GAI Failures by Judges and Lawyers: Reflections on the Duty to Supervise
Other
How to Thrive
to Lead Your Way to Less Stress
Around the Bar
to Indigent Representation in Tennessee
Of Local Lore and Lawyers
Say, Can You See . . . .”
Patriotic Lawyer
Colleagues, and Friends
My Name Is
Century Lawyer
Wellness
Dicta
DICTA is published monthly (except July) by the Knoxville Bar Association. It is designed to offer information of value to members of the local bar association. The news and features should illustrate the issues affecting the bar and its members. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Knoxville Bar Association.
All articles submitted for publication in DICTA must be submitted in writing and in electronic format (via e-mail attachment). Exceptions to this policy must be cleared by KBA Executive Director Tasha Blakney (522-6522).
Publications Committee
Executive Editor Sarah Booher
Executive Editor Wade H. Boswell, II
Executive Editor Melissa B. Carrasco
Executive Editor Summer McMillan
Sherri Alley
Parker Bohne
Elizabeth B. Ford
Joseph G. Jarret
F. Regina Koho
Matthew R. Lyon
Robin McMillan
Angelia Morie Nystrom
Katheryn Murray Ogle
Bridget Pyman
Cathy Shuck
Jimmy Snodgrass
Eddy Smith
Grant Williamson
Managing Editor Tasha C. Blakney KBA Executive Director
Read Build the Life you Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier
Barrister Bites Scoops, I Did it Again! From Ice Cream to Healthy Eating
to Be in the Law The Privilege of Helping Lawyers
Their Clients
Volunteerism How the KBA is Making an Impact and Ways to Get Involved
Tasha C. Blakney Executive Director
Tracy Chain LRIS Administrator
Tammy Sharpe Director of CLE & Section Programming
Bridgette Fly Membership Coordinator
Jason Galvas Programs & Communications Coordinator
TENNESSEE CHAPTER
Gail ASHWORTH (615) 254-1877 Knoxville Area Members recognized for Excellence in the field of Mediation or Arbitration
Adrienne ANDERSON (865) 249-8011
James LONDON (865) 637-0203
Scott TAYLOR (865) 546-8030
Bob ARRINGTON (423) 723-0402
Richard MARCUS (423) 756-0414
Mark TRAVIS (931) 252-9123
Paul HOGAN Jr. (865) 546-2200
David NOBLIT (423) 265-0214
William VINES (865) 637-3531
Robert NOELL (865) 215-1023
Howard VOGEL (865) 546-7190
Dana HOLLOWAY (865) 643-8720
Sarah SHEPPEARD (865) 546-4646
Je rey WARD (423) 639-6811
Check preferred available dates or schedule appointments online directly with the state’s top neutrals
Check preferred available dates or schedule appointments online directly with the state’s top neutrals
TennesseeMediators.org is free, funded by members
TennesseeMediators.org is free, funded by members
By: Jonathan D. Cooper Knox Defense
DIVERSITY THRIVES IN THE KBA, AND THE KBA THRIVES ON DIVERSITY
I am inspired by the growing number of women in the criminal defense bar. Knoxville has always had incredible women defending people accused of crimes, but historically their numbers have been few, and they rarely received the same recognition as their male peers. This has changed in recent years, and if you look in the courtrooms on the west side of the City-County Building or in the Howard Baker Courthouse, you will see a cohort of young, energetic, true-believing, female advocates.
This is not just in the criminal defense bar. It is true of prosecutors, as well. When I first started practicing, there were only a few women in the District Attorney’s Office. They were formidable, but few. Now, we not only have the county’s first female District Attorney, but half of the prosecutors are women.
Nor is this just in the criminal justice system. According to one source, a trend that began in the 1970’s hit a tipping point beginning in 2016, when women became a majority of law school students.1 Women became a majority of general lawyers in the federal government in 2020, became a majority of law firm associates in 2023, and were projected to be a majority of fulltime law school faculty either last year or this year.2 In 1970, only 3% of lawyers were women, but by 2024, they represented 41% of all lawyers.3
Out of curiosity, I flipped through my 1998 KBA Pictorial Directory. Other than seeing one really awkward picture of a kid with braces, I observed that women represented only a very small minority of the bar. How that has changed! Note that the next three KBA Presidents – in 2026, 2027, and 2028 – will be women! Our very own Heidi Barcus, a KBA Past President, now serves as the Tennessee Bar Association President.
Of course, gender is not the only demographic that has diversified in our bar. Persons of color are increasingly joining the legal profession. Although men and women of color are underrepresented within partnership ranks, they still account for 30% of associates in the United States,4 which represents a slow but steady upward trend.5 We have seen this here in Knoxville! Did you know that we have a Latino Bar Association in Knoxville? Last year the KBA was blessed to have our first Latino President and, in 2027, we will have our first AfricanAmerican woman to serve as KBA President. In 2022, the first Latino judge was appointed to the trial bench here.
We celebrate this diversity because it makes our law practice and our life experience so much richer and well-balanced. Lawyers of varying gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and experience are vital to a vibrant, wellrounded community because our community is made up of folks with so many different backgrounds and beliefs.
Based on this motivation, the Knoxville Bar Association adopted a Strategic Inclusion Plan in 2022. This plan recognizes the existence and value of diversity in our bar, and it sets forth in writing principles
for protecting and promoting the richness this diversity brings to our community and to our profession. As then-President Jason Long eloquently wrote:
Our Knoxville Bar Association has been, and always will be, focused first and foremost upon our members. We seek to create a community in which lawyers can maximize their abilities in doing the important work of carrying out the administration of justice and supporting the institutions that make this work possible. We believe, that in so doing, our Association benefits not only our members but the courts and the citizenry we serve.
Essential to that mandate is the notion that our Association should be diverse and inclusive of all. As the introduction to this Plan states, diversity and inclusion are “core values” of our Association. . . .
Have these values gone out of style? The term “diversity” is now sometimes used as a pejorative to express disapproval of any program that recognizes and celebrates multiplicity, regardless of whether it governs hiring and contracting practices. Indeed, government agencies, law firms, colleges and universities, and other institutions in public and private sectors have been pressured to eliminate such programs or policies. More recently, the University of Tennessee was compelled to defend itself from accusations that its programs offering access to state high school students are somehow illegal.
I hope that the KBA will continue to support the diversity of our membership. In my experience, the local criminal bar is stronger now than it ever has been thanks to the surge of young women lawyers, and I believe the entire Knoxville bar is stronger because of the rich wisdom, perspective, and talent of the lawyers of varied gender, race, ethnicity, and background. Truly, diversity thrives in the KBA, and the KBA thrives on diversity!
1 Women in the Legal Profession, AmericAn BAr AssociAtion, https://www.americanbar. org/news/profile-legal-profession/women/#:~:text=In%202016%2C%20 women%20became%20a,time%20law%20school%20faculty%20members. Last visited Aug. 5, 2025.
2 Id.
3 Demographics, AmericAn BAr AssociAtion, https://www.americanbar.org/news/profilelegal-profession/ demographics. Last visited Aug. 5, 2025.
4 Women Now the Majority of Associates in U.S. Law Firms, Make Record Gains in the Partnership Ranks, nAtionAl AssociAtion for lAw PlAcement, https://www.nalp.org/ uploads/PressReleases/2024NALPDiversityReport PressReleaseFinal_01_09_2024. pdf, Jan. 9, 2024, Press Release.
5 Lawyers by Race & Ethnicity, AmericAn BAr AssociAtion, https://www.americanbar.org/ groups/ young_lawyers/about/initiatives/men-of-color/lawyer-demographics. Last visited Aug. 5, 2025.
MEMBER PROFILE
By: John L. Sobieski, Jr. Lindsay Young Professor of Law Emeritus University of Tennessee College of Law
TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR JOSEPH G. COOK
When my colleague, mentor, and friend Joseph G. Cook died in January, Wanda and I suffered a grave personal loss. Joe and I were colleagues on the law faculty for over forty years, we co-authored a multi-volume treatise for even more years, and we served together as faculty advisors to the National Moot Court team even into our respective retirements.
Wanda knew Norma Cook years before I arrived at UT. Over the years, thanks to Norma, we celebrated Joe’s birthday, along with other colleagues on the faculty. And Joe and Norma graced our Christmas dinners with their presence. Christmas will be a little less merry this year in Joe’s absence.
But Joe Cook’s death was far more than a personal loss. The College of Law lost its longest serving and most honored faculty member—honored for his teaching, honored for his scholarship, honored for his service, and honored for his unequalled contribution to the law school’s National Moot Court program.
Professor Cook was a member of the faculty for over fifty years (1965-2016). He was the first law faculty to be awarded a chaired position, when in 1979 he was named the Williford Gragg Distinguished Professor of Law, a position he held until his retirement. Although he did not desire or savor it, Joe agreed to serve the law school as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in 1991-1992.
Joe believed that the foremost responsibility of every faculty member is to be an outstanding teacher. Accordingly, he placed the utmost value on his own teaching and relationships with his students. His dedication to his teaching led the University of Tennessee to honor him twice, awarding him the L.R. Hessler Award for Teaching and Service and the University of Tennessee Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher Award. The College of Law also honored him by twice conferring the Harold Warner Outstanding Teacher Award.
volume treatises, something unmatched in the history of UT. Beyond that, he co-authored numerous editions of casebooks on criminal law and criminal procedure. Here, too, his work was honored with the Carden Scholarship Award and the Marilyn V. Yarbrough Faculty Award for Writing Excellence.
In recognition of teaching, scholarship and service, Joe was named the 2004-2005 University of Tennessee Macebearer, the highest honor the University can confer on a member of the faculty.
Of all his accomplishments and honors, what Joe cherished as much, if not more, than anything else was his service as a Faculty Adviser to the National Moot Court team, a position he assumed in 1966. During his tenure, the University of Tennessee won the regional competition more times than any other law school and qualified for the national final rounds twenty-five times. At the national finals, his teams almost invariably advanced to the round of sixteen, reached the round of eight at least seven times, argued in the national semi-final round five times, contended for the national championship four times, and won the national championship twice. On four occasions the Moot Court Board honored him with the Forrest W. Lacey Award for Outstanding Contributions to the College’s Moot Court Program.
When the faculty and student body grew significantly in the early 1970s, Joe set the standard for many: diligently work on your teaching; show your respect for your students by demanding of them what they might not realize they are capable of achieving; remember that teaching occurs not only inside the classroom but also outside; make meaningful contributions to legal scholarship; and be ready to serve the College when called upon.
Joe also believed that teaching and scholarship informed and enhanced one another. He authored in whole or in part two multi-
Joe Cook made an indelible impression—one way or another—on generations of law students. Those who undoubtedly remember him the most are his first year Contracts students and his upper division students in Jurisprudence and related courses. But most of all, he will be terribly and tearfully missed by “the Mooters.”
APPEALING
By: Robin McMillan Attorney at Law
A, B, C . . . EASY AS 1, 2, 3
“Any differences regarding whether the record accurately discloses what occurred in the trial court shall be submitted to and settled by the trial court regardless of whether the record has been transmitted to the appellate court.”1 This provision, located in Tenn. R. App. P. 24(e), can cause confusion, which I will discuss below.
But first, I want to discuss what lies at the heart of the provision— jurisdiction. My husband says that I write about jurisdiction too often and that some readers might appreciate a break from the subject. If you fall within that category, I hope you will refrain from immediately turning to another article and allow me to attempt to make jurisdiction more fun with my tips for explaining the basics to an eight-year-old.2
A: Choice between two trial courts, both of which have the right to assume jurisdiction. Once one of them takes jurisdiction, the other court cannot interfere.
1. Little sister borrows big sister’s favorite blue sweater without permission and wears it to school. During art class, the sweater becomes stained with red oil paint. When big sister discovers the damage, she has a choice about which parent to tell. Either parent could take jurisdiction. Big sister chooses dad, who imposes a punishment. Little sister cannot then go to mom and seek a different decision. Big sister, as the injured party, chose to have dad make the decision. Once dad assumed jurisdiction, mom no longer had the right to do so. Imagine what would happen if dad imposed a punishment and then mom stepped in and imposed a separate punishment that conflicted with dad’s punishment. Which punishment would little sister be required to fulfill?
B: The trial court lacks the right to assume jurisdiction over the subject matter or the parties. Any decision rendered is meaningless.
1. Big sister takes her complaint about the damaged sweater to a neighbor who lives down the street. The neighbor attempts to impose a punishment by decreeing that little sister is grounded all weekend. The problem is that the neighbor does not have subject matter jurisdiction over events that concern mom and dad’s family dynamics. Little sister has no obligation to abide by the punishment. The neighbor’s decision is worthless.
2. Brother decapitates sister’s doll. Mom and dad are divorced, and the beheading occurred while the kids were in mom’s custody. Sister must go to mom to seek assistance. Dad lacks personal jurisdiction because the kids are at mom’s house and in mom’s custody. Dad does not have jurisdiction to impose a punishment in this scenario.
C: A lower court must abide by the decision of the appropriate higher court. A trial court, which has jurisdiction, makes a decision. The appellate court alters the decision. The trial court cannot circumvent the appellate court decision.
1. The kids are visiting grandma for the weekend. While at grandma’s house, little brother gets frustrated with big brother who is hogging a video game. Little brother punches big brother, causing a nosebleed. Grandma imposes the punishment that little brother may not use his tablet for one week. On Monday, the kids return home. When the parents learn of the incident, they decide that the punishment imposed by grandma is not sufficiently severe and override it. Instead, the parents decide that little brother may not play in his Little League game next weekend. The parents are a higher authority than grandma and have the jurisdiction to override grandma’s punishment.
2. Grandma, who loves to watch the Little League games, learns of the new punishment and tries to change it by telling little brother that she will take him to his game. Although grandma had jurisdiction to impose the initial punishment because the kids were in her custody, she lacks the jurisdiction to alter the decision rendered by the higher authority. Once the parents assumed jurisdiction grandma lost jurisdiction. Furthermore, grandma cannot ignore or circumvent the decision made by the parents.
