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Paul Ney, a longtime Nashville attorney and government official, has joined Momentus Inc. as chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Posted 10.19.21
Melissa Friedman was appointed to serve as Roanoke juvenile court judge and is scheduled to take her oath Nov. 30 and begin hearing cases Dec. The General Assembly is expected to elect her to a full term in the Regular Session in January 2021. Posted 2.12.21
Chris Giancarlo announced the launch of the "Digital Dollar Project" at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. The Project is a think tank devoted to the public discussion of the merits of a US Dollar central bank digital currency. Read more here. Posted 12.3.20
Michael A. Sullivan is serving as the General Counsel to the Volkswagen AG Monitorship, which is led by former Deputy Attorney General and PepsiCo General Counsel Larry D. Thompson. His responsibilities include working with counsel across the globe to advise on legal requirement of countries in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. Posted 9.23.20
The Honorable J. Christopher Giancarlo will serve as an independent director on the American Financial Exchange (AFX) Board of Directors. Read more here. Posted 1.7.20
Robert Keezel died December 10. He was 60. Bob earned his undergraduate degree at Rice University in Houston, TX before earning his law degree at Vanderbilt. Surviving him are his wife, Michelle and daughter, Mary. Read more: https://www.gendronfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Robert-Keezel/#!/Obituary Posted 5.20.19
Drew Parobek has been elected partner in the Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease Cleveland office and has been included on the 2019 Ohio Super Lawyers List. Drew focuses his practice in the areas of bankruptcy, restructuring and workouts, commercial finance, commercial transactions and business law, with a strong emphasis on the representation of banks and other financial institutions. Posted 12.19.18
Paul Ney (MBA '84) has been nominated to serve as general counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense. Paul has served as chief deputy attorney general in the Tennessee Attorney General's Office since September 2016. Posted 1.15.18
William H. Mathieu, Bill, joined Jernigan Capital, as senior vice president and general counsel in September of 2015. Jernigan Capital is headquartered in Memphis. Posted 10.18.17
L. Vincent Williams has been elected Chair of the West Virginia State University Board of Governors for the 2018 fiscal year that began July 1, 2017. Posted 8.1.17
William Francis Hagerty IV (BA’81)has been appointed as U.S. ambassador to Japan by President Trump. William is the co-founder of a private equity firm based in suburban Chicago, Hagerty Peterson and Co. Posted 4.19.17
James Christopher Giancarlo has been appointed by President Trump to be the next Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Posted 3.22.17
Bill Andersen died on October 29. He was 62. As a young man, Bill was an Eagle Scout. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point where he was the head of the honor committee during the 1976 West Point cheating scandal and received the Cleland Leadership Award. After graduation, Bill went on to serve in the United States Army commanding infantry units in the 101st Airborne Division and Second U.S. Infantry Division in Korea. After his military service, he earned his law degree from Vanderbilt where he was senior managing editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He later received his LL.M. in estate planning at the University of Miami School of Law. Early in his career, he began his political career in Washington D.C., serving under Secretary of Labor, Elizabeth Dole. Afterwards he returned to Tennessee where he ran for US Senate. After his political career, he and his wife, Jane, opened The Andersen Firm, and grew the firm together into a multi-state firm with operations spanning from Florida to New York. Bill practiced law for 34 years. In addition, Bill was the lead author of The Pocket Guide to Trusts & Estates: Understanding Estate Planning, Estate Settlement, Estate Litigation, Asset Protection, and Elder Law. He is survived by his wife, Jane and his son, Will. Posted 11.28.16
Katie Kennedy has been appointed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to a three-year term on the Texas Ethics Commission. Katie is a former state district judge in Harris County who now has a private mediation and arbitration practice. Posted 10.17.16
James Christopher Giancarlo gave the keynote address before the Markit Group 2016 annual customer conference and the American Cotton Shippers Association annual conference in New York and Dallas, respectively. In addition, he gave the opening statement before the CFTC Staff Roundtable on Regulation Automated Trading. His visit to Dickinson, North Dakota for a conversation about North Dakota’s oil and energy industry was mentioned in The Bismarck Tribune, and The Dickinson Press. His article “Op Ed: Unneeded Mandate Would Hurt N. J. Consumers” was published on NorthJersey.com, and his statement regarding the implementation date for margin for uncleared swaps was published on the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission website. Finally, he gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute during a conference entitle “21st Century Markets Need 21st Century Regulation”. Posted 9.15.16
Paul C. Ney Jr. (MBA ’84) has joined Tennessee Attorney General Herb Slatery’s office as chief deputy attorney general. Paul was previously a partner with Patterson Intellectual Property in Nashville. Posted 9.15.16
William Francis Hagerty (BA ’81) has been appointed to the advisory boards overseeing Hall Capital, a private equity affiliate of Nashville-based Hall Capital Partners, and its automotive affiliate, The Fred Jones Companies. Bill was the former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. Posted 8.23.16
