Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Lillian Blackshear has been elected a Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation. The Foundation is an association of 850 attorneys across the state. This year, invitations to membership, which is a position of honor, were extended to 29 attorneys by the board of trustees. The introduction of new Fellows took place at the annual Fellows’ Dinner in Nashville on April 26.
The Bar Foundation’s purpose is two-fold: to recognize attorneys who have distinguished themselves in the community and the profession and to administer a grant-making program. That project, Interest On Lawyers’ Trust Accounts or IOLTA, has awarded grants in excess of $27,000,000 to law-related, public interest projects throughout Tennessee. Read more about the Tennessee Bar Foundation here.
Lillian Blackshear
Lillian focuses her legal practice exclusively on public finance matters, representing an array of governmental entities, investment banks and commercial banks on debt issuances throughout Tennessee. Clients look to Lillian to help them secure the financing necessary to green-light a wide range of development projects and debt refundings. Lillian is a valuable resource to the firm’s Public Finance Practice Group on municipal securities disclosure issues and frequently works with issuers regarding their continuing disclosure obligations.
Lillian was named as one of the National Bar Association’s “40 Under 40 Nation’s Best Advocates” (2022), received the National Bar Association’s “40 Under 40 Excellence in Leadership” Award (2022), was named to the Nashville Post’s “In Charge” list for the Legal Sector (2022-2024), recognized by the Nashville Business Journal as a “40 Under 40” in 2018, named a member of the 2022 Class of Fellows for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, and was selected to participate in the Leadership Nashville Class of 2023-2024. She is an active participant in a number of industry associations, including the National Association of Bond Lawyers and the Tennessee Chapter of Women in Public Finance, among others. Lillian served on the firm’s Executive Committee from 2020-2023 and is the past leader of the firm’s African-American Affinity Group. Read more about Lillian and her practice here.