James H. Cheek III has been named professor of the practice of law at Vanderbilt Law School. Cheek will be affiliated with the law school’s Law and Business Program and will teach advanced courses in the corporate and securities law area.
Cheek is a senior partner at Bass Berry & Sims in Nashville, where he will maintain his national corporate and securities law practice.
“We are delighted Jim is going to deepen his involvement at the law school,” said Vanderbilt Law School Dean Chris Guthrie. “He is a nationally renowned attorney whose teaching and mentoring here and practice at Bass Berry & Sims have had a positive impact on the lives and careers of generations of lawyers. This new position will enable him to enhance his role as an educator of law students about the practical aspects of law practice while maintaining his active practice.”
Cheek has held a number of leadership positions in the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association, serving as chair of the section and of its Federal Regulation of Securities Committee and its National Task Force on Corporate Responsibility. He has also served as chair of the Legal Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange (1989-92), the Legal Advisory Board of the National Association of Securities Dealers (1996-98), and the San Diego Securities Regulation Institute (2001-04).
Cheek is well known for representing large public company clients and their boards in high-profile corporate and securities law engagements, and his clients have included HCA, Genesco, The New York Stock Exchange and the Audit Committee of Bank of America, among many others.
Cheek holds a B.A. from Duke University, a J.D. from Vanderbilt, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School
“Jim is a remarkable practitioner with particular skill in advising corporate clients and boards with respect to governance, securities, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activists and corporate crises. While he will continue to serve our clients and provide leadership to the lawyers in our Corporate and Securities group, we also recognize this is a terrific opportunity for him to inspire more students and for us to continue our firm’s long association with Vanderbilt Law School,” said Todd Rolapp, managing partner of Bass, Berry & Sims.
Founded in 1874 as one of Vanderbilt University’s first professional schools, Vanderbilt Law School has trained excellent lawyers for careers throughout the United States and around the world for more than 135 years. Located on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville, Tennessee, the law school offers three degree programs—J.D., an LL.M. program for foreign attorneys, and a Ph.D. in Law and Economics—four student-led scholarly journals, and eight academic programs that allow upper-level students to focus on specific areas of law.