice Knox has already united people from different backgrounds and walks of life from all different parts of the city. It has been exciting to witness connections between people who would have never known their commonalities but for our listening process. I am ďŹ lled with hope as I see people working diligently together to understand community problems and to ďŹ nd solutions in order to make Knoxville a better place. Justice Knox gathers us as neighbors, as concerned citizens, as people of faith, offering a unique opportunity for us to live out both our democratic principles and important tenets of our varying faith traditions.

Editor’s note: You may contact Marjorie and Justice Knox via telephone at 865-382-6622 and via email at justiceknox@thedartcenter.org.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

April 2017

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Please share with DICTA’s readers how you came to create the Julia Barbara Foundation, dedicated in your daughter Julia’s memory to the ďŹ ght against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or “DIPG,â€? in children.

ELIZABETH PSAR lawyer and Executive Director of the Julia Barbara Foundation

I remember that Thanksgiving of 2015 was perfect as I enjoyed a much-needed vacation at the beach with my family. Like most of us I worked long hours, so my time with my children was limited and precious. I watched my three-year-old son and my two-year-old daughter play in the water and sand. The sun shined as my sweet children smiled and giggled with joy in the warm rays. Waves lapped over our beach balls, shovels, and palls. As I made a sandcastle with my sweet daughter, I thought that I should slow down my solo practice and take more vacations. At the time, I didn’t know that it would be the last sandcastle that I ever made with my little princess.

My name is Elizabeth Psar. I am a Knox County Attorney and the Executive Director of the Julia Barbara Foundation. In December of 2015 my daughter, Julia Barbara, was diagnosed with a brain stem tumor (DIPG). After ďŹ ve months of debilitating medical treatments Julia passed away.

She died on May 17, 2016, a month before her third birthday. Notably, May 17, 2016, was the ďŹ rst DIPG Awareness Day in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

In September of 2016, the Centers for Disease Control announced that brain tumors have become the leading cause of childhood cancer death, surpassing leukemia. DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma) is the second most common malignant brain tumor found in children and is the leading cause of childhood death due to brain tumors. DIPG essentially has a zero percent survival rate, and an average life expectancy of nine months after diagnosis. Almost every day, a child battling DIPG dies and another child is given no chance of survival. This does not include the children that were not diagnosed prior to passing away.

At the time of Julia’s diagnosis, it never occurred to us that she suffered from a brain tumor. During a Christmas party, my husband and I noticed that Julia could not climb the slide ladder without falling. A few weeks before she had been running circles in the playground. So, on December 14, 2015, we took Julia to the pediatrician with a mistaken belief that she suffered from an inner ear infection. A day later, we were told that our sweet, strong, smart and pretty daughter would ultimately die from a brain stem tumor. To have just a few more months with Julia, she underwent radiation treatment and took an experimental drug with chemo therapy at St Jude. Julia also took steroids which dramatically altered her quality of life; she no longer smiled.

To save the lives of children and to raise awareness we established the Julia Barbara Foundation, a non-proďŹ t. One of our goals is to cure DIPG, if we can stop one of the fastest growing brain tumors then it is likely we can cure less evasive brain tumors in children. In a modern-day society, an almost zero percent chance of survival is unthinkable. All our funding is given to DIPG research programs so that, in the future, children will not suffer debilitating pain and families will no longer watch their children slowly die a horrible death.

Our second goal, but equally as important, is to provide families with knowledge regarding brain tumors in children. If we provide the community with greater awareness, families will know to seek medical treatment when their children begin to exhibit brain tumor symptoms. In the short amount of time since the establishment of the Julia Barbara Foundation, parents have told me that their children died in their sleep, and at the time they didn’t know what killed their beloved children. It wasn’t until the autopsy reports returned that they found out their children died from operable brain tumors.

This is not acceptable. By bringing attention to one of the deadliest types of pediatric brain tumors, we can provide families with greater knowledge and the power to help their children.

Senator Doug Overbey and Rep. Jason Zachary have graciously joined our ďŹ ght against brain stem tumors. Due to the diligent efforts of Senator Overbey and Rep. Zachary, May 17, 2017, will be the ďŹ rst DIPG Awareness Day in Tennessee. I had the pleasure of being on the Senate oor when the matter was unanimously passed. The graciousness of the Senators was overwhelming, and it gave me a greater motivation to continue the pursuit of DIPG awareness. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Louisiana will also recognize May 17, 2017, as DIPG Awareness Day, and May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month.

Additionally, through the efforts of many DIPG families, there is a Resolution (H. Res. 69) before Congress to make May 17th National DIPG Awareness Day. The National DIPG Awareness Resolution was introduced on January 30th to the Energy and Commerce Committee. During the last week of April we are traveling to Washington to meet with various U.S. Congressmen.

How can you help? You can contact your U.S. Representative and ask them to support H. Res. 69. You can join our party! On May 20th at 7:00 p.m. we are celebrating the lives of all DIPG children. The Chillbillies with Knox County Juvenile Judge Timothy Irwin are providing the entertainment for the Gala Celebrating the Lives of DIPG Children at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Tickets are $60.00 which includes food and beverages and all proceeds go to DIPG research. More Gala information is available on JuliaBarbaraDIPG.org or eventbrite.com. Further, you can like and follow us on Facebook: Julia Barbara Foundation and Instagram. Any additional ideas to spread awareness are always greatly appreciated.

Please take my advice and enjoy the ones you love. As attorneys, we often work too hard and our personal lives suffer. There is a happy medium, and life can sometimes be so very short.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

May 2017

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Stewart, would you describe for DICTA’s readers your radio show on constitutional law, Your Weekly Constitutional, and how it came about?

PROFESSOR STEWART HARRIS Lincoln Memorial University, Duncan School of Law

I happen to specialize in constitutional law. Fortunately, Uncle Bud does, too. He uses his favorite phrase, “that’s unconstitutional!” to describe pretty much anything he doesn’t like. There are many things Uncle Bud doesn’t like. And it’s remarkable how frequently the Constitution prohibits them.

I bet you have an Uncle Bud, too. There are a lot of them out there, writing Letters to the Editor or posting on social media. You’ve probably chuckled at their grand pronouncements, perhaps even shaken your head in disbelief.

But there’s a serious issue here. Ignorance of the law, especially our fundamental law, has consequences. It erodes our institutions. It undermines our essential values. That’s why, as lawyers, we have a duty to “further the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system.”1 Seven years ago, I noticed an opportunity to fulfill that duty in an unusual way. My local NPR affiliate, WETS in Johnson City, was changing its format from the traditional, eclectic public radio mix to a slate of news and information programs, most of which would be national – think All Things Considered and Car Talk – but some of which would be locally-produced.

Hmm. That meant that WETS would need some locally-produced shows. Clearly, what WETS really needed was a locally-produced show focused upon constitutional law. A show created by me.

So I sent an email message to a fellow named Wayne Winkler, the Station Manager at WETS, whose made-for-radio, basso profundo voice you’ve probably heard on your journeys east on I-40. And then I waited. After about a month, I figured I had my answer. After all, when you ask a girl to a dance, and she somehow fails to get back to you, well, you take the hint.

Then, after six weeks, a miracle: Wayne sent me a reply. He liked the idea of a show focused upon the Constitution. Could I call him to discuss it? We spoke that afternoon. After several congenial minutes, Wayne asked me to come down to the station and start the development of the program.

I hung up, only to realize that our brief telephone call had been my audition. Wayne needed to hear me before putting me on the air. Hey, it’s radio.

A year went by, a year during which Wayne and I met nearly every week to discuss, and try out, different concepts for our new, hour-long show. I sent several demos to friends, mostly non-lawyers, whose general verdict was, at least initially, “you suck.” By the end of the year, however, we had come up with a conversational format that seemed to work. We decided to focus upon one major issue per episode, with one or two guests (no sound bites here) interspersed with shorter features to break things up.

We began broadcasting Your Weekly Constitutional on March 1, 2011, with an episode entitled “The Constitutionality of Secession.” And then we were off and running, doing episodes on everything, as we like to say, from Gay Rights to Gun Rights.

Within a few months, another miracle: I found an underwriter, the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s historic home, Montpelier. I had worked with the Center’s staff on an educational program called “We the People,” so I knew its new Director, Doug Smith.

Doug was enthusiastic about using radio and social media to extend the Center’s reach. Soon we started a Facebook page (over 50,000 fans and counting) and made the show available as an iTunes podcast (over 350,000 downloads last year) and, yes, like our new President, we joined Twitter.

We quickly became the most popular non-drivetime show on WETS, where we are broadcast twice each week, at 3:00 PM Sunday and 8:00 PM Tuesday. Indeed we often garner more listeners than national shows like This American Life, which follows us on Sunday afternoons. Other public radio stations have picked us up, from New York to Texas. Here in Knoxville, we are broadcast on WUOT-2 on Monday evenings at 7:00 – you can listen on either HD radio (if you have one) or at wuot.org.

What a ride it’s been. I’ve interviewed a United States Senator, a sitting Governor, and many other fascinating people, from law professors to public officials, to ordinary people affected by constitutional law. I’ve also interviewed a number of judges, including a fellow named Gary Wade, who told me what it was like to be the Chief Justice of Tennessee’s Supreme Court. Gary and I got on famously. In fact, we enjoyed each other’s company so much that, last year, the Judge, who is now the Dean at Lincoln Memorial University’s Duncan School of Law, offered me a job. So now I teach at LMU in Knoxville, even as I continue to make the trip each week to Johnson City to produce my radio show.

I should say “shows,” because a couple of years ago, Wayne and I started producing a second, daily show, which lasts only 90 seconds and which is broadcast during the morning and evening drivetimes. Your Daily Constitutional is obviously too short to offer any depth, but it does, we hope, bring up interesting issues in a way that gets people thinking. It seems to work – many of our listeners tell us that they tune in every day – and some of them even time their commutes by our broadcasts.

So if you’ve got something constitutional to discuss on the radio, drop me a line: stewart.harris@lmunet.edu. I’ve got recording equipment in my office, and it’s just waiting for you to share your wisdom, your humor, and your appreciation of our Constitution. Don’t be shy – it’s fun. And it’s your duty. And maybe, just maybe, Uncle Bud will be listening.

1

Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 8, Preamble.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

June 2017

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Adrienne, please tell DICTA’s readers about dragonboat racing, and how you got involved in this fascinating type of rowing competition.

ADRIENNE L. ANDERSON Anderson Busby PLLC

Long, narrow open boats ease up to a starting line marked by buoys on the water. Each boat is forty-six feet long, with a huge multicolored dragon’s head in front and a long dragon’s tail in the rear. A drummer with a barrelshaped drum and a mallet sits behind the dragon’s head, twenty paddlers sit in ten rows down the length of the boat, and a steersman with a long wooden oar stands in the rear of each boat. Everyone is perfectly still, completely focused. The starter calls, “We have alignment. Attention please. GO!â€? Each dragonboat team bursts into action – the paddlers paddle in perfect unison to the cadence of the drummer in the front, steered by the oarsman at the rear – all to the screams of the crowd on shore. In approximately one minute, the boats race over the 250 meter race course to the ďŹ nish line and, for one team, to glory.

Dragonboat racing originated in China more than two thousand years ago as an ancient cultural ritual to commemorate the martyrdom of a poet and political dissident. The legend is that when this beloved leader jumped into a river to protest the corruption of the ruling parties, his followers jumped into their ďŹ shing boats and raced to him in a failed rescue attempt, then beat drums and beat their paddles on the water to keep ďŹ sh from eating his body.

On a more positive note, dragonboat racing emerged as an international team paddling sport in the 1970’s, with competitions beginning in China and spreading throughout Asia and Europe. In the 1980’s, dragonboat racing came to North America, and soon became a popular amateur sport in the United States and Canada. Today teams compete in dragon boat racing at all levels of skill and experience. Many teams in Asia and Europe, and some teams in the United States and Canada, have corporate sponsorship. Recreational teams formed in communities throughout the United States practice regularly, then travel for dragonboat racing competitions. Dragonboat racing festivals have become important fundraising events for charitable and nonproďŹ t groups, as local businesses and civic organizations form racing teams and collect donations, while participating in an exciting, fun, teambuilding event. One of the premier dragonboat festival managers, Dynamic Dragonboat Racing, LLC, is based in Knoxville and manages festivals, corporate events, and clinics throughout the United States. In Knoxville, the Knoxville Area Rescue Ministry (KARM) has held a dragonboat racing festival each June at the Cove in Farragut for more than ten years. The Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN) started its dragonboat festival a few years ago, and is actively recruiting teams for its August 26, 2017 festival at Volunteer Landing.

I was introduced to dragonboat racing by attorney Shannon Coleman Egle about ten years ago. Growing up in East Tennessee, I always enjoyed canoeing, kayaking, and swimming in the lakes and rivers, but I had never even heard of dragonboat racing. I saw an advertisement in the newspaper for the KARM dragonboat festival, and the next day Shannon just happened to mention her “dragonboat racing team.â€? I begged to tag along with her, and Shannon graciously gave me a quick tutorial on team paddling and introduced me to her team – The Secret City Mad Paddlers. Over the years this eclectic group has included nuclear engineers, Army reserve ofďŹ cers, nurses, high school teachers, psychologists, health physicists, construction workers, medical ofďŹ ce administrators, safety engineers, college professors, dentists, corporate executives, lawyers and paralegals. The team captain is a 5’2â€? dynamo with a Pat Summitt-like commanding stare. (Her day job is as a highly-trained security ofďŹ cer with superior ďŹ rearms skills – no one disobeys her). Some of these paddlers are super-competitive and have participated in races in China, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, and other international venues, but they welcome everyone who wants to pick up a paddle and try the sport.

Dragonboat racing is a unique team sport, because the key to winning is paddling exactly in unison. I have seen teams of small, lightweight paddlers easily beat teams of beefy, muscle-bound athletes based solely upon precision and uniformity. The team depends upon each and every team member to do exactly what each other team member is doing, at exactly the same time, the same speed, and the same power level. The achievements are always team achievements and the failures are only team failures. Dragonboat racing is a quintessential team sport.

The camaraderie of a diverse group of people coming together for this team sport just can’t be beat. We have laughed and celebrated together, and we cried together when tragedies struck our team members. Sometimes, there is even a little romance. A few years after Shannon Coleman invited me to join her dragonboat team, she met Brian Egle at a dragonboat festival, and now Brian and Shannon are happily married with two beautiful little girls!

Paddle sports racing is fun, and team racing is fantastic. I encourage the KBA and all law ďŹ rms to sign up for the local dragonboat races and to have a great day on the water. Paddles Up!

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

August 2017

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

LeAnn, please share with DICTA readers about your experience with acupuncture.

LEANN MYNATT Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC

For the past four years, I have come to embrace a holistic approach to things that beneďŹ t my health, or might. That’s not because I’ve had an epiphany or read an article in People magazine. It’s because four years ago I was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. And since traditional medicine does not yet offer a money-back-guarantee cure, I’ve expanded my horizon on ways to deal with both the disease and the side effects of my treatment.

As the old saying goes, there are no atheists in foxholes.

When I was diagnosed, I was 47, a vegetarian, and had run (at least three miles) every day for over seven years. What that means is, I took credit for my good health. I ate chocolate cake with impunity. I did see my gynecologist every year, and got a mammogram. Unfortunately, ovarian cancer does not have a screening test (now they tell me). My cancer was discovered when I was having difďŹ culty breathing on my morning runs. I had signed up to run the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, South Carolina, while on Spring Break with my family. I went to a local doctor, assuming he’d prescribe some antibiotics (for what I assumed was a chest cold) and I’d be better by Saturday for the race. He detected a pleural effusion, which is uid surrounding the lung, two liters in my case. The next day the uid was drained and sent for pathology. By the time I got home from Charleston, I had received my mind-numbing diagnosis. Not only had I taken credit for my good health, I had taken also it for granted.

As an aside, since ovarian cancer has no screening test, it’s important for women to know the symptoms. In my case, it was uid around the lung (hence stage four). But typically, the uid ďŹ rst accumulates around the pelvis, then the abdomen. Women who experience unusual bloating (can’t button your pants) or a feeling of fullness even though they have not eaten, should talk with their doctor. Risk factors include not having any or just one child, and a family history of breast or colon cancer, as well as ovarian. Like other cancers, ovarian cancer that’s caught early has a high survival rate.

I met with a gynecologic oncologist here in Knoxville, and subsequently had surgery and seven rounds of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, I recurred in 2015, again in 2016, and again in May. I am currently back in treatment with chemotherapy. SufďŹ ce to say, if there were a superior drug or treatment at MD Anderson, or Memorial Sloan Kettering, or Cedars Sinai – or Switzerland – I’d be all over it.

With treatment comes side effects. Some are what most people associate with chemotherapy: nausea and hair loss. Others are just... weird. And each patient’s experience is different. I have tolerated all of my treatments well, thank goodness. But I have done so, I believe, in part by having an open mind and using a holistic approach. That’s a long way for this anal, regulatory, left-brained environmental lawyer. Acupuncture, along with prayer, exercise (albeit less than I would like), somewhat improved eating habits, good sleep, meditation, massage therapy, herbs and essential oils are among the tools in my proverbial toolbox. Of course, anyone can avail themselves of these things, to manage things like stress, illness, and chronic pain.

My internal medicine doctor, who utilizes integrative medicine, introduced me to acupuncture. As with other aspects of my treatment, I researched and downloaded books. Only, I didn’t ďŹ nd a consensus on how or why acupuncture works. It essentially involves the use of very small needles (no, it doesn’t hurt) on strategic parts of the body, to release electrical imbalance, also known as energy. In addition to needles, I have also received a cupping treatment (remember Michael Phelps’ back during the Olympics, those red circles?). Ancient texts on acupuncture have been found dating to at least 200 years B.C. And although most people associate acupuncture with China, its use has been found in ancient Mayan culture as well.

I believe that acupuncture helps me. I don’t believe that it will cure my cancer, but it helps me tolerate the side effects of cancer treatment, which in turn might ultimately lead to my beating cancer. And that’s enough to open up this lawyer’s left brain.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

September 2017

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Stephanie, what prompted you to write a book on U.S. Supreme Court Justice (and longtime Knoxvillian) Edward Terry Sanford?

STEPHANIE L. SLATER Senior Law Clerk for Judge John W. McClarty, Tennessee Court of Appeals

Why write a book about a somewhat forgotten U.S. Supreme Court Justice who died in 1930? The operative word is “forgotten.�

In the early 1990s, I was serving as a law clerk for then Magistrate Judge Thomas W. Phillips with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The federal court was still located in the old post ofďŹ ce. The magistrates did not use the main courtroom often, but when we did, I enjoyed looking at a portrait that hung behind the bench. A history fanatic, I decided to learn more about the man staring back at me.

I learned that the portrait was hanging in the courtroom because its subject, Justice Edward Terry Sanford, had once sat on the Eastern and Middle Districts of Tennessee from 1908 to 1923. What separated Sanford from other ďŹ ne jurists who had worn the robes of the Eastern District court was that he was the only one elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served from 1923 until 1930.

As a three-time graduate of the University of Tennessee, I was embarrassed that I had never heard of Sanford, a Knoxville born UT alumnus. I went into research mode. A folder of material eventually swelled into an expandable ďŹ le. All the while, Don Ferguson with the Eastern District Court’s Historical Society was urging me to try my hand at writing a book. Soon, however, the project was shelved due to the dementia battle of one family member, followed by the terminal illness of another loved one. In 2008, Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee suggested that returning to my research and pursuing the dream of writing the book might help me clear my head. I began spending a great deal of time in libraries and historical centers. The Internet revealed more discoveries, such as newspaper archives and online governmental records. A Washington, D.C. trip to the National Archives and Library of Congress will forever rank as this historian’s dream vacation.

About three years ago, I began the task of actually publishing the book. I discussed potential publishers with authors known to me. Because of the subject matter, I decided to pitch my idea to the University of Tennessee Press. From the Press’s website, I obtained the requirements for a book proposal and submitted the requested materials. My proposal was selected by an editor for review by anonymous evaluators–if they found the project worthwhile, it would be presented to the board members for a vote. The editor gave me some helpful hints to improve the presentation for the evaluators. Nearly two months later, I received positive feedback from the review, along with further suggestions.

The Press’s board only meets twice each year, so waiting for its approval was agonizing. After what seemed like an eternity, my proposal was accepted and I was sent a contract. The real work of editing and re-editing began at that point. However, watching the transformation of the draft into a more polished work has been a memorable experience.

This experience has provided me many pleasures and surprises. The best part of writing the book was the historical research. Sanford’s legal practice and his political aspirations were intertwined with the business pursuits of his father, Edward Jackson Sanford, an extremely successful businessman of the Gilded Age. As his father’s legal representative, Sanford was an eyewitness to signiďŹ cant local historical events, such as the Coal Creek Mining Rebellion and the lawsuits following the Fraterville Mine Disaster of 1902. He was also active in the development of Lenoir City as a proposed “utopianâ€? community. During the period that Sanford lived in Knoxville, he was involved in the improvement of teacher training across the South. A much acclaimed program, “The Summer School of the South,â€? was started on UT’s campus during Sanford’s tenure on the Board of Trustees by his friend, UT President Charles Dabney, with whom Sanford was active in the Southern Education Board. Sanford also served an inuential role in the development and growth of Nashville’s George Peabody College for Teachers.

After a rewarding stint with the Department of Justice, during which he was involved in 1906 in United States v. Shipp, 203 U.S. 563, the only Supreme Court criminal trial in its history, Sanford was named district court judge by President Theodore Roosevelt. Sitting in Knoxville, Greeneville, Chattanooga, Nashville, and Cookeville, Sanford heard countless moonshining cases and other interesting matters dealing with such diverse topics as ex-slave pensions, WWI espionage, and the tobacco wars of the Black Patch area of Middle Tennessee.

I particularly enjoyed exploring the 1920s, a period much like today, when the middle and upper classes felt threatened by immigration issues, economic woes, and other forces impacting the normal order of society. Sanford’s 1925 opinion in Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652, often deďŹ nes his short time on the Supreme Court. Speaking for the Court, Sanford declared that the core civil liberties in the Bill of Rights applied to the states as well as the federal government. Gitlow is cited as precedent for the expansion of civil rights and civil liberties in the 1950s and 1960s. The decade also saw Sanford’s concurrence in a decision now described by many as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in U.S. history, Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927), in which the Court accepted eugenical arguments and collaborated in the involuntary sterilization of scores of powerless women. Sanford, an enlightened and fair-minded man, failed to register any dissent in face of the popularity of the eugenic cause. The case ultimately was cited by Nazi defendants at Nuremburg in defense of their wartime crimes.

In view of the many ways that Sanford impacted our state and our country, I believe it is important to recognize this Supreme Court Justice. Now, after years of starts and stops, a book is emerging to help us remember.

EDWARD TERRY SANFORD: A Tennessean on the U.S. Supreme Court

By Stephanie L. Slater, University of Tennessee Press 2017

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

October 2017

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Betsy, for this Veterans Day, please tell DICTA’s readers about your father and his military service.

BETSY MEADOWS Herbert, Meadows & Wall

“When I grow up, I want to be just like Bud Bacon.� These were words spoken about my father, Brigadier General Walter J. Bacon, USAF (retired), at his funeral on June 6, 2008 by his good friend, Col. Joseph E. Sutter, also USAF (retired). My father and Joe were both deeply involved in local military organizations. You can still see Joe at any military-related activity in Knoxville and on television commercials for the Knoxville Veterans Memorial, which my father was instrumental in getting built. The walkway leading to the Memorial at the World’s Fair Park is dedicated to him as a result.

