Andrée Blumstein recognized for article on summary judgment

NASHVILLE, June 22, 2016 – Nashville lawyer Andrée Sophia Blumstein was awarded the Tennessee Bar Association’s Justice Joe Henry Award for Outstanding Legal Writing at the association’s annual meeting in Nashville last week.

Blumstein, who serves as Tennessee’s Solicitor General, was recognized for her article “Summary Judgment Comes Full Circle: Tennessee Now Has its Own ‘Summary Judgment Trilogy’: Byrd, Hannan, Rye,” which was published in the December 2015 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal. The article was selected from among all articles authored by TBA members and published in the association’s monthly magazine during 2015.

Blumstein has served as solicitor general since 2014. In this role, she oversees all appellate litigation, both state and federal, for the state. Prior to taking the post, she served as a member of the Nashville law firm known at the time as Sherrard & Roe from 1993 to 2014, where she focused on appellate litigation. During this time she also served as chief justice of the Special Supreme Court appointed to hear the Hooker v. Haslam case, which challenged the state’s process for approving appellate court judges. Among her many accomplishments, Blumstein was named Nashville’s Antitrust Lawyer of the Year in 2015; has served on the Tennessee Bar Journal Editorial Board for 22 years, and has been its chair since 2003; and is one of the few people to receive Joe Henry award more than once, also being recognized in 2012.

The Joe Henry Award was established in 1981 and has been chosen each year by a committee unrelated to editorial board and staff of the Journal. This year the judges were Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon G. Lee, Vanderbilt Law School Dean Chris Guthrie, Belmont University College of Law Dean Alberto Gonzales, Nashville School of Law Dean Bill Koch and TBA President Bill Harbison.

The 2016 Tennessee Bar Association Annual Convention was held in conjunction with several other legal organizations, including the Tennessee Judicial Conference, the Tennessee Lawyers’ Association for Women (TLAW) and the Tennessee Alliance for Black Lawyers (TABL). This joint 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.