No. ADM2022-00355
ORDER On March 21, 2022, the Tennessee Trial Judges' Association ("TTJA") filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to consider adopting amendments to Rule 10B of the Rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court. If adopted, the proposed amendments will provide for summary denial of improper repetitive recusal motions, give the appellate court a means of supplementing the factual record, and codify existing case law on the scope of expedited interlocutory appeal and the procedures to be followed on remand from orders reversing trial court orders denying recusal motions. The Court solicits written comments on the proposed amendments from judges, lawyers, bar associations, members of the public, and all interested parties. The deadline for submitting written comments is May 23, 2022 (60 days). Written comments should reference ADM2022-00355 and be emailed to appellatecourtclerk@tncourts.gov.
KBA Member Survey Results Released Evaluating Judicial Candidates on the ballot for the May 3 Primary Election For Immediate Release
The Knoxville Bar Association today released the results of its Candidate Member Survey for the races related to the judicial system on the May 3 ballot. The Survey asked each member of the Knoxville Bar Association to carefully assess whether the candidates have demonstrated the knowledge, skill, experience, training, education, professional ethics, and temperament to fulfill the duties of the offices to which they aspire. The candidates were rated according to the following options: Strongly Recommend, Recommend, Do Not Recommend, Strongly Do Not Recommend and, Do Not Know Candidate. If an attorney did not know the candidates’ qualifications or had no opinion, he/she was instructed to mark “do not know candidate.”
“The intent is not to endorse any particular candidate, but rather to inform the public of the opinions of many of the attorneys actively practicing in East Tennessee regarding candidates’ fitness to serve in the judicial and related offices to which they are seeking election. The Knoxville Bar Association is pleased to provide this service to members of our community who have few if any encounters with the court system,” said Knoxville Bar Association President Jason H. Long about the KBA’s Membership Survey policy. “An informed electorate is vital to the efficient administration of justice.”
The Survey was conducted electronically from February 25 to March 11, 2022.
As a service to the community, the Knoxville Bar Association (KBA) has developed a “Get To Know Your Judicial Candidates” section on its website to provide information about state court candidates running for judge in Knox County at https://www.knoxbar.org/?pg=Election2022Home. The site includes educational resources so voters will know what to look for in a judicial candidate and can make an informed decision at the ballot box. But the primary focus of the site is the biographical profiles and a link to a video interview of the individual candidates to provide a convenient way for voters in Knox County to obtain non-partisan information about candidates. When reviewing the candidate profiles, carefully consider if the judicial candidate has the breadth of experience relevant to the position he or she is seeking.
View PDF of survey results online at https://www.knoxbar.org/docDownload/1922339.
The Tennessee Supreme Court issued an order today which immediately eliminates the three-foot distancing retirement between persons in courtrooms. It leaves in place the provisions of all other orders not affected by this Order. View Order
For a comprehensive list of all of the Court's COVID-19 Orders, please visit this link: https://www.tncourts.gov/Coronavirus.
The KBA's Candidate Member Survey for the May 3 primary will be released to the membership on Friday, February 25 and the deadline is March 11. All candidates, whether opposed or not, will be evaluated so we encourage members to participate. The Survey will ask each KBA member to carefully assess whether the candidates related to judicial system have demonstrated the knowledge, skill, experience, training, education, professional ethics, and temperament to fulfill the duties of the offices to which they aspire. The Survey is designed to provide a measure of guidance to voters who might otherwise be unfamiliar with the candidates. • The KBA Candidate Member Survey has been designed to ensure the anonymity of each member's ballot and to permit only one ballot per KBA member. We know that it is critically important that no one be able to determine how any individual KBA members voted in this Survey. Survey Monkey, the electronic voting software, will confidentially "mark" the member records of those who have participated and disallow further attempts to vote.
• Due to firewalls that many law firms, government agencies, and companies have in place, you may find that the email invitation to participate in the Survey will be treated as spam, and the email will be blocked. Make sure to revise your settings to add the Survey Monkey domains (*.surveymonkey.com) to your list of safe senders in your email program. Read more. If you have ever opted out of a survey through Survey Monkey, you can opt-in by clicking this link.
• The Survey asks members to evaluate each candidate's overall suitability for the offices related to the judicial system on the ballot for the May 3 Primary Election. For each candidate, the survey results will report the total number of responses for each of the following options: Strongly Recommend, Recommend, Do Not Recommend, Strongly Do Not Recommend, and Do Not Know Candidate. Each candidate will receive an overall weighted score. The "Do Not Know Candidate" is given a value of "0," so it does not affect the weighted score.
The intent is not to endorse any particular candidate but rather to inform the public of the opinions of attorneys actively practicing in East Tennessee of candidates' fitness to serve in the judicial and related offices to which they are seeking election. Learn more about the candidates by viewing the 2022 Judicial Election pages here.
The KBA Office closed at 3 pm due to inclement weather. The office will reopen at 9 am.
Nashville, TN – The Tennessee Bar Foundation has awarded $750,000 from the IOLTA (Interest On Lawyers’ Trust Accounts) program to law-related organizations across the state. The grant amount for 2022 exceeds that of 2021 by $250,000, bringing total awards since the IOLTA program’s inception to $24,141,000.
The grants will be paid to 23 organizations, headquartered in major cities and smaller towns, that touch all 95 Tennessee counties. The projects provide a wide array of services, including individual legal representation, dispute mediation, assistance for survivors of domestic violence, immigration counseling and housing advocacy. The complete list of organizations and awards is available on the Foundation’s website:
https://www.tnbarfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Recipients-by-City-2022-1.pdf
KBA Annual Meeting & Elections December 10. 2021 Learn more about the Annual Meeting online.
