Celebrating our bar association's diverse membership and highlighting the accomplishments and contributions of KBA members.

Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon G. Lee has notified Governor Bill Lee that she will retire on August 31, 2023.

“Serving in the Tennessee Judiciary for the past 19 years has been the greatest honor of my professional life,” Justice Lee said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve Tennesseans and have done my best to fulfill my judicial oath by upholding the state and federal Constitutions and administering justice faithfully and impartially.”

At the time of her retirement, Justice Lee will have served 15 years on the Supreme Court and 4 years on the Court of Appeals.  

Justice Lee is currently the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court and the only justice from East Tennessee. She was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2008 and retained by the voters in 2010, 2014, and 2022. Read the press release.

The KBA Archives Committee is pleased to share the interview of  Hon. Mary Beth Leibowitz as the latest addition to the collection of KBA Legal History Videos. Josh Hedrick interviewed Judge Leibowitz and the two discussed stories and memories of the local bar over the past forty years. The video is available on YouTube and is available from a link on the Legal History Videos page on the KBA website.

Judge Leibowitz served for more than twenty-five years as the third division criminal court judge and was recognized by the KBA with a Judicial Excellence Award in 2020. Judge Leibowitz attended the College of William and Mary as an undergraduate and received her law degree from the University of Dayton.  She began her practice in Knoxville in 1978.  She estimates that there were only ten (10) other female attorneys practicing in Knoxville at that time.  She was appointed to the Criminal Court bench in 1989 and served until 2014.  She holds the record for time on the bench in Criminal Court in Knox County, and was only the fifth female in Tennessee to serve on the trial bench. 

The KBA Archives Committee is pleased to share the interviews of Hon. Curtis L. Collier and David Black as the latest additions to the collection of KBA Legal History Videos.

John Winemiller interviewed Judge Curtis Collier, who is a Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee, about his distinguished legal career and his guiding principles . The video is available on YouTube and is available from a link on the Legal History Videos page on the KBA website.

David Draper interviewed David Black, who  spent more than thirty years with the firm of Kizer & Black in Maryville. The video is available on YouTube and is available from a link on the Legal History Videos page on the KBA website.

The KBA Archives Committee initiated the legal video history project in 2012 which preserves the experiences of senior members of the KBA for both the public and future generations of Knoxville lawyers. The oral history interviews include lawyers and judges and their war stories and insights on the practice of law, including some of Knoxville's most famous court cases. It is important not to forget the contributions of those who built the local bar and sharing milestones and stories of great lawyers and judges provide new lawyers with historical perspective and inspiration. Funding for the Legal History project is provided by the Knoxville Bar Foundation.

Chancellors John F. Weaver and Christopher D. Heagerty and Chancellor-Elect Richard B. Armstrong have appointed J. Scott Griswold as the Clerk and Master of the Knox County Chancery Court. Mr. Griswold will be sworn in on August 31, and he will succeed Howard G. Hogan, who is retiring after 24 years of dedicated service. The Clerk and Master manages the administrative functions of the Chancery Court and oversees the administration of probate matters. Mr. Griswold is a shareholder with Long, Ragsdale & Waters, P.C. and has been in private practice since 2008. Prior to starting private practice, he served as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. William M. Barker, who was Chief Justice of the  Tennessee Supreme Court.  He is also an Assistant Examiner for the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners and a Fellow of the Knoxville Bar Foundation. Mr. Griswold holds undergraduate degrees in Accounting and  Political Science from Middle Tennessee State University and earned his law  degree from The University of Tennessee College of Law. 

The KBA is pleased to announce that the Barristers Diversity Committee was awarded a subgrant from the ABA Young Lawyers Division's EMBRACING Diversity Challenge to expand the interested and admitted students scholarship fund. This year, the Barristers Diversity Committee is chaired by Mariel Cooper of Quist, Fitzpatrick & Jarrard, PLLC and Grant Williamson of  Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.  The Interested and Admitted Scholarship Fund is a new program that raised over $6,000 from donations from the local legal community to help with travel and lodging costs for diverse law students who are invited to attend preview days hosted by the law schools. Funds awarded by the ABA YLD will be used to expand the program. Congratulations Knoxville Barristers and thanks Mariel and Grant for all your hard work! 

The KBA Archives Committee is pleased to share the interview of Howard H. Vogel as the latest addition to the collection of KBA Legal History Videos. Charles Swanson interviewed Howard and the two shared wonderful stories and memories of the local bar over the past forty years. The video is available on YouTube and is available from a link on the Legal History Videos page on the KBA website.

