Ryan Burgett was not raised by a family of lawyers or eyeing law school as he packed for college. In fact, the legal profession could not have been further from his mind as he settled in at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and began to study finance.
But Burgett did have an open mind – and that was enough to place him on the path to the law.
Burgett, 35, grew up in Nashville, where his father was in sales, his mother was a teacher and he played baseball for more travel teams than he can count. When he arrived at UT, finance seemed like a good choice for a major, he says.
“I’d always been interested in businesses and how they work. I viewed finance as one of the basic building blocks that enables businesses to properly function and fulfill their mission.”
Burgett has the business law class UT required him to take to thank for sparking his interest in the legal profession. As he learned about corporate reorganizations, his intellect connected with the topic the way he used to connect with a fast pitch at the plate.
“I felt like my background in finance and understanding of how businesses operate would help in a corporate reorganization space,” Burgett explains. “And it does. It’s not like it carries the day, but it’s nice to be literate when it comes to talking the language of business in my practice.”
Burgett’s father suggested he work for an attorney before leaping into law school. As luck would have it, Burgett had a brother whose dad was a lawyer.
A fraternity brother, that is. His father was Gordon Ball, a Knoxville attorney who used to practice in Chattanooga. He arranged for Burgett to work at his office.
Burgett learned two key lessons from Ball. One, he liked working at a law firm; and two, in order for him to become a lawyer, he would have to depend on the generosity of the jurists who crossed his orbit. These benefactors would express their benevolence primarily by opening doors for him and sharing their knowledge with him.
“Gordon told me about the law school in Memphis, wrote my recommendation letter and mentored me,” Burgett says. “I’m greatly appreciative to him.”
Burgett earned more than a Juris Doctor at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law; he also met Martha, a Memphis native who was one year behind him in law school, and won her hand in marriage.
Then, as if Bluff City had not already given Burgett enough, the Husch Blackwell office in the city hired him as a 2013 summer associate following an on-campus interview. The firm then welcomed him as a member of its attorney corps in 2014.
Even better, Husch hired Burgett into its insolvency practice.
“I had the good fortune of receiving a job offer not only from a firm I liked but also in a practice area that interested me,” Burgett marvels. “I felt like the stars had aligned for me.”
Burgett was metaphorically spot on. But then cloud cover obscured the night sky and he was forced to find a new North Star.
Chattanooga bound
Memphis had been good to Burgett. So, when he learned in 2017 that Husch would be closing its office in the city and wanted him to relocate, he was crestfallen. However, he was more distressed for his bride, who would be leaving her hometown, family and friends, than he was for himself.
“The firm said, ‘We like you but we don’t believe third-year associates should work remotely.’ I didn’t disagree with them. I was so green at that point that I had to be in a physical office. I needed people there with me to answer my questions; otherwise, I would have been spinning in the wind.”
Fortunately, Husch allowed Burgett to choose his destination.
“They said, ‘Pick a city. Any city.’”
Burgett knew his wife would leave Memphis “kicking and screaming” regardless of their terminus, he says. At the same time, he believes choosing Chattanooga softened the blow.
“Chattanooga made the most sense for us,” Burgett notes. “It’s beautiful, it has the small town feel we love and it’s accessible. That’s important to me because my parents still live in Nashville. We talked about Austin and Kansas City – and we could have chosen Nashville – but I felt a connection here.”
Practice makes perfect
Since moving to Chattanooga, Burgett has extended his practice well beyond the walls of his office in the Dome Building, where Husch is housed.
“I work with attorneys across the firm,” Burgett clarifies. “I have friends and colleagues in Chicago, Austin, Dallas and Kansas City, and am working on cases in Alabama, South Texas and elsewhere. I’m also admitted in Mississippi.”
Burgett continues to practice in the field that first drew his interest to the law, making him the only lawyer in Husch’s Chattanooga office that focuses on insolvency. He spends most of his time on the clock tending to corporate reorganizations.
It’s gratifying work, Burgett says.
“People call us mercenaries – and we are paid for what we do – but my work on certain cases has felt good.”
On one occasion, Burgett helped to represent a receiver in a Ponzi scheme case. Two gentlemen out of Maryland had defrauded investors out of quarter of a billion dollars, and Husch’s job was to collect the assets and distribute them to the victims.
“I felt like I was making a positive difference.”
Burgett also finds satisfaction in guiding business owners through the briar patch that is bankruptcy.
“Most people throw up their hands when they enter into a bankruptcy, but it’s my pleasure to explain the process to them and then walk them through it. I don’t get to scratch that itch every day, but I do enjoy that aspect of my job.”
In addition to taking care of clients, Burgett serves his firm by acting as its hiring chair. This places him in a position to help build the foundation of attorneys on which Husch will someday stand. He says this role is a privilege.
“So many attorneys both in this office and across the firm have invested heavily in me, so it’s an opportunity to pay that forward. I’m not so old that I don’t remember what it feels like to be a part of the summer program – to experience the anxiety and face the big unknown of what lies ahead.”
Partner up
Burgett’s dedication to Husch’s clients and his colleagues at the firm, as well as his steadfast work for the practice since 2014, have brought him to the next milestone in his career: making partner.
This occurred on the heels of the new year. Burgett says it’s an honor.
“I have a lot of respect for the partners in this office and across the firm. It’s a big mantle to take up, but I have great examples in the people I intend to model, not necessarily in their practice but in who they are as people.
“Their reputations precede them and others think well of them. If I can achieve that same status someday, then I’ll have done well.”
Family ties
In the meantime, Burgett and his wife have a daughter to raise. Bennett is not just 3, she’s every bit of 3, he says, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Becoming parents been a big change for Martha and me because we’re used to working late. Before we had Bennett, there were a lot of nights when we sat down for dinner at 8 or 9. So, she’s definitely changed the structure of our day.”
Bennett has also been a blessing for Burgett and his wife, a medical malpractice attorney at Erlanger, he says.
“Outside of work, spending time with our daughter is at top of our to-do list. She’s at the age where it feels like we spend our weekends bouncing between the zoo, the aquarium and the children’s museum.”
Between bounces, Burgett and his wife try to frequent local restaurants. They love good food, he says, and the Scenic City has an abundant selection of options that meet their standards.
Chattanooga has exceeded their hopes in every way, Burgett says, and both he and his wife are pleased to call it home.
“We love Chattanooga. It’s stunning. I feel fortunate that this city has some characteristics that remind me of growing up in Nashville in the nineties, when it felt like a smaller city. This is where we want to be.”