Sidebar Tennessee Bar Association

In 2017 when Nashville attorney Joycelyn Stevenson saw a posting for executive director of the Tennessee Bar Association, she decided not to apply for the job. Five years later, Joycelyn has successfully headed up the TBA and is now returning to private practice as Managing Shareholder of Littler’s Nashville office. We sat down to talk with Joycelyn during her last week as executive director to learn more about the lessons she’s learned in this role, her leadership style, overcoming self-doubt, her advice to fellow leaders and lots more.

In the middle of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Nashville attorney David Anthony left Bone McAllester Norton, his law firm of 13 years, and hung his own shingle. He joins the TBA's Sidebar podcast to discuss that transition, what he likes most about his solo practice, his biggest challenges and his advice for attorneys of any age or practice experience who are looking to make the same change. Additionally, David discusses resources offered by the TBA to help solo and small firm practitioners, including the Practice Management Center and the upcoming business education training program, Scaling Small Law.

Award winning journalist and author Elaine Weiss joins Sidebar to talk about her book "The Woman's Hour" and explain the crucial role that Tennessee, and Tennessee lawyers, played in the ratification of the 19th Amendment , guaranteeing American women the right to vote. 

Otha Turner was a music legend from Mississippi Hill Country and one of the last remaining fife players in the fife and drum blues music tradition. When he passed in 2003 at the age of 94, that tradition and his legacy were left in the hands of his 12-year-old granddaughter Shardé Thomas and someone more unlikely—Nashville attorney Bill Ramsey. Their bond led to the preservation of an all-but-forgotten African American music tradition and to one of Nashville’s most unique and meaningful parties-- Ode to Otha. 

Employment law attorney JK Simms with Thompson Burton in Franklin sits down with Sidebar to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, how it's impacting his practice and the legal issues his clients might have further down the road. 

Sidebar sits in on an "Improv for Communication" CLE and attorney Kirsten Jacobson talks to us about the benefits of improv for attorneys.