Let’s Focus on Unsung Heroes

It is a recognized fact that members of our profession are often held in disdain. Attorneys are subjects of jokes or stories, warranted or not. Part of the problem may be that when there is a negative story about a lawyer, or judge, human nature unfairly paints all people in the same profession with the same broad brush. Since attorneys are prominent members of society, focus on unfavorable reports of their actions is more pronounced.

For each negative news story abo

Court of Appeals

Dinkins is New Appellate Judge

Gov. Phil Bredesen appointed Richard H. Dinkins of Nashville Jan. 11 to fill the vacancy on the Tennessee Court of Appeals, Middle Section. The vacancy was created by the death of Judge William Bryan Cain in September.

Prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeals, Dinkins had served as chancellor of the Davidson County Chancery Court, Part IV, since 2003. He received the Freedom Fighter Medal from the National Association for Equal Opportunity in

Reinstated

Whitney Harmon, an attorney at Glankler Brown in Memphis, received the firm’s first annual Frank J. Glankler Jr. Pro Bono Award in December. The award was created in 2007 to honor an attorney who commits to pro bono work. The firm as a whole has committed to handle a minimum of 35 pro bono cases each year. Harmon focuses her practice in the area of civil litigation. Prior to joining Glankler Brown, she served as law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Karl S. Forester in the Eastern District of

State v. Hartman: In Memory of Kathy Nishiyama

Charles Edward Hartman died in prison at age 49 on May 24, 2007. Good riddance. Had he never existed, Kathy Nishiyama might have enjoyed a fulfilling existence. But on Nov. 16-17, 1981, he kidnapped the 16-year-old and raped, murdered, then raped her again.

Who was this fiend? Three Supreme Court opinions tell the tale at 703 S.W.2d 106 (1985), 896 S.W.2d 94 (1995), and 42 S.W.3d 44 (2001).

Hartman was a trusty jailed at Charlotte in Dickson County. A

Tennessee Supreme Court Speaks on Supervisory Harassment and Retaliation

When is a Tennessee employer liable for the harassing acts of a supervisor under the Tennessee Human Rights Act (THRA)? What are reasonable steps to prevent and correct harassment? When does the individual harasser face liability? What must a plaintiff demonstrate to show retaliation? The Tennessee Supreme Court recently addressed these issues extensively, with mixed results for employers. Allen v. McPhee et al., No. M2005-0

My Grandfather’s Son

By Clarence Thomas | Harper Collins | $26.95 | 289 pages | 2007

This is the autobiography of Justice Clarence Thomas from his birth in Pinpoint, Georgia, through his swearing in at the United States

Supreme Court. It is a moving book, a memoir dedicated to his maternal grandfather Myers Anderson. Mr. Anderson (“Daddy”) and wife raised the future justice and his brother in Savannah.

Few of us could have accomplished so much in face of the poverty and discrimination he endu

‘Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, Please Wake Up! It’s Happy Hour!’

Throughout my 30 years as a trial lawyer, I have seen a lot of sleeping jurors. Heck, I’ve seen an entire jury nod off as if they were the cast of Bedtime for Bonzo.

Juror nap time generally happens during the afternoon session of the second day of a trial, as one of the lawyers reads a medical deposition into evidence. You got chronic insomnia? Well, forget about taking Ambien or Tylenol PM or a stiff shot of whiskey. Ju