Moore named Nashville Bar fellow

Friday, April 22, 2016, Vol. 40, No. 17

Margaret Moore, member at Wiseman Ashworth Law Group, has been named a fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation. Fellows are selected by their colleagues in honor of significant contributions to the community.

Moore has more than 20 years of legal experience and has represented hospitals and medical centers throughout Tennessee at the trial court and appellate levels. Her trial experience includes cases involving premises liability and the representation of physicians and hospitals in cases of professional liability. Before beginning private practice, she served as judicial law clerk to Judge Barbara N. Haynes in the Davidson County Third Circuit Court.

Moore earned her J.D. from the University of Tennessee. She also is a graduate of the University of the South.

Intellectual property group grows, is honored

Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP has expanded to 10 its number of registered patent attorneys with associate Robert C. (Charlie) Walker passing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office bar examination.

Waller was recently recognized by Idea Buyer as the “best patent law firm in Tennessee” in 2015. Additionally, patent attorney Jack Waddey has been selected to appear in Managing IP magazine’s 2016 “IP Stars” column, which identifies and analyzes the leading IP firms and attorneys in all 50 U.S. states and Washington D.C.

Baker Donelson attorney moves to Nashville office

Marc J. Adesso has joined Baker Donelson’s Nashville office after moving from the firm’s Memphis office.

Prior to joining Baker Donelson, Adesso was with a boutique Wall Street law firm that specialized in the representation of clients in all matters involving public companies and the securities industry.

He concentrates his practice on securities, corporate finance and business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions. He is a graduate of Marquette University Law School and New York University.

Hollabaugh invited to join ABA fellows

Lela Hollabaugh, Nashville managing partner for Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has been invited to join The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. This distinction recognizes attorneys who have demonstrated outstanding achievements and dedication to the welfare of their communities and the highest principles of the legal profession.

Hollabaugh leads Bradley Arant’s business litigation team and also manages the firm’s Nashville office. She has served as the lead trial attorney in more than a dozen jury trials, as well as more than two dozen bench trials, arbitrations, and administrative hearings. She advises natural gas pipeline companies on issues involving location, land acquisition, construction, and operations, and is currently advising on several large-scale pipeline projects in the southeast.

In 2015, the Tennessee Supreme Court appointed Hollabaugh to the Indigent Representation Task Force. She is also general counsel to the Nashville Bar Association and a trustee of the Nashville Bar Foundation. Hollabaugh is a past-president of the Nashville Bar Association and a past member of the International Association of Defense Counsel’s Board of Directors. As a former chair of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, she also is listed on the American Arbitration Association’s (AAA) Roster of Neutrals for Commercial Litigation.

Wicker appointed to bar real estate executive council

Stites & Harbison, PLLC attorney David Wicker has been appointed to the Tennessee Bar Association’s Real Estate Section Executive Council. That council is tasked with developing the annual Continuing Legal Education (CLE) program for the section, producing section news and reviewing proposed legislation as it relates to the section.

Wicker is a member of the firm in the Real Estate & Banking Service Group. He focuses on corporate and commercial transactions, forming and modifying business entities, commercial real estate development, and working with both borrowers and lenders on loan transactions.

3 local women-owned businesses on top 50 list

Three Nashville-area, women-owned businesses – Aerial Development Group, The Bakery Cos. and Vivere Health, LLC – have been named among the 50 fastest-growing, women-owned/led companies by the Women Presidents’ Organization, a national nonprofit with 127 chapters located internationally, and American Express.

The companies ranked 6th, 43rd and 50th, respectively, on the global list.

Aerial Development Group is a social venture real estate development company dedicated revitalizing urban neighborhoods and tackling social issues through the built environment. Britnie Turner grew her company’s gross revenue 108% in just two years.

The Bakery Companies operates state-of-the-art, high-speed bun and biscuit bakeries, artisan and organic bakeries, frozen dough lines and English muffin griddles. CordiaHarrington’s company has a 66 percent growth rate over two years.

