Dennis Wade

Corizon, the nation’s leader in correctional health care solutions, has announced the hiring of Dennis Wade as Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). He joins Brentwood-based Corizon after serving as vice president and CHRO with Baptist Health Care in Pensacola, Fla. In this role he had corporate-wide accountability for all human resources functions and activities including strategic planning, talent and performance management, recruitment, executive and incentive compensation, employee labor relations, information systems, benefits, organizational development and training.

Wade’s primary location will be in the Brentwood corporate headquarters, but he will also have an office in St. Louis at Corizon’s operations headquarters. Corizon is the leading provider of correctional healthcare services in the United States, delivering a wide range of healthcare and pharmacy programs to government agencies for the medical care of inmates.

Waller Lansden boasts four ‘Best’ attorneys

Best Lawyers®, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named four Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis attorneys to its Best Lawyers’ 2012 Lawyers of the Year list in their respective practice areas. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is honored.

Lew Conner was named Mediation Lawyer of the Year. Conner is of counsel with Waller Lansden. His legal practice focuses on commercial, contract and tort litigation as well as employment, domestic and government relations matters. Conner has been listed in every edition of The Best Lawyers in America for the past 20 years.

James M. Doran, Jr. was named both Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Defendants Lawyer of the Year, and Product Liability Litigation – Defendants Lawyer of the Year. He is a partner at Waller Lansden with over 35 years of litigation experience. Doran concentrates his practice in the defense of pharmaceutical, medical device, and other companies against product liability claims.

Robb Harvey earned Franchise Law Lawyer of the Year honors. The partner in Waller Lansden’s Trial and Appellate Litigation practice and former chair of the practice group has extensive experience in complex commercial, intellectual property, media and franchise litigation involving substantial damages claims in federal and state courts across the country.

Richard A. Johnson was named Estates and Trust Lawyer of the Year. His practice focuses on three areas: advising closely held companies; assisting high net worth individuals with tax, estate and gift planning; and providing counsel to tax-exempt organizations.

Oak Hill School names director of development

John P. Boyer has been named director of development at Oak Hill School, where he will oversee fundraising, alumni and parent relations, and other development initiatives. Boyer, a native of El Dorado, Ark., most recently was director of government affairs at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington, D.C., a nonpartisan, nonprofit policy and education organization.

Boyer graduated magna cum laude from Sewanee: The University of the South in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and departmental honors in political science and international affairs and a minor in philosophy. Hired at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress as a research assistant, Boyer was promoted to the position of congressional liaison in 2005 before taking over as government affairs director two years later.

At Oak Hill School, Boyer will be in charge of designing, implementing and managing all fundraising activities, including the annual giving, endowment and capital campaigns; write grant proposals; work with the head of school and board of trustees on fundraising strategies; work with alumni, parents and volunteers to support a variety of initiatives; and work closely with other staff to develop public relations, marketing and advertising plans.

Bone McAllester has top trademark lawyer

Paul W. Kruse, a partner at Bone McAllester Norton PLLC, has been named Best Lawyers’ 2012 Nashville Trademark Law Lawyer of the Year. Kruse has more than 20 years of experience in trademark counseling and litigation. While working at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office early in his career, he examined over 4,400 trademark applications and has prosecuted countless applications as a private attorney since.

Krause is an active member of the Intellectual Property Section of the Tennessee Bar Association having acted as Chair on more than one occasion. He received his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and his juris doctorate degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law.

VUMC welcomes new senior director

Erin Morrison has joined Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as senior director of community development for children’s health. She will be responsible for overseeing all community fundraising efforts for Children’s Hospital.

She most recently served as vice president of consulting services at InfoWorks Inc., a local technology consulting company, and has volunteered at Children’s Hospital for six years.

