Doeg elected vice chair of Launch Tennessee

Friday, May 27, 2016, Vol. 40, No. 22

Bruce Doeg of Baker Donelson has been named vice chairman of Launch Tennessee.

LaunchTN is a public-private partnership focused on supporting the development of high-growth companies in Tennessee. Doeg was recently elected vice chairman by LaunchTN’s board of directors. Randy Boyd, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development, is its chairman.

A shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Nashville office and chair of the firm’s Business Department, Doeg has been actively working with high-growth companies across the state and country since 1995. In the late 1990s, he co-founded and led Baker Donelson’s eBusiness Group, a predecessor to the firm’s Emerging Companies practice, which represents high-growth start-up companies and other emerging businesses in every state in the Southeast and beyond.

Doeg is also a member of the board and serves as co-chair of the Workforce Development Committee of Life Science Tennessee. He led the recent joint study between Baker Donelson and Life Science Tennessee, “State of Life Science Entrepreneurship in Tennessee,” which focused on issues facing emerging companies in life science in Tennessee. He has served on the boards of the Nashville Technology Council and the International Business Council.

Doeg concentrates his practice in the area of business law with an emphasis on technology and life sciences. He serves as outside corporate and board counsel for companies across numerous industries, including technology, life sciences, manufacturing and journalism.

Bradley welcomes two associates to the firm

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has hired Karlene A. Aiken and Kimberly M. Ingram to the firm’s Nashville office as associates. Aiken practices on Bradley’s Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Distressed Investing and Financial Services Litigation and Compliance teams, while Ingram is with Bradley’s Litigation and Appellate teams.

Before joining Bradley, Aiken was an associate in the Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring group at WilmerHale in Boston. She earned her J.D. from Boston College, where she was managing editor of the Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest, and her B.A. in religion from Colgate University.

Ingram was an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in Palo Alto, California. While practicing in California, she handled various pro bono matters, including drafting a habeas corpus petition for the Northern California Innocence Project and advocating for asylum for immigrants from Latin America.

She earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University and her B.A. in communication studies and political science from Clemson University.

Bone McAllester Norton hires litigator Bellamy

Bone McAllester Norton PLLC has hired Raquel L. Bellamy, an experienced litigator with an extensive background in labor and employment law.

Bellamy’s previous practice was dedicated largely to defending and advancing immigrant rights, representing individuals from more than 40 countries. She was selected by the Nashville Bar Foundation to be a member of the 2015/2016 Class of the Leadership Forum, and was designated “Top 40 under 40” with The National Black Lawyers and included as “Top 100” National Trial Lawyers.

Bellamy earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School and degrees in finance and French from Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama.

Nashville School of Law honors 4 at annual dinner

The Nashville School of Law will honor two graduates, Brenda Franks Hale and Douglas S. Hale, one of its professors, Hal Hardin, and a trailblazer in the legal community, Senior Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, at its 23rd annual Recognition Dinner.

The event, the proceeds from which provide scholarships to deserving students attending Nashville School of Law, will take place June 10 at the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville.

Brenda Franks Hale (NSL class of 1977) and Douglas Hale (NSL class of 1978) have been married for 42 years and have practiced real estate law together in their office on the Public Square of downtown Franklin for 38 years. They will receive the Distinguished Graduates Award in recognition of their professional accomplishments, community involvement, and support of the school and its students.

Hardin, a former Davidson County Circuit Court judge and United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, will receive the Distinguished Faculty Award in recognition of the effectiveness of his work in the classroom. He has taught courses in criminal procedure and federal sentencing at NSL for more than a decade.

Hardin, who has earned a position as one of the top attorneys in Tennessee though his decades-long practice in the areas of criminal, civil and corporate litigation, also made an impact on the state outside of the courtroom when his actions set up the ouster of then governor Ray Blanton and the resulting early swearing in of Lamar Alexander.

Judge Daughtrey, the sixth person to receive the group’s Community Service Award, will be recognized for her career and the opportunities she has pioneered in the legal profession for other women. She was the first female assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville, the first female assistant district attorney in Nashville, the first female member of Vanderbilt Law School’s faculty, the first woman to serve on the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, and the first woman to serve on the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Tickets to the event can be obtained by contacting Beth McDonald (780-2241 or [email protected]).

Pretorius will lead VUMC anesthesiology division

Mias Pretorius, MBChB, MSCI, associate professor of anesthesiology and medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been named division chief of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology.

Pretorius had been interim division chief since February, when the previous chief, Andrew Shaw, MBBS, was named to the newly created role of executive vice chair of the Department of Anesthesiology.

Pretorius’ appointment as permanent division chief was preceded by a national leadership search.

Pretorius, who joined the faculty in 2001, earned his medical degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 1993, and in 2000 completed a Vanderbilt residency and fellowship, followed by an MSCI (Master of Science in Clinical Investigation) from Vanderbilt in 2002.

Also at VUMC:

Jesse Ehrenfeld, M.D., MPH, associate professor of Anesthesiology, Biomedical Informatics, Surgery and Health Policy, has been named director of education research for the Office of Health Sciences Education.

Ehrenfeld has worked with nearly 40 faculty members on developing, piloting and implementing various education research projects.

Maureen Gannon, Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine, has been appointed chair of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Scientific Session planning committee.

She will lead a 30-member committee that will plan the association’s next two Scientific Sessions in 2017 and 2018. This year’s session, which begins in New Orleans in June, is expected to attract 18,000 diabetes specialists and researchers from around the world.

Gannon is nationally known for her research on the molecular and cell biology of pancreas development and function. She received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Cornell University, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell and Vanderbilt before joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 2001.

Nancy Evans, chief information officer for the adult clinical enterprise, has been named one of the most powerful women in health care information technology for 2016 by Health Data Management magazine. In all, 75 women were named to this year’s list.

Evans has worked in information technology at Vanderbilt since 1976, and was an early recipient of Vanderbilt’s Five Pillar Leader Award, which was introduced in 2009 to honor staff and faculty who exemplify Medical Center leadership standards.

Crosslin & Assoc. names head of tax department

Kevin Hickman, CPA, CGMA, has been named principal-in-charge of the tax department at Crosslin & Associates. Hickman merged his local tax practice with Crosslin last year.

With more than 35 years of experience, he has helped the tax department grow in both revenue and team members.

Before joining Crosslin, Hickman served as founding officer of Hickman & Associates and, before founding his own firm, worked as tax manager for a local accounting firm and assistant controller/tax manager for Tom James Company.

In addition to his work in the tax arena, Hickman works with several high net-worth clients leading their family offices and has extensive experience with art galleries and private collectors.

He is a past national council member for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and is past chair of the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA), and has held several leadership roles within the TSCPA, including treasurer, professional education chair, public relations committee chair and president of the Nashville Chapter Board.

Also, Bridget Reynolds has been named the firm’s marketing coordinator. She brings 10 years of experience to the marketing team and will be involved in the branding, business development, social media, and internal and external communication aspects of the firm.

Reynolds most recently served on the marketing team for another regional accounting and consulting firm. She also worked as an administrator for Belmont University.

She is a graduate of Belmont University.