Baker Donelson’s Charles K. Grant, Metro Director of Law Tyler Yarbro, the Hon. Walter C. Kurtz and former Legal Aid Society Executive Director Ashley T. Wiltshire, Jr. have been named members of the inaugural Circle of Justice class by the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands.
The Circle of Justice is the organization’s highest recognition and honors individuals whose leadership and service have helped advance the pursuit of justice throughout Middle Tennessee. Honorees are selected for their lasting contributions to expanding access to legal services and strengthening the justice system for individuals and families who otherwise might not be able to obtain legal representation.
A shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Nashville office, Grant is a trial lawyer whose practice focuses on complex employment litigation, business disputes, whistleblower claims and civil rights matters. He has tried more than 50 jury trials to verdict in federal and state courts and represents clients throughout the country in litigation, mediation and arbitration proceedings.
Grant is a graduate of Washington and Lee University School of Law and has been recognized throughout his career for both professional achievement and public service. He previously served as president of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands (2018-20) following service as first vice president (2016-18). His honors include the Nashville Bar Association’s John C. Tune Public Service Award, the Tennessee Bar Association’s Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Award, Baker Donelson’s Firm-wide Pro Bono Attorney of the Year recognition and numerous other distinctions for community leadership and legal service.
Kurtz has served as legal aid director, elected public defender, trial judge and senior judge of the State of Tennessee. After earning his degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1972, he entered the profession through legal aid. He served as director of Nashville Legal Aid (1973-76).
He was then elected as Nashville’s public defender (1978-82). During those years he argued Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U.S. 545 (1979), before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1982, Kurtz took the bench as judge of the Circuit Court for Davidson County, where he served until 2008. He then served as a full-time senior judge of the State of Tennessee (2008-13).
Yarbro began her career as a Nashville public defender, built a trial and appellate practice and now serves as Nashville’s chief legal officer.
In 2011, she joined Dodson Parker Behm & Capparella, P.C. and rose to managing partner. Her practice spanned litigation, employment, personal injury, probate, business and criminal law, with a substantial appellate practice.
Throughout her years in private practice, she made room for representing nonprofit organizations and for quiet pro bono work on behalf of individuals, helping crime victims, individuals win back their driver’s licenses, assisting with insurance claims and standing beside an elderly fellow parishioner in a credit-card collection matter.
Yarbro earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was named a Dillard Fellow for her legal writing.
Wiltshire gave 37 years to civil legal aid in Middle Tennessee, 31 of them as executive director of the Legal Aid Society.
Wiltshire graduated Washington and Lee University and earned a master of divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York. His path from ministry to law was decided in the field. While working on a civil-rights project in Albany, Georgia, in 1966, he saw that the law students working alongside a local attorney “were a much more immediate and practical help” than the seminarians were.
After two years teaching in Bangkok, Thailand, he enrolled at Vanderbilt University Law School. In April 1970 he joined Nashville Legal Services, working there through his second and third years of law school alongside fellow students David Tarpley and Kurtz.
In 1976, he succeeded Kurtz as executive director, a role he held until his retirement in 2007. Under his leadership, a Nashville-centered legal services office grew into the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, with 89 staff members in eight offices serving 48 counties. The organization’s advocacy dramatically affected family law, consumer and housing law, the administration of Social Security disability benefits in Tennessee and achieved reforms in health law, domestic-violence prevention and prison conditions.
Market Square Architects adds Grisham in Nashville
As Market Square Architects marks its 10th year in business, the firm has added two experienced architects with deep roots in Nashville and Austin to expand its leadership team. David Grisham, RA, has joined MSA as director of client relationships, and longtime Austin architect John Puhr, AIA, has been named director of the Texas region.
Grisham will work closely with Patrick Weber, AIA, LEED AP, associate principal and director of the Midwest region, who leads MSA’s Nashville office. Grisham and Weber were previously business partners at Nashville-based AESH Design and have each spent much of their careers living and working in the city.
Grisham brings nearly two decades of architectural, business and project leadership experience to MSA. A licensed architect, he has worked across multifamily, commercial, hospitality, institutional, restaurant and single-family residential projects and has held roles spanning project leadership, firm ownership, business development and growth strategy.
Founded in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 2016, MSA has grown into a multi-office practice serving clients nationwide.
NCVC hires Mowery as chief sales officer
Cahal Mowery will join the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp as chief sales officer, bringing more than 15 years of convention sales and hotel leadership to Music City.
Mowery joins the NCVC from Choose Chicago, where he served as vice president of sales. In that role, he helped lead the team responsible for securing citywide conventions and meetings for McCormick Place and more than 150 hotel partners. He played a key role in rebuilding and advancing Chicago’s citywide sales strategy, strengthening collaboration among the destination, convention center, hotel community and customers. Those efforts contributed to record-setting performance, including 65 citywide conventions and 2.8 million room nights booked in 2025.
Mowery began his hospitality career with Visit Houston after graduating from the Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston. He then joined the JW Marriott Houston Downtown as director of sales and catering, adding hotel operations and commercial leadership to his destination experience.
He returned to the destination marketing industry as director of convention sales for Visit Denver, where he spent five years.
Mowery holds an MBA from the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. He is a Certified Destination Management Executive, Certified Meeting Professional and MPI Verified Facilitator.
Ex-Dept. of Energy counsel joins The Ingram Group
Bill Cooper has joined the Ingram Group, adding decades of leadership across federal government, Congress, private industry, law, regulatory affairs and strategic communications to the firm’s growing state and federal practice.
Cooper, a Tennessee native and former general counsel of the U.S. Department of Energy, will advise The Ingram Group and its clients on energy, infrastructure, federal policy, regulatory strategy, government affairs and public affairs. He will simultaneously maintain his of counsel role at Torridon Law PLLC and senior adviser at Torridon Group. Torridon Law is a boutique national law firm based in Washington, D.C., founded by William Barr, former U.S. Attorney General, and Pat Cipollone, former White House Counsel, and is affiliated with Torridon Group, a strategic advisory firm composed of senior leaders from government, business and public policy.
Cooper earned a degree in economics from Wabash College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Tennessee College of Law. He is licensed to practice law in Tennessee and the District of Columbia.