Avondale Partners selects new VPs

Avondale Partners, a national investment banking and wealth management firm headquartered in Nashville, has announced that Emily Evans and Terry Thornber have joined the firm as vice presidents in the company’s Municipal Bond Trading Department. Evans will be responsible for research and analytics for state and local bond issuers, and Thornber will cover institutional and dealer account sales. They will work in Avondale’s Nashville headquarters joining Managing Director Richard Sale, who launched the firm’s municipal bond operation in July.

Evans has more than 20 years experience working in municipal underwriting and finance. Active in the community, she has served on the boards of Historic Nashville, Inc. and the Belle Meade Plantation. She currently holds an elected position representing Metro Council District 23, which includes parts of West Nashville.

Thornber brings more than 30 years experience in the securities industry, including serving as director of dealer sales with RBC Capital Markets Corporation from 2003-2008. Prior to RBC, he held municipal dealer sales positions with Stephens Inc., J.C. Bradford & Co., Raymond James & Associates and ABN AMRO Investments.

Baker Donelson earns ‘best’ employer honor

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC has been ranked among the top ten in the 2012 edition of Vault, Inc.’s “Best Law Firms to Work For.” This prominent national ranking is based on feedback from thousands of law firm associates across the country who were asked to rate their law firms on a 1-to-10 scale for a number of quality-of-life categories.

The Vault rankings are the latest in a number of honors Baker Donelson has received that recognize the Firm as a workplace. Earlier this year, Baker Donelson was ranked 50th on FORTUNE magazine’s prestigious “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. In September 2010, the Firm was ranked 20th among nearly 140 of the top law firms in the country in the American Lawyer’s Associates Survey, an annual listing that ranks law firms as workplaces based on feedback from mid-level associates – attorneys in their third, fourth or fifth years of law practice.

Big Brothers welcomes two new staff members

After nearly a century of service to the community, Big Brothers of Nashville has prepared for the future by adding an executive director and a professional social worker to its staff.

Jann Seymour, the agency’s new executive director, received her Master of Public Administration degree from the University of South Carolina, where she focused on nonprofit management. Seymour has nearly 10 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, most recently serving as the community outreach manager for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

Ashley Newton Byrd became the agency’s client services coordinator after her predecessor retired following 30 years of service to the organization. Byrd received her Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Tennessee at Nashville.

Wiseman Ashworth adds associate

Attorney Joshua L. Burgener has joined Wiseman Ashworth Law Group, PLC, as an associate. He previously served as law clerk to the Honorable Thomas Brothers, Tennessee Circuit Court, 20th Judicial District, Sixth Circuit, in Nashville.

Burgener served as a law clerk as well as a court officer while working for Judge Brothers. His participation in more than 25 trials included contract disputes, medical malpractice, personal injury and wrongful death cases. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School and he earned a B.A. in American and Southern Studies cum laude at Vanderbilt University. An avid sports fan, Burgener is one of the founders of the popular blog dedicated to Vanderbilt Athletics, the Vanderbilt Sports Line.

Attorney joins Sherrard & Roe

Attorney Ryan Holt has joined the law firm of Sherrard & Roe, PLC as an associate in the firm’s Litigation Practice Group where he will focus on commercial litigation and general appellate litigation. Prior to joining Sherrard & Roe, Holt was a law clerk to the Honorable Gilbert S. Merritt, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

The Nashville native received his J.D. in 2010 from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he earned the Founder’s Medal for graduating first in his class. He also served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

Prior to attending law school, Holt received a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and taught at a public middle school in New York City through the program Teach For America. He graduated summa cum laude with his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University in 2005 with a double major in Economics and Philosophy, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Family law group taps Braun to lead

The Nashville office of Hall Booth Smith & Slover, P.C., has announced that Karl M. Braun, a partner with the firm, will head its newly formed Family Law and Mediation practice group.

Braun has been with HBSS for nearly 17 years and recently received his Rule 31 mediator designation. He has served as an advocate in a number of mediation settings and is experienced in finding alternatives to litigation through effective compromise and decision-making.