Walter J. Bacon II was also known as General, Buddy, Bud, Pa, and Grand Buddy, depending on who was addressing him. Although he attained the rank of General, and was proud of that title, it was not his preferred way to be addressed. Pa was how I addressed him. And he is my hero – as my father, as a distinguished military ofďŹ cer, as an active member of the Knoxville community, as a friend to all, as a man of faith, and always as a person with a “glass half fullâ€? attitude (especially if the glass contained a martini). Almost every night he declared, “If I die tonight, I will have died a happy man.â€?

My father’s life is a truly American story of patriotic determination. He grew up in Knoxville experiencing the effects of two World Wars, and he had seen the sacriďŹ ces Americans made during those conicts – many of whom were members of his family. As far as I know, there was never any question in his mind about his career choice – it was only a matter of how he was going to accomplish his goal. But, his military success didn’t come without challenges. The following story of his admission into West Point is an example of how doggedly determined my father was.

My father was short, which was a problem in 1946 when it became time to apply for admission at West Point. The height requirement for admission was 5 feet 6 inches and Buddy was only 5 feet 5. But, he would not be deterred. After twice being disqualiďŹ ed for West Point admission because he was too short, he did some research and found that a person is taller in the morning when he ďŹ rst wakes up. So, he hatched a plan to have his buddies carry him to his third physical so he could be measured before he stood up. As he told it, the ďŹ rst thing he was required to do at the third physical was 50 squat jumps (known today as a burpee), and his fate was sealed – another disqualiďŹ cation. Having almost lost hope of attending the U.S. Military Academy, he returned to classes at UT. A few months later, he was informed that he could report to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for a fourth and ďŹ nal physical. This is his description of that day: “I found myself in an examination room with the hospital commander – a lieutenant colonel – and three other ofďŹ cers, one a major, and the other two captains. First, they measured me on a standard scale to verify the earlier exam. Finding me one inch too short they put me on an exam table and measured me reclining with a tape measure. Next was a yardstick. Then with a six-inch ruler that they ipped end over end down my torso.â€? When telling this story, he often quoted the Colonel who oversaw this ďŹ nal measurement as saying “If a midget wanted to get into West Point as much as you do, they ought to make an exception.â€? That Colonel obviously made a good choice because Buddy Bacon from Knoxville, Tennessee went on to a distinguished career in the US Air Force. He may have been short in stature, but he was towering in determination and character!

He graduated from West Point in 1951 and soon after completed pilot training (one of his classmates was Buzz Aldrin). He left to y combat missions in Korea on Christmas morning 1952. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for a rescue mission on the Haeju Peninsula during that assignment.

He also saw combat in Vietnam where he commanded a unit known as the “Misty FACs,â€? or forward air controllers. Although he rarely spoke in detail of his time in Vietnam, his friend and fellow ďŹ ghter pilot, retired Air Force Colonel Charlie Harr, explained that the Misty FACS were among the ďŹ rst planes to perform a highly dangerous job. They ew “low and slowâ€? into enemy territory to attract ak so the pilots coming after them could ďŹ nd their targets. According to Col. Harr, the Misty FACs were widely known for their daring and bravery. During this time, my father lost several squadron members and a few good friends who were in other locations in the country. His very good friend, Kelly Cook, was MIA and was ďŹ nally declared dead many years later. Such are the sacriďŹ ces in the life of a military member.

When my nephew, Schuyler, enlisted in the Marines, Pa could not have been prouder. Soon after Schuyler returned from his tour in Iraq – and about a week before Pa died – he sent the following email: Subject: Words of Encouragement If I may quote you, Schuyler, you said: “I believe strongly in what we are doing‌â€? Those are, again in your words, words of encouragement to me. Those of us in uniform are obedient to our leaders and commanders, and we believe in the rights and privileges we have inherited – from those who went before us, in uniform and not in uniform. We are not automatons; we do have hearts and souls and minds of our own. But we recognize we are chosen to do the tough work – when the tough work has to be done. The pictures of you in uniform and in combat are treasures; you look as sturdy as a truck. You have made the Bacon family proud. Keep us informed of your progress toward special operations.

Love, Grand Bud His decorations include the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, and Air Force Commendation Medal. But, most people who knew Buddy were probably not aware of all that. They were probably more aware of his deep roots in Tennessee, including being a descendent of David Henley after whom Henley Street and the Henley Street bridge are named.

On this Veterans Day, 2017 – nine years after my father’s death – I will visit the Veterans Cemetery where Boy Scouts adorn the graves with ags. If you have never visited this lovely location, you should. I will also proudly attend the Veterans Day parade where he was once the Grand Marshall, and I will proudly attend the Veterans Day luncheon at the Foundry. These are small ways in which I show my respect for those men and women who serve and have served in the military and whose sacriďŹ ces allow us the freedoms we enjoy in this country. I am pleased and proud to say my father is one of those who served.

Soldiering at 830 N. 4th Ave., Knoxville

Soldiering at Edgehill across Clinch Ave. from Ft. Sanders Hospital c 1933.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

November 2017

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Gary, you are a co-owner of a new restaurant, Landing House. How did you become involved in the restaurant business?

GARRY W. FERRARIS Law OfďŹ ce of Garry Ferraris

Practicing law is my primary focus, a privilege and still exciting and challenging every day.

But long before I began practicing law I was at my core a “foodie� before the term ever entered the lexicon. I have gardened and cooked at home since I was young, always with a view towards bringing the freshest herbs, vegetables and other ingredients to the table.

Perhaps I am genetically predisposed to a love of presenting good food and drink. My Italian great-grandparents owned a farm-to-table restaurant in Torino in the province of Piemonte. They raised the animals and grew the vegetables and grapes which ended up as table fare and wine in their restaurant.

I love both the courtroom and the kitchen. Regrettably, opportunities to be in the courtroom have dwindled. Most lawyers, it appears, have developed a resistance to trying cases anymore.

As an alternative, I’ve felt compelled to spend far too much time in the home kitchen. Like the courtroom, performing in the kitchen requires a strategy, thorough planning, grace under pressure with the accompanying rush of adrenalin. Friends who dine at my table, and who don’t know how difďŹ cult the restaurant business can be, have encouraged me to start my own restaurant. As romantic as that might sound, I have resisted the temptation to think adequate home cooking translates to professional cooking.

Instead, to deliver me from any lingering temptation, Landing House magically appeared.

LH has served as a halfway house for a recovering restaurateur wannabe. I am a less-than-perfectly-silent partner but without the considerable day-today responsibilities of running a busy restaurant.

I was attracted speciďŹ cally to Landing House because of three quality partners I trust and the prospect of providing excellent and unique food in a niche near the South Knoxville waterfront on Sevier Avenue. Suttree Landing Park is practically in Landing House’s backyard. Our good neighbor across Sevier Avenue is Alliance Brewing. Our cozy, renovated building is the former site of the Civil Air Patrol.

Hao Land’s Cambodian family recipes are the inspiration for the restaurant’s menu. The centerpiece is kuy teav, a pho-like brothy noodle bowl.

Then there is fresh knife-shaved noodles with braised pork, gai-lan, keum salad, spring and summer rolls, tofu skin, wings in a green garlic sauce, eggplant and tofu frites, char sui pork fried rice and more. The food is unlike anything else to be found in Knoxville, made with quality ingredients under the guidance of partners Hao and Zach Land who do most of the creative heavy lifting.

We have a fourth partner, Matt Pacetti, who knows his beer and is the main force behind Suttree’s High Gravity Tavern, in my humble opinion, the best beer-drinking establishment in Knoxville.

Clearly full-time law practice and full-time restaurant management are not compatible. I’ve arrived at the best possible compromise. I have the privilege of doing what I know and love – practice law – and I can leave the restaurant details to my able partners. We have a perfect deal: My partners don’t tell me how to run my law practice and I don’t tell them how to run Landing House.

If I feel the urge, in no time I can get to Landing House, which is almost in sight of my downtown ofďŹ ce, to dabble, kibitz, prop an elbow on the edge of the bar with a plate of succulent, seared sous vide pork belly or otherwise make a pest of myself.

Once in a while, in a moment of weakness, I’ll even do something useful, roll up my sleeves and give an assist in the kitchen. Have no fear, I’m not in the kitchen often enough to do any lasting harm.

I’m proud of the food Landing House is turning out; that we’ve ďŹ lled a void in the developing South Knoxville eating scene; and that people who appreciate good food continue to grace our doors. I’ve found the restaurant business is not difďŹ cult at all‌especially for a non-working dilettante.

Cross the river. Stop in. I’ll be the guy with his elbow on the corner of the bar, surveying the scene, seared pork belly fat running down his chin and decidedly not working up a sweat.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

December 2017

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS Christi, please share with DICTA’s readers your perceptions and experiences, having served as the ďŹ rst woman ever to be named Senior Director of Public Works and then Chief Operating OfďŹ cer and Deputy to the Mayor for the City of Knoxville.

CHRISTI W. BRANSCOM Chief Operating OfďŹ cer and General Counsel, Partners Development; Owner and President, GRACE Construction

First of all, I learned that there are a lot of incredibly passionate people working for the City of Knoxville. When I decided to join the City in 2011, a lot of people questioned my sanity – why would I leave a successful career to work in City government? But I recognized that this opportunity was unique in that it would give me a chance to play a signiďŹ cant role in how our City operates, develops and grows. I always will be grateful to Mayor Rogero for affording me the opportunity to serve the City of Knoxville in a challenging but exciting way.

What I found when I joined the City is that the majority of the staff in City government love public service. They enjoy their jobs, they take great pride in working for the City, and they believe what they do is important. A lot of them could work elsewhere for greater ďŹ nancial reward, but it isn’t about the money for them. Some of them have quite a lot of responsibility, by anyone’s standard, and are paid far less than most junior associates. These people make a big difference in this city, and to ďŹ nd this level of passion and commitment was a very pleasant surprise.

Another interesting aspect that I hadn’t fully anticipated is that so much of what a city does involves real estate. My professional background is in real estate development and construction, and what I have most enjoyed during my career is structuring deals. I didn’t realize how valuable that skill set would be in public service, and yet structuring real estate and economic development deals was my favorite part of working in City government.

I worked with a variety of public and private partners on projects like the Regal Cinemas headquarters, Lakeshore Park, the Walnut Street Garage, and the new Public Service Complex. I came to the City with my own legal background; but when working on these type deals for the City, I had the luxury of relying on attorneys from the City Law Department. While most of the City attorneys were not transactional attorneys like me, they were critical in helping keep me within the City’s extensive and sometimes cumbersome contracting requirements. So, having attorneys approach deal structures from two different vantage points made for some creative and innovative deals that worked very effectively within city government. This unique scenario allowed us to establish a very formidable tag team, at least that’s how Charles Swanson and I described it.

I learned a great deal from the lawyers in the Law Department - about how to develop deals within the maze of government, and I believe my perspective helped them understand the analysis behind deal-making from a private developer’s perspective. For example, Alyson Dyer and I worked together on the Regal deal, and while she was adept at how a governmental agency could get involved in such a venture, I’d push back on how a private company or developer would consider the deal points. We worked hard to ďŹ nd pathways to be innovative and strategic in approaching a possible solution without running afoul of government guidelines and rules.

[When asked about Christi, City Law Director Charles Swanson said: “My favorite word to describe Christi Branscom is ‘indomitable.’ As the ďŹ rst woman to serve as our City’s Chief Operating OfďŹ cer, she approached her duties and responsibilities, which would be intimidating to anyone, with conďŹ dence, courage, grace, good humor, and an incredible degree of competence. During her service with the City, Christi was a tremendous asset for whom we should all be exceptionally grateful.â€?]

Having worked at the City for almost six years, I have a much greater understanding of how jurisdictions operate and function. Now that I’m back in the private sector, I can use that knowledge and expertise to expand the services that we offer at Partners. Already, I have been contacted by several other jurisdictions asking that I advise them on speciďŹ c projects and deal-structuring in general. There is much more complexity to this type work in the public sector than just understanding debt service obligations and funding capacity, and I’m not even referencing the public process and political investments that need to be made to commit to proceeding with a new a project.

Obviously, a lot of what a jurisdiction can do comes down to its ďŹ xed revenues. In Knoxville, we have experienced very moderate growth in residential property taxes, but the City has relied on capital budget funding when available to invest strategically in speciďŹ c public infrastructure and beautiďŹ cation projects. These public investments are designed to stimulate private investment and continue the strong internal growth and improved tax base we have been experiencing. This inside-out focus has resulted in strong commercial growth (including multi-family housing) and more productive properties due to redevelopment to a higher and better use at times (of course understanding that someone’s idea of a higher and better use can be different than another’s). Think of it this way – if your neighbor invests in his or her yard with new landscaping and lighting, then you may be more inclined to invest in yours. To some degree, it’s the same concept – when the City is working hard to invest and maintain its public infrastructure and create new amenities, then the private sector is going to feel more comfortable (meaning there is less associated risk) about investing in that city. And, without a doubt, we know that this strategy works because of the tangible proof across our own city.

Follow-up question from Nick: Christi, didn’t you also just go through Leadership Tennessee?

Yes, I also recently graduated from Leadership Tennessee, which is a great program designed to bring together leaders from across our state to collaboratively focus on addressing the complex issues we face in Tennessee. Clearly, I understood that it would be a great networking opportunity, but I didn’t fully anticipate and will be forever grateful for the education it provided me. While we are very different in many ways across our geographically diverse state, there are many issues across the regions that are the same. So, being able to understand these issues better and then observe ďŹ rst-hand the various innovative ways that different communities are approaching these issues was a truly unique opportunity.

We are all trying to positively “move the needle a bit� in our respective cities and towns, and Leadership TN allows for leaders across the state to engage in up-close and personal interactions, in frank and open settings to ask whether a tactic or program works. Sometimes I heard “yes, this approach is working, and we are seeing results,� and sometimes I heard, “we tried it here, it didn’t work, the results weren’t what we had hoped.�

It quickly became apparent that, as different as we are, there are many common issues across our State. And, while the dream to correct them all may seem out of reach, at least we can become better educated and perhaps even learn from others across our state about strategies or approaches that could make sense for us here. Leadership TN was a very inspiring experience for me, and it left me and I’m sure many of my classmates, wondering how to get more involved statewide, and how each of us can play a role to begin to tackle these issues and make our state better and stronger for all.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

January 2018

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS How did you become a two-lawyer, East Tennessee duo?

LAMONT BELK Attorney, OfďŹ ce of General Counsel, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Brooklyn Sawyers Belk Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s OfďŹ ce

A: Brooklyn & Lamont: Some people ďŹ nd their mates on Match.com or a friend-arranged blind date. Not us! That would have been too easy and too fast. Instead, we took the circuitous route around both the tree and Mulberry Bush to the nuanced world of public-sector government training. You never thought you’d read these words, but praise God for government training.

Our paths ďŹ rst crossed almost a decade ago in the Palmetto State at a Department of Justice training event. Back then, we were both baby Assistant United States Attorneys in different districts, and states. As most work trainings go, we were about as thrilled and entertained as one watching paint dry, but found some solace sitting next to each other as two unsuspecting strangers discussing the mundane comings and goings of the ever-evolving world of federal prosecution. Like all work trainings ďŹ lled with overworked, tired strangers, we were both ready to cease with the obligatory pleasantries, and get back to our real lives. That meeting ended as fast and uneventful as it started, and without a love connection.

Lamont: But, as fortune would have it, our careers took us across the country and our paths crossed occasionally over the years. Unfortunately, as with many men, I did not see my good thing staring me in my face during those chance meetings over all of those many years. But eventually, when we saw each other in Missouri, the “Show Me State,â€? God did just that - He showed me - as Brooklyn likes to tease, that there is where my eyes were opened. She usually adds in some Damascus Road (a la Paul) conversion remarks that she ďŹ nds hilarious (insert eye roll). We connected again at a CLE in St. Louis.

There, for the ďŹ rst half of the week, I just watched Brooklyn work. If you have ever seen that, it is like watching Usain Bolt run in the Olympics, but more agile and better looking. She walks fast. She talks fast. I just watched and admired her from a distance. I enjoyed hearing her say, “Mr. Belk, do you need anything?â€?, as she worked as one of the CLE hosts at the time, and I’ll admit, I did not mind admiring her beauty and style. Before the week ended, we found ourselves convened in the corner of a dimly lit conference room. There, we had a surreal “boy meets girl encounterâ€? that we now believe had been in the making for almost a decade. In the midst of normal conference hubbub, we had a conversation unlike many before. This time, we found common ground beyond our work, and saw a sparkle in each other’s eyes. In fact, during that conversation, we learned that we are both ordinary yet complex people. What started as an compulsory greeting turned into a three-hour conversation, during which we learned that we shared the same core faith tenants; career goals; family dreams; a dark sense of humor that most do not want to get; and a curious loyalty to Bank of America where we had both banked for more than 20 years. Everything she said about herself was true of me, and vice versa; peculiar for sure. Looking back, I think we had our ďŹ rst date then and there during the conference. Hours later, we ďŹ nally parted paths - back to work, Brooklyn went - but we parted wondering whether we had unwittingly entertained our future mates.

That led to our ďŹ rst “real date.â€? Again, at a DOJ CLE in Columbia, South Carolina, we connected. I chose the most romantic place I knew, “D’s Wings,â€? without consideration of the establishment’s quirky name. Brooklyn still laughs hysterically at the name, but I knew it as a local favorite.

Quickly the humor shifted from my poor restaurant choice to how much Brooklyn enjoyed the food (which really mattered in my opinion). When she ďŹ nally took a breath from devouring her plate of food - her favorite being the colossal fried seafood platter - she caught me staring. When she asked me why, my quizzical smile spilled over into hysterical laughter. I respectfully explained that the way she was eating surprised me. She responded, in her “keep it real, straight to the pointâ€? signature style, “It’s dinner. Am I not supposed to eat?â€? Until then, I knew she was beautiful, hardworking, smart, loved God, and so forth - all things that I care about - but I was not sure if she was really cool or had a sense of humor. I had only encountered Business Brooklyn until then. At that moment, her lighter side revealed, I knew that she was the one. Whether I would be able to feed her, I did not know, but I was convinced she was the one for me nonetheless.

Brooklyn: Real funny. He’s a regular Fred Sanford. No wait. Lamont Sanford (think 1970s TV). I fell for Lamont right away. What’s not to love? He is handsome and I adore his beautiful eyes. He is kind. He is godly. He is a great provider. Plus, he’s occasionally funny, a decent dancer, and so-so card player. I could go on, but you get the point, he’s a real catch. Despite hooking a “big one� in the ever so shallow waters of the dating world for professionals, a woman, particularly a federal prosecutor, has to be cautious. Some might argue that until then I had taken that caution to the fullest extent. Not with Lamont, though. With Lamont, caution was out the door. He’s America’s Boy Scout. It is seldom if ever you even hear the man utter a curse word. Plus, I knew he had an FBI security clearance, renewed on a regular basis, in order to be an AUSA. If my FBI pals had any basis for excluding him from the DOJ, they would have, and our paths would have never crossed. With that in mind, my conspiracy theories of sinister plots vanished, and I moved forward - full speed ahead.

Lamont: Like any man smitten in love, I wanted to be where Brooklyn was to start our lives together. I quickly made the transition from the DOJ world of taking a person’s liberty to the TVA world of battling over a person’s property (I am primarily a condemnation attorney now). All jokes aside, God removed the sometimes insurmountable career obstacles of ďŹ nding suitable work for two attorneys in the same city at the same time. I came to Knoxville where my conversion to an EDTN VFL started immediately. By the way, how does an entire city wear the same color every game day I wondered?

We are settled now. We love our home. Our kids have a routine. We’re adjunct teachers at the best law school around. Brooklyn promised to stop saying yes to every volunteer opportunity during her marriage vows, but she says it’s hard to say no to the disenfranchised, children, and KBA’s Marsha Watson. But I still hold out hope that maybe one day we will get our nights and weekends back. Brooklyn’s busy with board work and active with the bar and law school. I am busy with TVA and teaching. It is a lot, some might call it a cluster if they were in our home ďŹ lled with plastic toys, diapers, Botany homework, law school work grading, board work discussions, on any given week night, but it works for us. We just take each task in turn, and divide and conquer.

Somehow, we ďŹ nd time for church on Sunday mornings, our daughter’s high school activities, share family meals, and show up awake for work every day despite having a newborn. How does a two-lawyer duo ďŹ t it all in? Being the two old souls that we are, we use the outdated method that is seldom discussed in polite circles today. We talk. All day, every day, we talk. We use an old fashioned paper calendar and we budget our time (when Brooklyn is the one updating it, it is budgeted to the nanosecond). At the end of the day, it all boils down to one of three things: (1) we tackle the most pressing matters ďŹ rst: those that involve, blood, pay, and the heart; (2) we only say yes to obligations if the kids can go; or (3) one of us goes and the other stays behind with the kids and to deal with the other “stuff.â€? So you seldom see us out together. Whichever approach on a given day, the Sawyers Belk way works for us and can be summed up in one word: teamwork!

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

February 2018 DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD )`! 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Vera, you have now taken and passed three bar exams. Would you mind telling the readers of DICTA about these experiences and if, from your perspective, there is any kind of art or science to taking multiple bar exams, or do they get any easier with repetition?

VERA DYGERT

Let me just start by saying that I did not do this for fun. When I graduated from Boston College Law School in 2013, my husband still had several more years left in his Ph.D. program at Brown University. We weren’t sure whether we would stay in New England or move, so I took the Massachusetts bar exam. The irony is that I clerked in Rhode Island and never used my Massachusetts license. In January of 2015, we moved to Austin, Texas where my husband completed a 2-year postdoctoral program, and I took the Texas bar exam in February of that year. Fortunately, I passed and worked for a law ďŹ rm doing pharmaceutical antitrust litigation and for the Public Utility Commission of Texas where I represented the Commission in contested utility rate cases. Most recently, my husband accepted a tenure-track faculty position at the University of Tennessee, so I took the July 2017 Tennessee bar exam and passed as well.

I think the reality for many lawyers, and particularly lawyers married to academics, is that they move around a lot early on in their careers.

Fortunately, the administrators and makers of the bar exams in many states seem to realize that a lot of lawyers are more mobile than before. As a result, many states have adopted the Uniform Bar Examination or UBE, whose purpose is to provide lawyers with a portable score that they can use to gain admission in other participating jurisdictions. If you look at a map of the states that have adopted the UBE, most states now use the UBE except those in the South and Midwest (and California). Given that lawyers and spouses live and work in a global economy with increasing needs for job changes and that it’s not realistic to make lawyers take bar exam after bar exam, I think the trend of accepting the UBE in place of a state-speciďŹ c bar exam is likely to continue.

As for the speciďŹ c bar exams, obviously Massachusetts, Texas, and Tennessee are different states with very different laws. Of the three, the Texas bar examination was particularly hard because the exam was two and one-half days and was more likely to test obscure areas of law in basic subjects like contracts and real property. Texas also tested more subjects overall, including oil and gas law, which is not routinely taught in law school outside of Texas, bankruptcy, tax, and Texas civil and criminal procedure. Finally, unlike Massachusetts and Tennessee, Texas is a community property state.