Let’s turn back to Rule 24(e), which will only come into play after the appellate court has assumed jurisdiction.3 Rule 24(e) provides an exception to the tenet that only one court can have jurisdiction at a time. The exception is limited to a specific decision. When faced with such a situation, keep one fact in mind to avoid confusion: the appellate court has jurisdiction over the case and, therefore, the case is proceeding according to the dictates of the appellate court’s docket. As such, if a dispute arises regarding whether the record accurately discloses what occurred in the trial court, the appellate court should be notified.
Once informed, the appellate court can take whatever procedural steps are necessary to allow the trial court to make the decision provided for by Rule 24(e).4 When the parties go to the trial court seeking a decision without notifying the appellate court, problems can arise. If the appellate court is aware that the trial court will be making a decision and will need time to do so, then the appellate court will refrain from entering show cause orders for failure to proceed with the next steps in the appeal or, even worse, dismiss the appeal for failure to proceed. The take-away: if a situation implicating Rule 24(e) arises, file something with the appellate court notifying it of the issue and either seek assistance to facilitate obtaining a decision from the trial court or inform the appellate court that you have already filed an appropriate document with the trial court seeking to have the matter decided.
1 Tenn. R. App. P. 24(e).
2 It is my hope that this article will engender laughter, which can relieve stress and is good for the soul.
3 “Generally, the timely filing of a notice of appeal will divest a trial court of subject matter jurisdiction and vest jurisdiction in the appellate court.” Bottorff v. Sears, No. M2018-01232-COA-R3-CV, 2019 Tenn. App. LEXIS 259, *6 (Tenn. Ct. App. May 23, 2019).
4 The appellate court may enter an order or simply pause the appeal through other internal processes.
By: Raygan Robertson 2L, Belmont University College of Law
LEGAL GAPS AND LOGISTIC CHALLENGES IN TENNESSEE’S DOMESTIC VIOLENCE GPS MANDATE
In May 2024, the Tennessee Legislature enacted Public Chapter 1033, also known as the “Debbie and Marie Domestic Violence Protection Act.” The Act mandates that victim of aggravated assault, stalking, aggravated stalking, and especially aggravated stalking are entitled to the use of GPS monitoring to track their offender’s location.1 Tennessee counties are required to have a contract with a qualified GPS vendor to supply the devices for implementation of this statute.2 This law also requires that the offender pay the costs of the device. No financial assistance is allowed or available, even if the court finds the defendant to be indigent. While heightened protection for victims is important, enacting this statute has been challenging due to its ambiguity and broader implications.
Ambiguities Within the Law
The statute makes no mention of a set time period for the victim to come to pretrial services to consent to receiving GPS monitoring of the offender. However, until the victim waives or consents to the monitoring of the offender’s location, the offender remains in custody. While domestic violence offenders are generally required to be held for at least 12 hours, an additional 12 hours are allowed in cases where a magistrate or court finds aggravating factors to justify a longer hold.3 With the GPS device being a new condition of release, Knox County has implemented a judicial order requiring the victim to appear at pretrial services within 48 hours after notification. If they do not appear within the 48-hour period, they may waive their right to monitor the offender’s location. Absent extenuating circumstances, the victim has one day to pick up the GPS device from the time payment is made.
A related statute—Public Chapter 1055—provides that only counties with the necessary resources and a pretrial services department are required to comply with this mandate.4 This carve-out within the statute has made it difficult to achieve uniform application across the state. While there are constitutional and statutory protections in place for requirements of state cost-sharing with counties, Tennessee law does not provide a clear legal basis for challenging underfunding to excuse non-compliance.5 The General Assembly has broad discretion to determine the necessary state funding.6 Tenn. Code Ann. § 9-4-5301 interprets the constitutional requirement of shared funding to be satisfied by the statutory shared revenue provision and considers any cost sharing between state and county to be enough.7 Tennessee Public Chapter 1033, however, places full responsibility on individual counties, requiring them to be responsible for paying the costs of the necessary staff to implement this mandate.
Moving Forward
The “Debbie and Marie Domestic Violence Protection Act” is an important step toward strengthening protections for victims of domestic violence, but its implementation brings significant hurdles for Tennessee counties to tackle. The statute’s ambiguities around hold times, county obligations, and state and local cost-sharing raise questions of uniformity
within the state and feasibility of application. This well-intended yet ambiguous law is forcing judges to create judicial orders to fill the gaps within the original legislation and to provide clearer guidance for its practical application.
7 Id. Non-complying counties could attempt to create uniformity in these protections by looking to the legislature for additional funding. These counties that are under resourced could also adopt measures that ensure uniform enforcement of law such as: 1) establishing a domestic violence task force to identify gaps in their current procedure and devise recommendations for moving forward (Illinois, 20 ILCS 4106/10), or 2) adopting written policies for proper procedure to respond to domestic violence calls (Michigan, MCL 776.22).
AROUND THE KBA
By: Hannah Lowe
Law Offices of Jeffrey R. Kohl, Farmers Insurance Exchange and Affiliates
KBA WELLNESS COMMITTEE: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, AND EACH OTHER
“Take care of yourself, and each other.” In the 1980s, Jerry Springer began signing off his broadcasts on local news in Cincinnati with that phrase and continued to use it for decades on his talk show, The Jerry Springer Show. NBC News host Lester Holt used the same words to sign off his broadcasts. It may be the only useful lesson from The Jerry Springer Show, but it is an important reminder for our lives and law practice.
The 2018 ABA Task Force Report on Lawyer Wellbeing identified six dimensions of lawyer wellbeing: (1) occupational; (2) emotional; (3) physical; (4) intellectual; (5) spiritual; and (6) social.1 Lawyers face increased risk for depression, anxiety, alcohol/substance issues, stress, loneliness, work-life/work-family conflict, suicide, burnout.2 We must take care of ourselves to avoid and minimize those risks. As the flight attendant tells us, we must put on our own oxygen mask before helping others.
Achieving career satisfaction, growth, and financial stability includes taking ownership of your career by seeking opportunities for career development and mentorship. In turn, you may provide such opportunities to others. Emotional and good mental health requires getting adequate sleep and developing tools for stress management. Lawyers regularly help others, but we must be comfortable asking for help when needed, whether from friends or family or mental health professionals. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day for those needing help in crisis. Physical health includes eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, completing regular health checks and screenings (as recommended per age and family history) for conditions like cervical cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and getting any recommended vaccines. Intellectual health involves cultivating your desire to learn, pursuing challenges, and continued development throughout each stage of your life and career. Spiritual health includes finding meaning and purpose in your pursuits, whether through participation in church or religious groups, volunteering, pro bono work, teaching, or other activities that are meaningful to you. Social health involves cultivating connections, community, and a sense of belonging, whether through time with friends, family, church or religious groups, volunteering, or other social activities.
Self-compassion is a mental health practice embodying the sentiment of “take care of yourself, and each other.” Self-compassion researcher Dr. Kristin Neff describes self-compassion as treating yourself with the same kindness and care you would a good friend.3 Practicing self-compassion requires recognizing when you are suffering, but doing so with kindness, not judgment.4 Dr. Neff encourages us to recognize our common humanity—acknowledging that all humans suffer—rather than feel isolated and alone.5 She encourages us to practice mindfulness in observing our negative thoughts and emotions without judgment, rather than getting caught up in them.6 She encourages us to recognize we are not alone in suffering setbacks in life, and to be gentle to ourselves in navigating those setbacks.7
Similarly, loving-kindness meditation is a practice of cultivating feelings of compassion and kindness toward yourself and others. The practice typically involves focusing your attention on yourself, then expanding out to consider others in your life, beginning with someone you love, then a neutral person, then a person with whom you have a difficult relationship, and then the wider community, planet, and
universe.8 These practices remind us that self-care is not selfish; we must be kind to ourselves so we can be kind to each other.
KBA
Wellness Committee Activities
The Wellness Committee continues to offer opportunities for KBA members to get outside, get together, and take care of your wellbeing. In June 2025, we met at Seven Islands State Birding Park to hike, and in August 2025, we held another successful Pickleball and Tennis tournament. We continue our weekly walks at Lakeshore Parks on Tuesday evenings (6 PM) and Friday mornings (7AM), and we work on wellness CLE programming, including the annual wellness conference, and financial wellness webinars addressing different stages of life and career.
Healthy Bar Challenge and Wellness Conference
We have multiple events planned in October 2025 in conjunction with the Healthy Bar Challenge, sponsored by First Horizon, and the Wellness Conference, sponsored by TIS. Please consider signing up! Earn points for activities focused on your occupational, emotional, physical, intellectual, spiritual, and social wellbeing. Participate individually or in a team. Teams can be comprised of 3 or 4 KBA members (including law student KBA members) and can be from the same firm/organization, different firms/organizations, or a combination. Track your time spent doing physical, mental, or financial wellness activities, participate in Weekly Incentive Activities for bonus points and opportunities to win prizes, and attend Wellness Committee Sponsored Activities for even more bonus points.
Healthy Bar Challenge Weekly Incentive Activity Themes (worth 2 bonus points each for completion, plus entry into prize drawing):
Week 1 (Oct 1-4): Healthy Food Choices Week
Week 2 (Oct 5-11): Giving Back to Others Week
Week 3 (Oct 12-18): Show Your Tennessee Pride Week
• Wednesday, October 1 at 12 PM – Market Square Farmers Market Tour.
• Wednesday, October 1 at 3 PM – Financial Wellness Webinar: “Tax Strategies for Retirement.” George Gilliam of TVC Trust and Wealth Management will present on strategies to reduce your taxes in retirement.
• Friday, October 3 at 7 AM – Weekly Walk at Lakeshore Park.
• Monday, October 6 – Fundraising Event at Ride Tribe.
• Tuesday, October 7 at 6 PM – Weekly Walk at Lakeshore Park.
• Wednesday, October 8 at 12 PM – Financial Wellness Webinar: “Money Matters: A Financial Q&A for Young Lawyers.” An engaging panel of financial minds will address
continued on page 15
HOW TO THRIVE
By: Emily Heird, LPC/MHSP Vantage View Coaching
HOW TO LEAD YOUR WAY TO LESS STRESS
Picture this: You’re managing a complex litigation matter, three associates are waiting for your review on different cases, a partner needs your input on a client strategy, and your phone hasn’t stopped buzzing with “urgent” requests. Sound familiar? Most lawyers find themselves trapped in this cycle of constant reactivity, believing that working harder and longer is the only path to success. But what if I told you that the solution isn’t working more? It’s leading better.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: law schools teach lawyers to think like lawyers, but they don’t teach them to lead like champions. Lawyers graduate with exceptional analytical skills and legal knowledge, but they’re woefully unprepared for the leadership responsibilities that define career success. This gap doesn’t just hurt their teams. It’s silently sabotaging their wellbeing, creating unnecessary stress, and stealing precious time from both professional growth and personal lives. It’s a myth that people are “natural born leaders.” The truth is that leadership is a set of psychological skills that can be learned, practiced, and strengthened.
There is a wealth of research showing that strong leadership in the workplace directly correlates with improved business outcomes; teams with effective leaders are significantly more productive and profitable (up to 22% higher productivity and 23% higher profitability) while also experiencing as much as a 32% reduction in turnover and 32% fewer quality mistakes. Poor leadership, conversely, is the leading cause of employee disengagement and increased intent to leave, with 82% of employees citing it as a reason for considering quitting, and companies with strong leadership are 2.3 times more likely to outperform their competitors financially.
But here’s what most lawyers miss: these same leadership behaviors that drive team performance also dramatically reduce stress and create more sustainable work-life integration. When lawyers are constantly in reactive mode (putting out fires, micromanaging, and handling tasks others could manage), their brains remain in a heightened state of cortisol production. This chronic stress response impairs decision-making, reduces creativity, and makes them less effective at the very work they’re trying to protect.
One of my clients left a firm where he was a founding partner and moved to a firm where his role was to overhaul an entire department. He acknowledged that his avoidance of leadership contributed to office chaos at his previous firm, and he didn’t want to repeat that outcome. His initial view on leadership: “I don’t want to constantly pat people on the back or be a cheerleader for adults.”
Everything changed when I shared the performance data. When he understood that certain leadership skills could enhance his team’s performance, he became genuinely interested in developing these capabilities. He now has a high-performing team that can autonomously handle single-event cases, freeing him to focus on complex, high-stakes litigation. He said recently, “I no longer dread leadership. I can see how powerful it is to have a team around me that’s excelling.”
Leadership as wellbeing strategy
Psychological research identifies several key mechanisms through which leadership skills enhance wellbeing:
• Effective delegation and team development reduce the mental burden on leaders. When team members can handle decisions and problems independently, leaders experience
what psychologists call “cognitive offloading” (the relief that comes from distributed mental processing).
• Paradoxically, by developing others’ autonomy, leaders increase their own. They’re no longer tethered to every decision and can focus on high-value activities that energize rather than drain them.
• With operational concerns handled by capable team members, leaders can more easily access flow states (periods of deep focus crucial for performance).
• Building genuine leadership relationships activates neural reward systems, releasing oxytocin and reducing stress hormones. Effective leadership provides positive social connection in a professional context.
Practical strategies: Your Leadership Playbook
Leadership can be distilled into two foundational skills: building trust and getting results. While leadership is an expansive topic, here are a few strategies you can implement:
Building Trust: Trust is the foundation of effective leadership. Research shows that high-trust teams perform 2.5 times better than lowtrust teams. Build trust by following through on commitments, admitting when you don’t know something, and being consistent in your responses to similar situations. Share your decision-making process openly, especially when decisions affect the team. Communicate respectfully, even during disagreements. Start every team meeting with a simple question: “What’s one thing that’s not working that we should address?” Explicitly tell your team that mistakes will happen and that what matters is how you handle them together. Give people permission not to be perfect by sharing your own mistakes and what you learned from them. Show interest about them as a human first, not just what they produce.
Getting results: Set clear expectations. Schedule brief, consistent check-ins focused on development rather than micromanagement. Make feedback (positive and negative) a regular part of the daily operations. As legendary basketball coach John Wooden said, “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.” Feedback corrects skills for improved performance (it’s not personal). Give specific recognition and appreciation for work products, efforts, and contributions to the team’s success. Team members want to feel as though their work matters and is valued. Hold everyone accountable and don’t play favorites.
