The state Board of Law Examiners is experiencing two firsts with the appointment by the Tennessee Supreme Court of a woman to serve as a board member and an African-American as its president. The board governs the Tennessee bar examination and the admission of attorneys to practice law in the state.
Marlene Eskind Moses, a Nashville attorney, becomes the first woman on the three-member board and the first graduate of the Nashville School of Law appointed to serve. Memphis attorney Prince C. Chambliss, Jr. was appointed by the court to serve as president, succeeding attorney H. Lee Barfield II of Nashville. Barfield is resigning from the board effective Dec. 31 after serving as a member since 1986 and as president since 1992. Chambliss became the first African-American board member when he was appointed in 1988.
In his letter of resignation to the Supreme Court, Barfield said he is leaving “to allow new leadership and fresh ideas to direct the work of the board.”
“I am pleased that the board has been able to strengthen the bar examination, to preserve, sustain and enhance the enduring values of good moral character and fitness in our profession, to modernize the rules governing licensing of attorneys and to assist the law schools in Tennessee to improve the quality of their legal education programs,” he wrote.
In February 2000, 204 law school graduates took the Tennessee bar examination and 141 passed. In July, 617 took the exam and 494 passed. Also in 2000, 15,242 attorneys paid a required annual registration fee to the state Board of Professional Responsibility.