By comparison, I thought the Massachusetts and Tennessee bar exams were more or less straightforward and traditional. What I especially liked about Tennessee’s bar exam – something that I think that many Tennessee lawyers will appreciate – was the required interview with a local attorney as part of the “character and ďŹ tnessâ€? aspect of the process. Compared to Massachusetts and Texas, that part of the bar application and exam process was unique to Tennessee. I think it is an excellent opportunity for an applicant to learn about the local and state bar and to network. In that sense, it seemed to me to be as helpful to the applicant as to the Board of Law Examiners. And, I actually enjoyed my interview. I wish that the other states had done something similar.

So, what’s my parting advice to anyone taking multiple bar exams? As tempting as it is, don’t think you can just walk into the exam room the second time without having studied. Although you can probably study more efďŹ ciently in less time, you still have to put in a lot of effort on Exams Number Two or Three. It just does not get any easier after you take your ďŹ rst exam. To my surprise, when I walked out of the second and third bar exams that I took, I did not feel conďŹ dent that I passed. My advice is to focus on the big picture, don’t let yourself get too caught up in the nitty-gritty details and state-by-state minutiae, and try not to panic. And ďŹ nally: Don’t do this unless you absolutely have to!

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

Photo Ops On Wednesday, February 7th, members of the KBA Legislative Committee traveled to Nashville to meet with members of the Knox County Legislative Delegation. Legislative Committee Co-Chairs Cheryl Rice and Michael Brezina were joined by KBA President Keith Burroughs, Larry Leibowitz and Keith Stewart.

March 2018

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Esther, you are an author, pianist, attorney, and equestrian. Do these diverse fields intersect at all?

ESTHER L. ROBERTS Global Intellectual Property Asset Management, PLLC

Believe it or not, they do intersect, and in several ways. One example: two years ago the horsewoman within me got so upset with the ongoing abuse of Tennessee Walking Horses via an illegal, but nevertheless rampant practice known as “soring,” I thought, “there must be something I can do!” My law practice encompasses intellectual property and estate planning. So I reviewed the trademark portfolio of the governing body of the walking horse industry, and wrote a law review article on how one might leverage compliance with the Horse Protection Act by attacking the validity of the trademark portfolio. Soring is illegal, and it is a violation of the Lanham Act (trademark law) to trademark any entity, including nonprofit organizations, that indulge in illegal acts.

Another example: several years ago, before I attended law school, I read a book of poetry by Leonard Nimoy.

Each time I read a poem, I did not hear words in my head, I heard a chorus! By the time I had finished the book of poems, I had written a cantata for youth choir, with Nimoy’s poetry as the lyrics. Of course I needed his permission to use his copyrighted lyrics, so I – as a pianist and composer – contacted Nimoy’s attorney and requested permission to use Nimoy’s poetry with my compositions for youth choir. Nimoy graciously gave me a quit claim deed to all his poems for the purposes of creating the cantata. The cantata was performed by the chorus at West High School.

When I was in law school, Professor Jerry Phillips was a renowned and beloved professor. He was also an avid singer! I was delighted to accompany Jerry at Ossoli Circle for one of his final vocal recitals.

One of my best moments of “music meets law” was back in 1998, at the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks in Skamania, Washington.

This was the summer before I began law school, and my sister, Frankie Holt, invited me to attend the Conference to begin getting acquainted with court clerks from all across the country. I met Bill Suter, who was the Clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court at the time, and his lovely wife, Jeanie. Bill was a career Army JAG prior to his appointment as Clerk, and when he found out I was a pianist, he took me aside and cooked up a scheme for the Conference banquet.

When Bill and Jeanie were young and first married, Bill was deployed in a war zone. He managed to get a 24-hour pass to Tokyo and Jeanie somehow met him there. They enjoyed one last dance in a tiny bar before he had to leave his young bride. The tune they danced to that evening became “their song.”

Fast forward several decades to the evening of the 1998 Conference banquet. Everyone was dressed in elegant attire and enjoying a lovely evening.

Bill stood up and tells the story of “their song” to all the attendees, while I quietly went to sit at the grand piano. And, in front of everyone, Bill took the hand of his precious wife and this pianist had the great privilege of playing, “Lara’s Theme - the Theme from Dr. Zhivago” for a wonderful Veteran and his wife to dance to and enjoy tender memories from a night, long ago, in Tokyo. I have played critically-acclaimed classical recitals, but no performance has meant more to me than that evening in Skamania.

My writing and riding also intersect in interesting ways. A few months ago, I began a journey of self-discovery with the end goal of getting fitter, thinner, and becoming a better equestrian. My current riding partner is a young BLM mustang named Kaliwohi. Pronounced, “collie-whoa-hey,” Kaliwohi is Cherokee and means “perfect.” I adopted Kaliwohi as a yearling through the BLM’s online auctions. He was captured off the Muskrat Basin range in Wyoming. Mustangs have extremely an efficient metabolism and Kaliwohi also needs to trim down and get fit, as well as be trained under saddle.

So, in a very public and rather humiliating way, I published photographs of myself at my then-highest weight and began writing about my journey towards fitness and inner peace. The international equestrian publication, HorseNation.com, liked this idea so much they asked me to write a weekly column to track my journey with Kaliwohi. At the close of 2017, my weekly column, entitled, “Fat to Fit to First Level” was voted “Reader’s Choice Award” by HorseNation.com’s readers.

These days, I continue to find ways to blend my varied interests. I am church pianist for St. Mark United Methodist Church in Clinton. Along with my HorseNation weekly column, I am a contributing reporter for the Shopper here in town.

And I am expanding my law practice into a novel area of animal law: pet trusts.

Many pet owners have concerns about the welfare of their animal friends in the event of the owner’s incapacity or death.

Establishing a pet trust provides instructions and resources to care for animals with long lifespans. For example, certain birds and tortoises live nearly a century, and horses live an average of 30 years. Pet trusts also allow elderly people to continue enjoying the benefits of pet ownership as long as possible, without worrying about “what would happen to her if something happens to me?”

The secret to blending many varied interests begins with having excellent teachers who support a student’s diverse interests. I have been blessed throughout my life with teachers who supported each of my interests so I never had to choose one and eliminate the others. I am grateful for these teachers, and deeply grateful for all the ways God blesses my life each and every day.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

April 2018

DICTA

31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Bill, I understand that you are quite a fan of raccoons and might even be called a “raccoon whisperer,� given your talents in rescuing them and having had some as pets, years ago. How did this come to be?

WILLIAM A. SIMMS Arnett, Draper & Hagood, LLP

I grew up in the 50’s and early 60’s in Fayetteville in Lincoln County, Tennessee. Our home was near a woods that was bound on one side by the Elk River and on the other by a creek. As a boy, I spent a lot of time in the woods. I developed a love of nature and animals. My brother and I caught turtles, frogs, snakes, rabbits, ground hogs, and even an owl once. I really had a passion for raccoons: they are smart, curious, and active little creatures.

When I was about 9 or 10, I asked my parents if I could have a pet raccoon. My dad, a Fayetteville lawyer, had represented a fellow in town who trapped animals, called “Uncle Henry.� He asked Henry if he could catch a raccoon for me to have as a pet; Henry said he could. When Dad asked him, “How will you do that?� Henry replied that he would go down on the creek, where the raccoons hunt for minnows and frogs, and set a trap with something sweet like fried chicken, but also something shiny like aluminum foil. Henry explained: “The coon will smell the fried chicken and come to it; while he’s eating it and handling it, he will look over to the side, see the aluminum foil, and say to himself: ‘Hmm, what’s that?’ Then he’ll reach over with his paw to grab it, and that’s when I catch ’im.�

Employing those tactics, Uncle Henry caught a full grown male raccoon, built a cage for him, and brought him to our house. He was not happy and growled and snapped his teeth. We named him “Uncle Henry,� and we began to take care of him. He eventually calmed down and would eat out of our hand, but he would never let us pet him or pick him up. After about six months it was obvious that Uncle Henry was not going to be a �pet,� so we turned him loose and started looking for another one.

My dad eventually found a Lincoln County man who raised raccoons. We got a little female cub about a month old, and we began to raise her on a bottle. We named her Kitty; she grew up to be very sweet and lovable. She would let you hold her and she would sit in your lap and let you rub her ears and scratch her chin. She stayed in the house with us, sometimes sleeping in the bed like a cat. Sometimes when I would go to bed at night, there would be a bump at the foot of my bed that looked like somebody had put a basketball under the covers. It would be Kitty; when I got in bed and put my feet down against the furry little ball, we both would rest easy and warm. Kitty loved to play with my Collies, Ring and King. After about two years, Kitty got out and was gone for three or four days. When she came back, she was never the same, so we had to give her back to the gentleman from whom my dad had originally gotten her.

From then until about 1990, I didn’t have any more pet raccoons. In 1990, I decided that my two daughters should have the experience of having a pet raccoon. At that time, the only place in Tennessee you could legally purchase a raccoon was from an elderly Spring City couple.

My oldest daughter, Laura, who was about 11 year old at the time went with me to Spring City. We acquired a female cub about one month old. We brought her home and raised her on a bottle and named her Roxie. Roxie was a true pet. She would sit in your lap while you watched TV and let you pet her. She got along with our cat and our dog. When she was 6 months old, we started walking her on a leash in the neighborhood like a dog. One day, while walking Roxie down the street, we approached a T-intersection. A car pulled up and stopped; its driver ďŹ rst looked to his left, where we were, and then back to his right and then back to his left again and started to pull out. He got halfway into the intersection, stopped his car, threw the door open and said: “Is that a terrier?â€? I replied, “No, it’s a raccoon.â€? He said: “That’s what I thought, but I’ve never seen anybody walking a raccoon before.â€? Roxie was a house pet for about a year; then we built a huge kennel cage for her in the back yard that we named the “Roxie Hilton.â€? Roxie remained our pet until about 1998, at which time she had a stroke or some other illness that disabled her and we had to have her put to sleep. It was a very sad day.

After that, we were coon-less until about 2004. One evening, as I came around a corner in the road, there was a baby raccoon in the middle of the road. I reached out and grabbed it and took it home. It was a male raccoon, about 2 or 3 months old. He was still small enough that you could handle him without him clawing you, but he wasn’t as cuddly as a month-old raccoon. We kept him in the house in a small cage and raised him on a bottle.

We named him Zorro. When he was about 6 months old, he moved to the Roxie Hilton. He was friendly and would let me pet him and hug him but he would not let me pick him up. Zorro loved grapes; he and I had a protocol we’d follow when it was feeding time. I would put about a dozen grapes in my pocket. I would take his food to his cage and pour it into his food pan. I would then pull out about 8 or 10 grapes and start feeding them to him out of my hand. Zorro would sit up on his hind legs and take each grape as I gave it to him and gobble it down as fast as he could. After I had given him all the grapes I had in my hand, Zorro would look at me with the question of “Is that it?� on his face, and I would nod at him. At that point, he would stand up on a log beside me and run his hand into my pocket, and get the other 2-4 grapes. We went through this protocol many, many times.

Zorro and I were buddies until his death some years ago.

I cannot explain why I have had such an afďŹ nity for raccoons. I love them. They are very smart little creatures. They can ďŹ gure out how to get into any kind of container, including your garbage can. They are very inquisitive and they are also strong. They are basically little bears.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

May 2018

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Julia, I understand that you are a car aficionado; would you mind sharing with DICTA’s readers your love for cars and racing, and how this came to be?

JULIA M. HALE

Motor oil runs in our blood.

For as long as I can remember, and even longer before that, the members of my family have had a passion for cars. There isn’t anything quite like the feeling associated with coming around turns 3 and 4 at Barber Motorsports Park, up a hill as you begin to approach turn 5. Once you reach the top of the hill, before you have to prepare for the hairpin turn coming up, you feel almost weightless, which can be a bit disconcerting particularly when you know your ability to brake hard is severely diminished for those few seconds.

As a child, I specifically remember summers spent with my Grandparents, and the days where we could go to work with my Grandfather and watch him run his own small business, Don Hale Material Handling. As an adult, my family (and by family, I mean approximately a dozen cousins, a handful of aunts and uncles, grandparents, and my immediate family) gathers for holidays and celebrations. Large proportions of our time spent together usually includes working on repairing/maintaining the various vehicles, ranging from a family minivan to a heavily modified Porsche 987S. The oil is changed, brake pads are replaced. Sometimes, upgrades are installed such as a cold air intake.

Now, every few months or so, my family will spend a weekend at a race track, like Barber Motorsports Park. We will sign up for a track weekend with organizations like the Porsche Club of America or 10/10ths Motorsports. Both organizations provide a controlled environment (at least, as controlled as it can be) where one can memorize track layouts and work on refining the perfect way to attack a corner.

Our dream is to compete in a ChampCar Endurance race, with each member of the family involved in one way or another. With the races we are looking at lasting a minimum of 12 hours, there will be ample time for I, and the rest of my family, to experience driving in a truly competitive setting. Others will be responsible for the maintenance of the vehicle, ready to get under the hood to when issues arise. The best part about this endurance series? The value of the cars eligible to compete are capped, limiting options to cars that are several years old. Hence, why it is not a matter of “if ” but “when will the car break down?”

At the end of the day, win or lose, we will be able to walk away with memories that will last a lifetime.

Who knows where it will lead us, but this is certainly an example where the journey is much more important than the end result.

Maybe it was born out of those inevitable day dreams, when the mind begins to wander as we wait and see if Lewis Hamilton will win yet another driver’s title.1 Or maybe, it started before then. Maybe, this dream began with a poster of a Porsche 930, hovering above the road. Below the car, it read “One ride and you’ll understand why most rocket scientists are German.” Regardless, the desire was born. First, in our hearts. Then, over dinner (most likely pizza), when my father said, “There is no way in hell we could be competitive, but wouldn’t it be fun to try to put our own team together?”

Julia and her dad at Memphis International Raceway in Millington, TN. 1

At the time this was drafted, the Spanish Grand Prix had not yet occurred.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

June 2018

DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

)`! 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Justice Page, it’s the summer, and it’s baseball season. Please tell DICTA’s readers about your love of baseball and some of your favorite reminiscences about baseball.

THE HONORABLE ROGER A. PAGE, TENNESSEE SUPREME COURT

I am a great baseball fan. My older brother is eight years older than I am, and he loved baseball. So did my dad, and they helped create my interest at an early age. When I was a little kid, I was ambidextrous and uncertain about batting right-handed or left-handed.

My dad and brother both said, “Try to bat left-handed, you are two steps closer to ďŹ rst base,â€? which I did. I learned to throw right-handed but batted lefthanded. The only problem is that I wish that they had also kept me batting righthanded because I always had problems with left-handed pitchers.

I grew up on a farm. I was not really big enough to play football, and in the fall, I was always really busy with helping my family at harvest time.

When I was eight, I started playing Little League. My dad told me that if I made the high school baseball team, I could do that in the springtime instead of working in the ďŹ elds—that’s how much my dad loved baseball-so I immediately started working harder in practice to make the baseball team. I played high school baseball for 4 years. In the summers, we played Babe Ruth and Senior Babe Ruth baseball. I did receive one offer to play college baseball. I sometimes regret that I chose a different path.

Back in the ‘60s in West Tennessee, many little communities had baseball teams. Everyone would go to church on Sunday morning, then go out and play or watch a baseball game on Sunday afternoon. Everyone would then go back to church on Sunday evening. My dad was 29 when I was born, but he was still playing baseball. I remember watching him play when I was little, and then, he became the coach of the team. That kind of tradition had pretty much stopped in the late ‘60s or early 70s. I don’t really know why; I guess people just got too busy and had other things to do. I also think a lot of people began playing slow-pitch softball.

I saw a documentary recently about Mount Rushmore. It occurred to me: if we were going to put four baseball players on a memorial like Mount Rushmore, who would they be? In my opinion, it’s easy to choose three, but the fourth one is very hard; the fourth would have to be a pitcher. For the “easy three,â€? Babe Ruth would have to be honored; you must have Henry Aaron; and the third person, the best who ever lived, is Willie Mays. He is ďŹ fth on the all-time home run list with 660 home runs; plus, he was a great outďŹ elder and a great base stealer; he was just really smart about everything.

I remember one of my favorite anecdotes about Willie Mays. I am a big Giants fan. I don’t care much for the Dodgers but for some reason, I’ve always liked Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda, the Dodgers’ managers.

Don Drysdale was pitching for the Dodgers against the Giants; ďŹ rst base was open, a runner was on second, and Walter Alston held up four ďŹ ngers to walk Mays. Drysdale hit Willie Mays in the middle of the back. Alston called time and yelled at Drysdale: “What are you doing?â€? Drysdale replied: “Saving three pitches.â€? “Now you’ve made him mad!â€? Alston yelled back.

Of course, later on, Mays hit a home run to win that game.

The fourth one for the monument is the trickier one; you’d have to have a pitcher. I thought about legendary pitchers Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson, but I think I’d pick Greg Maddux. I’m not a Braves fan, but Maddux taught us all that you don’t have to be an outstanding athlete to be a great pitcher. He could just paint the corners with his pitches. It was phenomenal to watch him: he could pitch nine innings many times with eighty or ninety pitches.

Kids now are so into other things, like video and computer games; you just don’t see kids picking up baseball. When I was a kid, for about a month or so each summer, we often didn’t have a lot to do. On weekdays, we’d leave home with our gloves – whoever had a bat would tie it on a bike – and we’d meet and play in the pasture. We’d have lunch at someone’s house – whoever would feed us all!--and we’d play until 5:30 or 6:00. I lived ten miles from the nearest town, which was Henderson, but within two miles of my house, there were enough kids to play a game of baseball. We didn’t always have nine kids on a team – sometimes, it was just ďŹ ve or six--but we’d play all the time, and that is how you develop your skills at a game like baseball.

We talked about Willie Mays; another one of my favorite players was Ernie Banks, a really positive guy, whose famous saying was “It’s a great day for a ball game; let’s play two!â€? The ďŹ rst pro baseball game I saw live was in Chicago in 1969. My uncle had a construction company, and my brother, who is a big Cardinals fan, was working for him during his summer vacation from college. Lou Brock had been traded from the Cubs to the Cardinals in 1964. As Brock came up to the plate, my brother said, “This is the greatest base runner who has ever lived! Watch this guy.â€? Brock got a base hit and stole second base. He was promptly picked off second. Lou Brock is a Hall of Famer and great player, but I never let my brother forget that his favorite Cardinals player was picked off second base.

People wonder how somebody from West Tennessee became a Giants fan. I started watching baseball when I was 5 or 6 years old, when you only had one televised game on Saturday. Everybody else around here supported the Cardinals: St. Louis was close, plus Tim McCarver and Phil Gagliano were Memphians who played for the Cardinals. Of course, I had to be different. In 1962, the Giants were 3-4 games behind the Dodgers and caught them in the last week; the Giants won the playoff with the Dodgers and got into the World Series. It was three games to three against the Yankees; the Giants were down, a couple of runners were on base, and Willie McCovey was up. He hit a line drive--a real screamer--but the Yankees’ second baseman Bobby Richardson caught it to end the Series.

After that, I fell in love with the Giants. They had last won the World Series in 1954. They had some good years in the ‘70s but could never win a pennant. I never thought I’d see them win a World Series. They lost to Oakland in the “Earthquake Series� of 1989; in 2002, in the Series with the Angels, the Giants were up 3 games to 2 and then blew the next game and the 7th game. Finally, in 2010, they won a World Series, and they did it again in 2012 and 2014. I hope they win a few more titles soon.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

August 2018 DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

)`! 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

David, would you tell DICTA’s readers about your summer high adventure trip going down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon?

DAVID GALL

I am from a family of nine, with four brothers; there’s a wide range in our ages. One of my brothers, Tom lives in Oregon; he is very highly trained in outdoor skills, has fought forest ďŹ res and has been a paramedic.

He’s worked for a city ďŹ re department in the Columbia River Gorge area, and Tom is a vertical-rescue expert, among other things. He’s a really good mountain climber and has been a rafter since college. He is the perfect guy to go in the woods or on the river with, and he has rafted all across the West.

The Grand Canyon, though, is a very special case: because it is a goal of many people to raft the Canyon, there is a lottery system to raft it, and you have to be very lucky to win a place. One of his rafting buddies won the lottery and invited Tom, and Tom wanted all of his brothers to join him. Our group was ďŹ fteen people: my brothers; Tom’s two adult daughters, both great girls; Tom’s buddy Phil, who is Scottish, and a bunch of Scots who Phil brought with him. We had a great and fun group of people; it was mainly a group of Oregonians and Scots, with several Ohioans, and then me from Tennessee.

The Grand Canyon gets ďŹ ve million visitors a year.

Out of that ďŹ ve million, maybe one-half of one percent get on the Colorado River; most of them are ferried by commercial rafters. It’s a high-dollar deal. Only a handful of people win the lottery to raft themselves on their own, so we were very lucky.

Organization was critical: Tom and Phil did the lion’s share. The Park Service has thirty pages of regulations to follow; everyone was required to watch a video in advance of the trip and conďŹ rm they had watched the video and understood the regulations. We rented the boats and most of the gear from an outďŹ tter in Flagstaff. The Park Service checks out all of your equipment and your IDs before you can enter the river. If you were from Scotland, they wanted to see your passport; I brought a life jacket I’d used in Tennessee for years; it was rejected, but fortunately, we had a spare. The rangers were quite meticulous and stringent, but they were professional and very helpful.

Some of the logistics are kind of tricky. You can’t use a cell phone; some people get satellite phones, but those are pricey, so we used a textmessage satellite beacon system to communicate. You also have to have something to haul away your “poopâ€? --unlike backpacking, you can’t dig a hole and bury it because there are just such a small number of camp sites along the river’s edge in the Canyon, and these must be kept pristine--so we used Army rocket cans to haul away the human waste. Everyone, men and women, have to go into the river to pee – you can’t hide behind a bush or a tree – and there are biological reasons for that, to keep algae from growing. As for food, you have to use groundcloths and not leave a lot of big bits on the ground when you ďŹ nish eating. All of this seems kind of picky, but it’s necessary for the environment and other people’s enjoyment.

Then came the fun part: getting on the river. I’m not a big river guy. I paddle around some, but this was really big water; there’s so much volume in that river! What impressed me about the Colorado, besides the scenery, is how hard it is to go downstream. We had ďŹ ve 18-foot rafts for the ďŹ fteen of us. Each raft had one set of oars, and it’s a lot of work to work the oars when it’s your turn. I’d thought it’d be mainly steering to avoid rocks--and it is partly that--but there are also crazy currents and big eddies to be avoided; whirlpools, too. You can ďŹ nd that you’re not paying attention and, instead of going downstream, you’ve hit a monstrous, deep eddy, and your raft is now going upstream.

Half of our party were young folks in their twenties; most of the rest were middle-aged; and there were a couple of geezers my age. The twenty-somethings made up a tradition when commercial rafters came by in these motorized, schoolbus-sized boats. There’s some friction between the commercial rafters and the private groups. Most people on the river are petty cordial, but there’s some competition, and some arrogance from the commercial rafting companies. So, while the twenty-somethings one morning were doing yoga, as a commercial raft came by, they “mooned� them. It got to be kind of a goofy tradition of sorts. As other commercial rafters later came by, they began asking us: “Are you that Oregon bunch?� Several of the Scottish girls had just incredible singing voices, and it was a treat to listen to them sing.

