Successful coaches often have a “coaching tree.” Think Mike Krzyzewski or Pat Summitt. Former players become coaches and spawn another set of players and future coaches. That must be the case in law as well as DA Charme Allen is pictured here with Knox County’s newest judge, Andrea Kline, who was appointed by Knox County Commission to fill the unexpired term of Andrew Jackson VI in Division 4 of General Sessions Court. Kline most recently worked for the District Attorney’s Office. Interestingly, so did Jackson, prior to his elevation to the bench.

Let’s all worry about AI

Peggy Noonan, a favorite writer, took off after artificial intelligence (AI) this week. She pivoted off an article “Something Big is Happening” by Matt Shumer, an AI executive and investor.

Shumer is concerned about the accelerating pace of progress.

In 2025, each new model was not only better than the last but “better by a wider margin,” and the iterations came more quickly. Current models are light years ahead of even six months ago. In 2022, AI couldn’t do basic arithmetic reliably. “By 2023, it could pass the bar exam,” Shumer wrote.

“AI isn’t replacing one specific skill. It’s a general substitute for cognitive work.”

Legal work? “AI can already read contracts, summarize case law, draft briefs and do legal research.” Financial services? AI is “building financial models, analyzing data, writing investment memos, generating reports.” Medicine? It’s “reading scans, analyzing lab results, suggesting diagnoses, reviewing literature.

“If your job happens on a screen (if the core of what you do is reading, writing, analyzing, deciding, communicating through a keyboard) then AI is coming for significant parts of it.” Learn more here.

– Peggy Noonan, writing about and quoting Matt Shumer in the February 12, 2026, Wall Street Journal

Blotter

Prosecutors in Knox County DA Charme Allen’s office secured long sentences for a couple of major offenders.

The Child Abuse Unit obtained a 30-year sentence against a 48-year-old man who molested a child from the time she was 4 until she turned 12. He admitted abusing the child while she was at her grandmother’s house. She disclosed the abuse to her parents in 2021. KPD detectives Todd Hardin and Shaun Sakovich led the investigation. Details here.

Prosecutors in the Domestic Violence Unit obtained a 22-year sentence against a man who raped and assaulted his ex-fiancée. The 29-year-old man was convicted in a four-day trial in December. KPD also handled this investigation which was centered in the Western Avenue area. Details here.

In Memoriam

James Moore

James Mack Moore Jr., 80, of Knoxville, has died after a short illness. Jim practiced law in Knoxville for several years after completing military service and obtaining a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Tennessee. A Memphis native, Jim moved often as a child as the family followed the father’s career in the U.S. Navy. Jim served in the Phu Lam Signal Battalion U.S. Army in Vietnam, 1967-1968. The full obituary is here.

Jackie Griswold

Jacqueline “Jackie” Melton Griswold, 64, of Knoxville, practiced law and was a certified public accountant (CPA) for 30 years. A native of Crossville, Tennessee, she graduated at the top of her class from Cumberland County High School in 1979 and got a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1983. In 1985, she returned to UT for law school. She was an active member of First Baptist Concord Church. Funeral services were held in Crossville. The full obituary is here.

Notes & Quotes

Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski recalls coaching Lebron James and Koby Bryant in the Olympics. “I told them they were not playing for the United States. When you put on this uniform you ARE the United States.” It’s about ownership, says K.

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