James Christopher Giancarlo gave two lectures-one on international finance at Harvard Law School, and another on the six major threats to global markets at Thomas R. Kline Law School. In addition he delivered the keynote address at The Cato Institute, “Cryptocurrency: The Policy Challenges of a Decentralized Revolution”. Finally, his articles “Op-Ed: Vibrant, Highly Liquid Markets Are the Path to Prosperity” and “Op-Ed: With Blockchain, Regulators Should First Do No Harm,” were published on the site Real Clear Markets and in The Wall Street Journal, respectively. Posted 5.23.16
William F. Hagerty (BA’81) has been elected to the board of directors of Ryman Hospitality Properties, which owns the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. He is on the advisory board of Avondale Partners, a Nashville-based employee-owned investment banking and asset management firm. Bill previously served under Gov. Bill Haslam as Tennessee’s commissioner for economic development. He is managing director of Hagerty Peterson & Co., a merchant bank and private equity firm he co-founded. He currently serves on the board and chairs the governance committee of R.J. O’Brien, an independent futures and commodities merchant. Posted 4.5.16
Governor Gregory W. Abbott has written his first book, Broken But Unbowed: The Fight to Fix a Broken America. This book links his perseverance after the accident that put him in a wheelchair to public-policy battles including his push to amend the U.S. Constitution. Posted 4.5.16
James Christopher Giancarlo’s article “American Prosperity Requires Capital Freedom” was published in the CATO Institute Journal. He also interviewed with Fox Business about market volatility and CNBC Asia about foreign exchange markets and swaps trading rules. Finally, he delivered two speeches—one in Chicago also on foreign exchange markets and swaps trading rules and another in Hong Kong about how new banking regulations are harming market liquidity, algorithmic trading and cyber security. Posted 12.4.15
F. John Stark III is CFO for Telkonet Inc. John has practiced law at Briggs and Morgan in Minneapolis, served as CEO and general counsel of a company through an initial public offering, led investment groups both in selling and purchasing businesses and served as a director for several companies. Most recently, John was managing principal at Water Tower Capital. Posted 12.3.15
Stephanie Ethel Parker is a Law 360 MVP—she has won in her category, product liability, for four straight years. Stephanie is a trial attorney who has extensive experience in the defense of product liability and mass tort cases. Posted 12.3.15
John Francis Robertson stepped down as chairperson of the department of accounting and the department of computer and information technology this past summer at Arkansas State University. John served for six years and will be returning to teaching full time. Posted 12.3.15
James Christopher Giancarlo, commissioner for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, released a six-month report detailing the lack of progress to fix key issues he raised in his January 2015 whitepaper about the CFTC’s flawed swaps trading rules. This came after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (EEMAC) met for the second time in 2015 under the Commissioner’s sponsorship. The EEMAC is tasked with discussing issues and making recommendations to the Agency about policy related to the U.S. oil, natural gas, electricity, and environmental markets. His statement from this meeting focused on energy and agricultural producers managing risk during a time of declining commodity prices. Posted 9.17.15
Paul C. Ney Jr. (MBA’84) was appointed to the LaunchTN Board of Directors by Speaker Beth Harwell. LaunchTN is a public-private partnership focused on supporting the development of high-growth companies in the state of Tennessee with the ultimate goal of fostering job creation and economic growth. Paul is a shareholder in Patterson Intellectual Property Law, which is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Posted 8.28.15
William Francis Hagerty IV (BA'81), the former Tennessee economic and community development commissioner has been named to the board of RenaissanceRe Holdings, a 20-year-old company based in Bermuda. An article highlighting the news can be found here. Posted 3.24.15
James Christopher Giancarlo delivered the keynote address at The Global Forum for Derivatives Markets at the 35th Annual Burgenstock Conference in Geneva Switzerland on September 24, 2014. Posted 10.17.14
Paul C. Ney Jr. (MBA '84) is one of three recent inductees to the Tennessee Bar Foundation's Board of Trustees. Paul, shareholder at Waddey Patterson in Nashville, is a registered patent attorney and has a career that includes leadership roles with the military and local government. He will serve the board as treasurer for a three-year term, 2014 through 2017. Posted 8.12.2014
Howard William Herndon has joined the Nashville, Tennessee, office of Frost Brown Todd where he will lead the firm's new payments industry team. Prior to joining Frost Brown Todd, Howard was counsel at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis. Posted 5-27-14
Hans A. von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and former Justice Department counsel and FEC commissioner, has coauthored a new book with John Fund, the national affairs columnist at National Review Online, where Hans is also a contributor. Titled Obama's Enforcer: Eric Holder's Justice Department, the book is a publication of Broadside Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, and is available starting June 10. It is the first investigative look inside the powerful Justice Department under the tenure of Attorney General Eric Holder. The book centers on a series of chapters analyzing the DOJ's activities, including national security, Fast and Furious, civil rights, and more. Posted 5-27-14
