Donald Eugene “Gene” Hayes Jr. has joined the Memphis office of Jackson Lewis as of counsel. He will serve in the Disability, Leave and Health Management Practice Group. Hayes previously worked for the UT Medical Group Inc., where he served as counsel and human resources manager. He earned his law degree from Emory University School of Law.

The Knoxville law firm of Holbrook Peterson Smith PLLC recently announced that J. Scott Griswold has joined the firm as an associate attorney. He will help the firm’s expansion of its estate and trust litigation practice.  Griswold also will practice in the areas of trust and estate planning and administration along with business succession planning and advising nonprofit entities. Griswold earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee and served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William M. Barker of the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Adams and Reese has elected Memphis attorney Jay Campbell to partner. Campbell joined the firm in 2006 and practices in the Transactions and Corporate Advisory Services Group. He handles middle-market mergers, acquisitions and corporate financing. Campbell earned his law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School. Prior to attending law school, he earned a master of science in Information Systems Technology from George Washington University. During his graduate studies he attended the Insitut des Etudes Politiques de Paris (Science Po) in Paris, France.

Shuttleworth Williams is now located in the First Tennessee Plaza at 800 South Gay St., Suite 2031 in Knoxville. The new space puts the office closer to the Knox County Courthouse, state Supreme Court Building and U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

John R. Tarpley, a shareholder at Lewis King Kreig & Waldrop in Nashville, has been named chair of the editorial board for the American Bar Association Journal. Tarpley, a former president of the Tennessee Bar Association as well as its Young Lawyers Division, will assume the role in August for a three-year term.

At a recent meeting, Lewis King Krieg & Waldrop shareholders reelected Knoxville lawyer Deborah Stevens to another term as president and managing shareholder of the firm, and elected shareholders Reba Brown, Robert F. Chapski and Benjamin W. Jones to serve on the firm’s board of directors. Brown, who practices in the firm’s Nashville office, focuses in the areas of commercial litigation, bankruptcy, tort, employment discrimination, product liability, and workers’ compensation.

Evans Petree PC has named L. Clayton Culpepper III as a shareholder in the firm. Culpepper, a 2004 graduate of the University of Memphis School of Law, serves in the firm’s Litigation and Intellectual Property Practice groups. He is licensed to practice in Tennessee and Mississippi.

Kevin Balkwill, disciplinary counsel in the Litigation Division of the Board of Professional Responsibility, is the new president of the Tennessee CASA Association. He replaces Meagan Frazier Grosvenor, who served in the position for two years. She will continue to serve as immediate past president.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee recently honored lawyers who donated services to low-income clients at its Pro Bono Celebration. Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee presented the Law Firm of the Year Award to Paine, Tarwater & Bickers and the Lawyer of the Year Award to Rachel P. Hurt of Arnett, Draper & Hagood. Knoxville Bar Association President J. William Coley gave awards to 21 lawyers who donated at least 25 hours of service through Legal Aid’s Pro Bono Project. TBA members among the group were: Ali Abdelati, William J. Carver, Stephanie D.

Nashville lawyer Fritz Richter has been appointed vice chair of the Fiduciary Responsibility/Plan Investments Subcommittee of the American Bar Association Tax Section’s Employee Benefits Committee. Richter practices with Bass Berry & Sims PLC, where he focuses exclusively in the area of employee benefits and executive compensation. Before joining the firm, Richter was with the Internal Revenue Service Employee Plans and Chief Counsel’s Offices in Washington, D.C., where he handled employee benefits regulatory, compliance and litigation matters.