Howard was for many years a litigator in the areas of professional liability, products liability, personal injury, construction, civil rights, business and commercial litigation. His practice began to shift toward the dispute resolution area in the mid to late 1990’s and since then he has mediated over 2000 civil disputes.

Howard served as the president of the Knoxville Bar Association for 1993, and a member of the Board of Governors for 1978; 1981-82; and 1992-94. He served as Barristers President and was the recipient of the prestigious Governors Award in 2007. He was the president of the Tennessee Bar Association for 1995-96, and served on the Board of Governors for 1980-81 and 1990-97. He was the president of the Tennessee Young Lawyers Conference of the Tennessee Bar Association for 1980-1981. Howard has also been active in the American Bar Association since 1983.

Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law (LMU Law) Vice President and Dean Matthew R. Lyon has announced the promotion of Director of Academic Success and Assessment Katie Tolliver Jones to Associate Professor of Law.

Jones joined the faculty of LMU Law in August 2017. Since that time, she has taught first-year academic success courses as well as upper-level electives such as Estate Planning and Drafting and Contract Drafting. In July 2020, Professor Jones was promoted to Director of Academic Success and Assessment. In this role, she not only oversees the law school’s academic success program, but also has chief responsibility for administering exams and programmatic assessments.

“Katie Jones has become an integral member of our faculty in a very short period of time,” Dean Lyon said. “She is passionate about helping each of our law students maximize their potential for academic success. Her practice experience as a transactional attorney allows her to teach a variety of upper-level elective courses. And in addition to all of her teaching and administrative duties at the law school, she has co-authored a law review article challenging the conventional wisdom regarding law schools’ bar passage rates and provides service to the bar as a leader of the East Tennessee Lawyers’ Association for Women (ETLAW). Her promotion to Associate Professor is richly deserved.”

Prior to joining the faculty of LMU Law, Jones worked in private practice in Knoxville. She handled matters involving appellate litigation, estate planning and administration, tax, contract law, and real estate, among other practice areas.  Upon graduating from law school, she was awarded an American Bar Association Section on Taxation Public Service Fellowship. As a Public Service Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, she primarily represented low-income taxpayers from Appalachia in IRS administrative hearings and U.S. Tax Court litigation.

Jones earned her J.D. at the University of Tennessee College of Law. During law school, She grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated with honors in political science and sociology with a minor in social and economic justice.

Congratulations to Angelia Nystrom on publishing “Legal Ease and Life Hacks: Essays on Pursuits of Excellence.” While you may have been fortunate to read Angelia’s articles each month in DICTA, here’s your chance to get all the great stories in one book. You will find topics as diverse as Tennessee politicians, lifehacks, party planning, and favorite foodie recipes that will get you back in the kitchen. Check it out on Amazon. A percentage of each book sold will be donated to three organizations Angelia holds dear: the Knoxville Bar Foundation, the Tennessee Bar Foundation, and the University of Tennessee’s Herbert College of Agriculture for the Emily Bruner Scholarship Endowment. You won’t want to miss the Foreword written by The Honorable Cynthia Richardson Wyrick.  

On Friday, June 24, retired Judge Elledge of Anderson County swore in KBA member Meredith Balthrop Weaver as judge on the Board of Appeals for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation Claims. She previously practiced at Peterson White and Leitner Williams et al. Judge Weaver was accompanied by her father, James M. Balthrop, who practiced law from 1972 through 2015.  

KBA member Tasha Blakney will take office today as President of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) during the Annual Convention in Nashville.

Blakney is a partner at Eldridge & Blakney PC in Knoxville. She earned her law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law and has more than 20 years of experience in the legal profession. Before helping found Eldridge & Blakney, she worked as a judicial clerk for former Supreme Court Justice Gary R. Wade when he was presiding judge of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals and as an assistant attorney general in the Knoxville office of the Tennessee Attorney General. 

An active member of the TBA, Blakney has held a variety of positions with the association, including second district governor for the TBA’s Board of Governors, co-chair of the Public Education Committee, member of the TBA’s House of Delegates and executive committee member of the Environmental Law Section. Blakney served as president of the TBA Young Lawyers Division (YLD) from 2010-2011. She was awarded the TBA YLD President’s Award in 2006 and is a 2005 graduate of the TBA’s Leadership Law program. 

Blakney is a past-president of the Knoxville Bar Association and was selected as a fellow in the Tennessee Bar Foundation, the Knoxville Bar Foundation and the American Bar Foundation. She has served as an elected member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates and was one of 26 lawyers chosen from across the nation to participate in the ABA’s inaugural Leadership Academy Program through its Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section.