About Us

As an attorney for almost a decade, I specialize in commercial and entertainment litigation and contract negotiation.

I have advocated for entertainment clients across the music, television, motion picture, and extreme sports industries. I have represented commercial litigation clients across the fintech, banking & finance, mortgage broker-dealer, chemical, transportation & logistics, heavy equipment and materials, industrial supplies, hospitality, and commercial real estate industries.

I am passionate about a client-centered approach to practice, delivering personalized representation, and utilizing strategies that focus on results that the clients and I mutually craft.

Background

During law school, I worked as a legal extern for Tennessee’s 23rd Judicial District Attorney’s office in West Tennessee on the Holly Bobo kidnapping, rape, and murder trial. The six-defendant case was attended by a search and rescue party numbering 10,000, and garnered national news coverage for years. I used straightforward communication with sensitivity to assist in guiding the young girl’s family throughout the DA’s prosecution of the men.

I received my law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School, where I earned the school’s prestigious Law & Business Certificate and produced research that was incorporated into the respective publications of Professors Michael Vandenbergh and Margaret Blair. Endeavoring to improve my fellow students’ law school experience, I was active in student government and organizations, and I served on the Hyatt Board fund to spearhead two high-profile symposia each year addressing the following current and complex legal issues:

• Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, 570 U.S. 637 (2013), discussing the bounds of the Indian Child Welfare Act as applied to Native American children with non-custodian Native American parents;
• Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682 (2014)., exploring the contours of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as applied to closely held for-profit corporations.

I was Vice President of the Federalist Society, collaborating with the American Constitution Society to promote a bipartisan forum for discussing legal and public policy issues. I was voted by my class as Mr. Vanderbilt Law School for the 2013—2014 academic year, performing “Trouble” from Meredith Wilsson’s Broadway smash The Music Man.

A proud Eagle Scout and Religious Emblem holder, I serve on the board of the Middle Tennessee Council of Boy Scouts of America and advise the West End United Methodist Church’s Boy Scout troop. I am an avid mountaineer and have been on Ama Dablam in the Nepali Himalayas, Aconcagua in the Argentinian Andes, and Denali in Alaska. Currently, I am completing a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Tennessee Space Institute, a PhD in Theology and Apologetics from Liberty University, and an MA in American and Military History from Austin Peay State University. My free time is spent with his best friend, my lab-beagle mix rescue dog named Desi who is always by my side.

CASES OF NOTE• In Re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation, 20-MD-2924, MDL No. 2924 (S.D. Fla., filed Feb. 6, 2020). Mass tort alleging that GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim, among others, knew that Zantac causes cancer. Alleges the carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, and genotoxicity of ranitidine, byproduct n-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), and metabolite formaldehyde.
• In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, MDL 2804, (N.D. Ohio, filed Dec. 2017). Mass tort alleging that Purdue Pharma grossly misrepresented the risks of long-term use of opioids (e.g., OxyContin, Dilaudid, and Lortab) for chronic pain, and distributors failed to properly monitor suspicious orders of these drugs--all of which contributed to the current opioid epidemic.
• In re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation, 16-MD-2741-VC, MDL No. 2741 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 4, 2016). Mass tort alleging that the Monsanto (later acquired by Bayer) glyphosate-based herbicide causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other cancers.
• S.H. and R.S.B. v. Merck & Co. Inc., 1:2020cv01402 (E.D. Wis., filed Sept. 9, 2020). Filing attorney. Among the nation’s first lawsuits re: Adverse neuropsychiatric events resulting from Singulair.
• Holley et al v. Gilead Sciences, Inc., No. 3:2018cv06972 - Document 75 (N.D. Cal. 2019). Re: tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) for HIV and hepatitis B treatment/PrEP. Alleges Gilead intentionally delayed development of tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF), a safer PrEP that caused less kidney and bone disease, and failed to adequately disclose those dangers.
• In Re: Evenflo Company, Inc., Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 1:20-md-02938, MDL No. 2938 (D. Mass., filed June 3, 2020). Re: “Big Kid” booster seats being inappropriately labelled to include children under 40 lbs.
• Waste Serv. of Decatur, LLC v. Decatur County, Tenn. v. Waste Indus. USA, LLC, Tenn. Aluminum Processors, Inc., Smelter Serv. Corp., 1:17-cv-01030-STA-jay (W.D.Tenn. Dec. 5, 2019). Toxic tort concerning EPA violations and improper transport and disposal of aluminum dross & slag waste by industrial metal processors and solid waste management company.
• Phillip v. C.R. Bard Inc. et al, 3:19-cv-01132-GTS-ML (N.D.N.Y.). Multi-District Litigation concerning Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) filter. Alleges that IVC filters broke and/or moved, causing tissue and organ perforation and clots.

EDUCATIONPh.D., Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE SPACE INSTITUTE, 2021 (expected)
• Dissertation: Managing Expectations in Protracted Litigation: Application of Multi-Variate Filing Analysis in Developing a Stochastic Model of Federal Circuit Court Case Length.
• Departmental nominations: Gamma Beta Phi (top 15% of class); Golden Key (top 15% of graduate students); Society for Collegiate Leadership

J.D., Law & Business Certificate, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL, 2016
• Thesis: The Right to Bear Bullets: Ammunition Regulation as the Final Frontier of Gun Control, and Implications for the Second Amendment.
• Vanderbilt Law School Representative (2013-2015), Young Lawyers, Nashville Bar Association
• Treasurer (2014-2015), Representative (2013-2016), Vanderbilt Law School Bar Association
• Vice President (2014-2015), Federalist Society
• Member, Hyatt Fund Board (2014-2015)
• Vice President (2014-2015), Law & Business Society
• Mr. Vanderbilt Law School (2013-2014).

M.B.A., summa cum laude, Banking & Finance, UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, 2016
• Thesis: Neel Kashkari’s Criticism of “Too Big to Fail” Through the Lens of Bagehot, Friedman, and Bernanke.

M.S., honors, Financial Engineering, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, Fu Foundation School of Engineering. & Applied Sciences, 2010
• Thesis: Neuropsychological Perspectives on Branding and Marketing Failures with “New Coke.”
• Honors: AICPA Legacy Scholar; Dean’s Leadership Society; Fu Foundation SEAS Ambassador (dept. nom.); Columbia Alumni Representative Committee.

Visiting Student, Organic Chemistry, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 2007
Harvard Summer Chorus; Intramural soccer and volleyball.

B.B.A., cum laude, Finance; B.S., cum laude, Biology; and B.S., cum laude, Psychology, MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY, 2008
• Thesis
• MTSU Dean’s list and National Dean’s List all semesters
• Sole TN nom., Golden Key Int’l Scholar, Dubai Del. on Business
• 1st place, team captain, Nashville Junior Achievement Investment Challenge
• Honors: Psi Chi Honor Society; Tri Beta Honor Society; Rho Beta Gamma Honor Society

SIGNIFICANT RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS• Efficacy of Forest Sustainability Council (FSC) and feasibility of carbon taxing. Research later incorporated into Beyond Politics: The Private Governance Response to Climate Change, Vandenbergh and Gilligan (N.Y., NY: Cambridge U. Press, 2017).
• Remarks by Del. C.J. Strine on eBay v. Newmark and its mandatory approach to corporate purposes (i.e., “shareholder value maximization”); Survey of publications citing Thomas Donaldson’s “theory of the corporation.” Research incorporated into Margaret Blair, Of Corporations, Courts, Personhood, and Morality: Essay in Honor of Thomas Donaldson, 25 Business Ethics Quarterly, 4, 415 (2016).