Herb Fritch, chairman and CEO of HealthSpring, Inc., has joined Council Ventures’ CEO Council. With Fritch’s addition, the CEO Council includes 24 experienced chief executives who give portfolio companies access to important networks and expertise to complement their capabilities.

Fritch is the founder of HealthSpring and has served as the chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer since its founding in September 2000. He has more than 38 years of experience in the managed healthcare business.

Fritch founded and served as president of North American Medical Management, Inc., or NAMM, an independent physician association management company, from 1991 to 1999. Fritch also served as vice president of managed care for PhyCor, a physician practice management company, following PhyCor’s acquisition of NAMM in 1995. Prior to that he worked as a regional vice president at Partners National HealthPlans, founded a regional managed care company called Sanus Corp. Health Systems, and served as a consulting actuary at Milliman and Robertson.

Council Ventures is a private equity firm with approximately $150 million of capital under management. Investments are primarily in early-growth and growth stage companies in healthcare services and healthcare IT that emphasize innovative ways to raise quality and lower costs. Council Ventures primarily targets high-growth companies with differentiated and proven business models, large market opportunities, and the ability to generate high returns on invested capital.

Baker Donelson adds 2 to Public Policy Group

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC has expanded its State Public Policy Group with the addition of two veterans of Tennessee government: Wendell Moore and Jeremy Nagoshiner, both previously with The Capitol Group, LLC, a government relations and public affairs consulting firm founded by Mr. Moore in 2004. Both have joined the Firm as public policy advisors in Baker Donelson’s Nashville office.

Moore has been involved in public policy and governmental organization work for nearly three decades, starting when he joined U.S. Congressman Robin Beard’s legislative team, representing Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. He is also the former deputy to the chairman of the Republican National Committee. In addition to his experience on Capitol Hill, Moore has served in the federal level Executive Branch under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, at the state level as principal deputy and chief of staff to Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist, and in numerous political campaigns.

Nagoshiner has served as a budget analyst for the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration, legislative liaison for the Governor’s Office and executive assistant to the Finance and Administration commissioner. He also served as an assistant research analyst with the Tennessee Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee.

King & Ballow named ‘Firm of the Year’

King & Ballow has been chosen as the “Clients Choice-Tennessee Labor & Employment Law Firm of the Year” in the Corporate INTL 2011 Global Awards.

More than 11,500 nominations were made from law firms, in-house counsel, directors and private individuals in the USA and oversees. All law firms that were nominated were researched by an independent awards panel prior to being chosen.

King & Ballow maintains offices in Nashville and San Diego and represents clients in the areas of immigration, intellectual property, construction law, corporate law, taxation, pension and employee benefits, First Amendment law, transportation law, entertainment law, antitrust law, healthcare, family law and communications law.

Bass, Berry & Sims adds new associate

Bass, Berry & Sims PLC has added new associate Che B. Mock to the firm’s Nashville office.

Che joins the firm’s Commercial Transactions and Real Estate Practice Area. His experience includes representation of developers in the purchase and sale of commercial properties, as well as borrowers and lenders in mortgage and construction loans and other financings. He has also assisted in the representation of a national skilled care nursing facility in the purchase and acquisition of other skilled care nursing facilities.

A native of Clarksville, Che earned a bachelor of science in education, summa cum laude, from the University of Tennessee, a master’s in exercise and sports science from the University of North Carolina, and a JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law. While in law school, Che worked for the general counsel of a national nonprofit community development lender, served as a co-chairman for the CSRI Scholarly Conference on College Sports, and he served his law school as the 1L class president and the president of the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity.

Bonnyman, Justice Center honored

Gordon Bonnyman, co-founder of the Tennessee Justice Center, was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the annual Health Care Heroes event presented by the Nashville Business Journal.

Bonnyman, an attorney who has dedicated his 40 year career to serving low-income people in Tennessee, is best known for his advocacy efforts on behalf of people enrolled in the state’s TennCare health insurance program for low-income and disabled Tennesseans.

A native of Knoxville, Bonnyman earned a B.A. from Princeton University and graduated in 1972 with a J.D. degree from the University of Tennessee. Since admission to the bar in 1972, his entire career has been devoted to serving low-income clients. From 1973-1996, he was an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee where his work focused on representing clients in civil cases. During this time, he was lead counsel in litigation resulting in reform of Tennessee’s prisons and served on Tennessee Supreme Court Commission on the Future of the Judicial System. In 1993, the Tennessee Bar Association presented Bonnyman its Public Service Attorney of the Year Award.

In 1996, when Congress restricted the ability of Legal Services to handle class actions and other cases for the poor, Bonnyman and attorney Michele Johnson founded the Tennessee Justice Center (TJC), a non-profit, public interest law firm to provide policy and class action advocacy focused primarily on achieving access to health care for poor and uninsured Tennesseans. TJC’s litigation successes have included landmark consumer protections for TennCare patients when HMOs refuse care prescribed by doctors; rulings protecting the health coverage of 650,000 children enrolled in TennCare, including special protections for foster care children; recognition of the right of people with disabilities to sue the state to compel the development of home and community-based services as alternatives to institutionalization in nursing homes; and reinstatement of more than 100,000 individuals whose TennCare coverage had been wrongfully terminated.

