Press Releases

Press Releases

Lucian Pera to Take Office as TBA President

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on Jun 16, 2017

Adams and Reese LLP Partner to Lead the Association for 2017-2018 Bar Year

NASHVILLE, June 14, 2017 — Memphis lawyer Lucian T. Pera will take office as president of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) at the group’s annual convention this week in Kingsport. Pera previously served as president-elect during the 2016-2017 bar year.
 
“The TBA is one of the strongest state bars in the nation. It matters to the daily work and lives Tennessee lawyers, the courts, and their clients. And so, as a Tennessee lawyer, it’s the highest honor I can think of to serve as TBA 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. Adams and Reese is a multidisciplinary law firm with approximately 300 attorneys and advisors in 18 offices across the southern United States and in Washington, D.C.
 
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 active in the American Bar Association (ABA), serving in its policy-making 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 2017 TBA Annual Convention will be held June 14-17 at the MeadowView Marriott Resort. Taking office along with Pera will be President-Elect Jason Pannu of Lewis Thomason in Nashville and Vice President Sarah Sheppeard of Lewis Thomason in Knoxville. 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.