5 minute read
Introducing Bill Ramsey
On March 23, at the 2024 Nashville Bar Foundation Fellows Gala, John McLemore presented the David Rutherford Award to Bill Ramsey. Below is McLemore's introduction speech.
Good evening. I am John McLemore, the picture taking person, and I have been asked to introduce tonight’s honoree, Bill Ramsey; someone who needs no introduction, especially in a room full of lawyers. Nonetheless, I have been given five minutes and I hope to put them to good use. Let’s start with a show of hands. Everyone, raise a hand. Now I’m going to ask a question. If your answer is “no,” lower your hand.
In your entire life, have you visited the town of Viola in Warren County, TN? I think we can conclude from this display that Viola does not rival Dollywood as a premier Tennessee tourist destination. What is it then? It is the ancestral home of Clan Ramsey, a 550-acre working farm. For those of you who are not real estate lawyers, 640 acres is a square mile.
When drafting its blurb about Bill on the Neal & Harwell website, someone thought the farm was worth mentioning. It says, “Bill owns and operates his family’s farm in Viola, Tennessee, and he applies the wisdom he learned from his father and other farmers to all aspects of his life, including the practice of law.”
In preparation for tonight, I asked around. Who knows Bill better than anyone else and the answer was consistently, Tom Dundon. So, I asked Tom, “What is the deal with the farm?” Answer: “It’s a big business. He has a farm manager and everything.”
“What are his crops? What does he grow?” I asked.
“Cows!” Tom replied. “Big ones. Big OREO cows!”
“What is an OREO cow?” I asked.
“Black and white,” Tom said. “You should see them. They are monsters.”
So, what have we learned? In addition to everything else in his very busy life, Bill must be chairman of the Neal & Harwell animal husbandry department. Dundon certainly isn’t.
Bill’s father and brother were graduates of Georgia Tech. Bill followed in their footsteps and received a degree in mechanical engineering in 1973.
When Bill returned to the farm after graduation, his first love was not agriculture. It was music. He organized a band, which is believed to have played in every Holiday Inn bar in all three grand divisions of the state. Bill’s dad, whose primary interest was agriculture, thought Bill’s love for music was actually the summiting of fool’s hill. He had faith. He believed he could reroute Bill’s vocational goals. On many an early morning, Bill would return home from a gig, slide into bed about 3:00am, just to be awakened by his dad at 4:00am to start feeding. It wasn’t long before the Lord called him to the law. He matriculated at UT Law School in 1977 and graduated three years later first in his class.
He clerked for Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harry Phillips, who would eventually bring Bill to the attention of James F. Neal, the jut-jawed blocking back from the University of Wyoming. Neal grew up in Portland, TN. He and Bill spoke the same language. After joining Neal & Harwell in 1981, Bill purchased his modest home on Sweetbriar Ave. For the young associates at the firm and for half the hard-up musicians in Music City, Bill was not the leader. He was the guy who had their six. Those in the gang who ran into domestic problems were allowed to move into Sweetbriar. For those from the music community who ran head on into inevitable legal problems, Bill represented them whether they could pay his bills or not. With the volume of temporary tenants rotating through his house, Bill would inevitably encounter a few who turned out pretty good. When they transitioned from clients without money to clients with money, they continued to get in trouble and call on Bill for help. Several times he has been named one of the nation’s top music attorneys by Billboard Magazine. Bill understood what lawyers do. They help people. His marketing strategy is simple. He travels in interesting circles and helps people.
One of his best friends borrowed an acoustic guitar from Bill. When a generous amount of time passed and it was not returned, he asked where it might be. Answer: 'For the past two years, Bob Dylan has been playing it. Do you need it back?'"
At this point, I’m about to get the hook and we haven’t even skimmed the surface of Bill’s generosity within the bar association and the community. He has been the editor of the Nashville Bar Journal, for 18 years, a thankless task if ever there was one. Bill and his high-tech buddy Phil Hampton have put on countless continuing legal education programs known as Bill & Phil Shows pointing out the good, the bad, and the ugly for lawyers searching for the best new laborsaving electronic devices.
I could talk well into the night about Ode to Otha. Last summer Bill hosted the 28th Sweetbriar Ave. block party which, if it hasn’t already, is about to hit $500,000.00 in contributions to Second Harvest Food Bank.
Without question Bill Ramsey exemplifies the memory and ideals of David Rutherford, which include professionalism, charitable contributions in the legal field and in the community as a whole, and the spirit of collegiality among the bench and bar.
Ladies and gentlemen help me welcome the winner of the 2024 David Rutherford Award, Bill Ramsey, a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer, farmer, computer wizard, editor, musician, lawyer and friend.
