News - Friday, May 20, 2016

Chase Smith has been waiting for years to become an attorney. But he says he’s not there yet. He has one small detail to get out of the way first.

That detail isn’t law school. Smith is a proud graduate of the Nashville School of Law. It’s not passing the bar exam, either. He took the Tennessee exam in February and found out he passed in April. It’s not having a job, either. Smith has worked for the Mickles Law Firm since his second year of law school, and is still there. For Smith to become an attorney, he says he needs to be sworn in, which he’s scheduled to do on June 14. For now, he’s just a lawyer – or so he says.

The City of Chattanooga Youth & Family Development Department and the Chattanooga Bar Association are working together on a project developed by Lurone “Coach” Jennings, Sr., called “Good Decision Making: Molding Young Minds To Make Good Decisions.” Through the endeavor, educators are talking with local school-age students about making good decisions.

Chambliss Center for Children last week broke ground on residences for their new transitional living program.

In an effort to assist teens “aging out” of the foster care system, many of whom become homeless, Chambliss Center is adding transitional living to their residential program. The groundbreaking was for phase one of the housing aspect of the program, which will include two duplexes, each with two one-bedroom units. In addition to housing, this program will offer counseling and training in basic life skills, such as financial planning, budgeting, cooking, interviewing, and job readiness. The Robert L. & Kathrina H. Maclellan Foundation and The Maclellan Foundation Inc. will provide funding for the duplexes. The project should be completed in four to six months.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has appointed Miller & Martin attorney Bob Parsley to a five-year term as a special assistant to the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners.

The Board of Law Examiners governs the examination and licensing of attorneys who wish to practice law in Tennessee. The Board employs 12 assistants – four from each grand division of the state – as bar examiners who are responsible for preparing and grading essays for the Tennessee Bar Exam.

Miller & Martin attorney and Health Care Practice Group leader Christie Kizer Burbank is one of 12 female attorneys recognized by Best Lawyers as 2016 Health Care Law “Lawyers of the Year” in Tennessee.

The spring installment of Best Lawyers Business Edition is the publication’s first Women in the Law issue. This special version of the publication highlights all of the female attorneys selected as 2016 Best Lawyers “Lawyers of the Year” in their respective practice areas in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Husch Blackwell Senior Counsel Joe Simpson was honored as a newly elected Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation on May 7 in Nashville.

Simpson is based in the firm’s Chattanooga office, and practices in its Financial Services group. He is the 2015 recipient of the Chattanooga Bar Association’s Ralph H. Kelley Humanitarian Award and was named to the Legal Aid of East Tennessee Pro Bono Attorneys Hall of Fame in 2012. Simpson earned his J.D. at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 1987 and his B.S. in finance at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1984. He has been with Husch Blackwell since 2006, and has practiced in Tennessee since 1987.

Baker Donelson last week announced the addition of Miriam Thompson to the firm’s Chattanooga office.

Thompson joins as an associate in Baker Donelson’s Immigration and Labor & Employment Groups. She focuses on advising clients on employment-based temporary and permanent immigration needs.

All in-house counsel members working in the state that do not have a Tennessee law license must register with the Board of Law Examiners before July 1 or face discipline and a bar examination in order to continue practicing in Tennessee.

We’re at the end of another school year. If you have younger kids, you might be thinking about summer camps and other activities. But in the not-too-distant future, your children will be facing a bigger transition as they head off to college. Will you be financially prepared for that day?

It is reported that yet another memorable and popular former NFLer, this one a quarterback, suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, or simply the concussion disease. And the report comes, as has been the rule, post-mortem. That is to say, after the subject dies.

On behalf of current and future home and property owners throughout the country, nearly 8,900 Realtors last week traveled to Washington, D.C. where they advocated important real estate issues during the 2016 Realtor Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

Chattanooga was seeing red May 12 as legions of Keller Williams agents, brokers, and staff members stopped selling real estate and spent the day working in the community as part of Red Day, the company’s national day of service.

The housing market is being predictable, and that’s a good thing. At the beginning of the year, it was anticipated that the prevailing trends of the past year would continue into and through 2016, and that has largely been the case.

May is National Home Remodeling Month, and building professionals all over the Chattanooga and North Georgia area are helping home owners determine which remodeling projects are the best fit for their families’ needs and the best value for their homes. Review these top five home remodels, and begin making plans for your next project:

Memphis-based Crye-Leike last week announced that it has retained its No. 6 ranking among the nation’s largest residential real estate brokerage firms.

RISMedia”s 2015 Power Broker Report ranked Crye-Leike No. 6 among the top 500 largest residential real estate brokerage firms in the U.S. This ranking was based on Crye-Leike achieving 28,595 closed residential transactions by its 2,822 sales associates in 2015. A transaction represents either the listing or the selling side of a closed transaction.

While the Federal Housing Administration’s overhaul of its Single-Family Housing Policy Handbook last year offered loan originators more clarity on lending policies and loan underwriting standards, some changes made to the property valuation policies are causing confusion and delays, according to speakers at a real property valuation forum last week at the 2016 REALTORS Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

The Blight Elimination Program from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency is officially active.

THDA can now begin accepting loan applications and funding demolition and greening activities to stabilize local housing markets.

“Money Monster” is an attempt by director Jodie Foster to make an entertaining, issue-driven movie about corruption in the American financial system. The film is moderately entertaining but merely states the obvious with regard to the issue it explores: things are really messed up.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard last week participated in the National Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony in Washington, D.C. This marked the fifth straight year the HCSO Honor Guard has been asked to participate.

Blood Assurance will host a week-long pre-Memorial Day drive Monday, May 23 through Saturday, May 28 in honor of local veterans.

All donors will have the option of receiving a free Fandango movie ticket or an American Blood Donor t-shirt as a thank you.

At 105 years old, Halie Forstner is certainly one of the oldest residents of Hamilton County.

Born in Dade County, Forstner moved to Chattanooga when she was nine years old, and has lived in Hamilton County most of her life.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) is hosting a fun run in conjunction with the Chattanooga Roller Girls (CRG) Saturday, July 23 at 8 a.m.

Runners (and walkers) will be encouraged to evade roller derby “bulls” down a closed portion of McCallie and Holtzclaw in Chattanooga.

Saturday, May 21, 1966

Miss Karen Elizabeth Dorne, 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Chattanooga, was crowned Miss Chattanooga 1966 at the Tivoli pageant. Miss Chris Richard, Miss Chattanooga 1965, did the honors.

Saturday, May 20, 1916

At S.E. Drake’s, where you can find “Everything good to eat,” the best coffee available costs 30 cents, and you can buy a pound of creamery butter for the same price. This is how to beat the high cost of living.

This column was originally published on May 22, 2015 in the Hamilton County Herald. 

I received a magazine offer from Nutrition Action. Being a food editor, I’m always receiving mail from various food magazines, and emails about new restaurants, cookware, food, etc. All of which ask me to write about their openings, or the editors of the books and articles, or the chefs. I, however, want to retire. Wishful thinking, I’m afraid!

Continued from last week’s column, as my brothers and I wandered the aisles of Ben Franklin’s in Park Hill, during the late 60’s.

At the rear of the store was the pet section, where caged birds and hamsters probably prayed they wouldn’t be bought. There was also a huge aquarium, which was mostly for goldfish. That was my destination. I was determined to catch the big goldfish with my bare hands. I had come close a few times before being caught by the store manager and told never to do that again because the germs from my hands could poison the fish. Yeah right.