Vanderbilt University Law School

Class of 1978

(Notes posted in the order they were received, with the newest posts on top.)

Stephen Mark Miller ’78 died peacefully in his home in Eagleville, Tennessee, on July 27, after a long battle with cancer. Stephen began his career in Nashville, but established his own practice in Eagleville in 2006, centered on Entertainment and Music law as it involved entertainment and intellectual properties. He was an avid Vanderbilt fan, and an excellent tennis and basketball player. Posted 10-17-2009

Daniel W. Small has joined Stites & Harbison's Real Estate & Banking Service Group. Dan has more than 25 years of experience in real estate and banking, lender liability, mergers and acquisitions, commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution. He is a member of the American Bar Association (Corporation, Banking and Business Law sections), the Tennessee Bar Association, the Nashville Bar Association and the Tennessee Bankers Association. Posted 10-17-2008

Robert S. (Bob) Patterson has joined the board of directors of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB). Bob is a member and former managing partner at Boult Cummings Conners & Berry, and has served as the CVB’s general counsel since 2005. Posted 8-19-2008

M. Ann Huckstep, a Birmingham health care attorney who became the first woman to serve as chair of Adams and Reese's Executive Committee, was unanimously re-elected to the position. Huckstep, 54, is leading a 300-attorney law firm with offices in nine cities. She was named chairwoman of the executive committee, a group of key partners who decide the future and strategy of the firm, in November 2006. Huckstep's election as chair in 2007 wasn't the first time the health care attorney made history. In 1992, she was the first female elected to serve on the Executive Committee of Lange Simpson Robinson & Somerville, one of Birmingham's oldest and most prestigious law firms that merged with Adams and Reese in January 2003.

Simon Kimmelman has joined Sills Cummis & Gross in the Princeton, NJ office. Mr. Kimmelman is Co-Managing Partner of the Firm's Princeton office and Princeton Chair of the Creditors’ Rights/Bankruptcy Reorganization Practice Group. Mr. Kimmelman’s practice concentrates on bankruptcy, creditors’ rights, secured transactions and general corporate matters. He represents secured creditors and lessors, trustees, debtors, creditors’ committees and unsecured creditors in a wide variety of bankruptcy and workout matters with particular emphasis on complex Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings.

Hershell Warren was named Chief of Staff of the adminstration of newly-elected Nashville, Tenn. Mayor Karl Dean ('81). Warren had worked at Meharry Medical College since 1982 and is a past president of the Tennessee Association of Community Health Centers.

Randolph C. Coley was elected to the Board of Directors of Deltic Timber Corporation (NYSE:DEL), effective February 15, 2007. Randy is a partner in the Houston office of the Atlanta-based firm, King & Spalding. Coley began his career at K&S in 1978. In 1996, he left K&S to join Morgan Keegan as Executive Managing Director and head of the Investment Banking Division. He returned to K&S in 1999 to help build its Houston office. "Randy Coley's many years in the legal and investment banking fields will be of great benefit to the Board's roles of oversight and establishing strategic direction for the Company's future growth. Randy is widely recognized as an expert in the field of Corporate Governance. He is a frequent lecturer on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its ramifications. We are proud to welcome him to our Board," said Robert C. Nolan, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

E. Allan Tiller, who has built his practice concentrating on international tax planning and consultation, has joined the Houston office of Haynes and Boone as partner.

Mr. Tiller represents U.S. companies and individuals doing business or investing abroad, and foreign companies and individuals doing business or investing in the United States. He also develops structures for those transactions by drafting of agreements, jurisdiction selection, and entity selection and formation.

He has served as chairman of both the Tax Section and International Law Section of the Houston Bar Association, and is currently a member of the board of directors of the International Tax Forum of Houston. He is admitted to practice in both Texas and Florida and his fluent in Spanish.

In professional associations, he is involved with, among others, the Houston International Tax Forum, the International Fiscal Association, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the FIABCI (French acronym for Federation of International Real Estate), the Houston-Shenzhen Sister City Association, the Houston World Trade Division of the Greater Houston Partnership, and the Asian Chamber of Commerce.

George LeCroy Taylor, 55, died in March 2006 at his home. Born September 13, 1950 in El Dorado, Arkansas , he was the son of William Clayton Taylor and Gladys Martha LeCroy Taylor. Past president of South Arkansas Youth Services, he was a member of the Union County Bar Association and Arkansas Bar Association and active in community activities. He was an Eagle Scout, and member and deacon at First Christian Church.

He was preceded in death by his parents; maternal grandparents, Judge George M. and Elizabeth Adair LeCroy; and paternal grandparents, William Washington and Harriet Ellis Taylor.

Mr. Taylor is survived by his wife, Cecile Shackleford Taylor of El Dorado; a son, William Clayton Taylor II of Fayetteville ; a daughter, Claudia Elizabeth Taylor of Little Rock; four sisters, Julia McCleve and her husband Victor of Gilbert, Arizona, Martha McGahey of Columbus, Mississippi, Joyce Robustelli and her husband David of Sheridan, and Ruth Berry and her husband Scott, also of Columbus, Mississippi; 14 nieces and nephews, and numerous other relatives and friends.

Steve Feldman is the author of a two volume treatise, Contract Law and Practice, published by Thomson West as part of the Tennessee Practice Series. Reviewing the book in the Tennessee Bar Journal, Donald F. Paine wrote, “Tennessee lawyer Steve Feldman has single-handedly given us the definitive treatise on contract law in our state.”

Do you have news you would like to share or just want to let everyone know what you are up to these days? Submit your class note online, e-mail Grace Renshaw or call 615-322-2606.

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