From putting-in to the end of the voyage, it took eighteen days, and we covered 280 miles. I‘d do it again. It was a lot of fun. I’m not a great swimmer or boatman, so it was sometimes a little scary for a guy like me, and some of the big rapids are deďŹ nitely pretty scary to look at. At one of the scariest sets of rapids, the Granite Rapids, we pulled over, tied up and got on the rocks and scouted it out. At this one, I just didn’t see any way any boat could possibly get through without ipping. I learned new lingo there, like hydraulics, wave trains, and lateral waves. (I almost felt like I could have joined the Navy after that.) But, actually, we made it through the whole trip without ipping a single raft – at 18 feet, and loaded down with cargo, these boats were pretty forgiving and fairly stable.

The side canyons were amazing to explore, as well: the cliffs were often enormous, and the views incredible.

I also got to eat canned haggis, which Phil and the Scots contingent brought with them. There were a lot of new experiences on this trip. The canned haggis was not too bad, either.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

September 2018 DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

You have a unique niche representing tow truck companies.

How did that come about and have you had any memorable cases?

MICHAEL MCGOVERN, THE MCGOVERN LAW FIRM

In the early 1970s my parents founded Cedar Bluff Towing in Knoxville. I drove a tow truck for the family business on nights, weekends and summer breaks in high school, and throughout college and law school at UT. Upon admission to the bar I had no intention (or desire) to represent towing companies, but I suppose it was inevitable. Local towing companies sought me out because of my practical knowledge of their businesses. Later, the national towing association retained me as its general counsel. I served in that capacity for twelve years and developed somewhat of a reputation throughout the nation in legal matters relating to towing. I have now been representing towing companies for over 30 years.

I often refer to my towing legal work as my “other life” because most of the clients are out of state, far away from my general criminal and civil practice in Knoxville.

On the civil side, the cases usually involve disputes over lucrative police towing contracts or challenges to government regulations, especially those relating to price controls and parking lot tow-aways. Criminal cases typically charge auto theft, assault, bribery or extortion.

The first of my two trips to the Supreme Court must top the list of memorable cases. In 1994 I was contacted by Jack Gratzianna who owned a towing company in Northlake, a small city outside of Chicago, near O’Hare Airport. His company, O’Hare Truck Service, had participated on the city’s rotating tow call list for about 30 years. In 1993, the mayor of Northlake, who was seeking reelection, asked Gratzianna for a campaign contribution. Gratzianna refused and instead publicly supported the mayor’s opponent. Almost immediately, O’Hare Truck Service was removed from the city tow list. Gratzianna didn’t think that was right, and neither did I. I thought the rule of Elrod v. Burns, in which the Supreme Court held that government employees may not be discharged solely on the basis of their political affiliation, should apply equally to independent contractors.

I filed an Elrod-type civil rights lawsuit in the federal court in Chicago alleging that O’Hare Truck’s First Amendment right to freedom of association had been infringed. I lost in the district court and appealed to the Seventh Circuit, where I presented a masterful oral argument (or so I thought) to a panel that included the renowned Justice Easterbrook.

They dumped me out, refusing to extend the holding in Elrod to independent contractors. (47 F.3d 883). Deflated, I told Gratzianna that his only recourse was a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But my client didn’t have the money and, quite frankly, I didn’t think I had the knowledge and experience for a First Amendment argument before the Supreme Court.

About a month later, back to the routine of my local practice, I was driving to a general sessions court hearing in Dandridge when my cell phone rang. The caller identified himself as chief counsel of the ACLU

First Amendment office. He had been following my case, believed in my argument, and said that the ACLU would like to pursue a petition for cert. My client would have the full resources of the ACLU, at no charge, and I would stay on as co-counsel. For about nine months, I had the distinct pleasure of working with many brilliant First Amendment experts on the petition (which was granted), the briefing (the ACLU graciously asked for my input), mock arguments (I stayed out of the way), and the Court oral argument (where I sat second chair).

Gratzianna and I were ultimately vindicated when the Supreme Court, in a rather landmark opinion written by Justice Kennedy, reversed the 7th Circuit in O’Hare Truck Service v. City of Northlake, 518 U.S. 712 (1996).

Outside the Supreme Court, I’ve provided legal assistance to hundreds of towing clients from Key West to Portland, and from New York City to Honolulu. As you might expect, I am well-versed on pro hac vice rules and have enjoyed working with some very fine lawyers, many who remain good friends. I’ve served as counsel in civil or criminal trials in a number of other states, including California, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Missouri, and Connecticut. Because lawsuits versus government entities often involve federal constitutional issues, such as preemption and due process, I have become a member of the bar of five federal district courts, eight U.S circuit courts and the Supreme Court. I generally find the courts and local bar of foreign jurisdictions to be collegial and accommodating. Rarely have I felt the victim of “home cooking.”

Representing the owners of towing companies can be both professionally and emotionally challenging, but also quite entertaining.

As an example, in 2007 I defended a notorious Los Angeles tow operator charged with 72 counts of unlawful taking of a vehicle and attempted extortion. The charges all related to my client’s aggressive practices in removing unauthorized vehicles from parking lots. A posted “NO PARKING” lot next door to the landmark Pink’s Hot Dogs in Hollywood was one of his favorite targets. A take-out customer’s car could be gone in less time than it took to order an El Cucuy Dog. He was hardly deterred by physical confrontations or people jumping onto their cars hoisted on the hook.

He was widely known and universally hated for his tactics, so it was a fairly high-profile case with lots of media coverage. The 15-day trial took place in the downtown LA courthouse, on West Temple Street.

When I first walked into the dark wood-paneled courtroom I immediately recognized it as the scene of the 1995 nationally-televised murder trial of O.J. Simpson. We obtained acquittals on a majority of the counts, and suffered only misdemeanor convictions on the rest. My client received a sentence of probation and an implicit admonishment to “get out of town,” which he wisely did.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com.

October 2018 DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

“THE WAR TO END ALL WARS”: A CENTENNIAL REFLECTION One hundred years ago, “over there,” on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent along the Western Front in France and Belgium. November 11 would be commemorated as Armistice Day and, later, as Veterans Day. For this centennial, Nick McCall looks back on the “Great War” and its lingering echoes.

It was called the Great War. Also dubbed the “war to end all wars,” President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed it America’s war to “make the world safe for democracy.” It brought about the principle of self-determination for nationalities and peoples. Its Treaty of Versailles planted several seeds for another, bloodier global war, despite the formation of the League of Nations as an early precursor to the UN, and the Allies’ reorganization efforts in the Middle East brought about conflicts in that region that last to the present day. As kings and empires collapsed, Communism rose in Russia. Yet, World War I was far more than just the “prequel” to World War II. The war established new weapons: tanks, gas, combat airplanes, submarines and machine guns. It gave rise to new words and expressions: trenchcoats, No Man’s Land, shellshock (now termed combat fatigue or PTSD), cooties (lice), Gold Star mothers (women whose soldier-sons died in service), and basket cases (this one, supposedly, for soldiers who had lost all four limbs in artillery explosions). Poison gas was the first true weapon of mass destruction. Civilians were targeted intentionally as an act of “total war,” and German Zeppelin airships and bomber aircraft attacked London, Paris and other urban areas. Turkey’s atrocities against its Armenian minority would point the way to the legal concept of genocide.

In the midst of all of the chaos of global warfare, the Spanish Influenza of 1918 broke with a fury and killed millions worldwide.

At home, the war led to increased opportunities for women in the workplace. After all, the 1940s-vintage “Rosie the Riveter’s” mother might have been working in a war-related job in 1917-18. (The first women in the American military, the “Hello Girls,” U.S. Army switchboard and radio operators, entered the service.) Burgeoning war production impelled the growth of industrial cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh;1 at the same time that African-Americans and immigrants were entering the armed services in record numbers, their relatives were on the move, often heading to seek work in the big cities. These were heady and powerful socio-economic factors that helped to fuel the causes of women’s suffrage and civil rights in the ensuing years.2 Yet the war led to curtailments in civil rights, challenging seemingly sacrosanct legal and social values. Sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage”; dachshunds became “liberty pups”; and frankfurters, “liberty sausages.” (Another alternative, “hot dog,” became more in vogue at this time, too.) Streets and businesses with Germanic-sounding names were rebranded, and at least two towns--Berlin, Michigan and Germania, Iowa--were renamed, to avoid having their citizens’ patriotism called into question. German-American citizens were heckled, or far worse.

Espionage and anti-sedition statutes (e.g., the constitutional law case of Schenck v. United States3); domestic intelligence-gathering; the Selective Service system and the draft; an enhanced federal income tax--all were consequences of the war with broad-reaching legal effect. The 25th Amendment is partly traceable to President Wilson’s debilitating stroke and extended absence from his duties after his strenuous efforts to muster congressional support for the League of Nations--a quest that failed in the face of a strongly isolationist Senate.

The war made heroes of a host of East Tennesseans, whose names have left their mark on this city and region.

A father and son--one, an Army general, the other a naval lieutenant and early aviator--answered the call to duty. The father, Lawrence Tyson, survived the war; his 59th Brigade, comprised largely of Tennesseans, broke the Germans’ vaunted Hindenburg Line defenses in September 1918. Just days after his father’s victory, his pilot son, Charles McGhee Tyson, crashed and died in the North Sea. UT’s Tyson House and McGhee Tyson Airfield honor these Knoxvillians. Another legacy is the “Doughboy Statue” in front of old Knoxville High School, dedicated to the area’s 117th Infantry.

God would never be cruel enough to create a cyclone as terrible as that Argonne battle. Only man would ever think of doing an awful thing like that…. And all through the long night those big guns flashed and growled, just like the lightning and the thunder when it storms in the mountains at home. -- Alvin C. York Five East Tennesseans earned the Medal of Honor for their heroism. The most famous, of course, one of the war’s most decorated enlisted men in all armies, was Fentress County’s Alvin C. York, who showed unflagging courage on October 8, 1918 in France’s Argonne Forest against a ridgeline studded with chattering German machine guns.

That same day, many miles away from York’s battlefield, Knoxville’s own James E. “Buck” Karnes and his best friend, Greeneville’s Calvin J. Ward, charged another German machine-gun position. They both received the Medal of Honor for this deed. Not all wounds are physical: evidence suggests that Ward suffered greatly from what we now call PTSD, contributing to his death in 1967.

Calvin Ward, Buck Karnes, York, fellow Medal of Honor recipients Milo Lemert and Edward Talley, and 1,090 other East Tennesseans who died in military service during the Great War are honored on the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in World Fair’s Park. Many Knoxvillians pass daily across the Buck Karnes Bridge on Alcoa Highway without knowing for whom it is named or what he did to merit this recognition.

Alvin C. York, too, was greatly affected by the war. Devoutly religious and a pacifist, he never forgot his buddies who died beside him in the woods of the Argonne or, equally, the young Germans he had killed there. He refused to identify himself as a hero--rather, more like a survivor. York devoted the rest of his life to civic works, including his pride, the York Institute, founded to bring education to East Tennessee’s children and youth. His words illustrate his post-war mission and strivings, having survived the horrors of the Great War: Let’s train our boys and girls; let’s have them well qualified to take care of our future. [In] this great nation of ours, we have numerous districts in the rural sections that have been forgotten for ages....

Many are up there who can’t sign their own names. I am giving my life, trying to raise money and establish a school there.4 Amen, Sergeant York. Amen.

1

2

3 4

The War Department began building Wilson Dam and two nitrate plants in Muscle Shoals in 1918. Had World War I continued, this enormous site would have been the Allies’ largest ammunition factory. In 1933, these facilities were transferred to the newly created Tennessee Valley Authority. Thus, the infant TVA and the citizens of the Tennessee Valley directly benefited years later from the industrial mobilization required for the war effort.

Postwar white reactions to African-American veterans and others seeking civil rights could be very violent; in summer 1919, numerous race riots occurred across America.

An extremely violent one erupted in Knoxville, as recounted by the late Don Paine. See Donald F. Paine, Race and Murder in Knoxville, 1919: The Trials of Maurice Mays, Tenn.

Bar J., Mar. 2007, at 28-33.

Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919).

Inscribed on a plaque at the Alvin C. York State Historic Park in Pall Mall, Tennessee.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com November 2018 DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Betsy, December and the holiday season are a time of gifts. For about thirty years, you have been making and sending a very special kind of gift box to various people.

Can you tell DICTA’s readers about how this morphed into your new Smile-A-Day business project?

ELIZABETH S. TONKIN, RETIRED AUSA AND FOUNDER OF SMILE-A-DAY, LLC

A: A little background: I started giving what I call “smile-a-day” boxes or gift baskets to family and friends who were going through some kind of difficult time--whether recovering from surgery, undergoing chemotherapy, or seriously ill. Each box or basket contained individually wrapped items, to be opened one each day over a period of time--a week, two weeks or longer. As I recall, my first smile-a-day box was one I sent to my mother in the 1970s, when she was recovering from surgery. In 1991, when my father was terminally ill with pulmonary fibrosis in Florida, I was only able to spend a weekend with him each month, so sent him a box every two weeks for nearly six months with small gifts from me to open each day. These wrapped gifts were small items, nothing special or expensive – just something to make him smile and be reminded each day that I was thinking of him – such as a book, a puzzle, a lucky penny, or a magnet.

Most of the smile-a-day boxes or baskets over the years were given to friends and family who needed a short term “cheer” during recovery for events such as hip replacement, breast cancer surgery, chemotherapy, etc.

However, 2 ½ years ago, my niece’s daughter, at the age of five, was diagnosed with leukemia.

I sent her a smile box of gifts when she started chemotherapy, and then every month, I sent her mother more things to add to it. My grandniece shared her “smiles” with her sister and brother and other patients at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital where she spent much time. Thankfully, she is now in remission, having celebrated the end of chemo this month. She loved the smile box, and recently sent me a “smile box” with special gifts to open as I recovered from a hospital stay.

Q: So, why did you decide to start the Smile-A-Day business, and what was that process?

A: After I retired three years ago, I did some legal False Claims Act consulting and intended to do that part-time for at least a few years. But after providing significant caregiving out of state for two elderly relatives, I decided I was ready for a change and to do something that provided a tangible benefit to others. My first step last winter was to look into getting a trademark and setting up an LLC. That was handled with help from my son Kevin and the Adams Law Firm. While the trademark application is still pending, I obtained a logo and box design through a local marketing company, started obtaining box contents, and finally ordered the sunny, yellow gift boxes printed with my smile-a-day box™ logo.

The process has not been as easy as I anticipated. When I started this project, I anticipated the difficult part would be finding the gifts for the

boxes for the categories of recipients (adults by gender and children by age and gender) in the necessary quantities and at reasonable prices along with wrapping each of the gifts. I thought it would be a simple matter to find a manufacturer/printer for the gift boxes, particularly since my son Chip is the Director of the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design & Graphics at Clemson University. Unfortunately, that has not been the case!

Apparently, nobody makes nice gift boxes that you can have printed in this country. So, with assistance from Chip, I have now ordered 500 printed boxes from a Canadian company which has the boxes manufactured in China. The boxes should arrive by early December after an ocean voyage. Just hoping I will not have to deal with additional tariffs or further delays in port when they arrive!

In the meantime, I was able to obtain some white boxes and have yellow labels printed for them to allow for a debut of the smile-a-day box™ at the Symphony in the Park at Ijams Nature Center in September. Smile-A-Day, LLC was one of the sponsors. In addition to sponsoring a table, we donated two of the larger smile-a-day boxes to the event’s silent auction fundraiser. Both sold and generated a couple additional sales! So, that was my “coming-out party” for the LLC.

Q: Tell us about the Smile-A-Day boxes and typical contents.

A: Currently, I have boxes available in two different sizes – the smaller box contains 7+ “smiles” and the larger box contains 14+ “smiles.”

The smaller box fits easily on a hospital bedside stand. Each smilea-day box™ features individually wrapped gifts - sure to make the recipient grin each day! Depending on the size of the box, each contains gender or age-appropriate gifts and includes items such as a card, humor or inspirational book, puzzle book, puzzle, game, craft or art project, note cards, whistle or other noise maker, stress ball, and other small smile-inducing treats. (Patients love the whistles even if hospital staff or caregivers might not!) Boxes for breast cancer patients contain items wrapped in pink or have a pink theme.

Q: What’s next for you and the Smile-A-Day boxes?

A: At this point, I have some stock of the white boxes with yellow labels available for individual sales ready to be filled. Once the boxes are in from China, I plan to fill and market them primarily to hospital gift shops as well as to sell them individually upon request by word of mouth. When I have inventory established, I will develop a website and Facebook page.

And hopefully, I can continue to bring smiles to folks who are in need of a bit of cheer – definitely a change of pace from litigating!

Betsy and Smile-A-Day can be contacted at home@smile-a-daybox.com.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com December 2018 DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Bill, it appears that you are more than just a “raccoon whisperer,” as you also have a soft spot for at least another woodland creature. Tell us about it.

WILLIAM A. SIMMS Arnett, Draper & Hagood

As I have previously described in “The Last Word” article appearing in the May 2018 edition of DICTA, since my youth I have developed a reputation for being a “raccoon whisperer.”

As a boy and a young man, I spent a lot of time in the woods and outdoors acquiring a love of nature and animals, especially raccoons. I have also had some sweet and memorable experiences with other animals including, believe it or not, skunks.

My boyhood home in the 1950s was surrounded by fields. The owners of the fields would plow them each spring and plant them with grain. Back then, people had incinerators in which they would burn their garbage.

One Sunday we came home from church and there was a skunk in the plowed field in front of our house, bumping around in the plowed dirt with a mayonnaise jar over his head. He had apparently gotten into our incinerator and stuck his head in the mayonnaise jar to lick the mayonnaise, and couldn’t get it off. The mayonnaise jar was fogged up and the little skunk looked pitiful trying to breathe and maneuver around.

I was very concerned that he might smother so I told my parents that we needed to help him. They said “We can’t help him -- he’s a skunk.”

I kept pestering them until finally they said, “Okay, go put on some old clothes but be careful.”

I changed clothes and walked out to the skunk who was still bumping around in the plowed dirt. I walked up to him, speaking softly, and stood about 2 feet away talking to him. He stopped and just stood there. I talked softly to him some more and then sat down and picked him up and placed him in my lap. He did not try to scratch me or run away. He simply sat there. I then placed my left hand around his neck and shoulders and got the jar in my right hand and began to pull on it trying to get it off his head.

He assisted by sticking his paws on the edge of the jar and trying to push it forward. Together, both our efforts resulted in me getting the jar to slide off his head so that he could breathe.

As soon as the jar was off his head, the skunk looked up at me with a quizzical look on his face like “What’s happening?” He sat there in my lap for a little while and then he then crawled out of my lap and started walking away. When he had gotten about 10 ft. away he looked back over his shoulder and looked me right in the eye with a look that I will never forget. It was one of the sweetest expressions I have ever seen on an animal’s face. It was like he was saying “Thank you Bill, I really appreciate it.” He then turned around and waddled off across the field.

That event was witnessed by my mother, dad and brother and it is still a family legend.

Another occasion involving a skunk occurred one day when I went to “the woods” to go hunting with my two Collie dogs, Ring and King.

I was walking along a fence that bordered a field of high grass. Ring and King were sniffing around ahead of me as we proceeded down the fence.

Suddenly, as we approached a corner in the fence both dogs jumped toward the corner and started barking and snapping at something on the ground. I hurried up to see what they had and discovered that they had cornered a tiny skunk. He was backed up in the corner of the fence facing the dogs and was obviously scared to death.

I immediately felt sorry for the tiny creature and also could not help but think, “This is my chance to have a pet baby skunk.” I directed the dogs away from the little skunk and watched him for a minute or two to see how he behaved. He did not turn around as if he intended to try to spray me and he did not act aggressive. I had heard from some sources that if a skunk cannot “plant his feet on the ground,” he cannot emit any spray. I continued to watch the little creature for a few minutes to give him every chance to try to spray me and after that didn’t happen I decided I would pick him up by the tail, thereby depriving him of the ability to plant his feet, and that I would take him home.

At that point I reached down and picked him up by his tail and held him out at arms length and again watched him for a few seconds to check his behavior. He just hung there without trying to bite me or do anything else. At that point I felt pretty safe and decided I would make my way back home and put together some kind of cage to keep him in until I could take him to the veterinarian and have him de-scented.

I crossed the fence into the field of high grass and started walking back home. Ring and King were following closely behind me watching the little skunk in my hand with eager anticipation. I walked about 50 or 75 yards and was thinking about what I could make a cage out of when, all of a sudden, a suffocating wave of skunk scent swept over me. It was totally unexpected with no forewarning. In reaction to that startling event I bent my arm and flung it out away from me throwing the little skunk twirling toward the high grass approximately 20 yards away. My last memory of him is seeing him twirling in a circular fashion and going down in the tall weeds. Ring and King backed away from me but there was nothing I could do to back away from the scent. I was covered in it. I hurried home and laid my gun down on the picnic table in the back yard and started taking off my shirt and shoes. My mother came out the back door and asked me what was wrong and then said “Whewwwww.” I explained to her what happened and I began rinsing myself with the garden hose in the back yard. She hurried to the store and got some tomato juice and I washed myself with that. It helped a little bit but did not totally eradicate the lingering stench.

It was a hard lesson learned. Skunks do not have to have their feet planted on the ground in order to spray you.

I have never blamed the little bugger for what he did to me that day, but I do not have the same affectionate place in my heart for him that I do for the skunk with his head in the mayonnaise jar.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com January 2019 DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

John, would you share with DICTA’s readers how the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law program was (almost) a life and death experience for you?

JOHN T. WINEMILLER Merchant & Gould, P.C.

Around Labor Day of 2005, I was invited to apply to become a member of the Class of 2006 of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law program (“TBALL”). At the time I was a junior associate at Hunton & Williams, a BigLaw firm then with a small office in Knoxville. I had not heard of TBALL before, but I was intrigued by program description. So I submitted my application and was accepted. Our first TBALL meeting was scheduled for January 2006 at Montgomery Bell State Park, a state resort near Dickson, west of Nashville. As a relative newcomer to Tennessee (I’m from Wisconsin), I hadn’t been to many places in the state, but I had been to Dickson once. In fact, I took my first deposition there. I deposed two teenagers in a messy toxic tort case. My sole instruction was not to make them cry. I succeeded. So I knew a little about the area.

My first stop on the drive to Dickson was breakfast at the Bearden Panera with one of my fellow board members of the now-defunct Actors Co-op. I recall not feeling great. But I knew TBALL had a strict attendance policy: No Missed Meetings! So I told myself to suck it up and power through it.

It’s about a four-hour drive to Dickson. By the time I arrived, I was definitely not feeling great. I remember speaking with my father, a physician, from the parking lot at Montgomery Bell. He urged me to get some rest and not push myself. Wise man. I checked in and joined my classmates for the first afternoon of events. I felt increasingly tired and hot, but my Midwest fortitude got me through the day. By the dinner time, I was exhausted and in pain. For people who have not been to Montgomery Bell, dinner involves about ten different kinds of fried food (most prominently, catfish) and zero fresh food, except maybe iceberg lettuce on the salad bar. I tried to eat, but I just couldn’t. I went to my room and declared it an early night.

The next morning was rough. I made it to all the class sessions, but I was having a really hard time concentrating. I was sweating and felt exhausted.

When the first break came, I went to my room to rest. Fifteen minutes, I went back for the next session. That’s the way it went for the rest of the day. By the end of the afternoon, my fatigue was such that I could barely stand for more than a few minutes. I skipped dinner and the group activities, including the obligatory TBA hospitality suite. Normally, I’d welcome doing those things, but I just felt so bad, all I could do was to go back to my room and try to sleep.