Think of yourself as the head coach of your legal team. Your job isn’t to play every position. It’s to ensure every player knows their role, has the skills to execute it excellently, and feels supported in their development. When you develop one person’s capabilities, you get their increased capacity to develop others. This creates what organizational psychologists call a “leadership cascade,” where wellbeing improvements compound throughout the organization
Lawyers who embrace their roles as performance coaches experience lower stress, greater job satisfaction, and better work-life integration. They sleep better because they’re not carrying every decision. They have more energy because they’re not fighting every fire.
By investing in leadership skills, you’re building a more sustainable, fulfilling professional life. Start small, be consistent, and remember that leadership is fundamentally about understanding human psychology and creating conditions where people can do their best work.
AROUND THE BAR
By: Berkley Schwarz Pier Strategies LLC
UPDATES TO INDIGENT REPRESENTATION IN TENNESSEE
On July 1, 2025, the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) launched one of the most significant updates to its indigent representation system in decades to address what has been described as a crisis in Tennessee courts. With the General Assembly’s approval of $17 million in new funding, the AOC will implement its comprehensive new plan, developed in close consultation with the Tennessee Supreme Court, “to address challenges with the retention and compensation for appointed counsel and enhance the delivery of indigent services across the state.”1
The Indigent Representation Plan (Plan) is intended to provide long-term stability through the development of a new structure for handling criminal conflicts and civil appointments for indigent clients across the state. It is based on successful models in states like Florida and aims to solve challenges in Tennessee’s current indigent system by addressing the shortage of attorneys who currently represent the indigent and by engaging stakeholders in ongoing collaborations to improve the system. The Plan reflects years of collaboration and engagement with attorneys, judges, interest groups, including the TBA which made indigent representation its top legislative priority for the year, and the executive and legislative branches of state government, as the need for legal representation of the indigent continues to grow in criminal and juvenile courts.
Crisis in Tennessee Courts
In its 2024 Court System Performance Audit, the Comptroller noted that the “Tennessee Court System continues to face challenges in providing representation to indigent individuals,” identifying two underlying primary issues: “(1) low attorney compensation rates and (2) a lack of private attorneys willing to accept and work these cases.”2 The shortage of attorneys has resulted in case delays, mounting backlogs, and significant disruptions across the court system, not only affecting Tennessee’s most vulnerable citizens, but the larger community as well. Although the AOC receives $64.4 million in recurring funding for Tennessee’s current indigent representation system, the state’s reimbursement rate of $60 per hour remains among the lowest in the nation. The Indigent Representation Plan aims to implement a fundamentally new approach to resolve these ongoing challenges.
A New Office and Commission to Oversee Indigent Representation
At the heart of the Plan is the creation of the Office of Appointed Counsel Commission (Office) with oversight by an Indigent Representation Commission (Commission). The Office will consult with local judges and appoint private attorneys to represent the indigent— both in civil juvenile court cases and in criminal cases when the District Public Defender has a conflict—and will manage an estimated 76,000 cases per year. On July 7, 2025, the AOC named attorney Joe Byrd to serve as the Interim Executive Director of the ACC. As Executive Director, Byrd is responsible for the strategic implementation of the Office and for providing statewide executive leadership and oversight for the Plan. The executive director will hire three full-time managing divisional attorneys to oversee the cases in the three grand divisions and two to four staff attorneys in each division. All staff attorneys will maintain a caseload, including the divisional counsel.
The divisional attorneys will also contract with local attorneys and
firms through competitive compensation structures using a combination of retainer, flat fee, and hourly contracts, offering more competitive, predictable, and intermittent attorney compensation.
To guide this work, the Supreme Court will establish the Commission, modeled after other boards and commissions governed by Supreme Court Rule. The Commission will work closely with indigent stakeholders to review and implement policies to improve the new indigent system. The Commission will also help standardize the process for confirming indigency as an enhanced measure of preventing any abuse of the system.
Innovative Compensation to Attract Attorneys
One of the most innovative aspects of the Plan is its competitive attorney compensation structure for appointed counsel. Rather than relying on a system of capped hourly payments and delayed reimbursements, the new model offers more flexible options, including retainers, flat fees, and hourly contracts where appropriate. Payments may begin at the time of appointment rather than case conclusion, improving financial predictability for participating attorneys.
Additionally, contracts with attorneys will be tailored to fit the qualifications of the attorney, the complexity of the case type, and the needs of the judicial district. Attorneys will also have options such as committing to work on indigent cases for a percentage of their time, leaving time for other clients.
The Plan also includes mentorship and training components to ensure consistent quality of representation, especially in complex or sensitive cases involving children or mental health issues.
Judges No Longer Have to Find and Appoint Attorneys
Another key benefit of the Plan is that it removes the burden on presiding judges to locate and appoint attorneys to represent indigent parties. Instead, in consultation with local judges, the Office and its divisional attorneys will provide for the appointments in civil juvenile court cases and in criminal cases where the District Public Defender has a conflict.
A Phased Implementation for Maximum Impact
Implementation of the Plan will roll out in phases, beginning in judicial districts facing the greatest need, and will expand over time as infrastructure and resources are developed. Eventually, the existing indigent representation budget will be redirected from individual case reimbursements to funding the Plan.
The anticipated benefits of the Plan could be wide-ranging in the immediate and long-term.
• More attorneys will agree to represent the indigent due to improved compensation.
• Vulnerable clients, including children needing guardians ad litem, will receive quicker legal representation.
• Rural and underserved areas will benefit from targeted support.
• Court delays will be reduced.
• Judges will experience fewer administrative burdens.
• Statewide consistency in indigency determinations will reduce misuse.
OF LOCAL LORE AND LAWYERS
By: Joe Jarret, J.D., Ph.D. University of Tennessee
“O SAY, CAN YOU SEE . . . .” A PATRIOTIC LAWYER
Introduction:
Several years ago, while conducting research towards completion of my Ph.D. in K-12 educational leadership and policy studies, I noticed that the majority of the history textbooks in use in Tennessee’s public schools made only passing references to Francis Scott Key (Key). Those references, as you would imagine, identify him as the author of a poem that ultimately became our national anthem. Despite a successful career as a Washington, D.C. lawyer and service as a United States District Attorney, Francis Scott Key could have easily been a name lost to history. Thankfully, it wasn’t.
A Patriot is Born:
Key was born on August 1, 1779, in western Maryland on a family estate called “Terra Rubra.” He attended grammar school in Annapolis and continued on to study law while apprenticing with an uncle’s law firm. By 1805, he had a well-established law practice of his own in Georgetown, a suburb of Washington, D.C. In 1812, his law practice was interrupted when the United States declared war on Britain. Prominent Washington physician (and personal friend of President James Madison), Dr. William Beanes, was taken prisoner by the British following the capture of Washington on August 24. Key was asked by the President to secure Beanes’s release, due to Key’s reputation as “an eloquent orator adept at arguing both sides of an issue.” Key made his way to Baltimore, and on September 5, 1814, sailed in a small flag-of-truce vessel out of the port of Baltimore with Colonel John Skinner to negotiate prisoner exchange with the Royal Navy.1
until 25 years after the fact, and then only once in a political speech.2 Nevertheless, his fellow citizens were not as circumspect. During one dinner in his honor, Key was introduced as “an incorruptible patriot, worthy of being honored, wherever genius is admired or liberty cherished, as the author of the Star-Spangled Banner.”3
Key was also greatly admired by the District of Columbia Bench and Bar for his courtroom courage and eloquence. He regularly provided pro bono legal advice to slaves seeking emancipation or freed slaves who were being sold back into slavery. According to his friend and confidant, the Rev. John T. Brooke, Key was consistently ready to “brave odium or even personal danger on their behalf.”4 In one case that made its way into the District of Columbia Law Reporters, Key represented Harry Quando, a slave seeking his freedom. Quando’s owner, a Mrs. Claggett, stipulated in her will that, upon her death, Quando was to serve “one year to any person that will give a fair hire to him.” Key filed a petition for Quando’s freedom, and the court agreed that Mrs. Claggett intended to emancipate the petitioner.5
Tennessee Ties:
In 1833, Key’s legal practice was again interrupted when President Andrew Jackson asked him to negotiate a treaty with the Creek Native American Nation and, following that, selected him to be the United States District Attorney for the District of Columbia, a position he held for eight years. According to historian Marc Leepson, Key prosecuted a wide range of criminal cases including, but not limited to, fraud, perjury, bribery, forgery, murder, assault, arson, theft, and the sending and bearing invitations to duels.6
What happened next became the stuff of legend. From his vantage point, Key witnessed the bombardment of Baltimore Harbor’s Fort McHenry. After 25 hours of continuous bombing, the British abandoned their attack and retreated. Key scanned the sky in the morning following a night of attacks for clues as to what had happened. To his surprise and relief, the American flag was still flying. Overjoyed and inspired by his deep-rooted patriotism, he quickly penned the words to a poem called “The Defense of Fort McHenry.” The first stanza of this poem ultimately became the lyrics of our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
A Lawyer is Born:
After his Ft. McHenry experience, Key returned to the fulltime practice of law and resolved not to speak of his experiences on that fateful day. According to historian Marc Leepson, Key made no public pronouncements about his mission, nor the poem that followed,
Key practiced law for another 10 years until his death from lung disease on January 11, 1843, at the home of his daughter in Baltimore. His life of public service and pro bono legal representation of slaves and the poor inspired many a lawyer of his day. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed into law a measure designating “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem of the United States, a fitting tribute, it seems, to this patriotic lawyer.
1 Vogel, S. (2013). Through the Perilous Fight: Six Weeks That Saved the Nation. Random House.
2 Leepson, M. (2014). What so proudly we hailed: Francis Scott Key, a life. Macmillan, page X.
3 Vogel at 407.
4 Id.
5 Harry Quando v. Claggett, Reports of Civil & Criminal Cases in the U.S. Circuit Court of District of Columbia, 1804-1841, Vol. 4, page 17. See also Leepson, page 125.
6 Leepson, page 141.
THREE STARS
By: Melissa B. Carrasco Carrasco Trump, PLLC
ADVERSARIES, COLLEAGUES, AND FRIENDS
“This matter involves a limited issue of standing regarding a will contest . . .. The Decedent is Floyd Edward Faulkner. I represent Jeremy, and the personal representative is Brenda. Brenda is represented by my colleague and friend, Mr. Hillhouse.”1 And so, attorney Radford H. Dimmick of Nashville, Tennessee, began his fifteen minutes of oral argument before the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Floyd Edward Faulkner of Ethridge, Tennessee, passed away on June 5, 2020, at the age of 94.2 Ethridge is a close-knit community, founded by the Swartzentruber Amish, and home to the largest Amish community in the South.3 Mr. Faulkner had three daughters, one son, nine grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren.4 One of those grandchildren was Jeremy.5
On April 29, 2020, about five weeks before he passed, Mr. Faulkner signed a will leaving $100.00 to his son and the “‘rest and residual of [his] estate’ to his ‘three daughters’” Brenda Sue, Beverly, and Vicki “in equal shares.”6 Sometime later, Brenda Sue filed a petition to probate the April 29, 2020, will of Mr. Faulkner, and the Clerk and Master entered an order admitting the 2020 will and appointing Brenda Sue as executor.7
But, before Brenda Sue filed her petition for probate, she and one of her sisters filed a lawsuit. The complaint was verified, and attached to the complaint were four signed wills from 2015, 2018, 2019, and the one from 2020.8 The sisters’ complaint asked the chancery court to make a judicial determination as to which document was a valid will, but the plaintiffs non-suited the lawsuit before the court could make that determination.9 And one of Mr. Faulkner’s grandchildren noticed. Grandson Jeremy noticed the lawsuit. He noticed the wills that were exhibits to the verified complaint. He noticed that the verified complaint asserted that Mr. Faulkner died “with more than one alleged Last Will and Testimony.” He also noticed that he was named as a beneficiary under the 2015, 2018, and 2019 wills. He then noticed that he was not a beneficiary of the 2020 will that was admitted to probate, and he had no right to take by intestate succession because his father, Mr. Faulkner’s son, was still living.10
So, Jeremy moved to certify standing for a will contest.11 His argument: he was clearly the beneficiary of a prior will because three prior wills naming him as beneficiary were attached to a verified complaint, which averred that his grandfather died with multiple prior wills. Unfortunately, Jeremy didn’t have the originals of any of those prior wills. If the three prior original wills were anywhere, they were in the custody of Brenda Sue.
So even though he couldn’t tender an original prior will, he had a verified copy plus the executor’s verified complaint saying that Mr. Faulker died with multiple wills. . .. . and that should be enough to at least get him in the door so he could litigate his will contest.12 The chancery court disagreed and denied the motion to certify standing—which is how Attorney Dimmick found himself in front of Judge McBrayer, Judge Clement, and Judge Usman discussing Jeremy’s plight.
When attorney Randy Hillhouse of the Lawrence County Bar took the podium, he had a different perspective. “The way I look at this case is definitely different than the way the Appellant does.”13 According to Mr. Hillhouse, Jeremy had multiple attempts to prove that there was a signed prior will, that it gave Jeremy something, and that it was never revoked; but he didn’t prove any of these things.14 The biggest problem
was that Jeremy could not produce a prior original will to overcome the presumption that the 2020 will, which said it revoked all prior wills, did not, in fact, revoke all prior wills.15
According to Brenda Sue, Jeremy had multiple opportunities at multiple hearings to present testimony or other evidence to establish that any of the prior wills had not been revoked, such as evidence that Mr. Faulkner was not competent when he executed the 2020 will.16 He didn’t. “Don’t you have to do something more than just file something?”17
The Court of Appeals answered that question with a “yes.” A valid copy of a prior will could be accepted “for the limited purpose of evidence of lack of standing” but not for purposes of establishing standing for a will contest.18 Rather, Jeremy had to do more than just tender copies of the prior wills. He had to make “specific factual averments” to establish either that his grandfather did not revoke at least one of the prior wills because he lacked testamentary capacity to sign the April 2020 will or because he did not have custody of the prior wills after he signed them.19 Thus, he lacked standing to contest the 2020 will.
