Over the last few months, I have posted on several occasions about the petition pending before the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking some significant changes to the rules in Tennessee regarding admission of attorneys to practice in a variety of contexts. If you are new to the blog, you can get up to speed on this issue here and here.
In advance of the July 31 deadline for comments, the Tennessee Bar Association has filed a comment that is generally supportive but that, most importantly, proposes changes the Court should make before adopting that would improve upon the proposal. You can read the comment in its entirety and the TBA’s proposed redline revisions here.
As one of the lawyers who had the honor of drafting the comment, I can tell you in summary form that the TBA’s position backs the BLE proposal to remove the barrier to comity admission that exists in the current rule as a result of the requirement that a comity application be approved before beginning employment in Tennessee and backs the BLE”s request for a new amnesty period for in-house counsel registration compliance. The TBA also is proposing changes that would:
- Result in a better practice pending admission rule that would be patterned after the ABA Model Rule on practice pending admission and which would, among other things, permit experienced lawyers moving to Tennessee licensed in another U.S. jurisdiction to practice for up to 365 days while waiting for approval of their comity application.
- Result in explicit protection in the rules for the work that an in-house counsel does prior to putting in a registration application as long as the application is submitted timely within the first 180 days of employment.
- Remove barriers to admission for military spouses who are attorneys licensed in jurisdictions other than Tennessee but in a less bulky way that would involve a renewable one-year temporary license.
- Create a standard to be applied during a transition period in which applicants already in the pipeline who have been waiting during this uncertain period and who apply in the future while a ruling on this petition is awaited will not have strict timing issues held against them to deny admission but who will be blocked from admission only on grounds of true character and fitness concerns.
There is no set timeline for a ruling from the Court now that the deadline for comments has expired, but there are many lawyers who are hopeful that given the importance of these issues that the Court will act expeditiously.
On the military spouse admission issue, you can read the collection of separately-filed comments on that rule proposal here. Interestingly, only one entity appears to have filed a public comment in complete opposition, the Montgomery County Bar Association, Clarksville – the city in Tennessee home to the largest military base in our state is located in Montgomery County.