Overnight I kept asking myself, What am I going to do? I really don’t want to go to a hospital in Dickson County, so far from home. Soon it was Sunday morning, there was breakfast, and people were leaving to go home.

What I remember about driving back home is that a Lady Vols game was on the radio, and it was a good diversion. In particular, because they won. I started feeling better, and I congratulated myself for powering through it. I felt bad that I had not really gotten to know anyone in my TBALL class, because I had to lie down at every break. (After the fact, Charles Swanson, who was one of the TBALL organizers, said, “Yeah, we really wondered what was up with you!”) While I was still very tired, I was feeling better on the drive home.

That night, I had committed to hosting a charity fundraiser at Bruce Bogartz’s restaurant in Homberg, but I could not even stand up straight during the event. I tried hard to be cheerful. But I was bent over in pain, and I know I looked flushed.

Someone even had the temerity to ask if I was hungover! When I admitted to feeling even worse by the next morning, my husband, R.J. Hinde, declared that I was going to the doctor – “no questions asked, mister.” He drove me; I could barely walk to get to the elevator in the medical building. The doctor walked in and asked me just one question, “Have you eaten anything?” I said I had not eaten anything in two days. Although he had been in the room with me for less than a minute, he said with complete certainty: “You have appendicitis.” I was put in a wheelchair and taken across the street to Fort Sanders Medical Center. I thought, Now, at least, I’m going to get some relief.

But then I sat in the waiting area for what felt like hours. Finally, I got a PET/CT scan, which confirmed the diagnosis. Sidebar: I had done legal work for CTI, the manufacturer of the scanner. So, as they put me in the scanner, I thought, Hey, I represented this company! Looking back, I now ask myself, why the heck was I thinking about work when was so sick?

As it turned out, my appendix had likely burst sometime before I drove back from Dickson. The reason that I felt better as I drove back was because all the pressure in my appendix had been relieved. The downside, of course, was that I was at serious risk of becoming septic. I was hospitalized for a week. They pumped me full of antibiotics and antifungals. People die, of course, of peritonitis. I was very, very sick. I don’t think that I realized until later how very ill I actually was.

Q: John, having heard your story, I have to say, it seems to me like there is some kind of big “life lesson learned” here. So, what do you think it might be, for the benefit of DICTA’s readers?

A: There is such a lesson here: If you are a Type A, hard-charging young associate at a white-shoe, mega law firm who thinks he needs to do everything all the time – answer phones and emails 24 hours a day, power through illnesses, etc. – just don’t. Listen to your body; obey your body! It’s okay not to power through everything. In fact, it’s sometimes quite foolish to power through everything. Don’t try to be a health hero or law firm super hero. I’ve lived through a burst appendix and have worked for several of the most hardcharging lawyers in Knoxville. But I will tell anyone who listens that ignoring your health out of some twisted sense of dedication or ambition is not how to prove oneself – or advance the cause of your clients!

This lesson is easy for me to share now. But I was a slow learner. As I lay in my hospital bed, I emailed my boss at the time, John Lucas, and told him, “I have a burst appendix and I’m in the hospital, but I brought stuff to work on.” Yes – cringe! – I said that. To his credit, John, who has been a great friend and mentor to me, said: “Why don’t you just take care of yourself?” And so I did. I suppose I was of no use to John or our clients if I were dead. And he certainly wasn’t going to bill for my time! Clearly, I had not learned let alone internalized my own life lesson just yet.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com February 2019 DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Harry, on January 31, you retired from Baker, Donelson after over forty years of law practice. Looking back, what are some memories and observations that you have?

HARRY P. OGDEN

Nick, you have “opened the door!” Let me share some “war stories” that might have some lessons in them for other people.

The first jury trial I ever had was in September 1977 – Amy and I had moved here in July 1977 from Memphis--in front of the Hon. Robert Love Taylor. I had my name on Judge Taylor’s District Court appointment list and got an arraignment date for my client – my very first case in federal court in September. My client was from Coker Creek, near Tellico Plains. He had four counts under the Dyer Act. That federal law was new to me; when I hit the books, I learned it was the property equivalent of the Mann Act--instead of transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes, it involved moving stolen autos/auto parts across state lines. Coker Creek was known for chop shops and was a pretty rough area. Now, I was appointed to this case the first working day after Labor Day; trial was set for late September, probably about 20 - 25 days following my appointment. Judge Taylor prided himself on having the most current docket of any federal district court in the country.

As I was preparing for trial the night before, I got a call from Bob Ritchie, a wonderful lawyer and dear friend. Bob said: “Harry, Judge Taylor will call you everything but a child of God in front of the jury and everyone, but don’t worry about it. Just let it roll off like water off a duck’s back and keep going. Don’t let it bother you.” I thanked Bob. It turned out that Bob was trying a 17-count drug case before Judge Taylor the same day as my trial; he was defending a pharmacist. Bob’s trial was that morning; I had ours in the afternoon. At the end of the day, Judge Taylor had two convictions. Justice came very swiftly in Judge Taylor’s court.

Bob was one of those lifelong mentors whom I’ll always remember. (In fact, Amy had him as a patient in her dental hygienist’s chair before I met him; I had met him through Amy, before I got that first case, while he was sitting in her dental chair.) I had three other lifelong mentors besides Bob. One dear friend and early mentor was Judge Charles Nearn on the Court of Appeals, for whom I clerked. He knew former Justice Hamilton Burnett, for whom our local Inn of Court is named. (Not a lot of people know how to pronounce his name properly, but Judge Nearn taught me how to pronounce it right: “It’s Burn-it, dern it!”) Judge Nearn was an early mentor in his style, in dealing with his secretary, and in writing opinions.

We’d go from Memphis to Jackson to hear arguments. He, Judge Matherne and Judge Carney, the three Western Section judges at the time, would have a pre-hearing powwow and assign cases between themselves, one-two-three. Judge Carney was always number one; he was presiding judge and was a gentleman farmer from Ripley, Tennessee. (He and his wife were wonderful people; he owned the bank in Ripley and had a Charolais cattle farm in Lauderdale County. Whenever the State had a Democratic governor and there was an opening on the Supreme Court, he’d always make his first call to Judge Carney and say: “C.S., would you want to be on the Supreme Court?”

His answer was always the same: “Of course, I’d be interested in it, if the Court is willing to sit in Ripley. I don’t want to go to Jackson.” Under the Tennessee constitution, that cannot be done, so that was the end of that.) Judge Matherne was number two; Judge Nearn was number three. When a case was called, Judge Nearn would give me a one-, two- or three-finger sign beside his cheek

– just like a baseball coach--to let me know which cases I’d better pay attention to.

We’d go back to the office in Memphis after arguments; Judge Nearn would pick up a case file, write out an opinion in longhand on a legal pad, and give it to his secretary to type. Then, it was my job to fill in the blanks he’d left in the opinion. In my interview, he said, “The taxpayers of the State of Tennessee pay me to write opinions; the State of Tennessee pays you to help me get it right.” He added: “We’re the Court of Appeals. There’s another court above us, and if we screw up on the law, the Supreme Court will take care of it.

But, I cannot mess up on the facts, and you have to make sure I’m right about the facts, as well as the law.”

I’d have ten or more draft pages on an opinion to work on. Judge Nearn would cite a proposition of law; sometimes, he’d put in a case name that he’d remember, and I’d have to fill in the rest of the citation. Other times, he’d leave a blank and say, “I know there’s a Supreme Court opinion on this. See if you can find that case.” Other times, there’d be a blank with just no clues. Some days, I’d literally beat my head against the law books; at the end of the day, I’d say, “Judge, I just cannot find anything to put in this blank here as authority for this particular proposition of law.” He’d take his pencil out; strike through what he’d written; and say: “Well, if it’s not the law of the State of Tennessee yet, it ought to be--and maybe, it will be, after we’re through with this.” It really began to strike me then of the power and authority of judicial opinions.

Another war story: The first time I was ever in front of Judge Bill Inman – Judge Dennis Inman’s father; chancellor for many years and later, Governor Lamar Alexander’s legal counsel – was in Rogersville. As was my wont at the time, I went back to chambers to introduce myself and shake hands with the judge before court began; not to talk about the case, but so as not to be a complete stranger before we went on the record. Judge Inman asked, “How’s my friend Ed Cole?” ( Judge T. Edward Cole in Knox County.) I said, “Judge Cole is fine; I’ve been thrown out of his court a time or two already.”

Judge Inman said, “You know, I’ve never known anyone who’s as sensitive to his win-loss record in the Court of Appeals as Ed Cole. He gets pretty unhappy when the Court of Appeals reverses him. I kind of give it my best shot, and I send it on. If I’m right, it’s fine, and if not, that’s what the Court of Appeals is there for.” Judge Inman was right more than he was wrong, by the way.

Judge Nearn told me, before I left to work for a law firm in Memphis for a brief time: “Harry, there’s three things you need to know. Number One: don’t screw around with your secretary. Number Two: don’t ever open a beer or a bottle of liquor in your office at 5:00; as soon as you do, somebody’s going to walk in, and you’re going to wish you didn’t have that drink in your hand.

Number Three: be very protective of your files--document everything you do-because sometime in your life, another lawyer will come into your office and say: ‘Show me your file.’ ” I never had Rule Three happen. I’ve had plenty of nice and attractive secretaries in my career, and we had great working relationships, but always thought I went home to the prettiest one. But, I have violated Judge Nearn’s Rule Two sometimes, even before 5:00. It’s still good advice, though.

Part 2 will follow in next month’s edition of DICTA.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com March 2019 DICTA

31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Harry, in last month’s issue, you began sharing some “war stories,� memories of mentors, and the story of “three good hugs.� Would you pick up the story line?

HARRY P. OGDEN

Another mentor was Squire Henry T. Ogle, a longtime lawyer here. I shared space with him after I came back from Memphis, from the summer of 1977 until spring 1979, when I joined the Egerton, McAfee ďŹ rm. The Squire was kind of a maverick; he had a lot of real estate and business interests, and he didn’t have to practice law to make a living. He was a great business lawyer. He always read the Tennessee Reporter advance sheets; as soon as they came in the mail, he’d drop what he was doing to read them. That was one great lesson.

I had occasion one time after I practiced with him to represent a legal malpractice carrier, and he was representing a plaintiff. He’d entered into a tolling agreement with the adjustor who sent me this case. It turned out that the tolling agreement had been signed after the statute had already run. I talked to the Squire a few times and drafted a letter telling him that the statute had run. I asked if I could come see him; I did, and I handed him the letter. He looked at it and he basically said, “Get out of my ofďŹ ce.â€? He wouldn’t even shake my hand.

I sent him a card that weekend. I recalled that when we were practicing law before, we were working one day after hours, when all the secretaries were gone, on a vendor-ďŹ nanced transaction. We literally copied and cut-and-pasted, with tape, the legal description from a warranty deed into a trust deed that we had to get done. The deal closed; everyone shook hands and went their separate ways. When I commented that the Register might not be too happy with the quality of that taped on legal description, Squire said, “Harry, the practice of law is not a popularity contest.â€? The Register accepted my “cut and tapedâ€? Trust Deed.

In the card I sent Squire a few days after being unceremoniously asked to leave his ofďŹ ce, I reminded him of what he’d said, adding: “You were right then, and you still are: the practice of law is not a popularity contest.â€? A few months later, his son died, and I went to the funeral home. Squire hugged me and just said, “Harry, thanks so much for that card.â€?

My next mentor: Don Paine, who was at Egerton, McAfee when I left Squire Ogle’s ofďŹ ce. When I was awarded the Don Paine Award by LAET last fall, I reminded the group and Don’s daughter and son-in-law that I’d practiced with Don. What an incredible resource it was to have Don down the hall, or looking over your shoulder, critiquing some of my earliest depositions in my civil practice! Talk about someone who read all the advance sheets: I’m convinced he made Lee Smith what his ďŹ rm is today, since Lee sent Don all the advance sheets and opinions, the moment they were released. Long before we had TAM and the TBA Today, Don was cranking out summaries and updates. He was not just an excellent lawyer and example; I told the LAET that pro bono was just something that Don always did.

It was just part of being a lawyer, part of the deal of holding a law license. It became part of my deal as a lawyer also.

I’ve tried cases literally from Memphis to Bristol and in various courthouses across the state. My wife Amy is a big hugger. I’ve gotten to be more of a hugger after being married to her for 46 years. So, let me leave you with stories about three hugs. The ďŹ rst goes back to the mid-1990s.

Judge Jordan, after coming to Knoxville, was then the junior District Judge.

His court was in the Court Square Annex, and I tried a civil rights jury trial for 4-5 days. It was kind of a real crapshoot. The Blount County Board of Education was dismissed by Judge Jordan, and the case went to the jury against the Blount Count Schools Superintendent. The school superintendent was John Davis, a really good guy and also a big guy; he was twice as big as me. When the jury came back with a defense verdict, he and I hugged, right there in the courtroom. That was a ďŹ rst for me.

Another hugging experience: Tim Priest and I tried a water-slide accident case in Sevier County before Judge Dick Vance, a wonderful judge and man.

(Side note: I borrowed Dick Vance’s furniture when he went to the DA’s ofďŹ ce

in Sevierville, while I was with Squire Ogle. Having used his furniture for a few months before I could afford ofďŹ ce furniture, I’ll always have a special place for him in my heart.) This was one of the worst verdict experiences I ever had: the jury came back with $2 1/2 million for a man who, while coming down the water slide, had his legs “wish-bonedâ€? when he hit the water. (Every man in earshot including those on that jury seemed to walk a little funny after hearing these facts!) The husband and wife were nice, “salt-of-the-earth,â€? as my grandmother would have called them, people from Louisville, Kentucky who’d been in Pigeon Forge on vacation. There was no question he’d been seriously and legitimately injured. We could have settled, but my client would not offer any money, so off we went to trial.

While awaiting the verdict after two trial days, the Plaintiffs were fascinated by the statue of Dolly Parton, and they were taking pictures of each other by her statue. I said, “Why don’t I take a picture of both of you by Dolly?� When the jury came back, this very nice lady gave me a big hug. I never had gotten a hug from an opposing party before - or since!

The third hug is my favorite.

Ten years ago, I was called by LAET. Terry Woods said: “Harry, you do nursing-home work, right?� When I said yes, she said, “I’ve got a client here who has sent in everything she needs to do for her nursing license, but the board won’t give it to her. Can you help her?� I do mostly litigation, but I agreed. The client came in; I had a copy of her application to the board. She was a single mom in East Knoxville, with two young sons, maybe 11 and 7 at the time. She was working two jobs, one as a CNA in a nursing home, and she was also waiting tables. She knew the facts of life in East Knoxville were not too good for two young black boys; she knew that if she had a nursing job, she would have a more stable work life and could be home more for them, and not have to work two jobs.

I looked over her application; I called the board. She had disclosed in her application that she had a couple of prior minor convictions from years before. One was for indecent exposure and simple possession of marijuana; she was 19 or 20 at the time, twenty years earlier. She’d been on the dance team at Austin East and had gotten involved with someone who got her into work as an exotic dancer. When a strip club where she was working was raided, she was busted; some marijuana was also found in her purse. She also had a more serious, recent, assault-and-battery.

When I asked her about that, she replied that her boys’ father had told her that he could not make child-support payments, and said, “By the way, how do you like my new car?â€? He had driven to see her, to tell her this, in a big, new, shiny car. She got hot and beat him up before he left; he turned around and ďŹ led a warrant against her.

The board agreed to hold a hearing on her case. I put together a brief to explain her convictions and sent it to the board. A week before we went to Nashville, she told me that she had pulled together some demonstrative evidence: what she crafted was a tri-fold poster board with photos. One panel showed her and her mother; another was of her and her boys at home, and friends from her church; the third had pictures of her waiting tables and of her in her CNA uniform. It was her recent life story. She wanted to better herself and look after her two sons.

Before the hearing was to occur, I heard from the board: it had decided to grant her the license. I called her and told her that we didn’t have to go to Nashville, as she was now approved for the nursing license, and I asked her to call me when she had received it. A week or so later, she said, “I have the license here now. Can I come to your ofďŹ ce to get back my poster board?â€? She came to my ofďŹ ce at Baker, Donelson; as I gave her back her photo boards, she gave me a big hug and said: “You are my hero.â€?

I hope that all lawyers, someday in their careers, will have a client--paying or not--who will give them a hug and tell them that they love them and that they are their client’s hero.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com April 2019 DICTA 31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

What was it like to travel on bicycle across Vietnam and, in your case, Paul, go back to the country where you served in the Army ďŹ fty years ago?

PAUL AND JANET HOGAN, HOGAN & HOGAN

Paul: I was there ďŹ fty years ago that month – February and March – and it had changed a lot. I came back in April 1969. The people love Americans; they don’t like the Chinese.

is exported around the world, including to California. Another big island off Nha Trang was where the U.S. forces had a broadcasting station; it’s now a big development with an amusement park.

Janet: The trafďŹ c is impossible, although very few people have cars! No trafďŹ c lights. The country is actually pretty prosperous.

Janet: Contrasted to Hoi An, Nha Trang is hyper-modern. It looks like a very modern Asian large city.

Paul: There are 12 million people in Saigon and 8 million motor scooters.

They’re everywhere.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and ew up to Hanoi. We spent a night on a boat in Ha Long Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin. There must have been 100 boats at night – big, beautiful boats, and the bay is full of islands and giant outcroppings, like volcanic rocks of some sort. Amazing scenery. We went from there and went back to Hanoi and began riding bikes with our guide.

Paul: Next, we went by car to Da Lat, in the Central Highlands. It was big when Vietnam was a French colony. A large man-made lake sits in the middle of the town; there’s also a golf course, big greenhouses for strawberries, and lots of French-style villas. No Westerners were there at all, but there were a lot of people there. Since it’s in the highlands, it has a cooler climate. We were there on a weekend, and there were lots of people in town.

Janet: The Vietnamese are very good with gardens; there are lots of giant topiaries, and ancient architecture from the Chinese are mixed in with French architecture in all of the big cities. Our guide was wonderful, and he’d take us to peoples’ houses for lunch. Part of those houses were temples: they had shrines to their ancestors that took up half of the house. Sometimes, they build additions to the old part of the houses; they never tear anything down.

Paul: Next, we ew from Hanoi to Hue, the ancient city with a big citadel where there was so much ďŹ ghting in 1968. A lot of Hue was bombed, but it was rebuilt.

Janet: Hue has a lot of palaces and old buildings, as it was the imperial city of Vietnam. My favorite place, though, was Hoi An, the “city of lanterns.�

Lanterns run along the river, and it’s really a charming and ancient city.

Outside Hoi An, there’s a lagoon where the Communist government has divided the lagoon into squares, and people have their own areas for ďŹ shing, with oating ďŹ shing shacks for the holders to oversee their area. They catch crab and bass, and there was a oating restaurant on the lagoon. The boats used on the lagoon were made out of airplane wings from the war!

We rode by a lot of rice paddies. The Vietnamese use every part of the rice plant, including the rice grass for all kinds of things. It’s dried and piled up, and bricks of rice straw are used for growing mushrooms.

The children are amazing. They all said, “Hello, hello!â€? in English. One was really precocious; he said: “Hello, how are you, I’m ďŹ ne!â€?, before any of us could say a word. The kids were as sweet and friendly as can be.

While we were in Hoi An, we had what we called our “bicycle summit.â€? It was the week of the Trump-Kim Jong Un summit in Hanoi. I held a U.S. ag; our guide had a North Korean ag; and Paul had a Vietnamese ag.

Janet: We learned that lots of people from Saigon ride their scooters, ďŹ ve hours, up to Da Lat to party, then they drive back home the next day.

Paul: We ended up in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City; there’s still a lot of French architecture there, mixed in with huge skyscrapers. Twelve million people. It’s enormous. It looks like New York.

Janet: The whole experience was very intimate because we were with the Vietnamese people in their homes, eating lunch between bicycling, and they’d give us footbaths, every time we went to lunch. The food they served was amazing, too! They’d talk about how they felt about the war, and then you found out that they had family in the war.

Paul: As we were eating lunch in one family’s home in Hanoi, our guide mentioned to the man of the house that I’d been in the war. He couldn’t speak English, but he was a very friendly guy and he shook my hand. On the way out, he stood at attention and saluted me. He’d been in the North Vietnamese Army. I saluted him back. He couldn’t have been any nicer. We met other people who’d been in the South Vietnamese Army, too.

Paul: We asked several times how many lawyers they have in Vietnam. The answer: Very few. You don’t see lawyers there. Nobody we talked to said that being a lawyer in Vietnam is considered to be a great vocation.

Janet: I asked, “How do you resolve disputes?� I was told, “We just handle them ourselves; if lawyers get involved, people will kill you!� The last thing they want to do is to get a lawyer involved. Getting a lawyer involved in a dispute is seen as a total act of desperation, and it actually almost sounded dangerous to get a lawyer involved. It’s a very different outlook from ours.

Paul: After Hoi An, we ew into Cam Rahn Bay and went to Nha Trang on the South China Sea, which is where I was stationed during the war. Our guide found a guy to take me to where I used to live, and my old house was still there.

Fifty years ago, there were no skyscrapers, and all dirt roads, and the Grand Hotel, which served as a US Army headquarters, was the largest hotel in the town. Now, it looks like Miami Beach.

We went on a boat trip off Nha Trang. Have you ever heard of bird’s nest soup?

There are seven islands off Nha Trang: these islands are protected, and men live in cliff dwellings to harvest the bird nests – they are actually swallows’ nests – from which the soup is made. It sounds gross but it is a real delicacy, and this

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com May 2019 DICTA 31

Q: A:

THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Judge Swann and John, it’s almost summer, and it’s fishing time. Some of us have heard tales of a league of extraordinary (and sharply dressed) fishermen, known as the “Beau Ties.” Would you share with DICTA’s readers this saga?

JUDGE BILL SWANN AND JOHN K. HARBER, PRYOR, PRIEST & HARBER

Judge Swann:

It is well known that fish are superstitious. It is less well known that fish are conscious of fashion. Nothing overcomes piscine suspicion quicker than a fisherman who presents himself with casual formality.

It is easy to understand how suspicions arise: Fish in remote Canadian waters spend at least eight months with no boat bottoms overhead. Suddenly the fish confront strangeness just when breeding season begins. Dull gray shapes appear overhead. Small plastic things appear around those shapes, always swimming intently back in the direction of the dull gray things. It is enough to put fish off their appetite.

However, upon seeing that there are creatures riding upon the grey shapes, and that they are well attired, indeed fashionably attired, the fish put aside all suspicions. They desire the company of the new creatures.

I proved this two years ago. I was the only successful fisherman in our party on a day of breakthrough. I chose to fish that day in a bow tie. On that day I was the only one who provided food for the cabin. I was the envy of all.

There was clamoring for sartorial equivalence. But I had only one bow tie.

Steve Sharp had no bow tie. Bob Swan had no bow tie. John Harber had no bowtie. My brother Sterling had no bow tie. Misery abounded.

Mr. Sharp, not to be defeated, decided that his boat should wear a bow tie. His entire boat. He made one and affixed it to the bow of his boat. It was four feet across, made of cardboard and coat hangers. This fooled no fish.

It insulted them. Mr. Sharp was downcast. I determined that this should not happen again. Next year we all had bow ties and the fish loved us. We all lived happily ever after.

