Being a Fellow of the Chattanooga Bar Foundation (CBF) is an honor. To be invited by one’s peers to become a Fellow, an attorney must have an outstanding record of service to both the Chattanooga Bar Association (CBA) and the broader community. Therefore, it is recognition of one’s commitment to both.
Being a Fellow of the CFB is also more than an honor; it is a responsibility. As a group, the Fellows work to improve the study of law, improve the administration of justice, elevate the ethical standards of the bench and bar, improve relations between the members of the legal profession and the public, help lawyers who are ill, award scholarships, and provide funds for charitable causes.
Therefore, it is no small honor or responsibility to be a Fellow.
Yet each year, when the CBF invites a select few Chattanooga-area attorneys to join the ranks of the local Fellows, they answer the call. Joining means making a financial donation to the organization as well as taking it upon one’s self to attend to the matters with which the Fellows concern themselves, as detailed above.
This year’s selectees were: Sheri A. Fox of Legal Aid of East Tennessee; Steven M. Jacoway of Patrick, Beard, Schulman & Jacoway; Ward W. Nelson of Miller & Martin; K. Stephen Powers of Baker Donelson; and the Hon. Tom Greenholtz, Hamilton County Criminal Court judge. These Fellows were inducted on Wednesday, June 8 during the annual Fellows luncheon, held at the Mountain City Club. Here is a brief biography of each one:
Sheri A. Fox
Fox is the executive director of Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET). LAET is a non-profit law firm that provides non-criminal legal assistance at no cost to low-income, elderly, abused, and otherwise vulnerable East Tennessee residents who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
Prior to joining LAET in January of this year, Fox was a shareholder in the Chattanooga office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. During her 14 years at Baker Donelson, she practiced in state and federal courts, focusing her practice primarily on health care, long-term care, products liability, complex commercial litigation, construction litigation, and probate litigation.
Fox earned a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia in 1983. She next earned an M.S. in Mental Health Counseling from Nova University in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., in 1995. Fox received her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2001.
Fox is a 2008 graduate of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law class. She also is a past president of the Southeast Tennessee Association of Women Lawyers and a monitor for the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program.
In 2016, Fox was listed in Best Lawyers in America in Product Liability Litigation – Defendants. She was also was listed in Mid-South Super Lawyers in Civil Litigation Defense in 2012, 2014, and 2015. Fox is AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell.
The Hon. Tom Greenholtz
Judge Greenholtz was born in Albany, Ga., in 1973, but he has lived and worked mostly in Chattanooga since the mid-1980s. He attended high school at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Ga., and later graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). While at UTC, he received a bachelor’s degree in public administration.
Judge Greenholtz graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1999. After passing the bar, he worked as a law clerk to Justice William M. Barker on the Tennessee Supreme Court. He has worked with the Chattanooga firms of Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel; Shumaker, Witt, Gaither & Whitaker; and Summers & Wyatt. He is currently serving as the judge of the Second Division of the Hamilton County Criminal Court, having been appointed to the position by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam in September 2015.
Judge Greenholtz has also served as an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he has taught classes in advanced constitutional law. Among the topics he has taught are Presidential War and National Security Powers, Presidential Domestic Policy Powers, The Establishment Clause, The Tenth Amendment & Federalism, Civil Liberties, and Introduction to Judicial Process.
Judge Greenholtz and his wife, Kathryn, were married in 1999 and have two children. His hobbies include collecting presidential political memorabilia, traveling with his family, taking weekend hiking trips, and learning about American history. He has particular interests in the Revolutionary War and colonial history, and he is a student of the Civil War battles for Chattanooga.
Judge Greenholtz presently serves as president of the Orange Grove Center, and formerly chaired the Board of Chambliss Center for Children. He has also served on the boards of St. Peter’s Episcopal School and the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga. He has worked for several years as a volunteer for the United Way of Greater Chattanooga, and is a member of the Rotary Club of Chattanooga.
K. Stephen Powers
Powers is a litigation shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Chattanooga office. His practice includes the defense of motor carriers in trucking accident cases, manufacturers of medical devices and construction equipment in product liability cases, and a variety of employment and commercial law matters.
