President’s Message

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By: Jason H. Long

Lewis Thomason P.C.

THE CELEBRATION CONTINUES

At the Annual Meeting last year, I told people that we were going to spend this year in celebration. After nearly two years of enduring a pandemic that kept people indoors and away from one another, I thought we all needed an opportunity to come together and celebrate. Moreover, we had cause to celebrate. The pandemic brought uncertainty. It brought massive disruption. Still our bar association weathered the challenges and, in many ways, grew stronger by necessity. I was content to make this a year of simply getting back to some semblance of normalcy.

Sometimes, due to timing and circumstance, you can get lucky. This year I got very lucky. Not only was I the beneficiary of a return to normalcy, I was also the beneficiary of the hard work of other individuals which spanned years but which culminated in events this past year. Our judicial evaluation efforts in conjunction with the elections and the development of a Strategic Initiative Plan by our Diversity and Inclusion Committee come to mind. These were major achievements, envisioned by others several years ago, and put into motion by the work of dedicated volunteers throughout the course of multiple bar years. This year simply happened to be the year that all of that hard work came to fruition. In truth, I had absolutely zero involvement in these wonderful projects, but that will not stop me from bragging that they were accomplished in the year I served as president of the bar.

I am also a beneficiary of the dedication and skill of the many volunteers in our bar who make this engine go. I attempted to write this article specifically mentioning each of the 16 committees and 12 sections, their dedicated members, and their highlighted accomplishments over the past year. The column ended up being over five pages long. It is a good problem to have when it is no longer possible to list the accomplishments of our bar in a single column. Just thinking about the work of the bar this year overwhelms me. The aforementioned judicial evaluation process and Strategic Initiative Plan, the return to a live Law Tech Expo, the first ever Bench/Bar Celebration, a Wellness Conference, fee-dispute resolution, additions to our membership benefits, DICTA, the abundance of Barrister’s activities (clothing drives, food drives, volunteer breakfast, mock trial competition, golf tournament for charity, summer parties, just to name a few), Professionalism Committee advocacy, and dozens of new CLE offerings, are just a few of the many projects of our bar association in the past year that I can rattle off the top of my head as I write this article. I have missed many, and space does really prohibit identifying the volunteers who made all of this possible. Fortunately, you can find a summary of those accomplishments and the people to thank in the yearend report, which will be circulated at the Annual Meeting. I hope you will take a look at it and thank those people who have devoted time and energy into making this an outstanding association. I apologize that I cannot do so here in this space.

Finally, I was the beneficiary of an outstanding bar staff. We try to say it at every event and every opportunity (or at least if we don’t, we should), “Thank you to Marsha and her wonderful staff.” I cannot express in words my feelings of gratitude and appreciation to Marsha for her tireless and outstanding work on behalf of the bar association. For anyone who has worked with Marsha for even a short period of time, you know you are working with a talented and committed individual who takes great pride in our bar and enjoys seeing it flourish. Just as important, Marsha has assembled a remarkable staff which does not get mentioned nearly enough. It is possible to thank them specifically within the confines of this article, so I will do so. Tammy Sharpe, Jonathan Guess, Bridgette Fly, Tracy Chain and Jason Galvas, thank you all. You are the heart and soul of our bar association and you are appreciated more than you will ever know.

The Annual Meeting will take place on December 9 in the Main Assembly Room of the City County Building. When I first started practicing, Charles Swanson and Sarah Sheppeard made it clear to me that attendance at that meeting was not optional. One of them (I can’t recall who so I will attribute both) told me that there were two events we, as Knoxville lawyers, had a duty to attend if at all possible: The Supreme Court Dinner (now Bench/Bar Celebration) and the Annual Meeting. The first because it was in honor of our judiciary and the second because we should have a voice in the governance of our organization. In addition, both provided the opportunity to congregate with other lawyers, which always translated into positive professional development and made being a lawyer a little more enjoyable. I still try to adhere to their directive (I may have added a few others to the must attend list over the years: Law Day Celebration, the Law Tech Expo, and the KBA Memorial Service come to mind).

I encourage everyone to come out for the Annual Meeting. You will be astonished at what your bar has accomplished. You will have an opportunity to spend time with other lawyers. You will be able to honor and give thanks to those who have worked so hard to advance the profession this past year. Most importantly, you will be able to celebrate.