Charles K. Grant is a shareholder at Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz in Nashville. His talk, “The Arc of the Moral Universe and Beyond,” is scheduled from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 19, in the Law School’s Flynn Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the Vanderbilt University community.
Space is limited. Please RSVP at this link: 2023 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture.
A veteran litigator whose practice focuses on complex employment and business litigation matters, Grant has tried more than 50 jury trials to verdict in federal and state courts and represented clients in mediation and arbitration proceedings across a dozen states. A leader in the Nashville legal community, he became the first African American president of the Nashville Bar Association in 2014. He is a past president of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands and a former president of the Napier-Lobby Bar Association, an affiliate chapter of the Nashville Bar Association.
Throughout his career, Grant has stood against racism and championed the rights of those who would otherwise have no access to the legal system. He has assisted former felons in regaining their voting rights through litigation and legislation. He was the co-producer of “Civil Disobedience and the Rule of Law: The Nashville Sit-ins and Lessons in Courage,” where he portrayed Z. Alexander Looby in “Tired of Waiting,” a dramatization of the 1960 Nashville Sit-in Trials sponsored by the Nashville Bar Association, the Napier-Lobby Bar Association and the Nashville Bar Foundation. He also co-authored “The Freedom Rides: Making the Law Apply to All,” published in the Nashville Bar Journal, which received the Nashville Bar Association Article of the Year Award for 2011.
In recognition of his pro bono legal work and public service, Grant has received the John C. Tune Public Service Award, the Nashville Bar Association’s highest honor; the Pro Bono Program Volunteer of the Year Award; the Tennessee State Conference NAACP President’s Freedom Award; the Baker Donelson firm-wide Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award; the Tennessee Bar Association’s Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Award; the ACLU of Tennessee’s Bruce Kramer Cooperating Attorney Award; the Napier Looby Bar Foundation’s A.A. Birch Outstanding Public Service Award; and the Napier-Looby Bar Association’s Trailblazer Award.
Grant earned his J.D. at Washington & Lee University School of Law and his B.S. at The Citadel.