In addition to litigation, Powers’ transportation practice includes drafting all types of contracts for motor carriers, shippers, brokers, logistics providers, and warehousemen, and counseling on insurance coverage issues. He is a popular speaker at transportation industry meetings, and is a founding member and former chair of the American College of Transportation Attorneys. He has contributed to a number of white papers published by the American College, and authored the chapter “Evidence Collection and Electronic Recording Technology in Motor Carrier Accident Investigations” published in Inside the Minds: The Role of Technology and Evidence Collection (Aspatore Books).
Powers has practiced in Chattanooga for 36 years, and since 2008 has been listed in Best Lawyers in Bet-the-Company Litigation, Transportation Law, Commercial Litigation, Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants, and Product Liability Litigation. Steve was named Best Lawyer’s Product Liability Litigation – Defendants “Lawyer of the Year” in Chattanooga in 2013.
In addition to his memberships in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Federal, and American Bar Associations, Powers is a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel, the Tennessee Defense Lawyers Association, and the local Brock-Cooper Chapter of the American Inns of Court, among other professional memberships. He has served on the board of the CBA and as a board member and legal counsel to the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti.
Steven Jacoway
Jacoway is a partner in the law firm of Patrick, Beard, Schulman & Jacoway. He practices primarily in the fields of commercial and construction litigation, family law, and criminal defense.
Jacoway received a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Memphis College of Law in 1986. He has been active as a UT alumni, and has served as past president of the Hamilton County chapter of the UT Alumni Association and national vice president of the University of Tennessee National Alumni Association. He is currently on the Chancellor’s Roundtable for UTC.
Jacoway is a graduate of Leadership Chattanooga, and has served as president of the Brainerd Kiwanis Club and legal counsel of the Chattanooga Jaycees and the Children’s Advocacy Center. He has also served on the board of directors of the CBA and the Chattanooga Young Lawyers Association, and as a hearing panel member for the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility.
Jacoway is a member of the Chattanooga and Tennessee Bar Associations, the State Bar of Georgia, and the Chattanooga Trial Lawyers Association. He previously served as the chairman of the CBA’s Lawyer Referral Association from 2000 to 2010, and is the past recipient of the CBA’s President’s Award and the Albert L. Hodge Volunteer Award.
Jacoway has received an AV Preeminent peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
Ward W. Nelson
Nelson grew up in Chattanooga. He attended The McCallie School and received a Morehead Scholarship to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting in 1980. He then worked with Ernst & Whinney (now Ernst & Young) and obtained his license as a certified public accountant. He graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law with honors in 1985.
Nelson began his legal career at a large Charlotte law firm, and then returned to Chattanooga to join Miller & Martin in 1987. He served for many years as the chair or co-chair of the firm’s corporate department. He also served four years as a member of the firm’s policy committee. He is a member of the firm’s practice groups for mergers and acquisitions, health care, and transportation law.
For over 20 years, Nelson represented the world’s largest soft drink bottling company in connection with numerous corporate transactions and long-term contracts. He has also represented several transportation companies in connection with shareholder redemptions and corporate acquisitions. He recently was lead counsel for the sale of two of the nation’s largest carpet manufacturers.
Nelson has extensive experience with large health care corporate transactions. He has served as outside corporate counsel for a regional, nonprofit hospital, and continues to represent physician groups and other health care entities with respect to ongoing operations, contracts, and corporate transactions. He recently represented a county hospital in connection with a long-term management contract, a nonprofit hospital in its sale to a nonprofit hospital system, and a rehabilitation hospital in connection with the acquisition of a nursing home.
Nelson is a member of First-Centenary United Methodist Church, where he has served as the chair of its governing body and its stewardship campaign, and as a high school Sunday School teacher. He currently serves as a director of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga and is a member of the Rotary Club of Chattanooga. He and his wife, Margaret, reside in Lookout Mountain, Ga., and have three sons.
The CBF was incorporated in 1989 and is a qualified charitable organization under the Internal Revenue Service. The funding of the Foundation comes from the Fellows. To be honored as a Fellow, a lawyer must be a member of the Chattanooga Bar Foundation, must be at least 35 years of age, and must be licensed and practicing law for 10 or more years.
Source: Some information from the CBA