Greg Abbott and Mark Phariss ('85) have been in the news as friends on opposing sides of the Texas case for same-sex marriage. A recent LA Times article discusses their friendship. Documents related to the case are available for download here. (Case documents were updated in November 2014.) Posted 3.10.14
Michael J. Quinan has been elected managing partner of Christian & Barton. Michael practices principally in the areas of business litigation, administrative law, and public utility regulation. Posted 1.20.14
James Marshall Lord (BA'81) has joined the Denver, Colorado, office of Jackson Lewis as a partner. Jim will focus his practice on the newly-formed white collar & government enforcement practice group. Prior to joining Jackson Lewis, Jim was an assistant U.S. attorney for over 20 years. Posted 11.14.13
J. Christopher Giancarlo has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Chris' nomination is subject to Senate confirmation. Chris is currently executive vice president of the wholesale brokerage firm, GFI Group, and was a founding board member and former chairman of the Wholesale Markets Brokers' Association, an industry trade group. Posted 10.10.13
Jefferson Whitaker Brown , a partner in the real estate practice group Moore and Van Allen, was recently elected by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors to serve on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Board of Trustees. Jeff was sworn in on July 25, following a day and a half of orientation. His current term of service is from 2013 to 2017. Jeff currently serves on the board's finance & infrastructure committee, working with other committee members in connection with the University's budget, revenue and expenses, information technology, buildings/grounds and campus master plan, architect/designer selection, and campus security, among other matters. He also currently serves on the board's innovation & impact committee, working with other committee members to provide support in areas such as research, entrepreneurship, technology transfer, licensing, economic development, early stage funding and industry relations. Posted 8.19.13
J. Christopher Giancarlo, of New Jersey, has been named Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for the remainder of the term, expiring April 13, 2014. Posted 8.19.13
Howard A. Mavity
, a partner with Fisher & Phillips in Atlanta, has been named among the 50 most influential occupational safety, health, environment and risk management leaders by EHS Today, a trade magazine for environment, health and safety professionals. The ranking appeared in the magazine's June 2013 edition. Howard co-chairs Fisher & Phillips' workplace safety and catastrophe management group. Posted 6.10.13
David Neil Morrison
has joined the Naples office of Quarles & Brady as a partner in the real estate practice group. Prior to joining the firm, David was a partner at Wilson & Johnson in Naples. His practices includes the representation of financial institutions, entities, and individuals in buying, selling and financing real and personal property throughout Florida. Morrison was also a founder of Triumph Development Corporation, a Naples luxury home builder and two other Naples law firms, Morrison & Conroy and Morrison & Caudill. Posted 5.1.13
Kenneth B. Cole, Jr. (BA '81), has returned to the full time practice of law by joining the firm of 
Eyster, Key, Tubb, Roth, Middleton & Adams in Decatur, Alabama. Kenny attended Vanderbilt University on a football scholarship, played middle linebacker for the Commodores, and earned Academic All-SEC honors.
For 28 months beginning in January, 2011, Kenny took a sabbatical from the practice of law so he could concentrate his efforts on starting a non-profit corporation, the purpose of which is to establish a private, faith-based school system in Huntsville, Alabama, to provide a college preparatory education to underserved children. The 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation is 29:11, Inc. The school system is called New Beginnings Academy. The organization's goal is to have 3 neighborhood elementary schools which will feed into a more centrally located middle/high school. The Board hopes to have the first location open in August 2013.
Kenny's 29 years of litigation experience includes the prosecution and defense of numerous varieties of civil lawsuits. Additionally, because of his involvement in litigation involving the release of vaporous acid from a manufacturing facility, he appeared on the Home Box Office documentary Death on the Job. He has written articles on federal jurisdiction, punitive damages, asbestos litigation, hospital liability, and settlement strategies in personal injury litigation; and also has lectured at continuing legal education seminars. Cole has been recognized by the nationwide organization Million Dollar Advocates, and his cases have resulted in large corporations changing their safety programs to make this Country a safer place. Posted 4.15.13
David Wells Morgan, 53, of Greenville, South Carolina, died February 6, 2013. David was Professor of Modern Language at Furman University where he taught French and Humanities for 20 years. Students and colleagues valued him for his erudition and especially for his kindness. He was cherished by his family, by the faculty and students of Furman University and by many friends and colleagues throughout the world. He earned his legal degree from Vanderbilt Law School and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. A gifted linguist, David was internationally known not only for his work in French, but also for his expertise in Latin. He was a beloved member of the spoken Latin community and the author of an important groundbreaking dictionary informally known as the Morgan Lexicon. He is survived by his parents, Thomas and Dorothy; and a brother.
