Adams and Reese partner will lead association in 2017-2018

NASHVILLE, June 13, 2016 — Memphis lawyer Lucian T. Pera will take office as president-elect of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) at the group’s annual convention this week in Nashville. He will serve in that position during the 2016-2017 bar year and move into the presidency in 2017.

“The TBA is the coolest and most vibrant bar association in the country, and it’s a really unique opportunity to serve as president,” Pera said.

Pera is a partner in the Memphis office of Adams and Reese LLP, where he practices in the areas of commercial litigation, media law, and legal ethics and professional responsibility. A Memphis native, Pera has practiced law in his hometown since 1986. He practiced law for 20 years with Armstrong Allen PLLC before joining and helping open the Memphis office of Adams and Reese in 2006. Pera graduated from Princeton University with honors and earned his law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1985.

Pera has been active in the TBA since his first year of law practice, beginning in the bar’s Young Lawyer Division and rising to serve as YLD president in 1993-1994. For almost a decade starting in 1995, he led the bar’s legal ethics committee, which wrote and successfully proposed to the Tennessee Supreme Court a completely revised set of lawyer ethics rules patterned after the American Bar Association’s model rules. At the same time, he also served on the ABA “Ethics 2000” Commission, which overhauled the model rules for the entire United States in 2002.

Pera has also been very active in the American Bar Association (ABA), serving in its governing House of Delegates since 1990 and serving as ABA treasurer from 2011-2014. Currently, he serves as chair of the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility, the home of the ABA’s core lawyer ethics and professional responsibility committees. He also currently serves as president of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. TCOG is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that seeks to improve citizen access to public information and open government in the state.

The 2016 TBA Annual Convention will be held June 15-18 at the Sheraton Music City Hotel. Taking office along with Pera will be President Jason Long of Lowe, Yeager & Brown in Knoxville and Vice President Jason Pannu of Lewis Thomason in Nashville. The annual meeting allows legal groups in the state to address common issues and concerns and offers opportunities for additional education, long-range planning, and recognition of attorneys who have performed outstanding legal work and community service.  

A high-resolution photograph of Pera is available here.