This case may not be remarkable. In fact, the circumstances giving rise to this particular will contest (correction: attempted will contest) are fairly common. After all, we wouldn’t even need a will contest statute if people only ever signed one will, when they had unquestionable capacity to do so, and divided their property in a completely equitable manner among all of their heirs, all of whom enjoy each other’s company and have zero negative history with one another.
But we do have a will contest statute, and motions to certify standing for a will contest do get filed. And, by nature, they can be contentious. Will contests involve family, and family comes with baggage and personalities and memories, and lots and lots of history.
The remarkable thing about this case is the lawyers. I do not know either of them, but the respectful way in which both Mr. Dimmick and Mr. Hillhouse referred to each other and to each other’s clients during oral argument is remarkable. Neither attacked the other personally or made snide remarks about that other’s professionalism or technical skills in the proceedings below. Neither attacked the other’s client, even though it is likely that things might be a bit tense between Aunt Brenda Sue and Nephew Jeremy. The word “frivolous” made no appearance. In sum, both attorneys stood at the podium, stated their clients’ respective positions, answered the court’s questions, and sat down – not just as professional adversaries, but as “colleagues and friends.” Professional adversaries, colleagues, friends: those are the three bright stars displayed by two bright attorneys.
1 Oral Argument at 1:00, In re Estate of Floyd Edward Faulkner, No M2023-01055COA-R3-CV (Apr. 2, 2024), available at https://tncourts.gov/courts/court-appeals/ arguments/2024/04/02/re-estate-floyd-edward-faulkner.
2 Obituary of Floyd Edward Faulkner (June 5, 2020), https://www.nealfuneralhome. net/obituaries/Floyd-Edward-Faulkner?obId=32933204, last visited Aug. 6, 2025.
3 Erik Wesner, Ethridge, Tennessee Amish Map (Amish America, May 15, 2012, updated June 10, 2024), https://amishamerica.com/ethridge-tennessee-amishmap/, last visited August 6, 2025.
4 Obituary of Floyd Edward Falkner, supra n. 2.
5 Id.
6 In re Estate of Floyd Edward Faulkner, No. M2023-01055-COA-R3-CV, slip op. 1 (Tenn. Ct. App. July 31, 2025), available at https://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/ files/OpinionsPDFVersion/Majority%20Opinion%20-%20M2023-01055-COA-R3-CV.
continued on page 15
HELLO MY NAME IS
By: Bridget J. Pyman Arnett | Baker
MATTHEW WING
This month’s Hello My Name Is column features attorney Matthew Wing, an Associate Attorney with Kramer Rayson LLP, where his practice spans a broad spectrum of areas including Corporate and Commercial Law, Health Law, and Employment Law. A 2024 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, Matthew also holds a degree in Medical Physics from Belmont University. He is a member of the Knoxville Bar Association and Tennessee Bar Association and currently serves with the KBA Barristers.
Matthew’s path to the legal profession didn’t follow the usual script. Before entering law school, he served as a U.S. Army officer, including a deployment overseas and continued service in the reserves throughout the pandemic. He also worked as an operations manager for Amazon – an experience that, along with his military background and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification, sharpened his leadership, problem-solving, and process-oriented thinking. Whether navigating legal complexities, exploring Tennessee’s trout streams with a fly rod, or playing French horn with the Tennessee Wind Symphony, Matthew brings discipline, curiosity, and confidence to everything he does.
Do you have any significant or interesting work experiences before you became a lawyer that impacted your career?
I did not follow the typical path to law school. Prior to attending, I had two other careers that shaped the mentality I bring to my legal practice today. After graduating from Belmont University, I spent a total of eight years as a U.S. Army officer – including four years on active duty, nearly a year deployed overseas, and serving in the reserves throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and law school. Mixed in with my military service, I also worked as an Operations Manager for Amazon at its Charlotte, North Carolina fulfillment center.
Both of these experiences were, at times, extremely challenging and taught me to be adaptive and disciplined, to approach difficult situations with tenacity, and to balance the fine line between professional goals and personal life–traits that have served me well in my first year of practice. More importantly, both Amazon and the Army taught me how to work and communicate with a wide array of people from nearly every background, whether they were subordinates, peers, or superiors.
Why did you decide to go to law school?
Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, I was transitioning out of active-duty service in the Army and into a civilian career. I was initially interested in consulting; however, as soon as the pandemic hit, those opportunities quickly dried up. As we all know, Amazon was one of the few companies thriving during the pandemic – and one of the only places hiring. I started as an operations manager but quickly realized this was not going to be my long-term career.
As I was evaluating my options, I hoped to find a career path that would foster a more project-centric and team-based atmosphere –similar to what I experienced in the Army. After a lot of reflection and discussions with family, some of whom are attorneys themselves, I decided that law school was the best choice.
What skill or hobby are you currently learning, outside of work?
While I was on active duty in the military, I lived just outside Savannah, Georgia, where, I developed a love of saltwater fishing. I would spend as much time as I could after work fishing from the beach or my kayak. Now that I’m in Knoxville, I have taken up flyfishing as a way to foster and expand my love for angling. Starting out, I learned the basics of fly fishing from friends and practiced locally in the Smoky Mountains. From there, I have ventured into tying flies and trying out new locations. It’s become a rewarding outlet, and I look forward to continuing to grow as an amateur angler – one cast at a time.
Are there any community groups you belong to or lead?
One of the more unique facts about me is that I have played French horn since I was in the third grade. My dad played throughout his life and passed down his love of music, and the French horn, to me. I have been fortunate enough to continue playing my horn in different groups throughout college and beyond. I am currently a proud member of the Tennessee Wind symphony, a local community band.
Tell me about your family.
My wife, Danielle, and I have been married for 5 years after meeting at Belmont University over 12 years ago. We moved to Knoxville with two dogs and one cat and have since expanded our family by adding another dog and recently welcoming our baby girl, Mary Evelyn. There is never a dull moment in our household, but it’s a lot of fun!
young lawyers most pressing personal finance questions, including budgeting, debt, investing, retirement accounts, and more. Barristers are invited to submit questions in advance for the panel. Current panelists: Justin Stivers, Stivers Wealth Management; Daniel Dunn, Shanks & Blackstock; Melissa Ballard/Claire Kluth, PYA Waltman Capital LLC.
• Friday, October 10 at 7 AM – Weekly Walk at Lakeshore Park.
• Saturday, October 11 at 8:30 AM-10:30 AM – Keep Knoxville Beautiful (KKB) Litter Clean Up at Victor Ashe Park. Meet in the parking lot. KKB will provide litter pickers, reflective vests, gloves, and trash bags.
• Tuesday, October 14 at 6 PM – Weekly Walk at Lakeshore Park.
• Wednesday, October 15 (Time TBD) – Financial Wellness Webinar: “Winning All 3 Phases of Your Financial Gameplan.” A high-level panel discussion on banking, investment, insurance options, and the interworking of each for developing a complete financial strategy.
• Friday, October 17 at 7 AM – Weekly Walk at Lakeshore Park.
• Tuesday, October 21 at 6 PM – Weekly Walk at Lakeshore Park.
• Thursday, October 23 Wellness Conference, Small Assembly Room, Sponsored by TIS.
o 8:30 AM - 11 AM - Health Fair
o 11 AM - 11:45 AM - Walk with Jack Neely
o 12 PM – 1 PM CLE program – Alex Long and Matt Lyon presenting on the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Bar Application Process.
§ Lunch will be available as optional add on.
• Friday, October 24 at 7 AM – Weekly Walk at Lakeshore
AROUND
THE BAR, continued from page 11
Of course, only time and the hard work of Tennessee’s attorneys, courts, the AOC, and other facets of the Tennessee judicial system will make these benefits a reality.
Conclusion
The Plan is a forward-thinking solution to a longstanding crisis in indigent representation. Through every phase of developing and implementing the new Indigent Plan, the TBA and many others worked hand in hand with the Tennessee Supreme Court and the AOC to advocate for these much-needed updates and the funding that was required to make them a reality. By embracing collaboration, rethinking attorney compensation, and creating a modern administrative infrastructure, Tennessee has positioned itself to deliver more effective, equitable, and sustainable legal services to its most vulnerable residents, marking the beginning of a new era for indigent representation in Tennessee.
1 Press Release, Tennessee Supreme Court Releases Statement Following $17 Million for New Indigent Representation Plan (Apr. 17, 2025), available at https:// tncourts.gov/press/2025/04/17/tennessee-supreme-court-releases-statementfollowing-17-million-new-indigent.
2 Plan for Indigent Representation in Tennessee, pg. 1, available at https://tncourts. gov/sites/default/files/docs/Indigent%20Representation%20Plan%20Summary.pdf.
Park.
• Saturday, October 25 – Fall Hike with Professionalism Committee – location and time TBD – stay tuned for updates!
• Tuesday, October 28 at 6 PM – Weekly Walk at Lakeshore Park.
• Wednesday, October 29 at 6:30 PM – Private Fly Dance Fitness Class for KBA members (plus up to 1 guest each). $10 per person. All participants must be over the age of 16 and class is limited to 35 attendees.
• Friday, October 31 at 7 AM – Weekly Walk at Lakeshore Park.
November 12 at 8-9 AM – Healthy Bar Challenge Celebration Event, Small Assembly Room, City County Building. Join us as we celebrate our achievements and recognize those achievements with awards at the end of the Healthy Bar Challenge!
1 Information about the 2018 Report from the National Task Force on Lawyer Wellbeing is available at https://www.americanbar.org/groups/lawyer_assistance/ task_force_report.html/ and the Institute for Well-Being in Law at www. lawyerwellbeing.net
2 See id.
3 Information about Dr. Kristen Neff’s work can be found at www.selfcompassion.org Her book, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself is available where books are sold. See also https://selfcompassion.web.unc.edu/what-is-selfcompassion/the-three-components-of-self-compassion/.
4 See id.
5 See id.
6 See id
7 See id.
8 See Jon Kabat-Zinn, This Loving-Kindness Meditation is a Radical Act of Love, Mindful Magazine, February 10, 2023, Available at https://www.mindful.org/thisloving-kindness-meditation-is-a-radical-act-of-love/#:~:text=Establish%20a%20 Calm%20Foundation:%20Sit,the%20planet%2C%20and%20the%20universe
THREE
STARS, continued from page 13 pdf.
7 Id. at p. 1-2.
8 Id. at p. 2; see also Oral Argument, In re Estate of Faulkner at 4:51.
9 In re Estate of Faulkner at p. 2, n.2.
10 Id. at p. 2.
11 Id.
12 Id. at pp. 2-3.
13 Oral Argument, In re Estate of Faulkner at 11:23.
14 Id. at 11:50.
15 In re Estate of Faulkner at p. 3; see also Oral Argument, In re Estate of Faulkner at 13:34.
16 Oral Argument, In re Estate of Faulkner at 16:50.
17 Id. at 17:10.
18 In re Estate of Faulkner at p. 5, n. 4 (quoting Jennings v. Bridgeford, 403 S.W.2d 289, 290 (Tenn. 1966)).
19 Id. at p. 4, 6.
LAWYER WELLNESS, THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, AND THE BAR APPLICATION PROCESS
In a recent Schooled in Ethics column, my colleague Paula Schaefer posed the question of whether lawyers occupy “safety-sensitive” positions, as the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP) has asserted.1 The issue is particularly timely in light of the fact that, by the time this article is published, hundreds of recent law school graduates across the state will have recently finished taking the bar exam and will be going through the formal admissions process. Underlying this discussion is a finding from the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2024 that the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners (TBLE) and TLAP had violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by discriminating against two bar applicants based on their diagnosis of or treatment for a substance use or mental health disorder. Specifically, DOJ found that the organizations required both applicants to undergo burdensome examinations—at their own expense—and imposed restrictive conditions on their admittance as part of their application processes.2
The legal profession is currently involved in well-intentioned efforts to improve the overall well-being of the profession. During a recent ABA summit, panelists discussed how the character and fitness portion of the bar exam may sometimes adversely impact these efforts.3 This column focuses on these concerns.
health and safety of others that might render the individual unqualified. Thus, the Act permits covered entities to establish criteria that screen out individuals with disabilities who pose a “direct threat”4—meaning “a significant risk to the health or safety of others that cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation.”5
Lawyer assistance programs in Tennessee and other states have recently started reclassifying the general practice of law as a “safetysensitive position.” As Prof. Schaefer has documented, lawyer assistance programs in other states have recently stated publicly that the practice of law is a safety-sensitive position and are relying upon a definition of the term that focuses primarily on an industry’s responsibility to the public, rather than its threats to the health and safety of the public.
This categorization of the practice of law as a “safety-sensitive position” implicates some of the strictures of the ADA. One of the concepts at issue in the DOJ matter involving the TBLE and TLAP was the ADA’s “direct threat” defense. The ADA recognizes that there may be situations in which an individual’s disability may pose a risk to the
Consistent with the purposes of the ADA, an employer or public entity may not exclude an individual on the grounds that the individual poses a direct threat to health and safety on a blanket assumption that all individuals with a particular disability have the same limitations or pose the same threat.6 Instead, a covered entity “must point to particularized facts about the specific person’s condition to support its decision.”7 Courts have made clear that the direct threat defense imposes a demanding standard for covered entities.8 An objective standard applies in such cases, so a defendant’s subjective belief that an individual poses a direct threat or that a standard is necessary— even if in good faith—is not sufficient to satisfy either defense. Thus, in the typical case, a defendant faces an uphill battle when relying on this defense. Where, however, the government program or employment involves what courts and litigants often refer to as a “safety-sensitive” position that poses risks to the health or safety of others, courts have been more inclined to permit public entities and employers to adopt practices that screen out individuals with disabilities. Courts have characterized first responders, railroad workers, operators of heavy machinery, those who work with hazardous materials, and the like as occupying safety-sensitive positions.9 Examples of statutorily-defined safety-sensitive positions include those whose jobs require that they carry firearms,10 those who work at secured biological testing facilities,11 and those who perform life-threatening procedures.12
The common thread in the law regarding safety-sensitive positions is that the fundamental duties of the position involve a significant threat to the physical safety and health of others if not performed competently. In such cases, a defendant is more likely to be legally justified in excluding an individual with a disability that might impact the ability to perform
the essential functions of the position safely. Thus, an employer may have greater latitude to deny employment to a train conductor with a history of substance abuse than it would the person who sold the tickets to board the train. To be clear, use of the words “safety-sensitive position” is not a shibboleth that can be used to exclude individuals with disabilities. But courts have generally been more willing to give latitude for regulation in industries where workers can cause physical harm or death to others.