The Knoxville Bar Association (KBA) held its Annual Meeting on Friday, December 10, 2021. The President's gavel was passed from Cheryl G. Rice, a civil litigator with Egerton McAfee Armistead & Davis, P.C., to Jason H. Long, a member of the Knoxville law firm of London Amburn. During the meeting, the following KBA members were elected as officers for 2022:
President-Elect - Loretta G. Cravens, Cravens Legal Treasurer - Catherine E. Shuck, East Tennessee Children's Hospital Secretary – Carlos A. Yunsan, Tennessee Appellate Courts
The membership elected the following KBA members to the four open positions on the Board of Governors: Ursula Bailey, Law Office of Ursula Bailey William A. Mynatt, Jr., Lewis Thomason, P.C. Vanessa Samano, Samano Family Law Magistrate Robin Gunn, Knox County Juvenile Court
Charles Swanson was presented the KBA's highest award, the prestigious Governors' Award, which is given annually to a lawyer whose peers believe has brought distinction and honor to the legal profession. Mr. Swanson has distinguished himself with a long and tremendous career of service to the bar and the community, including serving as City Law Director.
The Presidents' Award for 2021 was presented to Mohamed Faizer and Carlos Yunsan, the Co-Chairs of the KBA’s Diversity in the Profession Committee. The award for outstanding writing was presented to Ursula Bailey for her article “I AM NOT OK,” which appeared in the August issue of the KBA monthly magazine DICTA and Jason Long was recognized for writing his Long Winded column for 22 years.
Chancellor John Weaver was presented with the Courage in the Face of Adversity Award. After facing debilitating injuries to both of his legs, Chancellor Weaver was unable to preside in person in the Part I courtroom. During his long and painful recovery and rehabilitation, Chancellor Weaver never took his attention off of his judicial duties.
The Barrister’s, the Young Lawyer’s Division of the Knoxville Bar Association, annually hosts the Regional High School Mock Trial Competition for Districts 2, 3, and 4* every year. Mock Trial is an excellent way for High School students in the districts above to develop a fuller understanding of our justice system and experience the legal process first hand. Many students have been known to choose a legal career based on their mock trial experiences, and several Barrister’s members are formal mock trial competitors. The competition is free for students to enter; their coaches need to fill out the rosters and coordinating forms, and submit them to knoxhsmt@gmail.com.
Students will act as lawyers and witnesses during the Regional High School Mock Trial competition, as both the prosecution and the defense, and act out a - well - mock trial. This years’ case is a criminal matter involving aggravated assault after the defendant allegedly shot at the victim while driving home from his 10-hour shift at the glue factory. The new problem, rules, and other information can be found online.
View the full competition announcement here.
And the Survey Says...
Slightly more than half of the lawyers participating in the KBA Economics and Law Office Management Service indicated that they bill at over $250 per hour, most have increased their rate over the past two years, and 40% plan to increase their rate in 2022. Twenty percent (up from 17% in 2019) had at least $100,000 in educational debt upon graduation from law school. Fifty-nine percent of respondents report their technology budget will increase in 2022.
The KBA’s survey was completed by 296 lawyers or 19% of the total membership. Joanne O’Reilly of the American Bar Association’s Division of Bar Services was responsible for data collection and she reported that we can have high confidence that the survey responses reflect the demographics and economics of the Knoxville legal community overall. The survey results compare the results from the 2019 survey to the responses in 2021.
Survey respondents indicated the average salary for recent law school grads with no experience is $64,497. Lawyers with fewer than three years of experience are averaging $74,680; $81,147 for those in practice three to five years; and $102,663 for those with six to eight years’ experience. Lawyers with more than eight years on the job are averaging $126,589 per year, and partners and shareholders are pulling in an average of $221,714. When comparing the responses, attorneys with 5 or fewer years of experience are earning less in 2021 but there was an increase for all others in 2021.
Fifty-four percent of Knoxville lawyers reported an increase in clients having higher level of expectations compared to the past. Seventy-seven percent (down from 83% in 2019) spend at least an hour per week on volunteer work, with 18% spending 6-10 hours per week.The average number of pro bono hours completed in 2020 was up slightly to 35.9 hours.
Seventeen percent had at least $100,000 in educational debt upon graduation from law school and twenty-three percent had less than $25,000 in debt.
Forty-six percent of respondents reported either operating a solo practice or working in a firm or other legal setting with five or fewer lawyers, while 21 % say they work with more than 21 attorneys. Respondents also reported, on average, 54 percent of their offices’ gross receipts went to pay the lawyers in the office, while 22 percent went to support-staff salaries. The remaining 23 percent covered all other firm expenses.
Eighty-six percent of those who completed the survey are satisfied with the services the KBA provides and the most frequently used services were live CLE courses (53%), Attorney’s Directory (66%), and on demand CLE courses (51%).
New this year was a section asking for feedback from young lawyers, aged 35 and younger. Sixty-seven percent anticipate that they will continue to work at their current firm/employer for the next five years, while 20 % are unsure. The most important elements in evaluating a potential employer (based on a 1-5 scale where 1=extremely unimportant and 5=extremely important) are committed to fostering work/life balance for employees (4.85 mean), salary (4.63 mean) and flexible work schedule (4.48 mean). Eighty-eight percent have had a mentor, including 75% of which were attorneys at their firm/employer.
Have I piqued your interest? To view the complete survey results which are filtered based on years of experience, employment setting and firm size, you must log in to the KBA website. Click here to view.
The Annual Membership Meeting will be held on Friday, December 10, 2021, at 8:30 a.m. at the Main Assembly Room of the City County Building. A virtual option will be available for those who wish to participate via Zoom. Please choose how you will attend this program when registering. At the end of the meeting, Jason H. Long will be sworn in as KBA President.
View the event page for more information.
Download the meeting notice here.
.jpg){kind=logo}
