Murphy

Ann H. Murphy has joined Stites & Harbison, PLLC in the firm’s Nashville office as part of the business litigation and construction service groups. Her practice focuses on professional liability of architects and engineers, construction defect litigation, construction contract law, professional discipline and commercial litigation.

She previously was an associate with Lewis Thomason, P.C. in its construction practice. She earned her juris doctor from Belmont University College of Law in 2018.

Murphy is a member of the Lawyers’ Association for Women, the National Association of Women in Construction, the Tennessee Association of Construction Counsel and the Associated General Contractors. She is a graduate of the AGC Construction Leadership Program class of 2020 and the Young Leaders Council Class 73.

Baker Donelson adds to hospitality, franchising

Layton

Laura K. Layton, an attorney with a background in corporate and commercial transactions, media, entertainment and intellectual property, has joined Baker Donelson as a member of its corporate group and will focus on the firm’s hospitality and franchising teams.

She is joining as of counsel in the firm’s Nashville and Memphis offices.

Layton’s previous experience includes serving as in-house counsel for a global media company where she handled risk assessment; drafted myriad digital, international and trademark licensing agreements and television and publishing agreements, and managed litigation and outside counsel engagements.

Also at Baker Donelson:

Lewis

• Alex S. Lewis has joined the firm as an associate and advises clients in antitrust investigations and litigation, and matters related to other types of regulatory enforcement including health law and privacy issues. Before joining Baker Donelson, Lewis served as an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, where he investigated and litigated antitrust matters in the health care industry, including FTC v. Surescripts, LLC.

After law school, Lewis served as a law clerk at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. During law school he interned for the FTC, the National Health Law Program, and the North Carolina Department of Justice’s Medicaid Investigations Division.

He earned his juris doctor from Duke University and holds an undergraduate degree from Elon University.

Ray

• Jeremy Ray, who has joined the firm as an associate, represents national and regional clients in a wide range of business and commercial disputes, including, among other things, contract enforcement, unfair competition and noncompete matters.

Ray previously served as a commercialization and technology transfer analyst for the University of Tennessee Research Foundation, where he evaluated scientists’ research and conducted prior art searches, patentability assessments, industry analyses and in-depth marketing studies for licensing. He also worked as a legal intern for a multiprogram science and technology national laboratory, where he was exposed to a variety of issues relating to intellectual property management, technology transfer and export control.

He earned his juris doctor from the University of Tennessee College of Law and holds an undergraduate degree from East Tennessee State University.

tpmbLAW hires Stewart from Legal Aid Society

Stewart

Bridget Stewart has joined Taylor, Pigue, Marchetti and Blair PLLC as an associate attorney.

Stewart earned her juris doctor in 2019 from Vanderbilt University College of Law, where she was a Dean’s Law Scholar, served as a student-attorney of the Turner Community Enterprise Clinic and earned a certificate in the Law and Business Program, among other activities and honors.

During law school, she worked in the legal department at International Paper and for a local think tank, ThinkTennessee. Before joining the firm, Stewart served as a staff attorney for Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and The Cumberlands, where she developed their disaster response program.

A native of Memphis, Stewart attended University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business, earning a degree in business administration, majoring in economics and international business with a minor in French. She is a member of the Nashville Bar Association and the Tennessee Bar Association.

Nickels joins Bradley as partner in Nashville

Nickels

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has added Richard J. Nickels to the Nashville office as a partner in the firm’s Trusts & Estates and Tax practice groups.

Nickels has more than 20 years of experience advising private companies, privately held companies, families and individuals in a broad range of corporate, tax and governance matters. He advises on federal transfer and income taxes and also drafts wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, asset protection trusts, charitable trusts, family limited partnerships and other estate planning documents.

Nickels is a graduate of the Cumberland School of Law and earned his B.A. from Carthage College. He is a member of the Tennessee and Nashville Bar associations and has been recognized in the area of Corporate Law by The Best Lawyers in America since 2016.

Dalton

Also at Bradley, Alé Dalton is the 2022 Nashville Emerging Leader Awards Winner In the legal services industry category.

The 15th annual awards, presented by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and YP Nashville, recognized 48 young professionals younger than 40 across 13 industries for significant accomplishments in their chosen career fields and for their commitment and contributions to their community. Dalton was one of four finalists in the legal services category.

Dalton is an associate in Bradley’s health care practice group where she counsels clients during mergers and acquisitions and guides them through issues that arise from the complex nature of operating in a highly regulated industry. She is actively involved in Bradley’s pro bono efforts and in staffing community legal clinics.

Dalton is vice chair of the firm’s lawyer of color resource group and serves as a liaison for Bradley’s women’s initiative. She also was instrumental in helping establish the Nashville Hispanic Bar Association and has worked with organizations to support the advancement of Hispanic families and students in the Nashville area.

In 2021, Dalton was recognized with Bradley’s Cameron J. Miller Award for Excellence and Community Service and was named a recipient of the Alumni Promise Award by The University Of Tennessee Knoxville Alumni Association.

Littler adds Buchanan as special counsel

Buchanan

Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has added Bruce Buchanan as special counsel in its Nashville office. Buchanan joins from Sebelist Buchanan Law PLLC, an immigration focused law firm that he founded.

He has concentrated his practice on immigration law for 15 years and, before entering private practice, was a senior trial specialist for the National Labor Relations Board for 20 years.

Buchanan counsels employers on immigration compliance issues and on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement inspections and audits. He also has significant experience with matters related to employment-based visas, family-based petitions, naturalization, asylum and U visas.

In addition to his legal practice, Buchanan regularly writes and speaks on immigration compliance issues for employers and has served as adjunct professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Among his many publications, Buchanan co-wrote the book, I-9 and E-Verify Handbook, and is the longtime editor of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law newsletter.

He is a member of the Verification and Documentation Liaison Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Buchanan is also active in local community initiatives, including serving on the board of directors for United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee and for Be About Change, a nonprofit corporation focused on providing higher education scholarships to students from low-income households.

Buchanan earned his juris doctor from Vanderbilt University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Florida State University. He is admitted to practice in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Arkansas.