There are no equivalent statutes or rules of professional conduct classifying the general practice of law as a safety-sensitive position. Nor are there any reported judicial decisions that do the same. As one who teaches Professional Responsibility for a living, I recognize the potential dangers of incompetent legal practice and the responsibilities lawyers owe to the public. But, except in unusual cases, legal incompetence does not put a client at reasonably foreseeable risk of death or physical harm. The inclusion of attorneys in a list of heavily regulated professions that have the ability to cause death or physical harm—including police officers, nuclear power plant operators, and air traffic controllers—is dubious as a matter of common sense as well as a matter of authority under the ADA.
This does not mean that the legal profession cannot regulate the admission of individuals whose recent conduct reflects a lack of fitness to practice law—even if that lack of fitness is caused by substance abuse or mental health disorder. But it is unnecessary to term lawyers “safetysensitive” workers in order to do so. Nor is it permissible for a public entity to justify the imposition of unnecessary and extremely burdensome conditions on this basis.
The position of lawyer assistance programs that the practice of law is a safety-sensitive position has potentially far-reaching implications for many lawyers. The high rates of depression and related conditions among law students and lawyers is well-documented. If lawyer assistance programs and bar examiners view individuals with a history of substance abuse as being unqualified to practice law or posing a direct threat to clients without the imposition of burdensome conditions and restrictions, it would logically follow that those who are dealing with anxiety, depression, or other similar conditions would be subject to the same conditions and restrictions—even where all available evidence indicates the individuals are effectively treating their conditions and are practicing in a competent manner.
Further, applicants and lawyers with some physical disabilities would also be subject to similar measures. If a lawyer truly does occupy a safetysensitive position, it is difficult to see why bar examiners and lawyer assistance programs would not impose similar restrictions and conditions on the ability to practice of a lawyer who has epilepsy or high blood pressure or who takes medications with possible side effects, even when the lawyer is receiving treatment from a physician.
Perhaps most importantly, imposing onerous restrictions on lawyers and bar applicants that conflict with the judgment of their treating physicians and mental health professionals may discourage some bar applicants and lawyers from seeking help from medical and mental health professionals—a result completely at odds with the legal profession’s efforts to promote wellness in the profession. This is a concern that many of my students have raised as they start thinking about the bar application process. At the recent ABA summit, one dean of students
By: Alex B. Long
Williford Gragg Distinguished Professor of Law University of Tennessee College of Law
at a law school stated that she has had students call her while on the way to the hospital in a mental health crisis who have asked, “If I go to the hospital, will I still be able to become a lawyer?”13 One federal judge who reviewed Kentucky bar officials’ handling of an application by a law student with a mental disability was even more direct: “One day, a law student will die after choosing self-help over medical care because he worried a Character and Fitness Committee would use that medical treatment against him — as Kentucky’s did against Jane Doe. It is not a matter of if, but when.”14
The legal profession has made great strides in promoting lawyer wellness and encouraging lawyers to seek help for mental health and substance use issues. Classifying the practice of law as a “safety-sensitive” position that justifies the imposition of burdensome conditions may deter lawyers and bar applicants from seeking the help they need. Bar examiners and lawyer assistance programs have other, less restrictive means at their disposal to accomplish the goal of protecting the public.
1 Paula Schaefer, Are You a Safety Sensitive Worker?, DictA, April 2025.
2 Readers should check out Prof. Schaefer’s article for more details regarding the cases.
3 Aebra Coe, Flaws Remain In Bar Fitness Queries, Summit Panelists Say, Law360, June 6, 2025.
4 42 U.S.C. § 12113; 28 C.F.R. § 35.130(b)(8).
5 42 U.S.C. § 12111(3).
6 Pollard v. Drummond Co., Case No. 2:12–CV–03948–MHH, 2015 WL 5306084 at *7 (N.D. Ala. Sep. 10, 2015).
7 Lowe v. Alabama Power Co., 244 F.3d 1305, 1308 (11th Cir. 2001).
8 Echazabal v. Chevron USA, Inc., 336 F.3d 1023, 1034 (9th Cir, 2003); 242 F.3d 437, 448 (3d Cir. 2001); Cripe v. City of San Jose, 261 F.3d 877, 890 (9th Cir. 2001); Hartley v. Boeing Company, CIVIL ACTION NO. 19-373, 2019 WL 4857357, *7 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 30, 2019).
9 See Spencer-Martin v. Exxon Mobil Corp., CIVIL ACTION 16-789-SDD-RLB, 2018 WL 3015759, *1 (M.D. La. June 15, 2018); Makinen v. New York, 53 F. Supp. 3d 676, 694-95 (S.D.N.Y. 2014); Bingham v. Union P. R.R. Co., 693 F. Supp. 3d 1033, 1057 (D. Neb. 2023); Bender v. Norfolk S. Corp., 31 F. Supp. 3d 659, 671 (M.D. 2014); Spencer-Martin, 2018 WL 3015759, at *1; Employment Opportunity Com’n v. Hussey Copper Ltd., 696 F. Supp. 2d 505, 519 (W.D. Pa. 2010).
10 tenn coDe § 50-9-103(16)(B).
11 KAn stAt Ch. 75-4362(g)(8).
12 ArK coDe Ann § 11-14-102(18)(a)(iii).
13 Aebra Coe, Flaws Remain in Bar Fitness Queries, Summit Panelists Say, Law360, June 6, 2025.
14 Doe v. Supreme Court of Kentucky, 482 F. Supp. 3d 571, 584 (W.D. Ky. 2020).
21ST CENTURY LAWYER
By: Grant Williamson Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
TOTAL WELLNESS
A few memories stick with me from law school (I have attempted to mentally block out the rest). One of the memories that has managed to stick was a moment from the Lawyers as Leaders course taught by former Dean Blaze and Buck Lewis when the class was discussing work-life balance. (Work-life balance is a term that I do not particularly love but I will use here for ease of reference; my issue with the term is a topic for another article, perhaps.) During this discussion, a classmate of mine began pushing back against the notion that as a young attorney he should not need to be available 24/7. The professors countered that a young attorney should work hard, zealously advocate for their clients, and be as available as possible for the partners in their firm, but this dedication did not mean that a young attorney should be, for example, checking their phone at 8:30 PM and logging back in to get more work done if something came up. My classmate pushed back again. In his mind, if he was not responsive at 8:30 PM, another young associate would be, and he would lose an opportunity for work and growth in his career. I remember at the time siding with my classmate – everything that I had heard about the practice of law, especially Big Law, which I hoped to enter at the time, seemed to indicate that long hours would be, and should be, the norm for anyone hoping to succeed in the industry.
I still, to a degree, side with my classmate. Now that I am six years out of law school, long hours and hard work have definitely been the norm for me. They have been the norm not just because I felt like they needed to be so that I could continue an upward trajectory for my career; I genuinely love the work that I am doing and the continual opportunities to grow and learn. I want to check my phone sometimes at 8:30 PM with the hope that a new issue has popped up that I can help my clients with. The problem I have faced, however, is pouring so much of myself into my work that I have not allowed myself to be the best version of myself in a non-work setting. I have been married for nearly 9 years – I drove back to Atlanta for my rehearsal dinner after my Fall 1L Contracts exam – and now have two young kids (ages 4 and almost 1.5). I want to give them not only my time but the best of my time. Where I currently struggle is managing all the things I am privileged to have in my life. I have the privilege of being the husband to my wife, Jessica; the privilege of being the father of Annie and Thomas; the privilege of working at a firm where I am supported and challenged and get to work with great clients; and the privilege of countless other things. What I am not managing well is giving 100% of myself to all these things on a consistent basis. I often give 100% (or more) of myself to work in a way that causes me to be exhausted and diminished when I get home. When that happens, Jessica, Annie, and Thomas only get part of me. Seventy percent of me likely gets the job done, but they deserve 100%. It feels easier sometimes to retreat back into work and watch my billable hours slowly tick upwards toward the lofty goal I set for myself rather than take time to work out, walk the dog, or read a book— all things I love to do and that are good for my health, both physical and mental. Put simply, I take issue with the concept of work-life balance because it ignores the fact that all of these things in my life are happening
constantly at the same time – it might be easier if I could neatly arrange everything into separate containers to be balanced out. Instead, I have to find a way to integrate all of these competing things in my life (competing things that I am grateful for, to be clear) in a way that is healthy and fair to each separate thing.
If I were to assess how “well” I am doing right now, my answer would vary wildly, depending on whether I assessed my wellness based solely on work, solely on my family, solely on my physical and mental health, or if I assessed it based on all of those things together. As young attorneys in a digital age, it is extremely easy to be caught up in your work and to feel that you have to be accessible at all times. Do I still agree with my classmate that a young attorney should be available 24/7? It depends. If being available constantly impacts how well you are in the other areas of your life, I do not think you should be available at 8:30 PM. But if you love your work and can find a way to balance all of it so that you are 100% of yourself in everything you do, I think you can jump back on to work at 8:30 p.m. (as long as the kids are asleep and it is not something that can wait until the next day).
SCHOOLED IN ETHICS
By: Paula Schaefer Art Stolnitz Distinguished Professor of Law University of Tennessee College of Law
GAI FAILURES BY JUDGES AND LAWYERS: REFLECTIONS ON THE DUTY TO SUPERVISE
By now, we all have read numerous headlines calling out lawyers for court filings containing nonexistent cases hallucinated by generative artificial intelligence (GAI).1 One researcher is tracking the number of legal decisions referencing GAI-hallucinated content.2 As I write this article, there are 257 such cases,3 and I suspect the number will be even higher by the time you read this. Two federal judges recently joined these ranks when it was revealed that they had issued court rulings containing substantial errors likely attributable to GAI.4
Much of the focus in discussing such cases has been on the failure of competence.5 In its formal ethics opinion on the issue, the ABA explains that a competent lawyer must understand GAI technology’s benefits and risks, including GAI’s ability to create unreliable results.6 It is a failure of competence to submit a GAI tool’s output without “an appropriate degree of independent verification.”7
A number of adverse consequences can flow from this failure of competence. Of course, there is the Rule 11 duty to certify that a filing’s legal contentions are correct under the law, the violation of which can result in sanctions.8 Further, lawyers can also run afoul of the growing number of standing orders imposing additional requirements (including certifications) on lawyers who use GAI in court filings.9 Lawyers also owe a legal duty of competence to their clients that is breached by filing a brief containing GAI errors, which can result in malpractice liability.10 And finally, a lawyer’s GAI failure in court filings can result in professional discipline for violation of rules including RPC 1.1 (the competence rule), RPC 3.3 (candor to the tribunal), and RPC 8.4 (engaging in conduct involving misrepresentation or that is prejudicial to the administration of justice).11 While judges do not have a Rule 11 obligation or owe a duty of competence to a client, they do have a professional obligation of competence under the Code of Judicial Conduct.12
There is another failure at play, too, that is just as pressing for lawyers and judges as their own competence. That issue is the duty to supervise junior lawyers and law clerks who perform legal research.13 While it has always been possible for a junior legal researcher to make mistakes, GAI adds a new dimension to the problem. A junior lawyer or law clerk—who would never dream of fabricating a quote or making up a case—might very easily (without sinister motive or serious thought) cite a fictitious case provided by GAI. Undoubtedly, at least some junior lawyers still do not fully understand the technology and its tendency to make up answers. Such misunderstandings are even more likely when they are using seemingly “specialized” GAI platforms, such as Westlaw, Lexis, and proprietary in-house GAI tools.14 And even the junior lawyers who understand GAI’s flaws and limits may not appreciate the serious consequences (and likelihood of getting caught) when they fail to confirm the substance of materials cited by GAI.
These supervision problems can be found in recent GAI-failure cases. In the case of a U.S. District Court Judge in New Jersey who withdrew a decision that included hallucinated material, Reuters reports that “a temporary assistant . . . prepared the research” using GAI and that the material was then “included in a draft decision that was inadvertently placed on the public docket before the review process.”15 In the case
Wadsworth v. Walmart Inc., plaintiff’s lead counsel instructed a junior attorney to draft a motion in limine.16 The junior attorney used his firm’s in-house GAI tool, did not verify the cited cases’ accuracy before adding them to the brief, and did not realize the error until the court issued an order to show cause.17 The junior attorney admitted that the cases were non-existent and that his reliance on the firm’s GAI platform was misplaced.18
In this new era, lawyers and judges need to reevaluate their unthinking reliance on their legal researchers—even when those researchers themselves are licensed lawyers. Supervision is key. In directly supervising fellow attorneys, TRPC 5.1(b) provides that lawyers “shall make reasonable efforts to ensure” that the other lawyer conforms to the professional conduct rules.19 The same obligation is imposed under TRPC 5.3(b) when the supervised individual is a non-attorney.20 Relatedly, lawyers with managerial authority must ensure that their firm has measures in place such that the firm is reasonably assured that lawyers and non-lawyers will act in conformity with professional conduct rules.21 Similarly, Tennessee’s Code of Judicial Conduct imposes a supervisory obligation on judges, stating that a judge shall require those acting on the judge’s behalf to “act in a manner consistent with the judge’s obligations under this Code.”22
While it can be helpful for firms and courts to adopt written policies about the proper use of GAI, it is easy for such policies to be overlooked.23 It is likely even more important for judges and lawyers to have one-on-one conversations with the individuals they supervise. Based on continuing GAI failures in litigation, topics of conversation should include the following.
