KBA Annual Meeting & Elections
December 9, 2022

View the Annual Meeting PowerPoint
Annual Meeting Packet
View the Photo Gallery

 

The Knoxville Bar Association (KBA) held its Annual Meeting on Friday, December 9, 2022. The President's gavel was passed from Jason H. Long, a member of Lewis Thomason, P.C., to Loretta G. Cravens of Cravens Legal.
 

President Long thanked his fellow board members for their support and recognized the KBA staff for their dedication to East Tennessee attorneys. Incoming President Loretta Cravens thanked Mr. Long for his service to the Association, which included conducting judicial candidate member surveys and releasing a DEI Strategic Inclusion Plan. The Association celebrated a return to in-person events with law students, attorneys, and judges gathering at the first-ever Bench-Bar Celebration, a Wellness Conference, and the award-winning Law Practice Today Expo.

In her remarks, Ms. Cravens thanked the members for their continued committed service to the KBA and the people of our community in need of legal services.  She announced that during 2023, the KBA would place an emphasis on servant leadership, civility in public discourse, and equipping members with the tools, resources, and professional development needed to serve their clients. She emphasized the importance of attorney involvement in their local bar association’s activities and the need to mentor newly admitted attorneys and law students who are going to be the providers of legal services to our community in the future.

During the meeting, the following KBA members were elected as officers for 2023: 

President-Elect - Carlos A. Yunsan, Tennessee Appellate Courts
Treasurer – Jonathan D. Cooper, Knox Defense 
Secretary – Rachel Park Hurt, Arnett, Draper & Hagood

The membership elected the following KBA members to the four open positions on the Board of Governors:
T. Mitchell Panter, Lewis Thomason, P.C.
Samantha Parris, Law Office of Samantha Parris
Courtney Epps Read, Watson Roach Batson & Lauderback 
Hon. E. Jerome Melson, Knox Co. Circuit Court, Division I

Elizabeth B. Ford was presented the KBA's highest award, the prestigious Governors' Award, which is given annually to a lawyer whose peers believe has brought distinction and honor to the legal profession. Ms. Ford has distinguished herself with a long and tremendous career of service to the bar and the community, including serving as the Federal Defender for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Hon. Steven W. Sword was presented with the Judicial Excellence Award. The award was created in 2022 to recognize a judge felt by the Association to represent the very best in a judicial officer.

The President’s Award for 2022 was presented to Brooklyn Sawyers Belk for her work as Chair of the Strategic Inclusion Plan subcommittee of the KBA’s Diversity in the Profession Committee. The award for outstanding writing was presented to John E. Eldridge for his series of articles “Lesson Learned: Reflections from a Retiring Lawyer,” which appeared in the January through October issues of the KBA monthly magazine DICTA.  

 It was announced that Hon. Zachary Walden, Eighth Judicial District Criminal Court Judge, became President of the Knoxville Barristers, the Young Lawyers Division of the KBA, at the elections on December 7. The following were elected as Barristers Officers: Charles S.J. Sharett, Vice President; Jimmy Snodgrass, Secretary/Treasurer; and Matt Knable and Isaac Westling, Members-at-Large.             

It was also announced that Grant Williamson and Mariel Bough, Co-Chairs of the Diversity Committee, were presented with the Barristers' Presidents' Award for 2022.