About

About Us

Almost twenty-years ago, a trial lawyer, retired judge, and former judge turned professor decided that Tennessee lawyers and judges deserved interactive continuing legal education. Tennessee Justice Programs was the product of that decision. 

By narrowing our focus, we emphasize our strengths, offering programs in the areas of the law that most trial lawyers regularly encounter.  

John Day, preeminent tort lawyer, discusses torts, comparative fault, and practice and procedure issues.

Joe Riley, retired trial and appellate judge and mediator undertakes a SCOTUS review, like none other, and brings insight to timely and interesting professional responsibility issues.  

Penny White, former judge and now law professor, tackles evidence, reviews recent decisions, and offers insight into ethics issues. 

Our Goal

From the founding of Tennessee Justice Programs, our goal has been to provide interactive and engaging legal education programs that prompt discussion and promote insight and, by doing so, to enable lawyers to better serve their clients and improve the legal profession. 

John A. Day

John Day is Board Certified as a Civil Trial Specialist and has been a trial lawyer since 1981.  He is the author of Day on Torts: Leading Cases in Tennessee Tort Law, Tennessee Law of Civil Trial, co-author of Tennessee Law of Comparative Fault, and is currently working on a new book, Tennessee Wrongful Death Law. John was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2002 and currently serves as its Secretary.


John was elected to the International Society of Barristers in 2014. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America for 25 years and is a member of the American Law Institute.  John is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served on the school’s law review.

Joe G. Riley

Joe Riley is a retired Rule 31-listed general civil mediator but is presently in semi-retirement mode.  Joe is a past Vice-Chair and member of the Board of Professional Responsibility.  He previously served as Disciplinary Counsel for the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, a body that investigated and prosecuted allegations of ethical improprieties against Tennessee judges. 


Joe retired in July 2004 from the bench, having served 7 years on the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals and 18 years as Circuit Court Judge, with civil and criminal jurisdiction in Lake and Dyer counties. 


Joe is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Tennessee and an Order of the Coif graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law. 

Penny J. White


Penny J. White is the Overton Distinguished Professor of Law and the Director of the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution at the UT College of Law.  She previously served as a trial and appellate judge as well as an Associate Justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court.

In addition to her duties at UT, White serves as a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Law School and as a regular faculty member at the National Judicial College.

Among Penny’s publications are benchbooks for Tennessee judges, the Tennessee Capital Case Handbook for lawyers defending capital cases, and an article in the Harvard Law Review. 

Penny is an Order of the Coif graduate of UT College of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Tennessee Law Review, and a 1985 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she received her LL.M.
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