Background Check | Jeanne B. Heaton

Bart Pickett was recently appointed as the State Trial Court Administrator for the Twentieth Judicial District where he oversees the operations of the 18 State Trial Courts. Prior to that, he practiced as a trial attorney for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.

In May, Jeanne Heaton, our newest executive director, started at the NBA. Heaton grew up in the “middle of nowhere” Illinois. She grew up on a farm about 20 miles from Carbondale in Southern Illinois. Her family raised dairy cattle and grew corn, soybeans, and wheat. Jeanne is the only daughter of four children. While she learned to drive a tractor and other farm chores, being the only girl got her out of a lot of the harder farm work. Heaton attended a small consolidated public school where she graduated first out of 41.

When it came time to go to college, Heaton chose to head north to the flagship state school, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A political science class inspired her to pursue law school in a quest to change the world as she said her generation wanted to do then. Her advisor told her to get a business minor because she might not get into law school. Heaton went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa from college. While in college, Heaton participated in the flag corps for the Marching Illini and as an officer on the Panhellenic Council. She also used her time then to serve as an intern at both the state and federal levels. She knew she had an interest in government work and wanted to get that exposure.

Following college, Heaton got married and moved to Indiana where her husband had gotten into law school. Heaton worked and began having children until her husband completed his education. She then herself matriculated at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. She completed her first two years there, before her husband moved the family to Washington, D.C., for a job. Heaton finished her last year as a visiting student at American University.

Heaton worked for an Illinois senator during law school and after graduation until they moved back to the Midwest, eventually settling in Springfield, Illinois. Having four children by that point, Jeanne and her husband wanted to be closer to their families. Heaton sought out government work first with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for two years before switching to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency for four years. Heaton then worked for a small environmental law firm specializing in regulatory and administrative law issues for two years.

In September 2005, the State of Illinois adopted its mandatory CLE requirements. As a result, the State Bar Association created a role for a Director of CLE. That role was one that Heaton filled from November 2006 until she came to the NBA. The Illinois Bar Association is based out of Springfield, but Heaton did work across the state including a lot of CLEs in Chicago.

Heaton has been heavily involved with both the International Association for CLE (ACLEA) and the National Association of Bar Executives (NABE). She served as almost every office of ACLEA including president.

Recently Heaton wanted to start getting closer to her family. No longer being married and with her kids having moved away from Springfield, Heaton began to look at a potential move. One of her daughters recently moved to Memphis due to her husband’s military service, which really put Tennessee on Heaton’s radar. Having spent time here over the years for vacation and work conferences, Heaton had always loved Nashville. Being in Nashville puts Heaton about equidistance to all of her family. She is actually closer to Southern Illinois here than from Springfield.

She recalls seeing the NBA executive director listing come across her desk in an email from NABE. It hit at just the right time when Heaton was ready to make a move. Despite what her friends had speculated, Heaton was not secretly a country singer coming here to make it big. She had researched the job and the legal community and liked what she saw. The vibrancy of our legal community excites Heaton.

Heaton enjoys visiting her three daughters, her son, and her eight grandchildren. Currently, she is looking forward to the NBA Sister City trip to Caen, France as well as exploring her new state. As both a music lover and a history buff, Heaton is quick to ask for all Tennessee travel suggestions as she plans all of her weekend adventures.