Stephanie Ethel Parker has been elected president of Vanderbilt Law School's Board of Advisors. Stephanie will assume this position in the fall of 2013 following the term conclusion of current president-elect, W. Patrick Mulloy II (BA'74, JD'77). In addition, Stephanie has also been named one of Law360's “Top Female Trail Attorneys”. The national law journal has announced a new series honoring top female trial attorneys and will be highlight the achievements of 15 female litigators. Stephanie is a partner at Jones Day in the firm's Atlanta office. Posted 5.8.12
G. Daniel Shealer has been appointed vice president and general counsel of The Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation and The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Shealer served as the Health System's deputy general counsel for the past seventeen years and will continue to serve as the vice president for compliance, deputy general counsel for John Hopkins Medicine and secretary of the boards of Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Health System, and The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Posted 01.10.12
Edward Cassady joined Robins & Morton in Birmingham, Alabama, as chief financial officer. Ed was previously with The Martin Companies, a venture firm in Nashville focused on providing financial and other support to startup companies. Before that, Ed held a number of roles with BE&K Inc., ultimately serving as the firm's executive vice president in charge of strategic planning, sales and marketing. He began his career in Birmingham as a clerk to Judge James H. Hancock at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama and a partner of Bradley Arant Rose & White (now Bradley Arant Boult Cummings). Posted 11.9.11
Fred Frost is a 2011 inductee into the Huntingdon College Athletic Hall of Fame. Fred, who earned his undergraduate degree at Huntingdon, lettered for four years in golf, served as captain of the golf team for three years, and was the team's MVP his senior year, all while graduating cum laude with a degree in finance and a minor in history. Fred now serves as assistant chief attorney for production for ExxonMobil in Houston, where his wife, Kem, is a judge on the Texas Court of Appeals. They have four sons. Posted 11.9.11
J. Christopher Giancarlo was called to testify in October 2011 before the US House Agriculture Committee on implementation of financial reform in the US swaps markets under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Chris is Executive Vice President of GFI Group Inc., a global provider of wholesale brokerage services, clearing services, electronic execution and trading support products for global financial markets. He is also a founding board member and former Chairman of the Wholesale Markets Brokers Association, Americas, which addresses issues of public policy common to the wholesale brokerage industry. Posted 11.9.11
Michael J. Quinan, a partner and vice chair of the energy law group at Christian & Barton in Richmond, Virginia, was elected president of the HARPS Foundation, which provides conservatory-level training to young harpists from all over the United States, offers music lessons to students in several low-income communities and offers therapeutic music programs at hospitals and hospices in the Richmond area. The organization's flagship performance group-the American Youth Harp Ensemble-has played at the White House, the United Nations, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and presented concerts in many foreign countries. Posted 10-17-11
David Khorey
is one of four Michigan attorneys to become a newly-elected fellow of the prestigious College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. David is a partner at the regional law firm, Varnum, where he has cultivated a client-centered practice focused on complex labor and employment matters. He represents employers in a number of industries across the nation, including automotive, health care and transportation. Posted 7-15-11
Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General formally began his third term as the State's chief legal officer and top law enforcement official. Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson administered the oath of office during a ceremony performed at the Attorney General's Office in the presence of agency employees. U.S. Senator and former Texas Attorney General John Cornyn delivered remarks at Abbott's inaugural ceremony today. After swearing to defend the laws and constitution of the State of Texas, Greg renewed his commitment to tough law enforcement and thanked agency employees for their service to Texas citizens. Posted 1.28.11
William F. Hagerty, IV, was sworn in as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development by Governor Bill Haslam on January 15, 2011. As head of the state agency primarily responsible for job creation in Tennessee, Commissioner Hagerty is on leave from Hagerty Peterson, a merchant bank and private equity firm he founded. Posted 1.25.11
Gail Goodman Greenfield died October 17, 2010. She was 72. Gail grew up in New Orleans, where she graduated valedictorian of Isidore Newman School. She attended Newcomb College before marrying Ronald N. Greenfield and graduating from Vanderbilt University magna cum laude, where she was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Gail worked for Project Opportunity in Nashville before spending several years in fundraising at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. After rearing her two children, she earned her J.D. Vanderbilt Law School, graduating Order of the Coif in 1984, and then practiced law at Boult Cummings Conners and Berry, and later at Sherrard and Roe. She served as general counsel for the Foster Foundation until the time of her death. Gail was honored as one of the Women of the Year by the Davidson County Business and Professional Women's Club in 1988. She was active in the National Council of Jewish Women, the Nashville Symphony Guild, the League of Women Voters, Senior Citizens, Family and Children Service, and the Nashville Adult Literacy Council. Gail was an independent-minded woman who deeply valued education. She is survived by her son and daughter, Jill Ethridge and Jeff Greenfield, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
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.