The Tennessee Justice Center (TJC) is a non-profit public interest law and advocacy firm serving Tennessee’s families. It gives priority to policy issues and civil cases in which the most basic necessities of life are at stake and where advocacy can benefit needy families statewide. TJC works to empower its clients by holding the government accountable for its policies and actions. TJC was established in 1996.

TJC announces board officers, members

David P. Cañas, shareholder with law firm Harwell Howard Hyne Gabbert & Manner PC, Nashville, has been elected chair, and Vic Alexander, CPA, ABV, CFF, chief manager of Kraft CPAs, PLLC, Nashville, re-elected treasurer of the 2011-2012 Board of Directors of the Tennessee Justice Center.

Also serving on the TJC Board of Directors for 2011-2012 are Gail Ashworth, Wiseman Ashworth Law Group, Nashville; Reverend Henry Blaze, Progressive Baptist Church, Nashville; Mary Bufwack, United Neighborhood Health Services, Nashville; Dr. Christina Cain-Swope, Vanderbilt Center for Women’s Health, Nashville; Carl Carter, International Paper, Memphis; David R. Esquivel, Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC, Nashville; Dr. Jimmy Kimball, Boys & Girls Pediatrics, Knoxville; Nancy Fraas MacLean, Thomson West, Nashville; Alexandra MacKay, Stites & Harbison, PLLC, Nashville; David L. Manning, former Commissioner of Finance and Administration for the State of Tennessee, Nashville; Dr. Robert Miller, Hillsboro Medical Group, Nashville; A. Gregory Ramos, North, Pursell, Ramos & Jameson, PLC, Nashville; Sandra Roberts, retired from The Tennessean; Michelle Steen, University School of Jackson, Jackson; Marilyn Robinson, Nashville Minority Business Center, Nashville; Ellen Vergos, Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP, Memphis; Dr. Joshua Williams, Williams Psychological Corp., Knoxville; and Cynthia Wyrick, Ogle, Gass & Richardson, Sevierville.

Cañas represents clients in commercial litigation, dispute resolution and bankruptcy matters. He serves on the board of directors of the Mid-South Commercial Law Institute and is a member of the Access to Justice Committee of the Tennessee Bar Association. He was named Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year by the Tennessee Bar Association in 2007. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Tennessee in 1994 and was a member of the Tennessee Law Review and served as a student materials editor. Cañas received his B.A. in political science from Vanderbilt University in 1989.

Alexander has served as chief manager at Kraft CPAs since 1993. He has extensive experience in litigation support and business valuation. He is past chair of the Tennessee State Board of Accountancy and a member of the American Institute, Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA) and Institute of Management Accountants. In 2003, he received the Public Service Award from TSCPA.

Sweeting now part of Pilkerton Realtors

Pilkerton Realtors has announced the addition of Cameron Sweeting as an affiliate broker in its Green Hills office.

Sweeting, a Nashville resident for the past 13 years, is a graduate of the University of Mississippi, where she majored in marketing communications and journalism. She specializes in residential real estate services and will focus on providing customer service, market knowledge and counsel in the Davidson and Williamson county market area.

Hall Booth Smith welcomes new litigator

The Nashville office of Hall Booth Smith & Slover, P.C., has announced that Jaimee Johnson (formerly Wilson), a trial attorney focusing on civil litigation, has joined the firm.

Johnson has won 32 of the 35 civil jury trials in which she served as lead counsel. Before joining HBSS, she practiced with Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman and Goggin in Tampa, Fla. She also previously worked as a senior trial attorney for the Nashville office of Allstate Insurance Co., where her trial work was recognized with the “Trial of the Quarter” award for all Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama Staff Counsel Offices in 2004, 2008 and 2009. She was also named one of the 25 Most Prolific Tennessee Trial Attorneys by the Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter in 2005.

Johnson has a bachelor’ degree in English from Freed Hardeman University. Her JD is from Oklahoma City University School of Law.

Baucom, Eaton join Pinnacle Partners

Kelly Baucom and Amanda Eaton have joined Pinnacle Financial Partners as service specialists.

Baucom brings 10 years of experience from Bank of America. She was most recently a teller supervisor for Bank of America. Prior roles include senior teller and assistant banking center manager. Baucom is based at Pinnacle’s Mallory Lane office in Cool Springs.

Eaton, with five years of experience, is based at Pinnacle’s West End office. Eaton most recently comes from Southern Maintenance Group, where she was an office assistant. Prior roles include serving as a teller for First Federal Bank in Dickson and as a payroll assistant for Vaco, LLC in Brentwood.