Vanderbilt University Law School

Class of 1984

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

William H. Mathieu has joined Stites & Harbison as a member of the Atlanta office. He will serve clients in the real estate and banking service group. Bill brings more than 22 years experience to the firm. His practice focus includes all aspects of real estate development and ownership, including purchase agreements, joint ventures, equity and debt financing, tax-deferred exchanges, various ownership structures and entities, leasing, rezoning, environmental issues, construction issues, covenants and long range planning. Bill’s clients include developers, property managers, and secured and unsecured lenders. He has closed numerous loan originations, as well as loan workouts and restructurings, and also represents entrepreneurs and business owners. Prior to joining Stites & Harbison, Bill was a partner at Powell Goldstein in Atlanta for over two years. Before that, he was a member at Atlanta’s Fine and Block for nine years. Bill is a member of the International Conference of Shopping Centers as well as the International Association of Attorneys and Executives in Corporate Real Estate. He is admitted to practice in Georgia and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Posted on web 8-19-08

Drew T. Parobek was recognized as one of the leading practitioners in the country by Chambers and Partners in the upcoming 2008 Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business. Parobek works in Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease's Cleveland office.

Paul Ney, who currently serves as deputy general counsel of the U.S. Defense Department, will be returning to Nashville to serve as director of Economic and Community Development for Mayor Karl Dean (JD '81).

Greg Abbott was reelected as the 50th Attorney General of Texas on November 7, 2006. Prior to his election as attorney general, Greg served as a Justice on the Texas Supreme Court and as a State District Judge in Harris County.

Hans von Spakovsky was appointed to the Federal Election Commission by President Bush for a term ending in 2011.

Kathy Bress teaches seventh-grade English at Clarence (New York Middle School), and her husband, Jerry Seidler, '83, is the rabbi of Temple Sinai in Amherst, New York.

Ed Cassady is executive vice president, corporate secretary and general counsel of BE&K, Inc., one of the Southeast's largest employee-owned companies, with operations in pulp and paper construction, power/cogeneration construction, and process industrial and manufacturing construction. Ed joined BE&K in 2000 as vice president and general counsel. Prior to joining BE&K, he was partner at Bradley Arant Rose & White. In the mid-1980s, he worked for U.S. District Court Judge James H. Hancock. He earned his undergraduate degree from Duke, and has also earned the Advanced Management Program degree from Harvard Business School. The author of several legal publications, he has also served as the Alabama chapter president of the American Corporate Counsel Association and as fundraising chair and member of the board of directors of Magic City Art Connection. He is a 2003 alumnus of Leadership Birmingham. He and his wife, Lynn Stein Cassady, have three children.

William Mathieu joined the Atlanta-based firm of Powell Goldstein as a partner in its real estate finance and development practice. Before joining the firm, Mathieu was a member of Fine & Block, an Atlanta-based firm which he joined in 1997. Prior to that, he served as the corporate real estate counsel for AFC Enterprises, based in Atlanta. Bill's practice will focus on commercial real estate and secured lending and leasing, business organizations, land use, complex loan workouts, and real estate-related environmental law. He has handled numerous complex transactional matters and his background includes work for the Resolution Trust Corporation as a member of the Settlement/Workout Asset Team responsible nationwide for complex real-estate asset workouts and complex asset-related litigation settlements. He received his A.B. from Stanford University.

Paul C. Ney Jr., a former partner in the Nashville firm of Trauger, Ney & Tuke, has been appointed Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Department of the Navy by President George W. Bush. Paul joined Trauger, Ney & Tuke in 1985 and became a partner in 1990. His practice focused on civil litigation, administrative law, arbitration and mediation, and intellectual property issues. He was appointed by the Governor of Tennessee to serve as special legal counsel to the Tennessee Judicial Selection Commission and to the Tennessee Regulatory Authority in cases litigated in the federal courts and before the Tennessee Supreme Court. He is a panel member for the American Arbitration Association and the National Arbitration and Mediation Panel.

Before joining Trauger, Ney & Tuke, he served as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Adrian G. Duplantier, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, in New Orleans. Paul serves as general counsel to the Tennessee Republican Party and has served as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt Law School, and has presented numerous seminars on trial practice and ethics. In 1999, he chaired the Merit Selection Panel for the Middle District of Tennessee Bankruptcy Judge.

Daniel B. Reece IV passed away on October 30, 2005. Daniel worked for MeadWestvaco in Charleston, South Carolina.

Maureen Breen Gerhardt died July 16, 2005, at her home, with her family, after an almost two-year struggle with cancer. Maureen was born in New York City, grew up in West Hempstead, Long Island, and graduated with honors from the University of Virginia School of Nursing in 1978. She worked as a coronary care nurse until entering Vanderbilt Law School in 1981. After her graduation in 1984, she served as St. Thomas Hospital's first in-house legal counsel and later as an associate with the Nashville law firm of Howell, Fisher and Branham. She moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1989, and in 1992 became an associate with a predecessor firm to Stern Klepfer & Wright. In addition to her professional activities, Mrs. Gerhardt served her community through volunteer work with a number of organizations and served on the Board of Trustees of the Greensboro Day School. She is survived by her husband of 23 years, Edward B. Gerhardt, and their children, Margaret and John.

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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