John Harber: I had just turned 14 when my father died suddenly of a heart attack in 1966. He was only 42. My uncle, Lanny Goins, a retired Chattanooga attorney, and his close friend Tommy Baugh (husband of Patti Jane Lay), took me under their wings and dragged me to every fishing hole in East Tennessee. We fished Norris, Douglas, Tansi, City Lake in Crossville, Byrd Lake at Cumberland Mountain State Park, and every trout stream they could find. Those two characters taught me how to fish and, for that, I will be forever in their debt.

But what I wanted most at that age was to go with them on their annual fishing trip to northwestern Ontario. Finally, in the early 1970’s, that dream finally came true.

In 1973, just before I graduated from U.T., Lanny, Tommy, our recently deceased colleague John McReynolds, and I drove to International Falls, Minnesota, crossed into Canada, loaded up a DeHavilland Beaver bush plane, and flew to an outpost cabin in the Canadian wilderness. That was my first of hundreds of water landings, and a trip that I have now repeated for over 40 years.

When my now grown children were old enough, I took them. In the early 1990’s, Bill Swann and I were coaching our sons on a Little League baseball team and, just after baseball season ended, I took him and our young sons, Keith and Ian. Bill did not know how to fish, a handicap which he has long ago overcome.

So year after year with some variations on locations, Bill and I went to Canada, sometimes with all of our kids, sometimes with our wives, sometimes

with various clusters of carefully selected friends, sometimes just us. Sometimes to Pipestone, sometimes portaging to Kishkutena, sometimes to Loonhaunt, sometimes to them all, and we fished for smallmouth bass (pound for pound the best fighting fish in the world, lake trout, walleye, muskie, and northern pike).

Our companions have included Charles Swanson, Patti Jane Lay, Bill Vines, Bill’s sons, Mike Winck, and Mike’s sons. Now that all of our children are grown, we no longer make the 20+ hour drive to International Falls pulling my Lund boat packed with gear. Now we ship our gear to our shuttle service ahead of time because we have learned the hard way that commercial airlines commonly lose or damage our gear.

We fly to International Falls, shuttle 100 miles north of the border to Northwest Flying Service in Nestor Falls, Ontario, load up our twin-engine Beechcraft and fly (weather permitting) into wild Canadian waters to be dropped off and picked up two weeks later.

We take a satellite phone just in case, because there are no roads, no cell service, no electricity except a small generator, and nothing to do but fish and enjoy the companionship of good friends and the quiet unmatched beauty and solitude of the Canadian wilderness. Our wildlife companions include black and brown bears, moose, deer, eagles, loons, all manner of water fowl, beavers and, of course, fish.

The current cast of characters includes Bill Swann, Bill’s brother Sterling, Bob Swan, Steve Sharp, and me. Bob is an experienced and accomplished fisherman, both spin and fly. Neither Steve nor Sterling knew how to fish when they started going with us years ago. Tackle box envy is epidemic. The Swann brothers, frequently under-provisioned and always hungry, must be watched closely. They excel in the boat-to-boat piracy of beer and snacks.

Upon arrival at our outpost cabin on Loonhaunt, small gifts are exchanged in celebration of another year of life, friendship, and the joy of fishing. Last year, Bill gave everyone a camouflaged bow tie. Thus, the picture.

We are off again on May 20 to continue this annual adventure for as many years as we can. The day we return, we start looking forward to our next trip.

We are but one of thousands of brotherhoods of fishermen.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com June 2019 DICTA 31

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Q: A:

Judge Collier, how did you initially become involved in efforts to engage with the public regarding civics and government issues?

THE HONORABLE CURTIS L. COLLIER, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

In 2014, I was an instructor at a seminar for about thirty federal judges from across the country.

One part of the seminar called for attendees to think about, discuss, and identify the most signiďŹ cant or dangerous threats facing the federal judiciary. The judges were unanimous in saying that declining conďŹ dence in the judiciary was the most pressing, signiďŹ cant, and dangerous threat facing the courts.

I had not given the matter any thought, but after hearing from the judges, I was struck by how accurate they were, and by how obvious the threat was. When I returned from the seminar, I did further research, and discovered that there had been a marked and continuing decline in public conďŹ dence in the courts, as reected in numerous public polls. Those and similar polls also showed that public knowledge about the role and function of the courts was faltering. The convergence of those two trends – declining conďŹ dence in the courts and public unawareness about the courts – greatly concerned me. Courts at every level depend on the public’s conďŹ dence and voluntary compliance with court orders in order to function. For the most part, jurors and witnesses voluntarily show up for court, and parties and lawyers comply with court orders and live up to their discovery obligations on their own volition. With a decline in public conďŹ dence in the courts comes a risk that the same voluntary compliance will decline, or even end.

I knew I could not make meaningful changes acting alone. The Chattanooga chapter of the Federal Bar Association hosted a series of meetings with community leaders to consider the challenge. Through speeches, such as one to the Chattanooga Kiwanis Club in 2015, and outreach to schools, I started seeking to empower other community members and leaders to themselves make a difference. By the fall of 2017, we created a Civics and Outreach Committee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In spring of the next year, we formed a Civics and Outreach Committee of the Eastern District of Tennessee. Since then, efforts of the Civics and Outreach Committees have been varied and have targeted different segments of the public, from students and teachers, to everyday citizens, government ofďŹ cials, and professional groups.

Q: What have some recent outreach efforts involved?

We have partnered with the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Federal Bar Association to host Teachers Law Schools, for one example. At a Teachers Law School, teachers receive a full day

of programming from judges and local lawyers which helps them to incorporate information about the justice system into their classes.

One year, we received eighty-nine applications from teachers across the state who wished to attend. We have also held public readings of the Constitution in each division on Constitution Day, September 17. In Chattanooga, we read from the courthouse steps, and any member of the public could volunteer to read a segment of the Constitution aloud, from state judges who attended, to those who were attracted to the event while walking down the street. And we have also partnered with the Federal Bar Association to host a student essay contest on a legal issue involving the First Amendment. The Western District of Tennessee has been active in its outreach and has a Courthouse Tours program and Teen Discourse and Decisions program for high school students. The Middle and Western Districts of Tennessee are also planning their own Teachers Law Schools. Our most recent effort in the Eastern District has been launching a new website that helps students, teachers, and the general public learn more about the federal judicial system.

Q: Could you tell readers more about the website?

The website is called “Connections� and is available at http://connections.tned.uscourts.gov/index.html. It is intended to provide information about the federal courts in an engaging format. Visitors to the website can read the country’s founding documents, learn about judges in the Eastern District of Tennessee, watch videos of judges telling stories of their different pathways to the bench, and evaluate landmark cases decided by the United States Supreme Court. Visitors can also try testing their own knowledge of United States government through taking a naturalization test, or through following a link to iCivics, a platform founded in 2008 by retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, which provides online civics games. There are resources for teachers and students, and information for lawyers about outreach events. And we have links to arrange visits to courthouses, or to request speakers at other events.

Q: What continues to drive you in your pursuit to engage with others regarding civics education?

Public service has been my main motivation. We enjoy abundant freedoms as Americans because we have free and independent government institutions that, when at their best, are deeply committed to protecting our safety, our rights, and the rule of law. But there can be no rule of law without a respected and independent court system. The two go hand in hand: the public will not allow the judiciary to be independent if it does not respect the judiciary, and the judiciary cannot perform its fundamental purposes and gain the respect of the public if it is not independent. It is my hope that expanded civics outreach efforts will foster appreciation for the judiciary, and, in turn, that the same appreciation will allow the judiciary to continue to fulďŹ ll its essential role in our democratic system of government.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com August 2019 DICTA 31

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Q: A:

Kelly and Matt, would you share with DICTA’s readers how you “downsized� your home life and made your transition to traveling and living in an Airstream trailer in a trailer park?

KELLY G. FRĂˆRE AND MATTHEW B. FRĂˆRE, GUYTON & FRĂˆRE

On May 13, 2018, we moved from our “stick & brick� home into a trailer park (much to the dismay of Kelly’s brother, Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton, and her mother, retired attorney Arline Guyton). To clarify, the trailer park is technically an RV campground and our home is now our 31’ Airstream Custom Classic travel trailer, but “trailer park� has a certain non-conformist ring to it.

To answer the questions that typically come next: We made this move because we’re Elder Law attorneys who are also aging, and who understand the consequences of not having children to deal with our stuff when we die. We began to feel burdened by the trappings of our lives.

Here’s what we no longer have and how we compensate: Left behind: Large house, garages for 4 vehicles, 4 HVAC systems, a basement “safe� room, 100 acres with an unparalleled view of the Smoky Mountains, housekeepers, and a grounds keeper.

Acquired: 240 sq. ft. Airstream. The one that looks like a silver “twinkie� going down the highway. (Kelly’s mother calls it a tin can.)

There’s a ďŹ re ring next to our outdoor patio, gravel parking for vehicles, view of the woods behind us, public (very clean/maintained) laundry mat, and the changing scenery of the other campers in the campground.

Left behind: Dishwasher, under cabinet ice maker, “cook’s kitchen,â€? garbage disposal, central vacuum, washer/dryer, chest and upright freezers, large at screen TV’s, wet bar, large pantry and ďŹ replaces.

Acquired: 2-burner propane cook top, microwave/convection, small trash can, whisk broom/tiny vacuum, 3-cubit foot freezer, 9 cubit foot fridge, and a 25â€? at screen (which works ďŹ ne when you’re only sitting six feet away). We now hand wash our dishes; the Sonic across from our ofďŹ ce has great bagged ice.

an Airstream can be from other campers, but the quality rivals any materials that were used to build our “stick & brick� home.

Kelly does miss her soaking tub and the large John Deere tractor, but we have room for both a Keurig and a French press. There’s a second TV in the bedroom. We’ll never have to worry about radon. A Soda Stream really does take the place of cases of soft drinks. We have a subscription to Blue Apron which ships a box a week from which we make wonderful fresh and pre-measured meals. Matt’s tennis equipment ďŹ ts nicely in the back of his car. And, two people really can live with one bathroom.

Our campsite is not far from our ofďŹ ce, is in a beautiful setting, and costs $309 per month plus an average $50 for utilities. Our neighbors, also mostly full-timers, come and go. Our campground is very quiet and clean and is run by a no-nonsense woman who must be a direct descendant of Attila the Hun (which is actually a good thing), and outof-town visitors now have to stay in a hotel (which can also be a good thing).

This lifestyle is not for everyone. If you can’t let go of stuff; if you can’t live in the space in your immediate area; if you can’t stand dumping a black water tank; if you can’t stand the sound of rain on your metal roof; if you have to have a garage, and if you don’t like the person you live with (not just love, but like!), then this is not for you.

But, here’s best part: One of these days while we can still raft, and canoe, and hike, we’ll take down our shingles, sell our ofďŹ ce building, hitch the truck to Moonshine, and hit the road. Unburdened. Want to come?

More than a year after selling our conventional home we are still extremely happy that we made the transition from the clutter of our former lifestyle to our new existence. It took a full two years to downsize.

Some stuff we crammed into our ofďŹ ces, some we donated to charities, and some we gave away. We receive our mail at our ofďŹ ce.

To be completely transparent, we did purchase our aluminum Airstream “shellâ€? brand new from the Airstream plant in Ohio then shipped it to Colorado where it was custom-outďŹ tted to our speciďŹ cations by Timeless Travel Trailers. It was then registered with Airstream, Inc. with the name “Moonshine.â€? From the surplus of wood cabinets constructed to hold our working clothes, to the 3’ x 3.5’ stainless steel shower, 2-bin stainless steel farmhouse sink, leather recliners, bamboo oor, custom blinds/drapes, and a real queen-size bed (not RV “queenâ€?) we have everything we need. It’s hard to imagine how different

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com September 2019 DICTA 31

THE LAST WORD

Q: A:

)`! 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Judge McMillan and Summer, you’ve had kind of an unusual “beach trip� to the Caribbean. How did you get to experience the adventures of iguana banding with a science team in the Turks and Caicos Islands?

THE HONORABLE GREGORY S. MCMILLAN, KNOX COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE, DIVISION IV, AND SUMMER H. MCMILLAN, LAW CLERK TO THE HONORABLE SHARON G. LEE, TENNESSEE SUPREME COURT

Greg: When I was a UT undergrad, I became friends with a Ph.D. candidate, Glenn Gerber, whose specialty was reptiles. After he graduated, he took a job with the San Diego Zoo and its Institute for Conservation Research. He studies Caribbean iguanas and, more speciďŹ cally, works with the Turks and Caicos National Trust in the conservation of the rock iguanas of those islands. About six months a year, he is there to keep a census of the rock iguana population, the ratio of the sexes, population growth, their habitat and predators, etc. The idea is to try to reintroduce iguana populations to areas where they have been destroyed by predation, mostly by domestic cats introduced to the islands in the last thirty years or so.

I had visited Glenn once before, catching and banding iguanas.

Then, in 2009, shortly after Summer and I got married, he invited us down to visit him around Labor Day in time for collecting and cataloging hatchling iguanas.

Q: Are you afraid of iguanas at all?

between 7:30 and 11:00--and later in the evening, when they are more active. During the heat of the day, iguanas hide to avoid the sun.

Summer: In between our iguana-searching, we’d swim, snorkel, or hang out on one of the amazing uninhabited beaches that Glenn took us to. It was a great trip, even if hiking through palmetto and mangrove scrub to search for iguanas and their nests was hot, itchy, and not at all glamorous and the boat was not luxurious. I think we had a better time than we would have at a fancy resort because there were no crowds, we had all the beaches we visited to ourselves, and there was something really fabulous about sitting around on the top deck of the boat after a long day in the sun, sipping a cold beverage, and watching the stars and the lights of Grace Bay in the distance. I would do it again anytime.

For more on Dr. Gerber and his activities for the Institute for Conservation Research of the San Diego Zoo, see his website at: http:// institute.sandiegozoo.org/glenn-gerber-phd.

Summer: No, I don’t mind lizards or other reptiles. As long as they have feet, I’m okay-that doesn’t bother me at all. Snakes? No. But, I’m not afraid of iguanas. So it was a pretty easy decision when Greg told me Glenn had invited us to go to the Turks and Caicos to participate in the iguana project. We spent our mornings and early evenings hiking around through the mangroves (and mosquitoes!) searching for nests and hatchlings. When we ďŹ nally found a new hatchling, I got to carry the little guy to and from the boat in a big burlap bag and put him back in his nest after Glenn measured and marked him for identiďŹ cation. [See photo.] I would not be brave about catching the larger iguanas, though, because they might take a ďŹ nger off!

Greg: No, they can’t take your ďŹ ngers off‌.

Summer: Well, they do bite‌.

Greg: If you aren’t careful, they will latch onto you, and they won’t let go until they decide to or until you submerge them underwater--then, they’ll let go, eventually.

Living on a boat, in the middle of a cut between the north end of Providenciales and Little Water Cay, where Glenn’s research stations are located, is really pretty nice.

Summer: From the boat, we could look out over Grace Bay in the distance and see all the luxurious resorts. But there was nothing luxurious on the boat. There was no hot water, no shower—just a little handle in the bathroom, or a hose on the back deck. We had to sleep with a big Rubbermaid bowl in our bed because it rains there every night and the roof leaked in our cabin. I told Greg he could never call me “highmaintenance� again.

Greg: Since iguanas are not warm-blooded, they depend on the sun for regulating their body heat. You try to go out early in the day--

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com October 2019 DICTA 31

Q:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS Ryen, how did you become a drag racer, what’s it like, and how did a racecar driver from Nevada end up in Knoxville?

A:

RYEN M. LAMB, WINCHESTER, SELLERS, FOSTER & STEELE, P.C. ďŹ nesse and lightness you have, the easier they are to drive, and for the most part, they drive straight.

Once when I crashed, I got out of the car and asked if I could run one of our other cars, since technically, I was still in the race. My sister-in-law is an EMT working on the safety crew at the track – that’s how she and my brother met – so I knew all of the safety crew. They said: “You’re ďŹ ne, but no, you can’t; you’re family, you’re one of usâ€? and they sent me to the hospital to get checked out. Even after hitting a wall and rolling at about 165 m.p.h., if you’re going to be in a street car accident or a race car accident, give me the race car: it’s built to handle crashes.

How did I get here from Las Vegas? I wanted to move out of the West Coast – it has its own kind of feel to it, and I wanted something new and different. Vegas is such a large city, I wanted something smaller. I’d spent some time here; my brother actually drove for a team whose owner had a construction company in Maryville, so we had drag-raced around here.

While drag racing is a national thing and there are thousands of racers, it’s such a closely-knit community that you get to know people everywhere. When I moved here, I had eight or ten people within an hour of here volunteering to help me out.

I like this area – it’s so central to everything – and it was a place where I felt like I could live. Another perk: there are far more race tracks in this area than there are out west. You can get to ten drag strips within three hours of Knoxville. Outside of Vegas, the next closest one is in Phoenix, which is four or ďŹ ve hours away, or southern California, which is about the same distance.

At ďŹ rst, I didn’t think that being a lawyer would necessarily overlap with drag-racing. A drag race is over quickly, in six to seven seconds. It’s very fast, but you have to do so many things in thousandths of seconds. Most importantly, you have to ensure that if you mess up on the starting line, you get the mistake cleared from your brain quickly before you get to the ďŹ nish line. Being able to compartmentalize and see the little picture up-front while keeping in mind the big picture, without getting bogged down in the small things, is vital as a racer. And personally, I can be kind of emotional (I like it that I am in business and banking law, not criminal law or family law), but in racing, you have to execute in a matter of seconds--you cannot let emotions take over. You win or lose races in thousandths of a second, so you have to compartmentalize things. That is a life skill that really translates well to practicing law.

At a young age, I had to deal with sponsors and the corporate world; I had to get in front of adults in a way that’s foreign to most 16- or 17-year-olds. Those people skills put me into more of a grown-up world more quickly than many of my peers and I think those skills translate well into the legal ďŹ eld as well.

The mechanical knowledge is a plus as well as my mechanic skills have come in handy. I’ve helped a guy jump his car in the parking garage of our building once and I’m the ďŹ rst one people in our ofďŹ ce ask for advice if they are having car trouble. But it’s more the life skills that you learn in racing, though, that are so valuable and that can apply pretty well to law.

My dad raced boats when my brother and I were kids.

Speedboats are very unsafe; and cars are safer, my dad decided to get us involved with them instead. My brother is eight years older than me. He got a junior dragster when he was a kid for his birthday, a month before I was born. I basically grew up on a drag strip. I grew up just outside Las Vegas, and I started out with junior dragster, which is a mini dragster with a souped-up lawnmower engine. That has progressed into a ďŹ ve- or six-car team, racing all over the country with my brother and a couple teammates.

I started racing when I was seven, as well as doing gymnastics. I was on the collegiate route to gymnastics, and when I was in high school gymnastics, training 40-50 hours a week, I couldn’t race as much, and I stopped racing junior dragsters all together when I was about 12 or 13. I got hurt in gymnastics and couldn’t compete anymore and since cars were safer than gymnastics, I went back to that. I think I got my racing license before I got my driver’s license at 16! I began racing full-sized cars instead of junior dragsters since then.

I’ve raced all around the West Coast, California to Washington State; near Bristol; Chicago; St. Louis and around the Midwest – basically, from coast to coast. I was less able to do so as an undergrad and while I was in law school, of course. Our family’s team is made up of my brother and me plus two other drivers.

I predominantly drive dragsters; we now have one of them, although typically we’ve had two. These are 20-21 feet long, with a big block motor that puts out 1,000-1,400 horsepower. On our team, we also have two Chevy “factory� racecars.

They are “stockâ€? Camaros that you buy from the Chevy factory – they look like a stock car, but with built-in roll cages, no VIN numbers, and a 900 horsepower motor. You can only drag-race these cars; they’re not “street-legal.â€? Currently, we have a 2020 model and a 2018 model. Our other car is a Chevy Cobalt that has been stripped down and rebuilt into racecar. Cobalts (in my opinion) are not very nice-looking street cars, but they are perfect for drag racing. (I think half of the population of Chevy Cobalts is found at drag strips.) We once had a 1970 Camaro but we rotate through cars quite a bit so we just sold that. And now, even my ďŹ ve-year-old nephew has his own junior dragster.

Compared to my brother, I don’t know as much as I’d like to about maintenance and mechanics, but I know enough to get by. You can’t drive a race car well if you don’t understand what’s going on to your car and my brother and father always told me that if I don’t work on it, I don’t get to race it. My brother and I principally work on our team’s cars. And my dad helps, too, as we don’t have any other crew members.

I have been just under 200 miles an hour: 195 mph in 6.8 seconds over a quarter-mile course. Is it scary? No, it’s not scary at all. I have crashed a dragster before, but I’d rather be in an accident in a dragster again than in a street car on the freeway.

There’s so much safety equipment in dragsters, and they are relatively easy to drive. My brother told me when I started driving: “Whatever you do, don’t hold tightly to the steering wheel.� If you hold on to it with a “death grip,� any little movement your body or hands make causes the whole car to move. The more

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com November 2019

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Q:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS Judge Cerny, tell us about the Veterans Treatment Court and its veteran-to-veteran emphasis.

A:

THE HONORABLE CHUCK CERNY, KNOX COUNTY GENERAL SESSIONS COURT, DIVISION I

We started Veteran’s Treatment Court for one guy! We got started due to a request from one individual veteran who needed help. He wanted a fresh start in a new town, and he had family in Knoxville. He was on probation; it was a condition of his probation that he complete a Veteran’s Treatment Court. Some interested vets approached me and the Recovery Court Director, Ron Hanaver, on his behalf, and asked us to start a VTC. Since we did not have one in existence yet, we had to ďŹ gure out if we could start one to accommodate this one man. We perceived a need, and if we could help him, maybe we could eventually grow and help other veterans.

We thought we could take advantage of the infrastructure already in place. We already had the Recovery Court’s existing ofďŹ ce, budget and paid staff. We integrated the one major piece that was separate and different: we needed veterans to mentor veterans. The program would need veteran volunteers to help the criminal-justice-system-involved vets to get through the process of completing the program. The veterans with whom we met said: “Yeah, if you will run this court, we’ll step up and act as mentors!â€? So, we started a VTC with one criminal-justice-system-involved veteran and some veteran mentors who just wanted to help.

We have many reasons to be grateful for and proud of our military veterans. But something they have that is truly admirable is, they are a supportive community. They really have a desire to help each other; it’s part of their military training. Their positive inuence has impacted our Recovery Court population as well. I often remind our participants in both programs, “You’ve been welcomed into a community. That means you need to rely on each other and help each other.â€? Our staff tries to remind both our VTC and Recovery Court participants that one of the big goals of both programs is to reintegrate participants into society outside the criminal justice system.

What’s your sense of how veterans become addicted and how the justice system gets involved?

Trauma. The criminal justice system, and even society more recently, has been rethinking the “moral failureâ€? model to explain addiction. My experience, and the training I’ve received as a Recovery Court and VTC Judge, conďŹ rms that the addiction process starts with trauma, whether we are referring to one catastrophic event or multiple “micro-traumas.â€? You can probably guess that combat is traumatic. But service men and women are also exposed to other forms of trauma. It is not commonly known, but there is a phenomenon called “Military Sexual Trauma.â€? Our court has helped several MST victims.

Remember, not all victims of MST are female, and not all have been victimized by one perpetrator at a time.

I’m glad that our staff has the skill sets to help people who have faced this. The military trains people to be in combat together and have each other’s back, but then MST happens. It’s still something I’m trying to process myself.

