Joycelyn Stevenson, president-elect of the Nashville Bar Association, recently joined more than 300 emerging leaders at the American Bar Association’s Bar Leadership Institute (BLI) in Chicago. The institute is designed to prepare incoming bar leaders for their time in office.

Tennessee Bar Association Vice President Jason Long and Executive Director Allan Ramsaur also attended the annual event.

Chattanooga lawyer Rosemarie Hill has been named a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Hill is a shareholder with Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel and chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment Section. She focuses her practice on compliance counseling, training and litigation.

Haavi Morreim, an attorney and professor of internal medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has been elected chair of the Healthcare ADR Committee of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section. Morreim also serves as vice chair of the section’s Task Force on ADR and Conflict Management.

Four Nashville lawyers — Joel Surber, Garrett Asher, Jennifer Surber and Matt Moushon — have joined together to form the law firm of Surber, Asher, Surber & Moushon. Jennifer Surber formerly served as counsel to the Davidson County Probate Court and as Special Probate Master for the Seventh Circuit Court. She will focus on probate disputes. The others are former partners at Parker, Lawrence, Cantrell & Smith.  They will focus on personal injury, business and construction law as well as professional liability and insurance defense.

Nashville lawyer John Wilks has joined Martin Heller Potempa & Sheppard where he will focus on family law and estate litigation. He previously practiced with Weatherly, McNally & Dixon. While at the Nashville School of Law, Wilks clerked for Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Philip E. Smith. During undergraduate school, he worked in the office of his late father and former TBA President Larry D. Wilks.

Hunter C. Carroll and Carl Hagwood have been named to leadership positions with the law firm of Hagwood Adelman Tipton. Carroll, who practices in the firm’s Birmingham, Alabama, office, has been elected vice president. He focuses on defending medical malpractice, long-term care, professional liability and complex tort cases. Hagwood, a shareholder in the Greenville, Mississippi, office, has more than four decades of experience in medical malpractice and nursing home litigation.

Jackson Lewis has expanded its Memphis office with the addition of shareholder Craig Cowart and of counsel Sally Barron. Both attorneys focus on labor and employment issues and previously practiced with Fisher & Phillips. Cowart also spent a portion of his career serving as in-house counsel for an international specialty chemicals company.

Burr & Forman has named Stephen Price as the new managing partner of the Nashville office. He replaces Thomas K. Potter III, who will return to full-time practice in the firm’s Commercial Litigation practice group. Price, a partner in its Labor & Employment and Commercial Litigation practice groups, joined Burr & Forman in January after serving as executive member of Stites & Harbison’s Nashville office.

The firm also recently announced that it is expanding its Nashville office with a move to the 23rd floor of the Nashville City Center, 511 Union St. 37219.

Stites & Harbison welcomes attorney Michael S. Goode to its Nashville office where he will focus in the areas of tax, business and estate planning. Prior to joining the firm, Goode was a partner at a boutique trusts and estate planning law firm in the Atlanta area. He received a master of laws in taxation from New York University School of Law and a law degree from William and Mary School of Law.

Guilford F. “Gif” Thornton Jr., a partner in the Nashville office of Adams and Reese, has been elected managing partner of the firm. Thornton joined Adams and Reese in 2005 when the firm merged with Stokes & Bartholomew. A past chair of the TBA’s Government Affairs Committee, he presently serves as legislative counsel for the TBA, and represents a number of other businesses, trade associations and governmental entities with interests before Tennessee state government.

As part of its 84th anniversary celebration, Carnival Memphis honored the Mid-South Legal Industry at a luncheon in May. Led by this year’s “king” John Bobango, chief manager of local law firm Farris Bobango, the group presented  three awards. W. J. Michael Cody, a partner with Burch, Porter and Johnson, received the Chairman’s Award. Lewis R. Donelson III, senior counsel at Baker Donelson, received the Cook Halle Award for outstanding contributions to the community. The President’s Award went to S. Shepherd Tate with the law firm of Martin, Tate, Morrow & Marston. The group also recognized local law firms Apperson Crump, Evans Petree, Farris Bobango, Glankler Brown and Harris Shelton Hanover Walsh; the Fed Ex Legal Department; Memphis Area Legal Services; and the University of Memphis School of Law.

Chattanooga attorney James A. Fields has joined the firm of Samples, Jennings, Ray & Clem.  Fields has been practicing law for over 25 years, and focuses his practice in the areas of debtor/creditor relations, bankruptcy, commercial litigation, wills and probate and corporate matters. He is a former president of the Chattanooga Bar Association and currently serves as chair of the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners.

Ashleigh L. Travis has joined the Montgomery County law firm of Bateman & Bateman as an associate attorney. Travis has been with the firm since 2003 as a legal assistant. She graduated from the Nashville School of Law in December 2014 and recently passed the bar exam. She will focus her practice on family law, estate planning, disability law, personal injury and civil litigation.

Frost Brown Todd has hired Adam Dietrich as an associate in its Nashville office.

Dietrich will serve in the Business Litigation Practice Group, where he will represent plaintiffs and defendants in business and commercial
litigation matters.

Nashville lawyer William H. Tate has been named president of the Tennessee Association of Construction Counsel. Tate is with the law firm of Howard Tate Sowell Wilson Leathers & Johnson.

Memphis law firm Farris Bobango recently announced that Mark E. Beutelschies has been appointed to the Meritas Board of Directors. Beutelschies focuses his practice on economic development, mergers and acquisitions and real estate.  Farris Bobango is a member of Meritas, a global alliance of independent business law firms.

Tennessee’s former attorney general Robert Cooper has rejoined the Nashville office of Bass Berry & Sims. Cooper is returning to the firm as a partner in the Compliance and Government Investigations Practice Group. Prior to his eight-year stint as state attorney general, Cooper was legal counsel to Gov. Phil Bredesen and an attorney handling business and regulatory litigation at Bass Berry.

Brian Cummings and Brian Manookian have launched a new law firm — Cummings Manookian PLC in Nashville. The pair will focus on plaintiffs’ cases, including high exposure litigation within the areas of medical malpractice and personal injury.

Newly appointed Third Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Beth Boniface was sworn into office by Judge Thomas R. Frierson II in May. Boniface, who has practiced law in Hamblen County for nine years, was selected for the seat following the death of Judge Mike Faulk.

Two law firms recently announced honors for marketing efforts. Littler was named one of the nation’s top 26 firms for brand leadership by BTI Consulting, and Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs won first place in a legal marketing competition sponsored by the Legal Marketing Association. It was recognized for a brochure it created for its Intellectual Property Group.

The National Legal Aid and Defender Association has announced that Memphis-based Baker Donelson will again be awarded with a “Beacon of Justice Award” to honor the reach and quality of its legal aid delivery systems. The firm will be recognized at a June 23 dinner in Washington D.C.

Compiled by Linda Murphy and Stacey Shrader Joslin. Tennessee Bar Association members may send information about job changes, awards and work-related news. Send it to SUCCESS! c/o The Journal at 221 Fourth Ave. N., Suite 400, Nashville, TN 37219-2198, or email to lmurphy@tnbar.org.

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