Jessica Averbuch

Jessica Averbuch has been named managing broker of Zeitlin and Company, Realtors, for its Green Hills office. Averbuch is a partner in the firm and an 11-year company veteran.

Averbuch also serves as the company’s vice president of education and coordinates hands-on technology workshops and ongoing risk reduction training for all Zeitlin agents. She also serves as one of the company’s delegates to The Leadership Council, which is a national peer review group of independent Real Estate brokerages.

Averbuch earned her master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her bachelor’s degree from Washington University.

Waller Lansden elects new partners

Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP today announced the election of eight attorneys to the partnership:

Brent Bowman works with clients in the healthcare industry concentrating on mergers and acquisitions, securities, and general corporate law. He joined Waller Lansden in 2004 as an associate. Bowman completed his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and received his J.D. from the University of Tennessee.

David R. Clay represents clients in the healthcare, real estate, banking and manufacturing industries focusing on mergers and acquisitions, securities, and general corporate law. Joining Waller Lansden as an associate in 2004, he represented an India-based pharmaceutical company in the acquisition of two U.S. manufacturing and distributing companies of anesthetic products. He is a graduate of Belmont University and earned his law degree from Emory University. Clay currently serves as a member of Belmont University’s Alumni Board and is a Nashville Emerging Leaders alumnus.

Hon-Vinh Duong leads the firm’s immigration practice focusing exclusively on immigration law and labor and employment issues across all industries. Before joining Waller Lansden in 2009, Duong was a senior associate with Troutman Sanders, LLP in Atlanta. He earned his B.S. from Penn State University and received his J.D. from the American University, Washington College of Law.

Philip F. Head joined Waller Lansden as an associate in 2004 and practices in the areas of commercial real estate and land use planning and zoning. He represents clients with an emphasis on multifamily, office, industrial and healthcare properties. Head earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Heather J. Hubbard practices in the areas of intellectual property and trial and appellate litigation. She also serves on Waller Lansden’s diversity and social development committees. Hubbard joined Waller Lansden in 2006 as an associate and was named a “Rising Star” by Mid-South Super Lawyers in 2010 and 2011 and chosen as one of Nashville’s Top “30 Under 30” in 2010. Prior to joining Waller Lansden, Hubbard was an associate with Hall Booth Smith & Slover, P. C. in Nashville. She is a graduate of the University of Louisville and earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University.

Miranda K. Kelley represents clients in the financial, health care, real estate and manufacturing industries handling issues including mergers and acquisitions and securities law. She joined Waller Lansden in 2002. During her tenure, Kelley assisted in the formation of a hospice company through a $50 million facilities acquisition. She graduated with a B.S. in business management from Lipscomb University and earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University, where she served as vice president of the Business Law Society.

Justin W. Leach specializes in commercial real estate law and works with clients on the acquisition, development and disposition of real property. He joined Waller Lansden in 2002. Leach received his B.A. in economics and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University, where he was managing editor of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment Law & Practice.

William C. Athanas is a veteran litigator based in Waller Lansden’s Birmingham office specializing in trial and appellate litigation, complex commercial litigation, and white collar criminal defense. Athanas joined Waller Lansden in 2009 as of counsel after serving as assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Alabama. Athanas earned his B.S. from the University of New Hampshire and graduated from Suffolk University Law School.

VUMC’s Aschner to direct center

Michael Aschner, Ph.D., has been named director of the Center in Molecular Toxicology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Internationally known toxicologist F. Peter (Fred) Guengerich, Ph.D., is stepping down as director, a position he has held for 30 years.

Aschner is the Gray E.B. Stahlman Professor of Neuroscience, professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology and director of the Division of Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology.

Nashville Bank & Trust adds credit analyst

Nashville Bank & Trust (NBT) officials announced today that Andrew J. Ritter has joined the company.

Ritter arrives at NBT as a credit analyst. His previous experience includes stints as a financial service representative at SunTrust Bank and as a banking officer at FirstBank in Denver. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Account executive joins Bradford Group

The Bradford Group, a Nashville-based public relations, advertising and marketing agency, has hired Kirk W. Graves as an account executive.

Graves comes to the Bradford Group from Alive Hospice, a non-profit agency in Nashville, where he worked as a fundraiser in the community development department. Prior to his work at Alive Hospice, he worked in the film production offices of Academy Award-winning producer Scott Rudin, worked a summer in Alaska and attended graduate school at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Germanic languages and literatures from Princeton University.

Bell named to national LMA Board

Kimberly Bell, managing director of the Litigation Practice Group at Bass, Berry & Sims PLC, has been named to the 2012 Board of Directors for the Legal Marketing Association (LMA). Kimberly will serve as Treasurer-Elect effective January 1, 2012.

Kimberly has more than 17 years of law firm marketing, business development and communications consulting experience. Kimberly joined Bass, Berry & Sims in June as managing director of the litigation practice. Prior to joining the firm, she served as director of marketing and business development at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP and manager of IP and litigation at Nixon Peabody LLP. Her previous leadership roles within LMA include six years of service on the Board of the Capital Chapter, and president of the chapter in 2008.

4 employees promoted at First Freedom Bank

Ruby Haden will serve as customer service representative manager in the bank’s Lebanon office, where she was previously a customer service representative. A former winner of the bank’s Red Carpet Service Award, Haden joined First Freedom Bank in February 2008.

Laura Johnson has been promoted to deposit operations supervisor. She has more than 12 years of banking experience. An employee of First Freedom Bank since March 2008, she was previously a deposit operations clerk at the bank.

Michelle Johnson has been promoted to loan operations supervisor. She joined First Freedom Bank in May 2008 and was previously a financial services representative at the bank. She has worked in every area of banking operations during her 27-year banking career.

Ashley Richardson, who joined First Freedom Bank in January 2011, is now a personal banker in the bank’s Mt. Juliet office. She was previously customer service representative manager at the bank. She is a graduate of Cumberland University with a degree in criminal justice and public administration.

Ison named member of Sherrard & Roe

Attorney Mark Ison has been named a member of law firm Sherrard & Roe, PLC. Ison joined the firm’s health care and corporate law groups in 2004. His law practice is focused on a broad range of health care regulatory, transactional and operational issues, and on corporate mergers and acquisitions, securities matters, and operations.

Ison graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2004, where he was a Dean’s Scholar, was elected Order of the Coif and served as notes development editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review. He received his bachelor’s degree in music summa cum laude in 1999 from the University of Kentucky and his master’s degree in music in 2001 from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Ison is co-chair of the Health Law Committee of the Nashville Bar Association and a member of the American Health Lawyers Association, the Health Law Section of the American Bar Association, and the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations.

Airport Authority announces moves

Bob Walker has been re-appointed to the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority as a member of the Board of Commissioners.

Walker was reappointed by Mayor Karl Dean and confirmed by Metro Council. His term expires in January 2016. Walker, who was first appointed in January 2008, serves as one of the board’s pilot representatives. He has been a partner with the law firm of Walker, Tipps & Malone since January 2000.

Lori-Anne Morse, a certified public accountant, has joined the MNAA after working several years as an accountant for Emdeon. Morse graduated from Western Kentucky University with a degree in accounting. She is a member of the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She has more than 15 years of accounting experience.

Emily Richard has been promoted from assistant director of Corporate Communications and Government Relations to director of the same department.

Richard joined MNAA in 2007 after serving as marketing and communications director for Cover Tennessee at the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration. Richard earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Western Kentucky University and an MBA from the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University.