The fact that we have to cobble together, in our court treatment programs, a way to help victims of military sexual abuse – male and female – is complicated.

Regardless of what a veteran has experienced before we meet them, it is really gratifying when a participant completes our program. Then, we can see people who can turn things around after something so catastrophic to their psyche. It’s going to be hard for the military to address this sexual violence crisis to the general public; it’s not something the public generally knows about.

So addiction is often a result of factors that are external to a person, as opposed to moral failure?

I’m no expert, by any means, but trauma happens to people. When people self-medicate, it often goes back to trying to minimize the pain caused by trauma. ScientiďŹ c, evidence-based, trauma-informed-care studies conďŹ rm this. Recovery-court judges are taught at national level continuing education to be aware of trauma, and what kinds of things can get addiction processes started.

It’s not like people aspire to this path. If you ask a little kid what they want to be when they grow up, they never say, “I want to be a drug addict with a felony record!� This doesn’t mean, though, that people are completely victims: people have choices. Our VTC staff understands that: personal choice and being accountable is important. Certainly, there are some people who are so vicious they have to be removed from society because we have good reason to fear that they can’t change. Those persons are not candidates for our court treatment programs.

If you want to reduce recidivism and save taxpayers’ dollars, it’s a natural, collateral consequence that VTC and Recovery Court participants will also have better lives. I fervently believe that; that’s why I try to spend extra time with these programs. Our community simply needs these special, problem solving courts. I don’t believe that people are disposable. You don’t throw human beings away because they have made unfortunate decisions.

While you’re not a veteran yourself, was there something in your past that gave you the motivation to be involved in Veteran’s Treatment Court?

This may sound a little syrupy, but to me, it comes back to my mother.

Imagine me at ďŹ ve years old, and my mom is holding me on her lap. She hugs me and gives me a big squeeze and tells me, “You’re my little bird!â€? I was at that point in my life where I want to be thought of as a “big boy.â€? So I try to push her away and tell her, “I’m a big boy! I’m not a little bird!â€? She grabs me tighter and tells me, “You will always be my little bird.â€?

Fast-forward to me as a young adult, trying to keep a job, pay bills, and “make it on my own.â€? I’ve just experienced some failure I thought was catastrophic at the time; now, I can’t even remember what it was. I’m at a fast-food place, and they have outdoor seating, and there are little ďŹ nches and sparrows scurrying around, trying to avoid getting stepped on, and trying to get food scraps that have fallen on the ground. They are so fragile, and even though they aren’t big or colorful or ashy like other birds, they are so tender and cute. One of them looks me dead in the eye, I look down at my food, and I look back and say, “Dude, I’m sorry about the chicken nuggets! But I’ve got some fries!â€?

Are you sure you didn’t get this from the Bob Marley song?

I thought this was a revelation from my higher power! Seriously, mom called me her little bird about 1966-67. (Marley’s album “Exodus,� with “Three Little Birds,� came out in 1977, but I never heard the song until the ‘90’s!)

Anyway, I knew in that moment at the fast-food place what my mother was trying to tell me, and what she wanted me to always remember: to her, I would always be precious. I might be fragile, maybe not big like an eagle or ashy like a parrot, but I would always be tender, precious and even cute to my mom.

Somehow I knew in that moment that our creator thinks of me the same way my mom did. And beyond that, our creator thinks of all of us that way: we are all tender, precious, fragile and even cute to somebody, even if our mothers didn’t say so. Everybody is somebody’s “little bird.�

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com December 2019

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Q:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS Buddy, would you share with DICTA’s readers what your family’s travels in Iceland were like?

A:

REUBEN N. (BUDDY) PELOT IV, EGERTON, MCAFEE, ARMISTEAD & DAVIS, P.C.

Absolutely. Imagine if Yellowstone were an island, but bigger and less crowded, and the bison were sheep, the deer were reindeer, the ravens were swans, and the wolves were whales. That’s Iceland.

Our youngest daughter picked Iceland for her senior trip after graduating from Bearden. She wanted to see the Northern Lights, but the only time we could all go was around July 4. The sun barely sets in Iceland then, so no Northern Lights, but a lot more daylight for exploring!

We arrived June 27 in Keavik and rented an 8-passenger van for me, my wife, our three daughters, and two sons-in-law. The van had a 6-speed manual transmission with a worn out clutch. I mention this because we traveled the entire Ring Road of Iceland over the course of ten days. Although the Ring Road is Iceland’s major highway, it’s only two-lanes, think Northshore, with lots of one lane bridges and even one-lane tunnels, some as long as 7 kms. The iffy clutch made it that much more interesting.

First stop: Reykjavik, the largest city in Iceland with almost two-thirds of the country’s population, yet still about 60,000 less than just the City of Knoxville. We only spent a few hours in Reykjavik. We ate at the wharf, walked downtown, and visited the iconic Hallgrimskirkja Church with its basalt-inspired architecture and statue of Leif Erikson, the ďŹ rst European to set foot on continental North America.

On our way to our ďŹ rst Airbnb in Hella about 1.5 hours southeast, we stopped to hike up a ridge dotted with bubbling sulfur springs in the Reykjadalur Valley to the “Hot Riverâ€? where we stripped down to our bathing suits and soaked in the 100 degree river (large creek) while sheep walked past on either side. We dried off and had some excellent pizza at Olverk in Hveragerdi before heading to Hella.

June 28, we drove the Golden Circle - a popular daytrip drive close to Reykjavik. We started with a short hike around Kerid Crater, a former volcano with a small crater lake. Next: the Geysers at Haukadalur, a geothermal area with two popular geysers Stokkur and Geysir.

There must be very few lawyers in Iceland. Not much in the way of warnings or safeguards around spouting geysers or steep hikes around waterfalls and canyons. You could stand within feet of Strokkur as it spouted steam over a hundred feet in the air. Then off to Gullfoss, one of the most impressive waterfalls in Iceland, and then Thingvellir National Park where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet. Thingviller was the location for the “All Thingsâ€? general assembly held annually from 930 to 1262 A.D. where laws and judgments were proclaimed from the Law Rock. (For G.OT. fans -- ďŹ lming location for the Bloody Gate and other scenes.)

June 29, we drove east along southern Iceland from Hella to Vik and back, stopping at Seljafoss Waterfall, Black Sand Beach, and Dyrholaey Promontory and Arch, with a short hike to stand on the base of Solheimajokull glacier, followed by 500+ stairstep climb to the top of Skogafoss waterfall, and ďŹ nally a photo op in front of the grass-roofed cowsheds of Drangurinn in Drangshlid, said to be home to elves.

June 30, we drove east again to stay on a farm located west of Hofn below the Vatnajokull glacier. We took an impromptu drive through a sea of purple and white Lupine owers to Hjorleifshofdi, a vast black sand beach and

the “Yoda Cave� -- looking out from inside, the opening is in the exact shape of Yoda. We then hiked to Svartifoss Waterfall and its basalt columns, and then visited Svinafellsjokull glacier before stopping at Jokulsarlon, a/k/a Glacier Lagoon, where icebergs are making their way to the ocean or Diamond Beach where we watched seals and took pics on large hunks of ice scattered on the black sand.

Then dinner at Jon Riki restaurant on a family farm miles from anywhere at the base of two glaciers.

July 1, we drove east along the southern coast to the eastern fjords until we arrived at our next house in Eskifjordur, a scenic and small trading post town nestled in the fjord. The drive was eye-popping with the glaciers in the distance, numerous waterfalls and swans, and even a whale.

July 2, we drove to the port town of Seydisfordur, quaintly snuggled between snow-capped ridges at the end of the steep and winding road from the longboarding scene in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. After food and a hike to the Tvisongur sound sculpture, we went to Borgarfjordur Eystri to see a pufďŹ n colony up close. Leaving, we were lucky enough to watch a small herd of reindeer wandering up over the pass.

July 3, we drove north from Eskifjordur to Akureyri. On the way, we explored Studlagil Canyon framed on both sides by tall, vertical basalt columns. Driving north, the landscape changed from lush green to Mars-like. We stopped at Namafjall Geothermal Area. More bubbling, steaming sulfur vents and pools. Again, nothing more than thin ropes keeping the populace from the boiling sulfur.

We capped the day at the Myvatn Nature Baths for a soak in a large 100 degree geothermal pool overlooking Lake Myvatn.

July 4, we celebrated our independence with a whale watching excursion in Husavik at the 66th parallel just 21 miles from the Arctic Circle. After bundling up, we rode the zodiac boat around a huge rock island with an enormous pufďŹ n colony and chased down a half dozen whales and some dolphin.

July 5, we drove north from Akureyri to the small ďŹ shing town of Siglufjordur, enjoying fresh ďŹ sh and chips and another beautiful drive. A combination of the PaciďŹ c Coast Highway in the Big Sur and Loveland Pass in Colorado.

The highlight of the trip? On our last night, our oldest daughter lined us up on the back porch for a family photo. Just before we thought the timer on her camera was about to go off, she said, “Smile! We are going to have a baby!�

A great way to end an epic trip -- learning we are about to be grandparents!

July 6 was a beautiful drive from Akureyri back to Keavik with stops to hike to a volcano rim and eat in another ďŹ shing village. Amazingly, the van made it all the way around the island nation.

If you are looking to get away from the crowds, Iceland is it. Though outnumbered by sheep, the people of Iceland were great. While they spoke Icelandic amongst themselves, they spoke English to us. We never had a bad meal. Lots of lamb and seafood, and no taxes and no tips are accepted or expected in Iceland. Although we spent most of our time in sparsely populated places, we almost always had cell service (and Google Maps). Next time – northern lights.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com January 2020

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Q:

THE LAST WORD By: 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

John, would you mind telling DICTA’s readers about the “great elephant caper of 1978?�

A:

JOHN K. KING LEWIS, THOMASON, KING, KRIEG & WALDROP, P.C.

This happened during Lamar Alexander’s 1978 gubernatorial campaign.

Lamar had asked me to help him, so I was responsible for Lamar’s campaign for Knox County and several of the surrounding counties. Lamar’s opponent was Jake Butcher.

The Butcher campaign was well ďŹ nanced and they were very active and organized – a tough opponent.

We learned that Jake had rented the Knoxville Coliseum for a big campaign event – they literally drove people to it in school buses – and two of my campaign volunteers, Janet Testerman (the elder) and Micki Childress, who got dressed up in wigs and vintage clothes, went to spy on Jake’s rally for us. (While we had some very energetic campaign workers, our women volunteers were really outstanding and energetic.) Janet and Micki came back and said, “Jake had a large and ďŹ red-up crowd! We’ve really got to do something big in Knox County.â€?

So, the next night, a bunch of us gathered at a local watering hole to plan Lamar’s big campaign event in Knoxville. We were thinking about what Janet and Micki had told us. One of our group said: “Here’s something ‘big’: what if we get an elephant?� They began talking about getting an elephant, and dressing it in a huge red-and-black plaid shirt, Lamar’s signature shirt. Everybody laughed; I said, “Let’s keep thinking about this.� It seemed like such a crazy idea, and where in the world were we going to get an elephant?

Then, at 2:00 a.m. the next morning, one of our most enthusiastic volunteers, a young woman named Molly Weaver (she is now Molly Pratt), called me at home. I was sound asleep; as I answered the phone, before even saying hello, she said: “Mr. King, what size elephant do you want?â€? I was just abbergasted. I couldn’t believe it. I said, “Well, I guess any size elephant ought to work.â€? She said, “I found one, but it’s not fully grown.â€? She knew one of the people at the Knoxville Zoo, and he agreed to loan us a young elephant for our event, as long as he could accompany it. So, we rented the Coliseum and scheduled the event. (I know the Coliseum had no idea that we were planning to bring an elephant to our event.)

Well, we were off. Since Lamar was all about showing a spirit of bipartisanship, somebody asked, “Don’t we need a donkey, too?� So, we also found a donkey.

The handler drove the elephant over from the zoo; since we couldn’t get a plaid shirt big enough to ďŹ t an elephant, somebody found a red-and-black plaid table cloth or something like it that, which we draped over the back of the elephant. We also found a similar sheet or table cloth that we put on the donkey. We put the elephant and the donkey out in front of the Coliseum. I stood and watched as the handler helped kids get up and ride on the elephant’s back – he’d turn around in a little circle, then stop – and families were posing for pictures with both animals. As the starting time for the event got closer, there was still quite a line of folks and kids waiting to see the elephant. So, I got the idea: what if I bring the elephant on-stage and walk him from one side of the stage to the other?

We had two high-school bands playing, one on each side of the stage, while the people ďŹ led in to take their seats; while that was going on, we got the elephant and the handler in through the back loading dock door of the Coliseum and up in the area on stage behind the curtains. Representative Duncan was the ďŹ rst speaker; he was supposed to introduce Representative Robin Beard, who in turn would introduce Howard Baker, who in turn would introduce Lamar. Politicians being politicians, they began to talk longer than scheduled; we had to get things back on-track so that Howard could timely introduce Lamar.

There was one problem with this particular elephant: nobody had told me that he was incontinent.

As Robin Beard was making his speech, the incontinent elephant did what incontinent elephants do – on the stage, behind the curtains, right while Robin was in mid-speech. There was a urry of activity: people are grabbing mops, buckets, brooms, desperately trying to sweep the elephant’s water off the back of the stage area. You’ve never seen or heard such a commotion, and the elephant is still standing there.

Robin, still speaking, heard all of this commotion going on behind him. He looked over his shoulder and asked, on-air, so to speak: “What the hell’s going on back there?â€? I stuck my head out through the curtain and gave him the “keep-rollingâ€? ďŹ nger gesture. He gave me a look, but he kept going. Then, Robin ďŹ nished up his speech, and Howard came up – I don’t recall where he was seated, maybe in the audience – and he gave his speech and introduced Lamar without any “hiccups.â€?

Howard had no idea of what had just happened, nor did Lamar--at least, not until it was all over.

As for me, I got that elephant out the back door of the Coliseum and back to the Zoo. He’d already been incontinent, and I didn’t want to think what else might happen next! We gave up on the idea of walking him across the stage.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com February 2020

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THE LAST WORD )`! 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Q: A:

Mark, what are your own “last words� and thoughts in retrospect on your service as the Knox County Public Defender?

MARK E. STEPHENS, THE LAW FIRM OF MARK E. STEPHENS October 31, 2019 was my last day at the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law OfďŹ ce. I’d been there a little over 29 years. My transition back to the private practice of law has been difďŹ cult ‌ more difďŹ cult than I had anticipated.

About twenty years ago, when the CLO was transitioning to a holistic (interdisciplinary) representation model, Dr. Roger Nooe, who holds a Ph.D. in social work, emphasized the professional parallels between social workers and public defenders. Dr. Nooe would tell me that both social workers and public defenders tend to be viewed at the bottom of their respective professions. He always challenged me not to practice consistent with the public defender stereotype. Dr. Nooe was right. There is a negative public defender stereotype.

There are lawyer jokes, but worse there are public defender jokes ... a million of them. Some as benign as, “are you a public pretender?â€?, while others are as cutting as the T-shirt that on the front displayed, “don’t tell my mom I’m a public defender,â€? and on the back said, “she thinks I’m a piano player in a whore house.â€? But I really don’t get the joke. Without question, the greatest lawyers, the ďŹ nest people, I have come to know - in my life - have been, and many remain, public defenders. The men and women at the CLO make up an absolutely relentless ďŹ ghting machine ... an irrepressible force for justice. A group that suffers great sacriďŹ ce to themselves and their families, nevertheless they come to work every day ‌ and I mean every day ‌ to ďŹ ght for the sons and daughters, moms and dads, the forgotten and cast-offs, who are their clients. And as a way of saying thanks, we grossly underpay them, overwork them, disregard them, and even make fun of them. They deserve better.

Society today is quick to label someone - or some group - as “heroes.â€? FireďŹ ghters, police ofďŹ cers, EMT personnel, school teachers ‌ all heroes. I’ve always pushed back at those characterizations, not because of any failure to appreciate what people in those professions do for others, but because of my anger that public defenders are never cast in that light. If you are going to recognize heroes, you should recognize the men and women at the CLO. My transition to private practice has been difďŹ cult because I miss those folks. They grounded me. The ďŹ ght for justice they take on everyday had been my ďŹ ght ‌ my identity. And that’s gone now. I respect those men and women, I admire them, I love them. And now I’m trying to discover a purpose as great as theirs.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com March 2020

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THE LAST WORD )`! 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Q:

Will, you’ve been quite a traveler, maybe even what one might call a “globetrotter.� What is it about the traveling life that animates and inspires you?

A:

WILLIAM H. SKELTON

Many people love to travel. Even our local newspaper once had an entire weekly “travelâ€? section. However, with the slow demise of print journalism, only the larger newspapers have retained a travel section, which is the ďŹ rst thing I read in the Sunday NY Times. I’ve always loved all kinds of travel, starting with my ďŹ rst trip outside of East Tennessee, with my grandmother and two brothers in the 1950s. We caught a train in Bulls Gap, Tennessee, to see a favorite aunt in Mobile, Alabama. It involved driving from my home in Surgoinsville to the train station and, yes, there was a passenger train stop in Bulls Gap back then. From that original train ride onward, I’ve used just about all methods of seeing places away from home, throughout the world, traveling by car, ship, train and airplane, as well as by canoe, trekking, bush ights, and backpacking on more adventurous trips. I’ve been lucky to have had the health and ďŹ nances to travel and the indulgence of two wonderful law ďŹ rms, ďŹ rst, Baker Worthington, followed by Bass Berry & Sims, both of which allowed me to take time off pre-retirement. I’ve continued to travel in the dozen years since retirement, seeing a lot more of the world, including all of our states and the Canadian provinces, all the continents except Antarctica, all of our National Parks except four, and almost 70 countries. So I’ve obviously been busy. And enjoyed the travel immensely.

Why do some of us love seeing other places so much? There are lots of reasons but some of us plain love travel and others don’t (I have a brother who would almost always just as soon stay home). So there’s maybe a genetic desire to explore new places, have different experiences, meet people that differ in religion, customs, cuisine and looks. And for me, travel is always rewarding and satisfying, even with the unavoidable hassles and things going wrong (for example, this year in Cusco, Peru, I broke my foot, the ďŹ rst bone-break ever). There’s also something about travel that reinvigorates and revitalizes me, and I’m always feeling a sense of joie de vivre before, during and after a trip. I’m like many people who get a sort of “cabin feverâ€? after several months of no “bigâ€? trips, with a sense of discontent and lethargy. A good trip relieves those symptoms right away.

Another reason for travel may be that as one ages (or maybe anytime), the years come and go with accelerating frequency. One means I’ve found (of course in a non-Einsteinian way) to slow down time a bit is with new experiences. Especially when traveling or backpacking to new places it seems that time slows down and each moment is more memorable. I still recall many details of each day from an expedition into Alaska’s far-north Gates of the Arctic National Park in 2015, and from ďŹ ve similar trips dating to 1969 and later but, on the other hand, really can’t remember much from a “normalâ€? week this year.

There’s another good reason to travel besides simply liking it.

Anthony Bourdain said it well: “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay.

The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.â€? I completely agree and believe that travel and contact with different people in different places make you a better person, more tolerant, more accepting of people that are different from you, more kind and generous, and more thankful for what we have, especially here in the USA. As Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness‌â€? And, from an anonymous source: “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.â€?

The most common question after a trip is which place you liked most? That’s difďŹ cult to answer, as every trip and every place is both different and the same. But my general response is this. First, if you’re doing an adventure-type trip, like backpacking or trekking or canoeing, for me there’s nothing like the Arctic mountain wilderness, north of the Yukon River in northern Alaska where you can spend weeks and see not a single person nor any sign of human presence (in contrast to, for example, the high Andes or Himalayas, where people are living and farming up to 10,000 feet and more). After the Arctic there are our own wild areas in the lower 48, where I especially like the Southern Appalachians, the canyon country of Utah (which, other than the southeast US, is probably my most frequent destination, having done at least 28 week-long backpacks there since 1982), the Wind River Range in Wyoming, the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, the Beartooth Mountains in Montana, and Boundary Waters Canoe Area/Quetico Provincial Park in Minnesota & Quebec. And second, if you’re doing a more typical stay-in-hotels trip, I’d probably pick Peru, which I’ve visited ďŹ ve times, for its incredible array of archeology going back as far as the Pyramids and Mesopotamian cities, plus great scenery, people, and food. Close second choices would be New Zealand, Norway, Italy (which tops my list for simply wonderful food), and the European Alps.

After what you liked best, people commonly ask travelers where they plan to travel next. For me, it’s probably South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, which top my bucket list. That list has been winnowed down a lot over the years, but still so many places remain, some of which are simply not safe to visit (and haven’t been for some time), like Angel Falls in Venezuela, and a place in eastern Turkey that features the world’s oldest temple, GĂśbekli Tepe, located high on a mountainside. Neale Donald Walsch said regarding travel that “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.â€? As mentioned above, travel isn’t always comfortable but is almost always rewarding. So, allocate some of your time and money to seeing a few of those places you read about in elementary school or a friend told you about or were featured in a TV documentary, whether a guided tour or an adventure you do on your own, traveling in comfort or by your own arms and legs, whether nearby or far away. You’ll be rewarded in ways you didn’t expect.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com April 2020

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THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q:

Christine, what fired your interest in the study and practice of animal law?

A:

CHRISTINE BALL-BLAKELY Environmental Litigation Fellow, Animal Legal Defense Fund1

To explain how I became interested in animal law, I will have to go back—way, way back—to a time when there was no internet, everyone was “investing” in Beanie Babies, and Nancy Kerrigan’s kneecap was still intact.

I grew up on a small farm in North Knoxville, complete with a white farmhouse, a sugar maple in the yard, and a big red barn. Our farm was home to many animals throughout the years, including two orange and white cows—named Pumpkin and Tater—who spent their days chomping through the lush green grass and clover that graced the pasture. My little brother and I spent a lot of time running around in that pasture too, climbing trees, making mud pies, and catching lightning bugs.

I was about eight years old when Pumpkin and Tater were slaughtered. I believed at first that they had gone to live on another farm, but soon learned that they were on my plate and in my family’s freezer. I am in my thirties now, but I still remember in vivid detail what it was like to realize that my friends had become my food. I tried and failed to understand why I would ever want to eat these personality-filled individuals who I had known and loved. I had no idea who Tom Regan was at the time, but I think eight-year-old me would have agreed with him that “each of us is equal because each of us is equally a somebody, not a something, the subject-of-a-life, not a life without a subject.”2 As a teenager, I learned that Pumpkin and Tater were actually some of the “lucky” ones, relatively speaking. Though they still ended up in the slaughterhouse at a young age, they had good lives while they lived. They had warm stalls, plenty of pasture to roam, all the tasty grass and clover they could eat, and unlimited ear scratches from yours truly.

rates of illness and injury, among other things. On top of all that, they are prevented from engaging in natural behaviors, such as forming familial bonds. Dairy cows, for example, face endless cycles of impregnation, and they cry out for their calves when they are taken from them at birth.

In the end, factory farmed animals meet the same fate as Pumpkin and Tater: they are loaded up and transported to the slaughterhouse.

It would be accurate to say (in official medical terminology, of course) that this information broke my teenage brain. I scrawled “end factory farming” on my to-do list, where it remains to this day. In college, I studied animal ethics and got a philosophy degree. During law school, I carved out time in my schedule for a graduate-level philosophy class on animal status and cognition. After law school, I took on animal law Pro Bono projects. And now, following a series of unexpected life developments and opportunities, I work for a nonprofit organization making the case that animals are sentient individuals—not resources for human consumption.

