From the President

FROM THE PRESIDENT Disaster Response | Mike Abelow

MIKE ABELOW, Publisher WILLIAM T. RAMSEY, Editor-in-Chief CAROLINE SAPP, Managing Editor LAUREN POOLE, Managing Editor JILL PRESLEY, Layout/Design/Production

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

RAMONA DESALVO TIM ISHII KELLY FREY SUMMER MELTON ROB MARTIN BART PICKETT KATLIN RYAN KRISTIN THOMAS JONATHAN WARDLE

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The Nashville Bar Association, established in 1831, is a professional organization serving the legal community of Nashville, Tennessee. Our mission is to improve the practice of law through education, service, and fellowship. The NBA—with 2,700+ members—is the largest metropolitan bar association in Tennessee.

The Nashville Bar Association has unfortunately become one of the most experienced bar associations in the country in responding to disasters. From the 2010 500-year flood, to the 2020 tornado, to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have learned how to deliver critical services quickly and creatively to our members, fellow lawyers, and the community.

That skill was put to use again on the morning of Christmas Day, December 25, 2020, when we received the first reports of a bombing in downtown Nashville on Second Avenue North. Former NBA President Jonathan Cole of Baker Donelson, who was President during the 2010 flood, and former NBA President Laura Baker of the Law Offices of John Day, who served during last year’s tornadoes and pandemic, immediately offered their help and hard-earned expertise to assist with our response. The NBA Young Lawyers Division President Joseph Hubbard of the Kay Griffin firm offered insight from personal experience: his law firm’s offices are in the Washington Square building on Second Avenue and his input grounded our discussions in what lawyers in the area most needed.

Through bar member Worrick Robinson, IV, we contacted Metro Police and FBI personnel, and obtained a tour of the area so that we could better understand what the impact of the bombing would be on our members and the community. This was of significant assistance as we began to provide our members with resources and information and provide more concrete assistance to those members who could not access their offices and client files.

Many of you joined the NBA in volunteering office space to our displaced members. The spirit of generosity shown by our members to their colleagues reaffirms one of the distinguishing characteristics of lawyers in Nashville: we may be adversaries in court or across the negotiation table, but even while representing competing interests, we remain fellow members of the bar. It is heartening to be reminded yet again that, in Nashville, that means something real. Collegiality and generosity may be fragile and increasingly rare commodities, but I am proud that the NBA has always been successful in nurturing and maintaining these qualities among its members.

Your service extended to more than just our membership. We reached out to the more than 200 lawyers on Second Avenue North who are not bar members to offer space and other assistance. On Friday, January 15, we are partnered with the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services, the Tennessee Bar Association, and the Legal Aid Society to offer an online legal clinic to small businesses and individuals impacted by the bombing. This clinic was modeled after the successful online clinic for small businesses that the NBA pioneered with TALS for small businesses economically impacted by COVID-19.

As I write to you, there is much more to be done, and we will not rest on our laurels until we have done all that we are able to do for the victims of the Christmas Day bombing, whether they be members, non-members, small businesses, or individuals in need of legal aid. All of this is made possible by your NBA membership. For that, I thank you. n