The TBA’s Leadership Law program this week begins its 10th year with an opening retreat for the class of 2013. Programming started Thursday afternoon and continues through Saturday at Montgomery Bell State Park. The 32 members of the class have already heard from some of the leading lawyers in the state, including Byron Trauger, Houston Gordon, Lewis Donelson, Randy Kinnard and TBA presidents Jackie Dixon, Gail Ashworth, Pam Reeves, Charles Swanson and John Tarpley. The group will meet monthly until graduating during the 2013 TBA Convention in Nashville June 12-15.
Samuel P. Funk has been named head of the litigation practice group at Sherrard & Roe, PLC, the Nashville Ledger reports. The group manages a wide range of commercial disputes in administrative agencies and state and federal courts, as well as all forms of alternative dispute resolution. Funk, a graduate of Wake Forest University and the University of Maryland School of Law, was also an inaugural member of the Tennessee Bar Association Leadership Law program.
Brittany Sims will join the Tennessee Bar Association next week as coordinator for the TBA Leadership Law program. A Nashville native, Sims graduated from Hampton University in Hampton, Va., then returned to Nashville to work as a VISTA volunteer with AmeriCorp. While pursuing a graduate degree at Tennessee State University, Sims worked with the TSU Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement and then moved on to become a program coordinator there. In addition, she serves as assistant volleyball coach at Fisk University. Her degree is in public administration, with a certificate in nonprofit management. At the TBA, Sims also will join the team that gathers news for the daily TBAToday newsletter and TBA website.
Members of the 2012 TBA Leadership Law class choose Chattanooga attorney Curtis Bowe as the first recipient of the Larry Dean Wilks Leadership Award. Created to honor the former TBA president and Leadership Law chair who died this past year, the award recognizes the classmate who exhibited “exceptional leadership qualities that enhanced the Leadership Law experience for all class members.” Bowe, a Vanderbilt Law School graduate, heads the Bowe & Associates PLLC law firm in Chattanooga.
News from the YLD Fellows
Springfield lawyer and former TBA president Larry Dean Wilks, who died Aug. 30, 2011, was posthumously presented the William M. Leech Jr. Public Service Award by the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) Young Lawyers Division Fellows at the TBA’s annual meeting in Memphis. Wilks was recognized for his service to the practice of law, the bar and the profession. The award was presented by Fellows President Cynthia Richardson Wyrick, a lawyer in Sevierville, and accepted by Wilks' widow Jan and his son John.
A reception honoring retired Circuit Court Judge Barbara Haynes will be March 29, 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Davidson County Courthouse. Contributions are also being accepted to procure a portrait of Judge Haynes, to be hung in the Third Circuit Courtroom. Download a reservation card.
Rob Frost will be the next attorney for Knoxville City Council, filling the spot Charles Swanson left when he joined Mayor Madeline Rogero's administration as city law director. There were five finalists interviewed Monday for the job. The position is part-time and Frost continues to practice at Arnett Draper & Hagood. The News Sentinel has more.
35 lawyers from across the state join six-month training program
NASHVILLE, Dec. 19, 2011 — The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) announces that 35 attorneys from across the state have been selected for its 2012 Leadership Law program.