1. Let’s Discuss the Capabilities and Limitations of the GAI Tool You Are Using in Your Research. The framing of this first point is important. The lesson of these GAI-failure cases is not to abandon the technology. Instead, legal researchers need to understand the capabilities and limitations of their selected tool. Supervising attorneys cannot assume that their junior colleagues possess this knowledge. As noted earlier, the research reveals that no GAI tool is perfect—even those tools created for lawyers.24 All are capable of hallucinating and all need to be checked, which leads to the second point.
2. Always Create an Annotated File of the Cases and Other Legal Authorities You Cite. Because verification of any cited legal material is necessary, legal researchers need to create a file containing any legal authority they cite. It is not enough for the GAI tool to provide a quote or a citation. That cannot be used until the legal researcher pulls the source authority and confirms it exists and contains the cited matter. Highlighting quotes and other cited content is the type of annotation that can assure both junior attorney and supervisor that the legal authority relied upon actually exists.
3. Your Excellent Research Protects Our Reputations and Livelihood. Attorneys make bad decisions when they lose sight of the ethical and legal dimensions of an issue. We can see this ethical blindness when a rushed attorney or law clerk
MANAGEMENT COUNSEL: LAW PRACTICE 101
By: Jimmy Snodgrass Bass, Berry & Sims
HANDLING MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS UNDER THE FMLA
As I’m sure will be detailed in many articles in the annual Wellness edition of DICTA, employers today must be especially aware of and sensitive to their employee’s mental health conditions. One important topic, which may not be at the top of a manager’s mind, is how to handle requests for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) when they involve mental health issues.
Here are two examples of how this may arise in the workplace, as detailed in the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division’s Fact Sheet # 280, which provides specific guidance on how to address these serious mental health conditions. Consider if an employee confides in his manager that he is unable to come into work at times due to severe anxiety and needs to use intermittent FMLA leave when he is unable to work or has a regularly scheduled appointment to see his treating physician. As another example, an employee seeks to use FMLA leave to care for a child who is receiving outpatient mental health treatment or around-the-clock care at an inpatient facility. Obviously, these are sensitive situations that need to be appropriately handled with care under the FMLA.
Walking through how to properly comply with a request for FMLA leave will take far more than the one-page I have been given, but I wanted to highlight several concerns that are especially significant when addressing employees’ mental health conditions under the FMLA. To start, under the FMLA, a serious health condition includes a mental condition that either involves inpatient care or continuing treatment by a medical provider.
First, when should an employer know that an employee has requested leave under the FMLA? An employee does not have to expressly mention the FMLA. However, the employee must provide notice and a qualifying reason for requesting leave to trigger the employer’s obligations under the FMLA. The required level of notice of an employee’s intention to take FMLA leave depends on whether the requested leave is foreseeable or unforeseeable. When leave is not foreseeable, “an employee must comply with the employer’s usual and customary notice and procedural requirements for requesting leave, absent unusual circumstances.”1 If leave is foreseeable, the employee generally must provide at least 30 days’ advance notice.2
Additionally, the Sixth Circuit has found that an employer’s knowledge of an employee’s prior medical history is relevant to determine whether an employee provided adequate notice.3 But, the court found that even though the employer had knowledge of an employee’s previous hospitalizations for mental health events and prior use of FMLA leave, simply asking her supervisor to leave early one day “was not so erratic
or bizarre” as to indicate that she needed leave at that time under the FMLA.4
Second, an employer can request medical certification of an employee’s serious mental health condition. This certification may request the factual circumstances for the employee’s health condition that necessitates leave, such as the employee’s symptoms, diagnosis, previous treatment and prescriptions, and referrals for evaluation.5
As an example of such specificity, a medical certification in a recent Sixth Circuit decision noted that an employee needed intermittent FMLA leave to manage his major recurrent depression and moderate/generalized anxiety disorder, because the employee would be unable to perform any job-related duties during a flare-up, and the employee requested up to four days of intermittent leave per month to manage his flare-ups.6
“[A] request for medical certification must be in writing and must detail the employee’s specific obligation to provide certification and the consequences of failing to do so.”7 Additionally, when leave is unforeseeable, the employer must give the employee at least fifteen days to provide the requested certification, and more if it is not practicable under the circumstances.8 These requirements stress the need to have a clear FMLA leave policy which informs employees when, and more importantly, whom to contact about a need for FMLA leave. Further, the policy should inform employees to whom and how to notify the employer when they need to take intermittent leave. If managers are tasked with handling this responsibility, they should be trained on the company’s policy and procedures, as well as being aware of verbal notice about mental health conditions. If contained in the policy, management should consistently request medical certification and inform employees that they will do so. However, even if the policy directs an employee to contact an HR professional, they still may contact their immediate supervisor, further highlighting the need for general awareness and training on the company’s FMLA policy. Moreover, training managers or HR professionals and making them knowledgeable about the company’s FMLA policy ensures that they will appropriately handle an employee’s serious mental health conditions with empathy and respect.
1 29 C.F.R. § 825.303(c).
2 29 CFR § 825.302.
3 Miles v. Nashville Elec. Serv., 525 F. App’x 382, 387 (6th Cir. 2013)
About this column: “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.” This old expression refers to the fact that a busy cobbler will be so busy making shoes for his customers that he has no time to make some for his own children. This syndrome can also apply to lawyers who are so busy providing good service to their clients that they neglect management issues in their own offices. The goal of this column is to provide timely information on management issues. If you have an idea for a future column, please contact Jimmy Snodgrass at jimmy.snodgrass@bassberry.com.
WELL READ
By: Beth Ford Retired Federal Defender/Adjunct Professor
BUILD THE LIFE YOU WANT: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF GETTING HAPPIER
For several years, I have been a regular reader of the column “How to Build a Life” in The Atlantic by Arthur C. Brooks. It is described in the magazine as “a column pointing yourself toward happiness.” A couple of years ago, I heard Dr. Brooks speak at the Thrive Summit at the University of Tennessee, where he serves as a fellow at the Baker School’s Institute of American Civics. In addition to speaking and writing about happiness, Dr. Brooks is on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School, where his classes about the science of happiness are often oversubscribed. In 2023, he co-authored Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier with Oprah Winfrey. First, here is what the book is not. It is not a handbook on how to achieve happiness. At the beginning of the book, the authors make it clear that no one is ever truly happy. We can all become happier, but we will not become happy. Dr. Brooks says that happiness is a “direction,” not a “destination.” He bases his conclusions on what he has learned from brain research, sociology, psychology, and physiology.
The book focuses on two general topics and one short topic. Managing our emotions and building what matters are covered in depth. The last topic is given only a few pages by the authors. However, I found the ending point of the book to be very important and worthy of having more pages dedicated to it. That is the topic of teaching others. If one can teach others, it is very likely that the materials and skills have been mastered by the teacher. That ability to teach others will allow the reader to reinforce what he or she learns about the first two sets of topics leading to “happierness.”
Managing Our Emotions
Before embarking on the journey to being happier, one must understand what happiness is. The book discusses several philosophies of happiness and concludes that happiness is a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose. At this point in the book, there is one exercise that helps the reader identify their unique mix of happiness and unhappiness and how their type can manage their positive and negative emotions.
There are many ways in which one can manage emotions. Dr. Brooks discusses the importance of practicing metacognition. Metacognition requires a person to step back and assess emotions before acting on the emotion. We probably all learned as children to count to ten before reacting. That is a tool for managing emotions as is journaling, keeping a database of positive experiences, or looking for meaning in difficult experiences.
Not only should we manage our emotions, but we should then choose better emotions. Gratitude is an emotion that makes us better people. Scientists have studied gratitude and identified many reasons why gratitude raises positive emotions so reliably. Laughing, hope, and compassion are all emotions that, also, serve us well. Dr. Brooks ends the section about managing emotions with suggestions on how to focus less on one’s self.
This emotional self-management “makes you much happier as a person, freeing you from being managed by your feelings.” That skill is foundational to building a happier life and is an ongoing process, because
there are so many distractions bombarding us all the time.
Building What Matters
Once again, the author turns to the research and identifies four big happiness pillars to which one must pay attention. Those pillars are family, friendship, work, and faith. The definitions are what one would expect, except for faith, which does not mean a specific religion but is “a shorthand term for having a transcendent view and approach to life.”
Pillar 1- Family: There are challenges/opportunities for strengthening family life. Those challenges are conflict, insufficient complementarity, negativity, forgiveness, and dishonesty. (It was sobering to read that 11% of all mothers with at least two children are estranged from one of her children.) A summary provides ways to transfer each of these challenges into growth.
Pillar 2- Friendship: The goal is to nurture friendships that are deeply real. There is a recognition that COVID has changed many friendships. As with family, there are challenges to be addressed. Those are our personalities, excessive usefulness, attachment to opinions, magical thinking, and the virtual world. As with family, friendship requires time and commitment.
Pillar 3- Work: “The third pillar for building a happier life is meaningful work.” Ah, but there are many challenges! They include career goals, career path, addiction which includes workaholism, and identifying too strongly with one’s work.
Pillar 4- Faith: The authors concede that it is difficult to discuss faith. However, science supports their conclusion that transcendental beliefs and experiences aid in becoming happier. As with the other pillars, there are challenges discussed. The first is “monkey mind,” which is the inability to remain in the here and now. The second challenge is getting started with a practice of mindfulness or meditation or a similar activity, and even if we do get started, there is a challenge of maintaining the right focus, not on self but on others.
Conclusion
The conclusion is that to be happier, there must be love. That is the foundation of being happier. Each of the pillars are about love – love of family, love for friends, love made visible by bringing your best self to work, and love for the divine (p. 203). However, it requires practice, and I cannot think of any better thing to practice.
PRO BONO SPOTLIGHT
By: Clint Wren Legal Aid of East Tennessee
IMPROVING WELLNESS WITHIN AND WITHOUT
Use Your Legal Skills to Heal the Region
In East Tennessee, where rural communities and urban centers blend, disparities run a deep and varied route through our home. Your pro bono legal services play a transformative and healing role in countering those disparities.
Year over year, Legal Aid of East Tennessee has more requests for help than the previous year. Tens of thousands of East Tennesseans face unresolved legal problems – not because they lack merit, but because they do not have the means to hire counsel. These requests range anywhere from crushing consumer debt to destructive family violence. These cycles of stress-inducing needs are putting our neighbors on pathways to instability, worry, and stress.
While your services to these clients tend to be in the courtrooms and offices across our region, the influence on the clients goes well beyond our places of work. Families that can keep their home, find new safety, and have their needs met through your work reestablish stable environments for their households.
When you meet the legal needs of our indigent clients, you lower stress, improve mental health, and improve academic outcomes for children. Because of your legal assistance, children remain in schools, seniors receive necessary benefits, and families achieve peace of mind.
Stable communities and economic opportunities flourish where people can resolve debts, resolve legal barriers to employment, and secure identification. Health outcomes and public health improve where seniors and people with disabilities secure access to appropriate care and benefits.
Your pro bono efforts are not moments of charity – they are justice in action. You bridge the gap between legal protections and practical, real-life wellbeing.
Financial Wellness
One of our most common requests for assistance are East Tennesseans needing help navigating their financial wellness. Consumer debt is a problem pressing down on many of us, and our applicants for help are facing a confusing and large system that seems to them openly hostile.
Alone, someone facing crushing consumer debts may find themselves signing agreements or seeking services that only worsen their position with promises of a quick fix. There is also an unfair and inappropriate stigma surrounding bankruptcy – a system in place to help
some consumers with a fresh start.
Without pro bono work or attorneys willing to work with these applicants, our neighbors often find themselves wallowing in stress or making things dramatically worse in a good faith attempt to correct the ship.
Stress related to financial and consumer debt is hardly a surprising or new concept. Even a smattering of hope when dealing with consumer debts can lighten the load. Please consider signing up for the Debt Relief Clinics we hold in person and online to speak with one of these neighbors.
Familial Wellness
Anyone who is in a family or knows of a family – which is incidentally everyone – also knows that families can be messy. To create a stable household for the self and others, sometimes matters of child custody, adoption, and divorce need to be addressed. While not pleasant, these matters affect the wellness of all involved. Without access to courts or attorneys, these issues go unresolved and can fester into something even more drastic.
Caring for family often involves navigating complex institutions. For example, parents of profoundly disabled children often need help obtaining a conservatorship over their now-adult children to continue caring for them. Aging parents need estate planning documents to make their own care easier to navigate for their children. Recipients of SSI and SSDI – who rely on that income for daily living – need help protecting their eligibility and ensuring their own compliance.
Unfortunately, there is also the reality that some folks need help addressing and removing themselves from domestic violence and cycles of abuse. The plain and obvious impacts on wellness in all these situations should make it clear that this is necessary work.
Your work keeps the entire family safe, financially stable, and prepared for the future.
Wellness for You, Too!
For anyone that needs convincing that providing your services pro bono is a great choice for your mental wellness, I would recommend reading almost any of my previous pieces. There is a reason I harp on you to consider volunteering: it works! Please reach out to me at cwren@laet. org if you want to learn how you can best serve your community.
Upcoming Clinic Opportunities
Legal Advice Clinic for Veterans: In person at the Public Defender’s Community Law Office at 1101 Liberty Street in Knoxville. Phone advice options available. • To sign up, please use the form on the KBA Website or email cwren@laet.org.
• Wednesdays, October 8, and December 10 Noon – 2:00 PM
Virtual Debt Relief Clinic: Via Zoom with specific dates to be announced soon. Contact cwren@laet.org if you are interested in participating.
Virtual Name Change Clinic: Via Zoom with specific dates to be announced soon. Contact cwren@laet.org if you are interested in participating.
Debt Relief Clinic: In person at the Public Defender’s Community Law Office at 1101 Liberty Street in Knoxville. • To sign up, please email cwren@laet.org. • Saturdays September 13, November 15 9AM – Noon.
BARRISTER BITES
By: Angelia Nystrom East Tennessee Foundation
SCOOPS, I DID IT AGAIN! FROM ICE CREAM TO HEALTHY EATING
In the immortal (paraphrased) words of Britney Spears, “Scoops, I did it again.”
