Frost Brown Todd elects Sartin chairman

Friday, December 29, 2017, Vol. 41, No. 52

Sartin

The members of Frost Brown Todd LLC have elected Nashville member Robert V. Sartin to serve as chairman of the firm. Sartin’s initial three-year term begins January 1.

Sartin has served on FBT’s nine-person executive committee since 2012. He joined the firm in 2006 and was member-in-charge of the Lexington, Kentucky, office from 2008 to 2011. He moved to the firm’s Nashville office in late 2011 to help lead the firm’s efforts in that market.

He has previously served on the firm’s Strategic Planning, Finance, and Advancement Committees. Sartin also co-chairs the firm’s Automotive Industry team.

Sartin has nearly two decades of experience representing companies and Chapter 11 debtors in a wide variety of business matters, including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital investments, strategic alliances, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, debt transactions, bankruptcy and tax issues.

Sartin has, for several years, led FBT’s Auto Industry team. From representing original equipment manufacturers such as Toyota, to a wide variety of companies within the automotive supply chain, Sartin and the FBT team have been recognized as “go-to” lawyers for the industry.

As chairman, Sartin will focus on driving the firm’s growth and strategic planning, ancillary business ventures, and new business opportunities. He will also serve on the firm’s Executive and Compensation committees.

Frost Brown Todd was formed in 2000 with the merger of Louisville’s Brown, Todd & Heyburn and Cincinnati’s Frost & Jacobs. The firm has since expanded to Nashville, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Dallas and Charleston, West Virginia, in addition to continuing to grow in its pre-merger markets.

Waller hires 11 for Nashville office

Sartin

Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP has added 10 attorneys and a patent agent to the law firm’s Nashville office. The additions span a wide range of practice areas including, real estate, finance & restructuring, corporate, tax, labor & employment and intellectual property. They include:

Sarah Bothma, a member of Waller’s Tax practice, assists health care companies and investors with complex tax and business issues associated with transactional matters ranging from mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures to dispositions, liquidations and tax-free reorganizations. Bothma earned her LL.M. in taxation in 2017 from New York University after earning her J.D. in 2016 from Samford University, Cumberland School of Law. She is a 2013 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Asheville.

Seth Cohen is a real estate attorney assisting hospitals, health systems and health care investors with all aspects of commercial real estate and leasing transactions related to medical office buildings, ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices and other health care facilities. Cohen earned his J.D. in 2014 from the University of Alabama School of Law. He earned his B.A. in 2011 from Vanderbilt University.

Emily Salomon Duncan is an associate in Waller’s corporate practice focusing on mergers and acquisitions, securities and general corporate law. Duncan earned her J.D. in 2017 from Georgetown University Law Center. She earned her B.A. in 2011 from Rice University.

Kyle B. Fuller, a member of Waller’s real estate practice, assists hospitals, health systems and health care investors in commercial real estate and leasing transactions involving medical office buildings and health care facilities. Prior to joining Waller, Fuller gained real estate law experience as an associate with a Chattanooga law firm. Fuller earned his J.D. in 2010 from Regent University Law School and earned his B.S. in 2007 from Tennessee Technological University.

Elizabeth Hernandez has more than a decade of immigration experience gained as a paralegal at a full-service law firm and an immigration boutique. Hernandez earned her J.D. in 2017 from the Nashville School of Law. She holds an M.A. from Belmont University and earned her B.A. in 1999 from Scripps College.

Justin R. Hickerson is an associate in Waller’s health care compliance & operations practice. He provides counsel on regulatory compliance and operational issues to health care providers ranging from hospitals and health systems to ambulatory surgery centers, dental support organizations and vision care providers. Hickerson graduated from Belmont University College of Law. He earned his B.A., summa cum laude, in 2014 from the University of Tennessee.

Kimbra N. Ratliff assists investor-owned and tax-exempt providers, private equity firms and other health care investors in the purchase and sale of health care facilities and assets. Prior to joining Waller, she gained experience with a Memphis law firm in the areas of corporate law, commercial real estate transactions, and commercial finance transactions. Ratliff earned her J.D. in 2015 from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law where she graduated as class valedictorian. She earned B.A. and B.S. degrees in 2012 from the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Matthew Reddish assists clients in commercial leasing transactions involving health care facilities and medical office buildings located throughout the United States. Prior to joining Waller’s health care real estate team, Reddish gained extensive real estate law and regulatory law experience while working at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, at a wireless telecommunications consultancy and at a boutique health care law firm. He earned his J.D. in 2014 from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law and earned a B.B.A. in 2008 from the University of Tennessee.

