Daniel W. Van Horn ’97 was sworn in as president of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) at the association’s annual convention in Chattanooga in June. He is the youngest member of the TBA ever to serve as the organization’s president. TBA is Tennessee’s largest professional association with more than 11,000 members.
Van Horn practices with the Memphis firm of Butler Snow O’Mara Stevens & Cannada, where he leads the firm’s commercial litigation group.
Van Horn previously served as president of TBA’s Young Lawyers Division in 2005. He has also served on the TBA’s Board of Governors as the District 9 Representative and chaired the association’s Continuing Legal Education Committee, which plans legal education seminars for lawyers around the state, for two years. He is a graduate of the TBA’s Leadership Law program.
Van Horn is also active in the American Bar Association, serving as a member of its Standing Committee on Membership, House of Delegates and as Young Lawyers Division Assembly speaker, the second highest national YLD officer. He is also a member of the Memphis and Mississippi bar associations.
In Memphis, Van Horn cofounded the Atticus Finch Referral Network; named for the lawyer who took on an unpopular case in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, the network links attorneys willing to provide free legal advice with needy Memphians. He spearheaded an effort to raise funds and increase attorney involvement in free clinics for HIV-positive patients in Memphis and served on the Memphis Bar Association’s Access to Justice Committee. He was instrumental in passage of new Tennessee Supreme Court rules that provide greater funding for legal aid agencies in the state. He received Memphis Area Legal Services’ Pro Bono Service Award in 2006.
At his swearing-in ceremony, Van Horn unveiled a four-point plan for his year in office. His “All-Access Campaign” will focus on access to justice for those who cannot afford legal services, increasing diversity in the profession for women and others traditionally underrepresented groups, increasing professional development opportunities, and increasing public understanding of America’s government and justice system.