There was a time when the world around Lane Avery consisted of his neighborhood, his friends and his bicycle. He was born in Columbus, Ga., and grew up during the Sixties and Seventies, a time of great social upheaval in the South, but like most kids, he was preoccupied with being young. As the U.S. went through incredible birthing pains, his most vivid memories are of the endless hours he spent outside with his friends, of the famous actors he met as a result of his mother hosting a local television show, and of his five younger siblings making him yearn for elbow room.
Avery’s world expanded slightly during his senior year as he thought about college. He applied to two schools, including Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, but went with the latter, “much to the chagrin” of his parents. At the time, he didn’t intend to become a lawyer, so he double majored in business and economics. Eventually, he came to another senior year, and another crossroads. “While I had not always aspired to be a lawyer, I had a lot of friends whose parents were attorneys, and it appeared to be an honorable profession, so since I hadn’t taken chemistry, I applied to law school,” he says.
Avery earned his law degree at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. As someone who prefers to work behind the scenes, he took courses centered on transactional work, as he didn’t want to become a trial lawyer. Following law school, he spent a year at the University of Florida earning a masters in federal taxation. As Avery approached the end of his time in the Sun-shine State, his impending degree attracted the attention of firms from Miami, Dallas, Palm Beach, Atlanta, and elsewhere. But he was drawn to a nondescript city near the border of Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia. “Gearhiser, Peters & Horton sent Roy Maddux Jr., to Gainesville to interview tax candidates, and he and I hit it off, so I came up to Chattanooga and interviewed with the firm. They were a great group, and they didn’t give me the same vibe the larger firms had, so I spent the next 20 years working with them,” Avery says.
In 2003, professional needs related to the direction of his work took Avery to Spears, Moore, Rebman & Williams, where he currently practices. But he continues to have warm feelings for his colleagues at his previous firm. “The lawyers at Gearhiser continue to be good friends of mine. Many of them were inspiring to me, and I learned a lot from them. I hope I’ll have a comparable effect on the young lawyers coming up in this firm,” he says.
Avery’s practice revolves around business and corporate law, health care, and estate planning. The majority of his work involves general representation of health care providers and closely held businesses, sales and acquisitions of businesses, the formation of business entities, the sale and disposition of real estate, and employment law.
It’s not what he set out to do, but it’s a living.
“The Chattanooga client environment doesn’t allow for niche practices, so I provide a swath of services loosely defined as transactional work,” he says.
While few attorneys would define the work Avery does as pleasurable, he says he appreciates the friendships his practice has allowed him to develop over the years.
“I’ve developed a lot of strong and permanent relationships through my work. That’s the best part of what I do.” While Avery says he’s indebted to his profession, he’s passionate about his work in the community. He’s especially grateful for the opportunity to serve on the board of Hospice of Chattanooga. “They have a mission in which I strongly believe. I’ve seen them work with patients and families who are wrestling with end of life issues, and what they do is inspiring,” Avery says.
Avery has been a member of the Hospice of Chattanooga board since 2005, and currently serving as its chairman. In addition, Avery and his wife, Baret, whom he married in 1993, are hosting a 21-year-old scholarship athlete from Kenya, Africa who’s attending Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, Tenn. The young woman, Christine Lumbasio, grew up in a small village surrounded by lions, speaks seven languages, and is in the U.S. as a result of mission work.
She spends her holidays and summers with the Averys, whom she’s greatly impressed.
“She maintains a 3.8 GPA, all while playing sports and working in the school’s cafeteria. Her ambition is to attend medical school,” Avery says. While Avery will downplay his contributions to his profession and community, others think highly of what he’s accomplished, and in 2011, invited him to become a Fellow of the Chattanooga Bar Foundation. Avery skirts the issue, though, not out of lack of appreciation to the Foundation, but because he prefers to draw as little attention as possible to himself. Instead, he talks about his daughter, Mattie, who’s seven, his wife, who works at Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation, and the home they share on Signal Mountain.
“We were living in a subdivision in Hixson, and I’d always done my share of living in close proximity to other people, so I told my wife I needed more space. She found a place on Signal that’s on about nine acres, and is located on a tract of land next to a guy who owns 50 acres on one side of us and 25 on the other,” Avery says. The dwelling in which the Averys live is a rustic log home made out of a 100-year-old tobacco barn someone disassembled in Virginia and reconstructed in Tennessee. It came complete with a tin roof.
“I was shocked my wife bought into it because I thought her tastes were more modern. But it’s really cool. I’ve told my wife and daughter that’s where I’ll likely be interred,” he says. Avery is also an avid bicyclist. Although he’s temporarily sidelined due to rotator cuff surgery, he rides regularly with “a great group” of likeminded guys, and in 2010, tallied over 6,000 miles. “I’ve spent the largest part of my recovery watching my friends ride off without me. I’m reduced to a stationary trainer in front of a television, which doesn’t provide the same satisfaction. Nothing is going past me,” Avery says. Now, as when he was young, Avery’s world consists of his neighborhood, his friends, and his bicycle. He neighborhood is larger, he has more friends, and his bicycle is more expensive, but he’s found his place, and he’s content to be there.