I’ve spent the last two years working on my health – losing weight, working out, trying to get plenty of sleep, and eating all things good for you. It’s been a challenge, but it has been worth it.
Then, to quote Delbert McClinton, “I feel an old weakness coming on strong.” For Delbert, it was a woman. For me, the weakness was ice cream.
They say that eating poorly is a slippery slope and that one bad day can start to derail months of success. For me, it started with ice cream. First, it was Chick-fil-A ice cream cones. I started with one a week… 180 calories is not so bad, right? The once a week habit became an everyother-day habit, which became every day except Sunday, and that was only because Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday!
Chick-fil-A then led to harder core sweets, most notably Hugh’s home-made peach ice cream. I’ve often said that I married Hugh for his tomato pie, but the real truth is that I married him for his ice cream. Hugh’s home-made ice cream features a custard base and loads of fresh pureed peaches. It’s heaven on a spoon, and it became my guilty pleasure for most of the summer. Life was good.
Then, the story changed, as many tragedies do, with scales and a mirror. As I stood there, in the fluorescent betrayal of my bathroom light, I saw it – the odd geography of my upper arms and a face that had developed a topographical interest – and a number on the scale I swore I would never see again. I knew things had to change. Naturally, I spiraled. But not into denial or despair. No, I did what any grown woman with a Wi-Fi connection would do: I declared war on ice cream and started googling recipes for “healthy” ice cream and other not-so-fattening treats.
I made it my mission to find an ice cream recipe that I could make and that tasted similar to Hugh’s home-made version but that would not do a number on my waistline. Eating Well has become a favorite website, and its dessert section features a recipe for ice cream that is similar to Hugh’s but has significantly fewer calories and significantly less fat. I tried it, and it is a winner.
Here is the simple recipe for a lower fat vanilla ice cream. This version has all the richness you need but about 90 calories less than storebought premium ice cream and a whopping 15 grams less total fat and 10 grams less saturated fat per serving. It takes 1 ½ teaspoons unflavored gelatin, 1 tablespoon water, 3 cups low-fat milk (divided), 3 large egg yolks, one 14 ounce can nonfat sweetened condensed milk, and one vanilla bean.
Begin by sprinkling gelatin over water in a small bowl. Let stand, stirring once or twice, while you make the base for the ice cream. Then, pour 1 ½ cups milk into a large saucepan. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise; scrape the seeds into the milk and add the pod.
Heat the milk mixture over medium heat until steaming. Whisk egg yolks and condensed milk in a medium bowl. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking until blended. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the back of the spoon is lightly coated, 3-5 minutes. Do not bring to a boil or the custard will curdle (and you will have scrambled eggs).
Whisk the ice cream mixture and pour into the canister of an ice cream maker. Freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. If necessary, place the ice cream in a freezer to firm up before serving.
Ice cream can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a week. You can also jazz it up with stir-ins like crumbled cookies, toasted nuts, or chopped fruit. Stir-ins should be small, about the size of a pea, and should be added to the ice cream maker during the last 5 minutes of freezing. Toasted ingredients should be cooled completely before adding to the ice cream maker. Check your ice cream maker’s instructions when it comes to judging the volume of your stir-ins. In general, you should use 1 cup of stir-ins per quart of ice cream.
Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean large bowl. Add the softened gelatin and whisk until melted. Whisk in the remaining 1 ½ cups milk. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours.
This ice cream is high in calcium and potassium, low in sodium, heart-healthy, gluten free, and low calorie. It takes about 15 minutes to cook and about 2 ½ hours to freeze, and makes about 8 servings, ½ cup each. Each ½ cup serving has 200 calories, 3g total fat, 1g saturated fat, 80 mg cholesterol, 95 mg sodium, 35 g carbohydrates, and 8 g protein. It
If, like me, you are on that slippery slope of sweet treats, this one is sure to get you off the slope and back on the straight and narrow. Happy
SCHOOLED IN ETHICS, continued
is focused on a deadline and not the consequences of failing to double-check material suggested by GAI. Supervising judges and lawyers can interrupt this way of thinking by reminding their subordinates of the reputational and financial consequences of sloppy work in this area. Sharing examples from this article or from a quick Google search for “lawyer GAI hallucination” is a great way to remind lawyers that their care is needed to protect their reputations and livelihood— and yours.
1 See, e.g., Jaclyn Diaz, A Recent High-Profile Case of AI Hallucination Serves as a Stark Warning, npr.org (July 20, 2025); Michael Levenson, Judge Fines Lawyers for MyPillow Founder for Error-Filled Court Filing, NYTimes.com (July 8, 2025); Bob Ambrogi, AI Hallucinations Strike Again: Two More Cases Where Lawyers Face Judicial Wrath for Fake Citations, Lawnext.com (May 14, 2025); Kate Rattray, AI Hallucinations: A Costly Mistake for Lawyers (Feb. 28, 2025).
2 Damien Charlotin, AI Hallucination Cases, https://www.damiencharlotin.com/ hallucinations/ (last visited Aug. 6, 2025).
3 Id.
4 Mike Scarcella, Two US Judges Withdraw Rulings After Attorneys Question Accuracy, Reuters.com (July 29, 2025); David Lat, Judicial Notice (08.03.25): Another Judge’s AI Fail?, davidlat.substack.com (Aug. 3, 2025).
5 See, e.g., Jeanne M. Huey, The Larger Cost of Reckless GAI Use in Litigation, legalethicstoday.com (March 3, 2025) (discussing GAI incompetence); Anna Conley, Understanding the Duty of Competence for Attorneys Using Generative AI (December 11, 2024), https://ssrn.com/abstract=5053423 See also John G. Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States, 2023 Year-End Report of the Judiciary 6 (Dec. 31, 2023) (stating that it is “always a bad idea” to submit briefs that cite hallucinated cases);
6 ABA Formal Ethics Op. 512, 2-5 (July 29, 2024) (discussing the lawyer’s duty of competence when using GAI tools).
7 Id. at 4.
8 Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(b)(2); Tenn. R. Civ. P. 11.02(2). See also, supra note 2 (tracking the cases in which monetary sanctions were imposed).
9 Jessica R. Gunder, Rule 11 Is No Match for Generative AI, 27 stAn tech l rev 308, 351-60 (2024) (discussing the use of standing orders to address hallucinated cases).
10 Vincent R. Johnson, Artificial Intelligence and Legal Malpractice Liability, 14 st mAry’s J. on legAl mAlPrActice & ethics (2024).
11 Tenn. RPC 1.1, 3.3, 8.4. See also supra note 2 (tracking the cases in which courts referred attorneys to the bar).
12 Tenn. CJC Rule 2.5(A) (duty of competence); Code of Conduct for US Judges, Cannon 3(A)(1) (judge should maintain professional competence).
13 ABA Formal Ethics Op. 512, 10-11 (July 29, 2024) (discussing the lawyer’s duty of competence when using GAI tools).
14 Varun Magesh, et. al, Hallucination-Free? Assessing the Reliability of Leading AI Legal Research Tools, J. of emPiricAl legAl stuDies (March 14, 2025), https://doi. org/10.1111/jels.12413 (finding that AI research tools made by LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters (which includes Westlaw AI-Assisted Research) hallucinate between 17% and 33% of the time). See also infra notes 16-18.
15 Scarcella, supra note 4.
16 Wadsworth v. Walmart Inc., 348 F.R.D. 489, 493-94 (D. Wyo. 2025).
17 Id.
18 Id.
19 TRPC 5.1(b).
20 TRPC 5.3(b)
21 TRPC 5.1(a), 5.3(a).
22 Tenn. CJC Rule 2.12(A) Supervisory Duties.
23 See, e.g., Scarcella, supra note 4 (noting the court’s policy on the proper use of GAI which was apparently overlooked or ignored by the court’s staff).
24 See supra note 14.
PRIVILEGED TO BE IN THE LAW
By: John Quillen, L.A.D.A.C. Alcohol and Drug Assessment Center of Maryville
THE PRIVILEGE OF HELPING LAWYERS HELP THEIR CLIENTS
Representing someone who has been charged with a drug or alcohol related offense can pose significant challenges. Often the courts will impose various requirements upon those who have been charged, including a drug and alcohol assessment.
I have been providing this service for over thirty years as an independent practitioner. It is my belief that in order to complete an unbiased assessment, clients must feel as if there is no push to recommend unnecessary treatment services, which isn’t always the case when someone goes to a treatment provider.
“Free” assessments sometimes end up costing the client thousands of dollars in classes or outpatient treatment as unscrupulous providers occasionally use this as a mechanism to get people into their system. This is not to say that the individuals do not warrant treatment. And there are many good reputable treatment facilities in our area. When it is time to make that referral, I use service providers that adhere to a code of ethics. And we have some really good ones in East Tennessee.
Proactive attorneys often get ahead of the court and have their clients complete this evaluation in advance of an upcoming court hearing. Rarely would this not look favorable in the eyes of a judge. Someone who wishes to address a problem is solving one for the court. As a licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselor, my training sprang from the recovery centers. Over the near four decades I have been practicing, drug and alcohol treatment has evolved from the smoky back rooms of treatment and A.A. I’ll never forget being told by an old timer who had been clean for longer than I had been living that people are either “in recovery or in denial.” The science of addiction treatment is finally catching up with the evolving substances we are fighting. Now, behavioral therapies can target the patterns of emotional neglect that trigger self-medication with mood altering drugs. What used to require 28 days of inpatient care is now sometimes condensed to several weeks of intensive outpatient treatment.
And, yes, marijuana is addictive! We are learning more every day about the significant impact this increasingly potent substance has upon our youth and their developing brains. Spoiler alert: the data is not supportive of even occasional use. For my fellow Gen Xers, the weed out there today is almost three times stronger than what we may have experienced, and addiction rates have risen accordingly. Quite simply, without getting “into the weeds,” what other drug can be metabolite tested in urine for a month? By comparison, cocaine and methamphetamine are flushed out of your system in a matter of days.
There are some licensed counselors in private practice who can see clients individually. And for juveniles and younger offenders, a drug education class may suffice. Anyone who drinks alcohol regularly is probably guilty of driving when they shouldn’t. That doesn’t mean they meet criteria for an alcohol use disorder. Many of the attorneys with whom I work know this and ask me about good DUI education programs. Often that is the appropriate referral.
But the key to placing your clients in the appropriate venue is
having someone with experience make that assessment. What makes me proud is to associate with caring, competent lawyers who wish to help their clients get the level of service they need. Few families have escaped the toll that substance misuse takes upon individuals and our community. Twelve step programs have long known that for some people their bottom is six feet under. Through drug court treatment programs, the courts, treatment providers, and individual attorneys serve as a treatment team to help clients develop required recovery skills. It’s a great feeling to see one of our clients pick up a chip and start their new life. Like me, attorneys are often the front line of this battle. And it is our duty to treat that responsibility seriously. People mistakenly think that attorneys may try to influence the outcome of an evaluation in their client’s favor for the court. That rarely happens. I jokingly tell people that I get lied to for a living. But a comprehensive evaluation incorporates historical data to include any prior consequences that are suggestive of a pattern. And many clients are relieved to unburden their struggles. Whether court ordered or not, a properly conducted assessment is an intervention that can save someone’s life.
JAMES H. LONDON MEDIATIONS
Trial Lawyer for over 50 years
Mediator for over 37 years
Distinguished Fellow – International Academy of Mediators
National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals
Fellow – International Society of Barristers
Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31 Mediator
U.S. District Court Listed Mediator & Arbitrator
Contact Jim London at Jlondon@latlaw.com 865-637-0203
2701 Kingston Pike, Suite 2 Knoxville, TN 37919
Free and convenient parking
LEGAL LIBATIONS: KNOXVILLE BREW REVIEW
By: Parker Bohne
LMU Duncan School of Law
J.D. Candidate, 2026
EBONY & IVORY BREWING
The Atmosphere
Ebony & Ivory Brewing is a modern, sleek space that creates a comfortably sophisticated and welcoming atmosphere. With its wideopen layout and polished concrete floors, the brewery feels airy and spacious. Large windows along the front wall flood the interior with natural light during the day, making it the perfect spot to relax with a drink while soaking in the surroundings. The décor, true to its name, incorporates black and white tones throughout, creating a clean, stylish vibe that remains warm and inviting. Ebony & Ivory’s mission is unity; the brewery’s commitment to inclusivity is reflected in its open, community-focused attitude and environment.
Outside, Ebony & Ivory offers a charming outdoor seating area complete with shade covers and string lights that set a relaxed mood as night falls. Whether you’re here for a lively event or simply to unwind, the brewery regularly hosts an impressive range of activities. From live local DJs performing during the weekend “DJ Spotlight” to Sunday Funday Yoga every Sunday morning, there’s always something happening. Take part in the “ultimate day party” every Sunday, celebrating great music and delicious brews, at The Brewhouse Session: Soulful House & R&B Sunday. Or join in on the many other weekly events—like Pilates on Wednesday afternoons or salsa nights (with lessons!) on Wednesday evenings—that keep the vibe energetic and engaging. The masterminds behind Ebony & Ivory Brewing have created a lively, diverse atmosphere with an inclusive spirit, ensuring that every visitor feels like they have found a place to call their own.
The Brews
Where drinks are concerned, Ebony & Ivory Brewing has something for everyone--whether you’re all about craft beers or just want something a little different. Their in-house brews like the Steel Arm Lager (which is also featured at the new Knoxville Smokies Stadium) and Don Chuy’s Mexican Lager are perfect for kicking back with your friends on the patio, and the Ivory Light lager is a crisp, refreshing go-to for lighter vibes. For something with a bit more flavor, the Honey Blonde brings in a nice touch of sweetness from raw honey. They also feature rotating guest taps, like the Hazy Blues New England IPA from Oskar Blues that incorporates a variety of tropical fruit flavors.
If you’re not into beer, don’t worry—there are plenty more options to
explore. Ebony & Ivory has its very own hard seltzer brand, Bonsai H2O, which brews seltzers with fun, fruity options that are perfect for cooling down on a hot day. The Bonsai H20 line features flavors like Passion Vibes (passionfruit, lime, pineapple) and Strawberry Margarita (strawberry and lime). For something a little more adventurous (and non-alcoholic), you can try their Delta 9 THC-infused seltzers, like VOLade and Purple Drank, bringing a laid-back, buzzed experience. No matter what you’re in the mood for, Ebony & Ivory’s drink menu has you covered, whether you’re hanging out solo or with friends.
