NASHVILLE, May 19, 2025 — Nashville lawyer Laura Kidwell will receive the Tennessee Bar Association’s (TBA) prestigious Justice Joseph W. Henry Award for Outstanding Legal Writing on June 13 during the group's Annual Convention in Franklin. The award, which will be presented at the Lawyers Luncheon, was established more than 40 years ago and is given each year to the lawyer who writes the most outstanding article published in the Tennessee Bar Journal for the preceding year.

Kidwell is being honored for her article It Is So Ordered: A Primer on Tennessee’s Final Judgment Rule, which appeared in the March/April 2024 issue of the Journal.

Kidwell is a legal consultant for the University of Tennessee (UT) – Municipal Technical Advisory Service where she serves cities and towns in Middle Tennessee. Prior to joining UT last fall, she served at the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General (AG) and Reporter in the Solicitor General’s Office. Over the course of serving nearly 25 years at the AG’s office, Kidwell represented the state as well as individual state employees in a multitude of complex state and federal actions, and authored more than 100 Tennessee AG opinions.

Kidwell was the recipient of the inaugural Michael E. Moore Legal Writing Award in 2011, as well as the recipient of the William M. Leech Jr. Award in 2019, which recognizes individuals in the AG’s office who have made significant contributions to the high quality of work and exhibit professionalism, excellence, good judgment, respect, loyalty, ethics and innovation. During her tenure at the AG’s Office, she also taught the course “The Nuts and Bolts of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 Litigation” for several years at the Wake Forest University School of Law, along with her beloved constitutional law professor, J. Wilson Parker. Kidwell is a graduate of Furman University and the Wake Forest University School of Law.

In announcing the selection of Kidwell for this award, TBA President Ed Lanquist Jr. said, “Laura's winning article is exactly what the Joe Henry Award sets out to honor: straightforward and concise writing that explains the legal process of the final judgment rule in civil actions, as well as its exceptions.”

The award is named for Joseph W. Henry, a former chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, who was known for his forthright and clear writing. The purpose of the award is to encourage practicing Tennessee lawyers to write scholarly yet practical articles that will be of maximum benefit to the members of the bar. The award is chosen by a committee made up of the chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court or their designee, deans of some of the state’s law schools or their designees — on a rotating basis — and the president of the TBA. This year, the judges were Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Holly Kirby, Belmont University College of Law Dean Alberto Gonzales, Nashville School of Law Dean William Koch, Vanderbilt University School of Law Dean Chris Guthrie and TBA President Ed Lanquist Jr. Learn more about the award and see a list of past recipients.

The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) is the largest professional association in Tennessee with nearly 14,000 members. Founded in 1881, the TBA represents the entire spectrum of the legal profession in Tennessee and beyond, and is dedicated to enhancing fellowship and professionalism among the members of Tennessee’s legal community.