Like all of us, I spend most of my time indoors these days, listening to R.E.M.’s newly-relevant work3 and fretting about toilet paper. Fretting aside, however, the COVID-194 quarantine has ushered in an eerie, quiet reality filled only with unfamiliar free time and mental space. I often find my mind wandering back to my childhood, and my memories—both good and bad—bring me peace and comfort in these most uncertain of times. I am grateful for the time my brother and I spent in the pasture with Pumpkin and Tater, grateful for the chance to learn early on that I am a part of the natural world, and grateful for my kinship with the other animals who inhabit it.

1

2 3 4

In stark contrast, most farmed animals in the United States are raised in factory farms. They never feel the grass beneath their feet, and many of them never even see sunlight. They are subject to intense confinement, mutilation (such as debeaking, in the case of birds), and high

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not attributable to the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

TOM REGAN, ANIMAL RIGHTS, HUMAN WRONGS: AN INTRODUCTION TO MORAL PHILOSOPHY 81 (2003).

R.E.M., IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE) (I.R.S. Records 1987).

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that some believe COVID-19—like H1N1 and SARS—originated in populations of confined animals raised for human consumption.

See, e.g., Gene Bauer, We have no one to blame for the coronavirus but ourselves, THE HILL (Apr. 6, 2020), https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/491293-wehave-no-one-to-blame-for-the-coronavirus-but-ourselves.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com May 2020

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THE LAST WORD )`! 1HJR / 5PJR 4J*HSS

Q:

How did you two meet, and what did D-Day have to do with it?

A:

JAMIE BALLINGER,

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C.,

AND MICHAEL HOLDEN

We met at the Abbaye d’Ardenne not far from the beaches of Normandy, France on June 5, 2000. We are coming up on two big milestones in 2020. It will be twenty years this June since we met and 15 years since we married. The Abbaye d’Ardenne is a beautiful, rustic place that is not terribly well known. It sits near Caen, France and is a couple hours by train outside of Paris.

Jamie was staying at the Abbaye for two weeks as one of 18 Normandy Scholars from the University of Tennessee. Mike was staying at the Abbaye for five days as a part of a tour through England, Belgium, and France as one of ten scholars with the Canadian Battle of Normandy Foundation. Both programs were academically rigorous and had a tough selection process. Once accepted, for Normandy Scholars, you did a full semester of course work solely focused on World War II with an emphasis on: the military advancements significant to World War II, the French Resistance, and the Holocaust, among many others topics. With the Canadian Battle of Normandy Foundation, the scholars all presented a lecture and series of activities while at a site of particular significance in the annals of Canadian military history. The purpose of both programs was to ensure that, as societies, we do not forget the causes of World War I and World War II and that we learn from the past.

The evening that we met was the night before the 56th Anniversary of D-Day, which occurred on June 6, 1944. It was a pretty heady experience that evening. Here we were-- a bunch of Americans and a bunch of Canadians sitting in the courtyard of an eleventh century abbey in France (poking fun at each other’s countries) and trying to wrap our heads around how all those men felt 56 years ago-- the assault delayed by 24 hours, sea sick and buffeted by winds- attempting to make a surprise attack on Fortress Europe in a World War in its fifth year. Each of us had read all the books; we knew how it all played out; we knew how many would die; we knew it would finally turn the tide against the Nazis, but the men on those boats didn’t know that. The Canadian group had just returned from Sword Beach (one of the two British beaches) where they had met a German veteran who told them what he remembered seeing when he woke up on the morning of June 6th. Meanwhile, the Normandy Scholars remembered a D-Day veteran and Knoxvillian, Ben Franklin, who had told them firsthand how he alone survived out of all of the men on his landing craft.

What so many people forget, was that success on D-Day was far from inevitable. When Germany took France in 1940, France had what was considered the number one military in the world. General Dwight Eisenhower, Commander of Operation Overlord, after giving the Order to attack on D-Day, wrote both a success letter and a failure letter, the latter saying: “Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.�

The effort did not fail. Five beaches were stormed by 156,000 Allied Troops on D-Day: Utah and Omaha beaches by the Americans; Gold and Sword beaches by the British; and Juno Beach by the Canadians. Nearly 4,000 Allied Troops lost their lives that day. It is also often forgotten that troops from Australia, Belgium, Greece, Poland, and France, among many other nations, stormed the beaches that day.

After meeting in France, we both went home to our respective countries to finish up school, but we kept in touch. We ultimately ended up dating five years long distance and we got married in 2005. We went back to the Abbaye d’Ardenne in 2002. It will always be a very significant place for us. The place doesn’t make us whimsical or romantic. It is a place with a lot of history, a lot of loss, and a lot of joy. Like all good things, it isn’t simple and neither are we.

We get choked up talking about D-Day, even though it is also a part of how we met. We always encourage people traveling to France to go to Normandy and to go to the D-Day beaches. On the Anniversary of D-Day on a Normandy beach, you can still see American veterans and Canadian Veterans, among those from many other nations, including Germany, returning, though we lose more of veterans every year. On D-Day the French fly the American Flag over the Tricolore at Utah and Omaha Beaches, the Union Jack over the Tricolore at Gold and Sword Beaches, and the Maple Leaf over the Tricolore at Juno. Those that lost their lives are honored, as they should be. It is a scarred place. The beaches are beautiful, but all the craters created by bombs, concrete bunkers, and barricades on the beach are still there for a reason. You can stand and take in all the beauty, and you should. You can stand and take in the cost, and you should.

“The Last Word� column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com June 2020

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THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall Note: One of the glories of summer—every American summer—is baseball. As for so many things in 2020, this has been a summer like no other. Before coronavirus’ full impact hit Knoxville this spring, Nick McCall interviewed Tyler Chastain on coaching baseball. This is offered not just to tell Tyler’s story, but also in the fond hope that one day, we can all hear again the treasured sounds of a baseball bat cracking against a fast ball; the thump of a solid catch landing in an outfielder’s glove; and the cheers of a roaring crowd as a fast-running batter comes in to home base.

Q:

Tyler, would you tell us what led you to coaching youth baseball?

A:

TYLER CHASTAIN Bernstein, Stair & McAdams LLP

I always played baseball while I was in high school. As soon as I graduated law school, one of the partners at my first firm, Hodges Doughty & Carson, asked me to help him coach a youth team. A year out of law school, I started coaching at the West Hills rec park before I had kids. I did a baseball mission trip to Cuba for ten days before my kids were old enough to play; I kept playing until I was 30. My son Hudson was born in 1999, and I started him at Lakeshore in T-ball when he was three. I started coaching one of his teams up through 8th grade; we played at Lakeshore and Farragut. When he was 10, we started a local “travel ball” team; when he was 12, he started playing at CAK. Hudson went on to play at Transylvania University.

Coach Tommy Pharr had won five state titles at Farragut over an eight-year stretch before CAK hired him. He let me use the field for practice when Hudson was in 5th grade. The next year, Tommy needed a coach for the 6th grade team. I took on CAK’s middle school program when Hudson was in 6th grade. This is now my tenth year of coaching at CAK. We had one team for the first two years; I have run two teams for the last eight years. Our Middle School program is grades 4-8. Our Junior Varsity team is 4th through 6th graders, and Varsity is 7th, 8th and high 6th graders.

I especially like coaching middle schoolers. A lot of people don’t like to coach middle school. You’ve got such a wide range in that age segment.

The span of ages run from some kids who are going to get their learning permits this summer, to kids who are going to turn ten during the year.

My thing is to try to keep them interested in baseball. Baseball is a hard sport: it’s not one that you can just pick up and play if you’re not steadily practicing. (Even if you do practice, it’s not always fun.) Sometimes, I enjoy the younger kids the most; the things they say and do, I have to take a step back and wonder.

At CAK, the high school program is very good. It’s won the last three State titles in a row, and Coach Pharr is just a tremendous coach. He gives me full rein to help the middle schoolers grow, and he gives us ample field time. We have an indoor batting dome; he lets us practice three nights a week. We practice during the season on Saturdays, too. If you’re not playing another sport, you can practice baseball year-round at CAK. I have three other coaches; the coaches are all dedicated, and it’s not what I’d call “daddy ball.” I haven’t had my son on the CAK team for six years.

That gives me a little more credibility because I don’t have to worry about who gets to play. My coaches have sons, but they don’t coach their sons.

You know the saying that you have “Friday Night Lights” in football?

Well, we have drizzly Wednesday nights in baseball. When you’re on the team, maybe you’ve got your mom there; sometimes, the game starts too early, and your dad can’t make it; you look in the stands, and there are maybe 15 people there. So, our goal is to make it fun for them and give them a chance to play.

I could do other things, I’m sure, with my time. We haven’t had kids at home for three years now; my wife joins me to watch and help out with the games. We try to treat the kids like they are our own; that means that we try to impart discipline. When the kids come to practice, they have to wear their hats; they have to wear their shirts tucked-in. We stress: Look like you want to be out here.

When the kids leave the middle school program, we want them to have had fun, and if they want to go on to play baseball in high school, they’ve got the foundation. We use the same vocabulary and the same drills that they will face on the first day of high school practice.

If someone asks me, “What’s your record?,” I’m not worried about the record. We’ll load the kids up and go to Chattanooga to Baylor or McCallie. They have to learn to travel and pack their bags; they have to learn how to communicate and tell their parents what time they need to pick them up. They have to learn how to keep up with money and buy food before games. We do it all to give them something more than just, “Here’s a bucket of balls; play ball.” They’re only young once. The last thing I want is to have a kid say: “I haven’t had any fun, so I don’t want to play baseball.”

Kids develop at different speeds. I have some of the 6th graders who are better than some of the 8th graders, but if that 8th grader sticks with it, he may be a great high-school player. Very few high-school players will play college baseball, so we try to keep the middle school program the best we can. At the end of the day, if they don’t like it and quit, they’re never coming back. You rarely see a child who quits in middle school ever come back to play again.

I don’t allow parents to coach with me unless their sons have been in the program at least one year. I want to see how dedicated they are. The worst ride home for most kids is the one where they haven’t played well, and they’re going to hear all about it from their parents. There’s not one kid out there who’s trying to mess up. We try to create some separation with our parents to let the kids grow up a little. If you yell at them, they’re not going to come back. Unlike football—where there’s some distance and noise; the parents can yell all they want—in baseball, the parents are 10 feet away. (I tell some kids, “If I see you looking back at your parents after every swing, I’m going to take you out, and we’ll talk about it.”)

If I see a kid who’s a high-school senior, and he still calls you “Coach,” even if he’s not playing ball anymore, you know you’ve left a memory.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com September 2020

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THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q:

Willie, your work often involves what can be a complex and challenging subject matter for many of us: domestic abuse. You once had a mentor who not only helped prepare you for much of what the practice of law entails, but also who heartily encouraged you when you were a paralegal to attend law school.

A:

WILLIE R. LANE Assistant District Attorney General

Three decades, two husbands, an additional daughter and two grandchildren ago, I was a paralegal working in Knoxville. I had been hired by what was then McCampbell & Young in 1988, and I truly loved my job. I was fortunate to work with wonderful and gracious people. I found the work challenging, and I had far exceeded any career path I had dreamed for myself.

It was there that I was asked to do some research by one of the associates, Lawrence F. Giordano. I turned in the work, and he brought me in and told me it was good. He gave me some other assignments, and I was surprised to discover that he was actually using the research in various responses and motions. Going into all the reasons this was amazing to me would add nothing to this story; just suffice it to say that he made me feel smart, which was new for me. Very new.

I worked with him and his secretary, Sue Christenberry, for several years. I thought things were going fairly well, but apparently my boss thought otherwise. He called me in to his office one day and told me that he was tired of me putting in my two cents on the best way to handle his cases. He told me, verbatim, that I could not drive the bus without a license and handed me an application to the University of Tennessee College of Law. I was dumbstruck. The thought of attending law school was as foreign to me as becoming a brain surgeon. When I decided to try to be a paralegal, I had to go back and finish my undergrad degree (the path to which was a might crooked) because in order to get into the school I wanted to attend, the one that would give me the greatest chance at employment, I had to either have a bachelor’s degree or have an attorney recommend me. I didn’t know one to ask. Not one. To think I could be accepted by any law school, much less actually graduate and pass the bar? Out of the question. I held on to that application for a year. Kept it in my desk and pulled it out now and then. And during that year, Larry continued to encourage me. He made me think that just maybe I could do this.

And so I did.

Which brings me to today. I have worked at the Knox County District Attorney’s office since before I graduated law school and have been a prosecutor there since the day I (somehow) passed the bar. I am also the most fortunate soul in that I have been allowed to work the majority of those years where my passion lies; the prosecution of domestic violence cases. Four prosecutors and two of the best Victim Witness

Coordinators you could ever ask to work alongside focus solely on these difficult and complicated cases. None of which would have occurred but for Larry’s encouragement. But my debt of gratitude to Larry goes beyond the fact that he pushed me into obtaining a law degree. I witnessed attributes from the years I worked with him that help me to this day.

He showed me that there is nothing wrong with arguing for your case strongly. Very strongly. Perhaps a little loudly as well. Passion for your client or your victim is not to be hidden or suppressed unless it takes away from your objectivity. Larry Giordano has always exemplified this and is not afraid to show just how much he cares for the cause or the client.

He personified that it is possible to argue against opposing counsel (please refer to the strong and at times loud comment above) but still have respect for them and to leave it in the court room. For myself, this is never more true than when I am arguing against members of the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office, truly some of the hardest working and most dedicated attorneys in our bar. We can argue our opposite sides fiercely, but maintain respect for each other and, very often, friendship. Larry showed me that.

But the main thing Larry showed me was, even when dealing with complex situations, always use your common sense. Get to the heart of it and figure out the best thing to do for all involved, even if it is not the easiest path. Larry could break down an issue to its core and attack it or, more often than not, simplify it and solve it. He is not a one-note wonder and intuitively knows what is needed in each circumstance. This has guided me in so many ways. When trying to determine the best course to take on any given case, I try to remember that people’s lives are affected by the actions we take. The goal is to find out which path is most likely to keep the victim from being hurt again and to try to understand what brought the defendant in to that court room. What does he or she need to keep them from carrying out the same violent actions again?

Demonizing a defendant in a domestic violence case is simplistic and damaging ultimately to the victim. To see each defendant as a monster aids in victim blaming because it should be easy to leave a monster. Not so easy to walk away from a person that you care about that has done a truly horrible thing for which they have to be held responsible and accountable.

Could he or she benefit from mental health counseling, classes designed specifically for batterers, substance abuse treatment or is this someone whose act or history merits incarceration? The truth is seldom black or white. Each case is unique and should be treated so. Anyone that has ever worked with Larry would attest to the fact that he is thoughtful about each case and takes the time to find the right answer.

I will never be half the attorney Larry Giordano is, and almost thirty years have passed since he made me believe I could try. I am more grateful than ever to have had his example as my guide.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com October 2020

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THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q:

So, Dale, what’s with the kangaroo in your office?

WALLY Junior Associate at Montpelier, Della-Rodolfa & Lope, P.C. Well first of all, mate, I am not a kangaroo. I am a WALLABY, an Agile Wallaby to be precise.

You probably see the correlation with my name! For all practical purposes, wallabies and kangaroos are identical with a few big differences such as how we use our tails. The biggest difference is our size. I will grow to about 40 inches, whereas a male red kangaroo will exceed 9 feet including its tail! Now I know the scurrilous connotations kangaroos have in the legal community, which brings me to our second biggest difference. While we are all born with the law in our genes, the law genes in a wallaby are always fair and balanced, our attitude is one of serenity and compassion, and our work ethic is relentless. Take my great-great-great-great grandpappy for instance. When he first ascended the bench back in the old country, the family story goes that he would never hop down. Once he made his way up there, he was determined to never leave. Well, at least not until he was enticed off with a bit of kiwi fruit. And I try to do the same. To help out when I can, always with a smile and a little pop in my hop. On that note, if I may say this mate, the legal community in Knoxville has been absolutely terrific to me. Lawyers and their assistants come to my office and treat me like a king. And the judges! I went to juvenile court and all of the judges stopped what they were doing to meet me. I never felt so honored. I hope to meet each and every member of the Knoxville Bar Association. Anyone who wants to visit me is more than welcome. The boss makes me work just about every weekday, so come on by and bring me a strawberry!

A:

DALE MONTPELIER Montpelier, Della-Rodolfa & Lope, P.C.

Wally is an aberration that came about through a twist of fate. Some of your readers know that I practiced law in Vietnam years ago. That gave me the opportunity to travel around Southeast Asia. Towards the end, I visited a friend of mine who lives in Australia. I had already fallen in love with their kangaroos, and I mentioned that I wished they made miniature ones. He was the one who opened me to the world of wallabies. After I got back, I studied every book and resource I could find about wallabies before deciding that I had to have one. It took me years of gently coaxing my wife to come around to the idea. It even got to the point where I changed out all of my ties so they have nothing but kangaroo patterns on them, a subtle hint of my dogged determination. Imagine my surprise when one, and only one judge noticed. I explained the whole story to Chancellor Pridemore and he wished me luck with my wife every time I saw him after that day. Then it finally came. “What do you want for Christmas,” she asked last year. “A wallaby,” I said, never expecting her to agree and most certainly not wanting another pair of socks. She said ok, I started my search, and I had Wally in my arms by mid-January. Since then he has come to the office every day with me, save for those rare times when I think my fenced backyard would be better for both of us.

Wally has had a real impact on our firm. Besides being a great junior associate – although he does seem to sleep a lot – he has a magnetic personality that draws everyone to him. I can literally count four people who were not impressed with Wally. Every day that I drop my son off at school, the teachers in the car line give him a wave as I yell to my son, “Watch the tail! Watch the tail!” He has been welcomed into every business he has ever visited, rules notwithstanding, often ending up in photo sessions. He has also been to court. I cannot express the feeling Joe and I felt the first time we took him to juvenile court. So many kids in the most miserable of situations came up to him with giant smiles to see the novelty of this rare law-practicing animal.

Seeing the happiness he brought to them brought happiness to us, as well. Our clients also love Wally, some even holding him on their laps while they tell their stories of legal despair. Or, perhaps, they just feel more confident knowing they have a kangaroo on their side?

As for me, Wally is my constant companion. Sometimes I have a bad habit of working all night writing papers, but now I have someone to bring me back to reality. Whenever I hear the loud thud on my desk when he hops up, I know he is pushing me to go home. Throughout the day he hops into my office, stretching up on his back legs until I pick him up. He is always calm, never demanding, and always ready to share his time. Whenever I get frustrated, he is there to show me his cavalier attitude about life, reminding me to take a step back. Being a practicing lawyer is a hard job for anyone, so it really is a Godsend that this little roo has come into our lives to ground us in the things that are most important.

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com November 2020

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THE LAST WORD By: Jack H. (Nick) McCall

Q: A:

Judge Stevens, 2020 has been like no other year in recent memory. In the midst of such a vexing and divisive year, gratitude can seem perhaps a harder thing to find and cherish, even during the holiday season. Or, is it?

THE HON. DEBORAH C. STEVENS Knox County Circuit Court, Division III

It has been a troubling year. Politics have been divisive. A pandemic has turned our world upside down. Murder hornets have arrived on our shores. Can we really find things to be grateful for in 2020?

Psychology Today reports that gratitude can result in better physical health and less stress and depression. Research has also shown that lawyers are more resistant to gratitude than any other group, except maybe teenagers. (Have you noticed that lawyers are always at the bottom of every list!) I thought this would be a good time to reflect on some of the things for which I am grateful and hope that you might be encouraged to do the same. There are many things for which I am grateful but my family and my profession rank at the top.

I am blessed to have an amazing family. I have a great husband and a daughter of whom I am very proud. My parents were married for 63 years. I have four brothers and sisters and we actually enjoy spending time together and we are there for each other in good times and bad. Although grateful for the way I was raised, life wasn’t always blissful for the Carey/ Gallagher clan.

Two years ago, my daughter, Katie and I had the chance to visit Ireland and went to the little village in County Mayo where my great grandfather, John Gallagher, was born. The Great Famine caused many to leave Ireland. In 1850, when he was fourteen, his parents told him to walk 200 miles to the coastal town of Cork. They gave him enough money to buy a ferry ticket to England where he could work in the coal mines until he earned enough money to sail to the United States. As I walked through the village of Charlestown, I could not imagine the fear of leaving your family and your country – knowing you would never see either again. I am grateful that he survived the trip and that he chose to begin his new family in the United States of America where I have been afforded more opportunities than he could have ever dreamed possible.

As a side note, Great-grandfather John actually earned most of his money for passage to the United States by winning a bet among patrons in a London pub that he could remain upright against a large Russian wrestler. John also spent much of the trip to the United States in the ship’s brig because he threw a bully overboard after politely asking him on several occasions to stop his rude behavior toward other passengers.

The bully survived and the other passengers insisted that John be released from the brig. After working in the mines in Pennsylvania, he eventually became a constable. As a town constable, he was the only member of the local police force to never carry a gun but was known to be able to peacefully resolve even the most dangerous of situations with his wit and charm. On occasion, his right hook was known to be of assistance. I am grateful to have such a colorful character in my family tree who had a big heart and a strong sense of social justice.

My father and his five brothers and sisters were raised by a single mother during the depression. Her father opened his home to the struggling family. My father would tell us that he was grateful when his grandfather gave he and his siblings an orange to share, but that he was particularly grateful when each child got their own orange, once a year in their Christmas stocking. I am grateful that in a world of people who sometimes either see the glass as half empty or half full, my parents taught us to be grateful that we had a glass.

I am also blessed and grateful to be a part of a wonderful legal family.

I have lifelong friends with whom I went to law school or with whom I have had the privilege of practicing law. I also have many good friends in legal communities across the country. I cherish those friendships. I remember a particular group of lawyer friends -one from Phoenix, one from Dallas, one was my partner in Knoxville and the other was from Salt Lake City. They shared a common client and often enjoyed dinners together around the country. The Salt Lake City lawyer was in the last months of his battle with cancer. The other lawyers decided they needed to go visit their friend. They spent hours talking of old times and shared a bit of Scotch. Afterwards, the lawyer from Phoenix told me it was one of the best days of his life because nothing can ever be more important than being there for a friend. I am grateful that he shared the story and have tried to “be there” whenever I may be needed. I am also grateful and proud of the many lawyers in this community who have taken time to visit with colleagues who are going through difficult times.

Our bar association leadership has always had a finger on the pulse of our legal community and they provide meaningful opportunities to discuss the challenges we face. I am grateful for the support they provide.

Finally, I am grateful for friends like Nick McCall who always makes time to reach out and take a chance on a last-minute opportunity for lunch. For many years he has been responsible for the “Last Word” in DICTA. I am grateful for the many stories and insights he has shared about lawyers in this community. It has been a valuable forum to bring us all closer together.

I hope everyone will take a moment during these crazy times to reflect on the things for which you are grateful. Certainly, we should all be grateful for being part of a profession “in pursuit of a common calling to promote justice and public good”. I hope each and everyone of you can be grateful for family and friends who are there for you when they are needed. Most of all, I wish you a blessed and happy holidays---and a quick end to 2020!!

“The Last Word” column is coordinated by KBA Member Nick McCall. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Nick at nick.mccall@gmail.com December 2020

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