The Food
Ebony & Ivory sits right next door to Hard Knox Pizza, so you know you always have the option to indulge in hand-crafted, local pizza (the Barnstormer is to die for). But the brewery also regularly features a rotating cast of local food trucks. To keep up with what food trucks will be featured each week (and to keep up with all of the other fun events they host), be sure to check out the Ebony & Ivory website (https://ebonyivorybrewing.com/) or social media accounts. You won’t want to miss out on anything!
Address Changes
Please note the following changes in your KBA Attorneys’ Directory and other office records:
Richard E. Graves
BPR #: 034258
Gentry, Tipton & McLemore, P.C.
900 S. Gay St., Ste. 2300 Knoxville, TN 37902-1861
Ph: (865) 525-5300 reg@tennlaw.com
Nicole Schell Klapka
BPR #: 036479
Law Firm of Nicole S. Klapka, P.A.
900 E Hill Ave., Suite 445 Knoxville, TN 37915-2566
Ph: (865) 398-2626 nicole@klapkalaw.com
Jennifer Pearson Taylor
BPR #: 021919
Woolf, McClane, Bright, Allen & Carpenter, PLLC
900 S. Gay Street Knoxville, TN 37902-1810
P.O. Box 900 Knoxville, TN 37901-0900
Ph: (865) 215-1000 JTaylor@wmbac.com
Tonya R. Willis
BPR #: 018275
Attorney Tonya Willis
P.O. Box 10493 Knoxville TN 37939-0493
Ph: (865) 254-9445 twheatwillis@gmail.com
Tenaya D. Winkelman
BPR #: 042061
800 S. Gay Street, Suite 1950 Knoxville, TN 37929-9732
Ph: (817) 805-0527 tenaya@tenaciousdefense.com
KBA VOLUNTEERISM
By: Emily Threatt Merchant & Gould, PC
HOW THE KBA IS MAKING AN IMPACT AND WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
This article highlights the volunteer efforts of KBA members as they care for our community by supporting the Volunteer Ministry Center’s Volunteer Breakfast and participating in new initiatives, including the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking’s Family Table program and Knoxville CareCuts.
Eldridge &
Cravens’
Commitment to Service
Eldridge & Cravens was proud to support the KBA Barristers’ Volunteer Breakfast Committee as the sponsor of the May Volunteer Breakfast, an effort that reflects the firm’s broader approach to service both inside and outside the legal profession.
“We recognize that our responsibility as legal professionals extends far beyond representing clients in the courtroom,” says Loretta Cravens, a founding partner of the firm. “We are committed to using our time, skills, and resources to make a meaningful difference in the communities we serve.”
That philosophy is reflected in a wide range of the firm’s outreach efforts, from direct community service and charitable giving to mentorship and organizational sponsorship. Volunteering, Cravens says, is not only a way to give back, but a way to build relationships, expand opportunity, and reinforce the profession’s core values.
“Volunteering and charitable engagement strengthens the bonds between people, opens doors to opportunity, and demonstrates the compassion that should always be at the heart of our profession,” she explains. “Whether through hands-on community service, sponsorship, mentorship, or other forms of engagement, we strive to bridge gaps, support those in need, and help build a more just and connected society.”
That spirit of service is part of the firm’s culture. From the courtroom to the community, Eldridge & Cravens approaches each opportunity with purpose, empathy, and a commitment to making a positive impact wherever possible.
New Opportunities to Give
The Barristers’ Volunteer Breakfast Committee recently announced two additional ways to make a tangible impact on our community.
Thanks to the generosity of KBA members, the Committee has long partnered with the Volunteer Ministry Center to provide warm meals through the Volunteer Breakfast program. Now, the Committee is expanding its reach with two new sponsorship options, each available at the same $150 level:
CareCuts of Knoxville: CareCuts is a volunteer-run nonprofit that provides haircuts, hospitality, and essential supplies to individuals experiencing homelessness, helping them move forward with dignity. In addition to volunteer opportunities, the organization is currently in need of donated items such as powdered Gatorade, paper towels, ramen noodles, and protein bars. More information is available at https:// carecutsknox.org.
Grow Free Tennessee – Family Table Program: Grow Free Tennessee, part of the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking, provides
critical support to trafficking survivors on their path to healing and restoration. Through the Family Table program, volunteers prepare and deliver a meal for 4–6 individuals staying in the organization’s safe house. More information is available at https://growfreetn.org/getinvolved/. For both programs, the Volunteer Breakfast Committee can assist with logistics including shopping for and delivering supplies to CareCuts or preparing and delivering meals for the Family Table program. In August, the Committee purchased, prepared, and delivered a meal for the individuals currently staying in the Coalition’s safe house. The Committee also thanks Arnett Baker for sponsoring the Volunteer Breakfast and Family Table outreach efforts in August in a continued show of support that helps sustain this meaningful work month after month.
How to Get Involved
If you or your firm are interested in sponsoring or learning more about these opportunities to give, please reach out to KBA Membership Coordinator Bridgette Fly, or Volunteer Breakfast Committee Co-Chairs Miranda Goodwin at mirandaegoodwin@gmail.com and Bridget Pyman at bpyman@arnettbaker.com.
July 2023 began a health transformation for me. During that month, my father passed away from cancer, and I moved my 62-year-old stepmother, Bonnie, into assisted living to continue her battle with earlyonset Alzheimer’s disease. It was the hardest month of my life and made me really start thinking about health, genetics, and longevity.
When my dad passed, he was 67-years-old and had already outlived both his younger brothers and surpassed his father’s age at death. Heart disease, high blood pressure, and cancer were prevalent throughout my father’s side of the family. Although I do not share Bonnie’s genes and do not know much of my biological mother’s medical history, I knew that my maternal grandmother died of Alzheimer’s at age 89. I also knew that for the past decade or so, my total cholesterol and “bad cholesterol” had been slightly elevated, my “good cholesterol” had been a bit low, and my doctor wanted to prescribe a statin drug if it did not turn around. I had also watched my weight steadily creep upward for several years and knew I was classified as “overweight” but not quite “obese.” Back then, I had a gym membership, but rarely found the time or motivation to exercise, often skipping it entirely for months at a time.
Throughout the last half of 2023, I set out to learn what I could do to correct my cholesterol levels and try to avoid the horrors of cancer or Alzheimer’s. I read tons of articles and two themes emerged. First, sugar and artificial sweeteners seem to be toxic to our bodies. Second, regular exercise during middle life (ages 30-60 years) seems to be a key to preventing many diseases, including Alzheimer’s. I knew I had to literally get moving.
I also watched several health-related documentaries. All of them pointed to strong but often-overlooked links between nutrition, inflammation, and disease. One particular documentary, a 2018 film called “The Game Changers,” really impressed me. With Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan among its executive producers, it tells the stories of several elite athletes who switched to solely plant-based diets.1 The athletes reported that they not only subjectively felt better and stronger after the switch, but that their athletic performance actually improved.
While I have no desire to become an athlete, the segment that really resonated with me had to do with Brooklyn firefighters who ate a vegan diet for one week. After the end of those seven days, they lost an average of six pounds of weight and twenty-one points on their total cholesterol levels. One of them dropped his total cholesterol by ninety-three points – in just seven days! For years, I had heard that high cholesterol is genetic and is not impacted by dietary sources of cholesterol. However, during this season, I learned that plants have no cholesterol. That’s right –none! So, I started thinking it might help if I ate less cholesterol; even if it did not help, it could not hurt! And, if the macho Brooklyn firefighters could eat vegan for seven days and give up meat and cheese, surely I could do it for a while too.
Armed with this information about the importance of exercise in mid-life and the apparent benefits of a vegan diet, I set two goals for
2024: (i) eat a vegan diet for an entire year and see if it could bring my cholesterol down to acceptable levels (without medications); and (ii) begin actually exercising regularly. The vegan diet was easier than I had thought it would be, despite my initial fondness for cheese. However, it did require me to review restaurant menus in advance to decide whether or not I would find acceptable choices at particular restaurants. I also found it was much easier to find vegan-friendly menus in South Florida than in Knoxville. I struggled a bit to get going on my exercise goal and finally decided in July (2024) to try “small group” training, which pairs a group of 3-6 clients with a certified personal trainer for workout sessions. For me, the appointment with the trainer kept me accountable to show up on a regular basis, but working out with other clients made it more fun as we managed to laugh and encourage one another along the way.
In the year and a half since starting these changes, I have lost approximately thirty pounds, brought my cholesterol to normal levels, and had to buy smaller clothes! I am no longer strictly vegan as I have added fish back to my diet and occasionally eat dishes made with cheese or butter. I am still participating in group workouts two to three times a week and love the stress-release I feel after these sessions. In short, this has become my new lifestyle because I feel better, and my doctor agrees it is working for me.
I chose to change my eating habits and activity level for my health. Everyone is different, and I understand that my choices may not work for everyone. But, I hope my story makes you realize that you have the power to learn, to take charge of your health, and to make choices that work for you and your goals. If I can do it from the midst of grief, I am confident that you can, too!
1 A vegan diet avoids all “animal” products (including dairy and honey). A plantbased diet avoids all meat and dairy, but not necessarily animal-made products like honey. So, a vegan diet is plant-based, but not all plant-based diets are vegan.
OUTSIDE MY OFFICE WINDOW
By: Sarah M. Booher Tennessee Department of Human Services
UNPACKING FAMILY HEIRLOOMS
I’ve been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately.
We had a complicated relationship. When I see folks post on social media that their granny, the most wonderful woman in the world, died, I wonder what that’s like. She wasn’t that. She wasn’t even Granny. She was Mimi. And she had a complicated relationship with everyone.
Gwendolyn McElwee Williams was born dirt-poor in 1920 at the Possum Trot Plantation in Tchula, Mississippi, the sixth and youngest child of Judge and Alma McElwee. Judge was a farmer (let’s be honest –likely sharecropper) on the plantation, but moved the family to Shaw in 1924, where he became the local marshal.
Regrettably, one of the only stories I have from her younger years pertains to the historic “overflow,” as she called it. On April 21, 1927, the Mound Landing levee in Bolivar County broke, and the Greenville area flooded. Pop Daddy, as he was known to us, packed up the family and took them to the empty office space on the second and third floors of the town’s movie theater. A makeshift shelter for many, the McElwee family’s space was by the marquee, and the three youngest children would climb out on it every day to watch the water. Mimi was jealous of her brother Homer who had to be hospitalized for tonsilitis during the flood. The doctor came for him in a boat with slatted backs, and watching them go, she thought it all just looked so elegant.
As the water receded, the theater started to play movies again. Mimi would watch the movies from the balcony, the same films playing over and over again. Folks would float in on their boats, back out again later, the sound of the water flowing through the theater a soundtrack for every film. I wish I’d asked her if they were silent films or if the booming Greenville metropolis had moved on to “talkies” by then.
only thing I wanted was my grandfather’s immigration papers. I wasn’t allowed to have them because they would go to my uncle. Did he ask for them? No, but he was the only son, and that sort of thing goes to the son, not your mother or you.
Despite that edict, my house somehow became a mini shrine to her. I have the paintings she and my grandfather bought when they visited Europe after the War. I have a clock she bought with her grocery store coupon books. I have a green iron frog door stop that was used in her main bathroom for time immemorial. I have Corning Ware handled bowls with lids. And I have an 1849 Braided Hair Cent which Pop Daddy found in the field when he was farming and my grandfather later converted into a necklace for Mimi.
A true product of Mississippi in the Great Depression, my grandmother spent the rest of her life overcoming her humble beginnings. She was obsessed with good manners. Physical and societal appearances were always forefront in her mind. It usually felt like that was all that mattered to her. As a few minor printable examples, every article of clothing she wore to First Presbyterian Jackson came from Talbots, every purse from Coach or Dooney & Bourke. Don’t you dare cut more than one bite of meat on your plate at a time, and every single yes or no better be followed by ma’am or sir. I don’t knit because when I was little and trying to learn, she unraveled nearly the whole piece because I dropped a stitch toward the top. When she reduced my sister to tears the night she and my now brother-in-law announced their engagement, she told my father she’d rather be right than loved. Toward the end of her life when she was writing names of relatives on the back of her possessions as her way of doling out her estate, we had words. The
Perhaps it is the fact that I am unpacking of all these items in my new house that has brought her to mind so much recently.
My grandmother was cold, she was tough, and there are days I still yearn for the snuggly grandmother I didn’t get. But, she had her moments. She still washed Ziploc bags and dried them on the dish drainer overnight until the end, but she also put braces on all her grandchildren’s teeth. She gave me a passion for games through daily doses of Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and crossword puzzles. I probably have her to blame for my love of good handbags. Nobody makes coconut cake like hers, and I’d hand over any amount of money to have just one more slice of it. She gifted me with a conscious effort to discern, when I am at a crossroads, whether it is more important in that moment to be liked or right. Sometimes I make the correct call.
She randomly loved watching Dog: The Bounty Hunter. She eventually started going to a female AfricanAmerican doctor, and she loved her! (Don’t laugh – that was a huge stride in 1995 for an old white lady who had never left Mississippi). Despite shaving my head once in high school, getting tattoos, and then later marrying the wrong guy, she still loved me, in her own very complicated way, and she still told me she was proud of me.
I’m not sure I’ll ever be done unpacking all my feelings and experiences surrounding my Mimi, but what I have arrived at is simply this. We can’t have it all. Maybe we don’t get the elegant boat ride or the immigration papers, but we also don’t have to take it all with us. Some of it we can take out of the box and put on display for anyone who traipses through our lives. But some of it is worth, if not taking to the dump outright, putting back in the box and storing indefinitely at the top of the closet behind our dustbag-protected expensive purses. For sometimes the legacy is simply refusing to play a movie over and over again in the midst of an emotional flood and accepting the imperfect but still evolving puzzles of our complicated family trees.
