Thank you for visiting my website. I am a commercial litigator at a boutique firm in Nashville, Tennessee. I represent individuals and companies in a wide range of sectors in contractual, shareholder, governance, and other types of business-related disputes. Before entering private practice, I began my legal career as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Sheryl H. Lipman in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee at Memphis.
A second-career lawyer, I previously worked as a political- and industry-communications strategist and research analyst in Washington, D.C. While living in the nation’s capital, I worked as a policy analyst for a trade association of more than 1,200 IT companies, a new media strategist for a think tank, and a channel lead for a political- and industry-communications-consulting agency before founding my own practice, serving industry clients in national brand-positioning and issue-advocacy campaigns. I thus come to the practice of law with a deep appreciation for companies’ myriad short, medium, and long-term challenges and opportunities, including navigating and managing the complex and sometimes competing dynamics of internal and external stakeholder goals.
As a litigator, I work vigorously to protect and advance my clients’ business interests and goals. Due to my deep commitment to serving others, I have also been recognized by the Tennessee Access to Justice Commission as an Attorney for Justice in every year that I have been practicing law for my pro bono work on behalf of individuals and organizations in need. In 2022, I was selected for the Nashville Bar Foundation Leadership Forum’s Class of 2023.
In addition to my law practice, I am a pro bono adjunct fellow at the Institute for Free Speech in Washington, D.C., and I teach American government and constitutional law as an adjunct professor at Belmont University in Nashville (my undergraduate alma mater). In my spare time, I serve on the board of directors of Retrieving Independence, Inc., and the Advisory Board of the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences at Belmont University. I also volunteer as the executive director and treasurer of the Tennesseans for Sensible Election Laws political action committee.
I earned my law degree and business law certificate cum laude from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, where I served as the Editor-in-Chief of The University of Memphis Law Review and a Judicial Intern to Senior U.S. District Judge Jon P. McCalla, among other accolades. I also hold a master of public policy from the American University School of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., and a bachelor of arts in political science and philosophy (double-major) from Belmont University.
My wife and I are four-time dog rescuers, international travelers, amateur chefs and gardeners, and Tennessee Performing Arts Center and Nashville Predators season-ticket holders.
Scholarship
1. Purged by Press Release: First Responders, Free Speech, and Public Employment Retaliation in the Digital Age, 97 Or. L. Rev. 477 (2019) (written and placed while a third-year student), https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=3369286.
2. Note, Curtailing the Cudgel of “Coordination” by Curing Confusion: How States Can Fix What the Feds Got Wrong on Campaign Finance, 48 U. Mem. L. Rev. 463 (2018), https://ssrn.com/abstract=3152780.
Select Media
1. Gov. Bill Lee Should Veto Legislature’s Ban on Ranked-Choice Voting, Instant Runoffs, Tennessean (Feb. 22, 2022, 12:59 PM), https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2022/02/22/tennessee-election-laws-bill-lee-veto-ranked-choice-voting-ban/6896058001/ (criticizing Tennessee Republicans’ efforts to tilt the political playing field, leading to less representative outcomes).
2. Impulse to Silence Controversial Views More Dangerous Than Federalist Society, Tennessean (last updated Aug. 6, 2021, 3:16 PM), https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2021/08/04/federalist-society-cancel-culture-john-eastman/5482436001/ (responding to a law student’s oped arguing that his university should kick the Federalist Society off campus because of the behavior of former President Trump’s advisors, who also happened to be a Federalist Society member).
3. Dr. Strange Tastes: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Podcast, Lewis Thomason Blog (Aug. 31, 2020), https://www.lewisthomason.com/dr-strange-tastes-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-podcast/ (discussing transition from talk-radio loather to loyal podcast listener and sharing recommendations).
4. How Shelter-in-Place Orders Can Still Comply with Religious Liberty, Tennessean (Apr. 24, 2020, 10:16 AM), https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2020/04/24/louisville-chattanooga-tested-religious-liberty-shelter-place-orders/3015685001/ (examining whether policies designed to contain the spread of COVID-19 violate certain provisions of the U.S. Constitution and how to ameliorate constitutional concerns).
5. How Civility Could Help Nashville’s Traffic Problem, Tennessean (June 8, 2018, 12:00 PM), https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2018/06/08/how-civility-could-help-nashvilles-traffic-problem/641366002/ (arguing that small changes in personal driving habits could have overwhelmingly positive scaled effects that ameliorate congestion and abate road rage).
6. Don’t Let Politics Doom Instant Runoffs, Comm. Appeal, https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/03/07/opinion-dont-let-politicians-kill-instant-runoffs/395802002/ (last updated Mar. 8, 2018, 6:53 AM) (analyzing the decade-long struggle to implement ranked-choice voting in municipal elections in Memphis, which 71% of voters approved by initiative in 2008, and criticizing the efforts of state officials, Memphis City Council members, and the members’ lobbyists to interfere with implementation thereof).
7. David Waters, Social Media Testing Limits of Free Speech by Public Employees, Comm. Appeal, https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/columnists/david-waters/2017/10/01/social-media-testing-limits-free-speech-public-employees/714620001/ (last updated Oct. 3, 2017, 12:17 PM) (quoted on legal tests in civil suits for speech-based employment retaliations against off-duty first responders).
8. Fake News? Physician, Heal Thyself, Tennessean (last updated Jan. 13, 2017, 12:17 PM), https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2017/01/13/fake-news-physician-heal-thyself/96489786/ (examining media bias and other factors that have led to a decline of trust in legacy media and proliferation of independent–and sometimes unmoored–media).
9. Market Principles Could Benefit Titans, Tennessean, Dec. 27, 2014, at 15A (opining on the negative effects of Ticketmaster-mandated price floors in the seondary market for professional football game tickets), http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/12/24/market-principles-enhance-titans-appeal/20859455/.
10. Antioch Hockey Center Collaboration Between Preds and Metro a Trick for Some, a Treat for Most, On the Forecheck (Oct. 30, 2013, 11:00 AM), https://www.ontheforecheck.com/2013/10/30/5039286/hickory-hollow-ice-rink-antioch-hockey-center-nashville-predators (analyzing and reporting on the Ford Ice Center‘s potential community impact).
Last updated on August 8, 2023.