Group holds annual meeting in conjunction with TBA Convention

NASHVILLE, July 2, 2015 — The Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (TBA YLD) Fellows met during the association’s annual convention in Memphis to elect new officers and induct new members.

Columbia attorney and recently appointed 22nd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge J. Russell Parkes is the new president of the group. Springfield lawyer Lisa Richter is the new vice president. She is a child support referee judge in Clarksville. Glenn Walter with Lewis Thomason in Knoxville is the new secretary and Danny Van Horn with Butler Snow in Memphis is the new treasurer. Memphis lawyer Charlotte Knight Griffin, who served as president during the previous year, will continue as immediate past president. She works at Memphis Light, Gas & Water.

In addition, 10 new fellows were inducted into the TBA YLD Fellows, which promotes the objectives of the YLD and encourages young lawyers to be active in the TBA. New members are invited to join the organization based on their involvement with and commitment to the YLD while they were young lawyers. The new members are:

• Shauna R. Billingsley, City Attorney, Franklin
• Douglas A. Blaze, University of Tennessee College of Law Dean, Knoxville
• Janice P. Brown, founder and senior partner, Brown Law Group, San Diego
• The Honorable Lee Bussart, Marshall County General Sessions Judge, Lewisburg
• Candi Henry, Dodson Parker Behm & Capparella, Nashville
• Elizabeth M. “Ellie” Hill, Patrick, Beard, Schulman & Jacoway, Chattanooga
• The Honorable Holly M. Kirby, Tennessee Supreme Court, Memphis
• Aimee Miller Luna, Legal Aid Society, Murfreesboro
• Christopher W. McCarty, Lewis Thomason, Knoxville
• William Paul Whitt, Lewis Thomason, Knoxville

Finally, the Fellows awarded its annual William M. Leech Jr. Public Service Award to Claudia Swafford Haltom for her service to the profession as a juvenile court judge and longtime supporter of the TBA and the YLD, and for her service to the community through establishment of A Step Ahead Foundation. The foundation seeks to improve educational, economic and health outcomes for women and their children in Shelby County through offering free long-acting and reversible contraception in order to allow women to prevent unplanned pregnancies. The program has had such an impact here in Memphis that other Tennessee cities are looking at duplicating the concept. Read more about her work.