Vivere Health, LLC, is a fertility management and equity partner that establishes joint venture partnerships with fertility professionals. Its goal is to develop new practices or strengthen existing ones by applying business and operations strategies that expand their markets and their market share. Debbie James more than doubled the number of employees at Vivere, increasing headcount from 79 in 2013 to 190 by 2015.

LifePoint Health names Fiser Western Group CFO

LifePoint Health has named Shannon Fiser, CPA, its chief financial officer for the company’s Western Group of facilities, effective May 16. Fiser was most recently senior vice president of finance for Ardent Health in Nashville.

At Ardent, Fiser was responsible for financial oversight of three regional health systems, which included 15 hospitals and physician groups. He also managed the corporate supply chain team, as well as a business intelligence unit and the company’s operations finance group. Prior to Ardent Health, Fiser served in a number of financial leadership roles for healthcare companies including Lattimore Black Morgan and Cain PC, Hospital Corporation of America and Symbion, Inc., all based in Middle Tennessee.

Womack tapped as deputy agriculture commissioner

Tom Womack, the director of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, has been named that department’s deputy commissioner effective May 1.

Womack became assistant commissioner for public affairs in 2015. From 1999 to 2008, he assisted with the administration of the Phase II tobacco grower settlement trust, which provided more than $170 million in compensation to nearly 50,000 Tennessee farm families.

He is a past president of the Communications Officers of State Departments of Agriculture organization, and his communications expertise has been recognized by the National Association of Government Communicators and twice by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. He has also served as liaison to the United States Department of Agriculture for agricultural disasters.

Womack holds a degree in government from Western Kentucky University. He also is a 2003 graduate of the Tennessee Government Executive Institute.

Pendleton Square Trust adds two to board

Joe Steakley and Steve Davis have been elected to the board of Pendleton Square Trust Company.

Steakley is senior vice president of internal audit and enterprise risk services at HCA, the nation’s leading provider of health care services. Prior to joining HCA in 1997, Steakley was a partner at Ernst & Young, where he worked for 22 years. He also is the audit committee chairman of J. Alexander’s.

Davis, chief trust officer of Pendleton Square, has more than 40 years’ experience in trust, legal and financial services, having begun his career in First American National Bank’s legal, commercial real estate and trust departments, rising to executive vice president. He moved to Third National Bank, later SunTrust, as director of trust real estate and senior vice president/team leader of the bank’s personal trust department. In 2005, Davis joined Truxton Trust as senior trust officer and served as independent trustee of Tennessee’s first chartered private family trust company.

Gulley now BMI senior VP, chief information officer

Broadcast Music, Inc. today announced Eddie Gulley has been named senior vice president/chief information officer. In this role, he is responsible for BMI’s strategy and leadership in technology innovation, product and application development, network operations and project management. Gulley reports to President and CEO Mike O’Neill, and is based in BMI’s Nashville office.

Gulley’s career spans 30 years of leadership, beginning in the U.S. Air Force. Prior to joining BMI, he held multiple executive positions in the information technology space. Most recently, he was vice president, information technology, for CIGNA Healthcare in Nashville. Previous positions included CIO of Evolved Digital Systems, COO/CTO of Global Trade Technologies and regional operations manager of GA Sullivan.

Gulley holds a degree in business management from Park College in Parkville, Missouri, and a master’s in computer science from Webster University in St. Louis.

Currie Ingram AD honored by NIAAA

The National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s State Award of Merit has been presented to Kelly Fish of Currey Ingram Academy in Brentwood. Fish is in her fifth year as athletic director for grades 5-12.

Kelly was previously at Belmont University, where she worked for eight years in advancement and athletics. She holds a master of sport administration degree from Belmont and a communications degree from the University of Louisville.

She was named a Nashville Emerging Leader Award finalist in education in 2009 and is a member of the Nashville Sports Council.

Kelly will be serving on the National Host Committee for the upcoming National Athletic Directors Conference at Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in December.