Bradley’s Lela M. Hollabaugh has been named to Benchmark Litigation’s Top 250 Women in Litigation 2020.

Hollabaugh is one of 225 litigators –nearly half of the firm – who comprise Bradley’s Litigation Practice Group. She is managing partner of Bradley’s Nashville office and has served as the lead trial lawyer in more than a dozen jury trials, as well as more than two dozen bench trials, arbitrations and administrative hearings.

She advises leading natural gas pipeline companies and other infrastructure clients on issues involving location, land acquisition, construction and operations. She also represents leading pharmaceutical, medical device and other manufacturers in matters ranging from individual lawsuits to mass tort cases around the country.

Now in its ninth edition, the Top 250 Women in Litigation determines honorees through research of litigators’ professional activities, as well as client feedback from surveys and individual interviews. Information

Also at Bradley:

Alé Dalton has been selected for the Hispanic National Bar Association’s 2020 Latina Leadership Academy.

The HNBA’s Latina Leadership Academy is geared toward Latina lawyers from all areas of the profession who have been practicing less than 10 years. The program offers curriculum specifically developed for Latina attorneys and draws from a significant body of research. It addresses areas identified as key to shattering glass ceilings and securing the advancement and long-term success of Latina lawyers – one of the most underrepresented groups in the legal profession.

In addition, attendees gain insights into the importance of mindfulness and resilience in their daily lives and how mindful practice will increase opportunities for advancement in the workplace.

As a member of Bradley’s health care practice group, Dalton assists clients in the health care industry with a wide range of transactional, operational and regulatory matters. Her practice focuses on counseling clients during mergers and acquisitions, as well as guiding clients through issues that arise from the complex nature of operating in the highly regulated health care industry.

Burr & Forman expands health care practice

Burr & Forman has added Renee Rayne to its health care practice group. Her practice focuses on the representation of public hospitals, private hospitals and physician groups in regulatory and transactional matters, particularly related to Medicaid participation and reimbursement.

Rayne has been the primary associate contact for several hospital systems in markets across Texas and Tennessee, conferring with and advising hospital CEOs and CFOs regarding regulatory matters.

Before joining Burr & Forman, Rayne interned with the Hon. E. Clifton Knowles, magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. She earned her juris doctorate from The University of Texas School of Law, where she served as an executive editor of the Texas International Law Journal, a recipient of the Dean’s Achievement Award for Academic Excellence and William Ellis Woods Endowed Presidential Scholarship.

She earned her B.A. in European studies from Vanderbilt University.

Legal Aid Society elects new board of directors

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, Tennessee’s largest nonprofit law firm, has named J. Andrew (Drew) Goddard as board president and elected four new board members – Sharon M. Crane, Erin Palmer Polly, Mozianio S. (Trey) Reliford and David A. Weil. It also has added a board intern, Trey Whitfield.

Goddard will serve through 2022, succeeding Charles K. Grant. Goddard has been a member of the board of directors since 2004 and previously served as first vice president. A graduate of the Duke University School of Law, he is a partner at Bass, Berry & Sims and has focused his practice in the area of environmental law. He chairs the firm’s Environmental Practice group.

Goddard has been a fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers since 2008. He previously taught environmental law as an adjunct at Vanderbilt University School of Law for 13 years.

Crane, of Oak Ridge, serves on multiple housing boards and is the president of the Holiday Bureau of Anderson County, a nonprofit serving low-income families in Anderson County.

Polly, an attorney at Butler Snow in Nashville, was the 2019 chair for Legal Aid Society’s Campaign for Equal Justice, raising more than $830,000, the most in the campaign’s history. She represents the Tennessee Bar Association on the board.

Reliford is a litigation associate at Neil and Harwell in Nashville, where he practices civil litigation and white-collar criminal law. He represents the Napier-Looby Bar Association on the board.

Weil is an attorney and adjunct professor at Belmont University’s Jack C. Massey School of Law and Tennessee State University’s College of Business. He serves on several corporate boards, including SOAR Healthcare Group and Human Serving Humans Home Care, and will serve as Legal Aid Society’s board treasurer.

Whitfield is an accounting manager at Advent Health Partners in Nashville and will serve as a board intern designee of Nashville’s Young Leaders Council.

Argent Trust hires Nashville market president

Chris Kelly has joined Argent Trust Company as Nashville market president. He will serve as the senior leader of trust, estate and retirement services administration in Middle Tennessee.

Kelly has more than three decades of experience in estate planning, trust administration, nonprofits, financial services and business law. He joins Argent from the Tennessee Baptist Foundation, where he served as executive vice president and general counsel for six years.

In addition to his law practice, Kelly’s investment and trust background includes six years at Pinnacle Financial Partners and 11 years with Calvary Banking in Murfreesboro.

Kelly earned his bachelor’s degree from Middle Tennessee State University, his juris doctorate from Nashville School of Law and is a graduate of the Southern Trust School of Spring Hill College. He is an involved member of several organizations, including the Christian Legal Society and is a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International.

In addition, Kelly is an active member of the Tennessee Bar Association and is a graduate of its Leadership Law Program. He is licensed to practice before all state courts in Tennessee and has been recognized by the Tennessee Supreme Court multiple times as an Attorney for Justice for his pro bono service.

Winkfield will direct Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance

Karen Winkfield, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Radiation Oncology at Wake Forest University, associate director for Community Outreach and Engagement and director of the Office of Cancer Health Equity at Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been named the new executive director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance and will begin Nov. 1.

Winkfield succeeds Consuelo Wilkins, M.D., MSCI, who has served as the Alliance’s director since 2012. Wilkins is the co-principal investigator of Vanderbilt’s Clinical and Translational Science Award, professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s vice president for Health Equity.

Wilkins will continue to work closely with VUMC and Meharry Medical College to ensure their investigators have access to expert faculty collaborators, core resources and services to catalyze innovative research.

Winkfield specializes in the use of radiation therapy in the treatment of hematologic malignancies (lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma, bone marrow transplantation) and breast cancer. She developed the first comprehensive clinical program focused on hematologic malignancies in the department of radiation oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital. With support of collaborating oncologists, she also established the first multidisciplinary clinic for patients with hematologic disorders.

She’s a national expert in community engagement with research focused on the design and implementation of programming to reduce sociocultural and economic barriers that contribute to disparate health outcomes for racial/ethnic minorities and underserved populations.

Also at Vanderbilt:

Kathleen Gould, Ph.D., Louise B. McGavock Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology in the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, has been named senior associate dean for biomedical research, education and career development.

Gould joined the Vanderbilt faculty as an assistant professor after she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego and completed postdoctoral studies as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow at Oxford University under Sir Paul Nurse.

Ken Clarke, MBA, MHA, has joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center as senior vice president for laboratory services.

Clarke has overseen multiple significant lab expansion projects totaling more than 160,000 square feet, including Northwestern Memorial Hospital, LabOne of Ohio and OralDNA Labs. Throughout his career he has developed strategic plans to expand and grow labs and businesses in both scope and geographic reach.