Courtney K. Stone is an associate in Waller’s finance and restructuring practice and assists banks, financial institutions and specialty lenders in structuring commercial finance transactions within the health care industry. She also has extensive experience in bankruptcy and restructuring matters; she has represented both lenders and debtors in out-of-court restructurings, debt settlements and credit facility compliance matters. Prior to joining Waller, Stone was an associate in the Houston office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP from 2014 to 2017. She earned her J.D. in 2014 from Harvard Law School and earned a B.A. in 2009 from the University of Chicago.

Chad Talbot, an associate in Waller’s finance and restructuring practice assists both lenders and borrowers in complex corporate finance transactions. His transactional experience spans the health care industry, including hospitals and health systems, behavioral health services, ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices. Talbot earned his J.D. and M.B.A. in 2017 from the University of Tennessee College of Law and the University of Tennessee, respectively. He earned a B.S. in finance in 2012 from the University of Utah.

Johnathon Webb is a patent agent in Waller’s intellectual property practice where he focuses on all aspects of patent applications and collaborates on patent strategy development and analysis for clients across a wide range of industries. Webb also assist clients with claim strategies, patent portfolio management, and IP development and monetization strategies. He earned his J.D. in 2017 from the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Webb earned a B.S. in biophysics and a B.A. in Russian language and literature from Brigham Young University in 2014.

Hickman to chair Legal Aid campaign

Hickman

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, Tennessee’s largest nonprofit law firm, announced today that Scott Hickman will serve as the 2018 chair of the Campaign for Equal Justice, an annual initiative that raises funds for Legal Aid Society.

Hickman, an attorney at Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison practicing in the areas of employment law and business dispute resolution, has been an active participant in Legal Aid’s free legal help clinics since 2000.

The Campaign for Equal Justice, set to launch in March, has been held annually since 1987. This year’s goal has yet to be set, but in 2017, the campaign received $814,240 of a $826,000 goal.

Hickman is a graduate of the Vanderbilt University Law School, and as a student was the senior managing editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. His writing has been cited multiple times by the Tennessee Supreme Court, as well as other law reviews. Before law school, Hickman attended Tennessee Technological University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in history.

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands advocates for fairness and justice under the law. The nonprofit law firm offers free civil legal representation and educational programs to help people in its region receive justice, protect their well-being and support opportunities to overcome poverty. It serves 48 counties from offices in Clarksville, Columbia, Cookeville, Gallatin, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Oak Ridge and Tullahoma. Legal Aid Society is funded in part by United Way. Learn more at www.las.org, or by following the firm on Facebook.

Mayor picks Sturtevant for Public Works director

Sturtevant

Mayor Megan Barry announced recently that Mark Sturtevant has been named director for the Metro Public Works Department.

Sturtevant has been interim director since August 2016. His appointment follows a human resources-led national search process which saw multiple qualified candidates interviewed for the position.

Sturtevant has been involved in Metro government for more than 20 years. In 2015, after Mayor Barry took office, she appointed him to director of infrastructure in her office. In the summer of 2016, he became interim director at Metro Public Works and began overseeing day-to-day operations.

Since joining Public Works, Sturtevant has focused on communicating more frequently with council members and the public, improving organizational effectiveness, forming a new Metro Division of Transportation in partnership with MTA and Planning, playing a key role in the development of the Let’s Move Nashville Transit Improvement Plan and other solid waste and recycling initiatives.

Prior to that, he served as chief development officer for the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority, where he developed and planned for new transit projects, and helped launch a major update to MTA/RTA’s Strategic Master Plan (nMotion).

He held lead project management roles for the construction of major municipal landmarks such as the Music City Center, Bridgestone Arena and Nissan Stadium. He has over three decades of experience in both public and commercial development, and has also held prior roles with the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency and the Metropolitan Historical Commission.