The Landscape of Nashville Law Firms
The legal landscape in Nashville has witnessed explosive growth in recent years, making it a major hub for law firms across the Southeast. As the city continues to experience significant economic expansion, the demand for legal services in diverse practice areas has also increased steadily. The music, healthcare, and technology sectors have all played a crucial role in the city’s economic trajectory, and they have been a catalyst for the evolution of Nashville’s legal environment.
As the home to various prominent educational institutions, hospitals, and corporations, Nashville’s legal market is both vibrant and competitive. With the city’s emergence as a healthcare powerhouse, top-tier firms have established healthcare practices that are recognized nationally . Meanwhile, as Nashville has increasingly become a tech-centered city, firms that specialize in intellectual property have seen substantial growth.
Not only are there many law firms in Nashville, but the practice groups within those firms are wide-ranging. As the legal needs of the Nashville community have grown, so too have the practice areas of the city’s law firms. From family law to real estate to environmental law, Nashville supports a robust variety of legal practices.
In Nashville’s legal marketplace, large, traditional firms and niche practices can be found side by side. Some firms have opted to develop a broad spectrum of practice groups, while others have carved out a space as leaders in niche areas of law. As the city’s economy continues to flourish, the legal services in Nashville will continue to grow and diversify.
Largest By Number of Attorneys
Largest law firms by number of attorneys are easy to determine. To be largest a law firm must be doing business in multiple states. That’s the definition from the largest law firm survey published annually by the National Law Journal. The NLJ publishes its list by attorney headcount.
Here are the top five in Nashville with number of attorneys:
Riggs Davie: 105
Practice Areas: Business and Corporate, Private Equity, Investment and Securities, Real Estate and Land Use, Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights, Environmental and Energy, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, Intellectual Property, Communications and Media, Taxation.
Bass Berry: 104
Practice Areas: Antitrust and Trade Regulation, Appellate, Bankruptcy, Business and Commercial Litigation, Class Action Defense, Consumer Class Action Defense, Employee Benefits, Environmental, Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Family Business, Federal Taxation, Government Contracts, Health Care, Intellectual Property, International Business, Labor, Litigation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Partnerships and Joint Ventures, Real Estate, Taxation, and Trusts and Estates.
Waller: 75
Practice Areas: Health Care, Business Law and Litigation, Corporate and Securities, Real Estate and Construction, Financial Restructuring and Bankruptcy, Family Business, Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring, Financial Services, Intellectual Property, Immigration, Labor and Employment, Nonprofit and Tax-Exempt, Real Estate and Construction, Taxation, Trusts and Estates, Economic Development Incentives.
Husch Blackwell: 72
Practice Areas: Sustainability and Environmental, Food and Agriculture, Healthcare, Intellectual Property, Labor and Employment, Products Liability, Technology, Outsourcing.
Waddey McClintock: 65
Practice Areas: Intellectual Property, Patent, Trademark, Copyright, Software, Outsourcing.
Practice Areas Available In Nashville’s Biggest Law Firms
The practice areas within the largest law firms in Nashville showcase the multifaceted legal landscape of Music City. Corporate law, healthcare and intellectual property are some of the most common areas of expertise these top firms concentrate in. Other frequently-practiced areas include litigation, employment law, real estate, tax and intellectual property. Corporate law is the most cited area of expertise among the top 30 largest Nashville law firms, appearing on the lists of 24 top firms in the city. These transactional lawyers are in demand amid a robust business community and an active M&A scene, particularly in healthcare, industrials, technology and media, transportation and construction. Of the 24 law firms with corporate practices in Nashville, 11 specialize in the healthcare sector. A diverse range of healthcare companies and organizations in Tennessee require healthcare expertise that spans the full spectrum of business law, compliance and dispute resolution issues. Twenty-two of the top Nashville firms cite litigation as a major practice area. Leading litigation firms like Bass, Berry & Sims and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings are highly regarded for their work in Tennessee courts. Well-established litigation teams handle a wide range of complex proceedings in fields ranging from commercial law to antitrust to securities and healthcare. Thirty of Nashville’s largest law firms maintain intellectual property practices. This has traditionally been considered a hindrance to tech startups, which struggle to compete for talent with similar street cred as Biotech industry companies. Still, Nashville is home to plenty of legal talent to assist in negotiating the complexities of IP law.
Details About Different Law Firms
Bass Berry & Sims specializes in mergers and acquisitions, private equity, general corporate and commercial matters, joint ventures and alliances, securities transactions, private investment funds, public offerings and private placements, finance transactions, financial restructurings and reorganizations, cash management transactions, federal, state and local tax issues, employee compensation and benefits, real estate transactions, environmental law, international operations, antitrust law, merger clearance through the FTC and states’ attorneys general, government contracts and lobbying matters, intellectual property, labor and employment advice, immigration matters, litigation and arbitration, loan transactions, restructurings, security rights enforcements and litigation, international trade and business counseling for marketplace development, negotiation and contracting, litigation and intellectual property matters, risk planning and mitigation and regulatory compliance, technology development, formation and co-venture structuring, environmental, health and safety and a wide variety of other related areas.
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings is rated by its peers as one of the nation’s top 50 law firms and is listed by American Lawyer magazine as one of America’s top 200 law firms. Their clients include GE, HCA, Ingram, Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Six Flags Inc., State of Tennessee, Metro Nashville Airport Authority, Vanderbilt University, and Mars Chocolate North America.
Baker Donelson’s Nashville office was founded in 1985 and quickly became one of that city’s fastest growing law firms. They were the third office outside of Tennessee to open under their Baker Donelson name. They offer full-service representation with more than 30 practice groups and over 500 attorneys and represent over 700 healthcare providers in the southeast.
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis was established in 1905 and has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading law firms. They represent approximately 160 public and private companies throughout the United States with many of Nashville’s leading businesses, organizations and institutions. They average over 400 new clients each year, have handled more than 100 public offerings, and more than 3,000 private placements, and have handled more than 1,100 acquisition and divestiture transactions.
Nashville’s Law Firms Trends
The legal landscape in Nashville has experienced considerable evolution with technology, mergers and client demands driving the growth of the industry. These trends have led law firms with increased capabilities of serving high-profile clients and merging to augment that success. Technology has made it possible for law firms in Nashville to expand their client base across state lines and nationally, especially with Fortune 500 companies. "In today’s world, technology has gotten so good. You don’t need to be in the room with the client," said Michael Johnson, who has been practicing law in Nashville since 2015. "You could be anywhere in the world on a video call. With that, you are able to get clients everywhere else. So you now have the freedom of being able to choose a clientele anywhere." That perspective is shared by Sean Wingo, an attorney with Bass Burkhardt in Nashville. "Nashville firms do compete nationally. We have seen increasing competition from our northern competitors. Firms like Baker Donelson, who are in Nashville and Memphis – their national reach is strong and the competition is fierce," Wingo said. "We have a lot of firms that have merged over the last several years." For example, Bass Burkhardt is a newer law firm specializing in criminal representation but was formed when three lawyers previously with a regional Nashville law firm, Bone McAllester Norton, left to create a boutique criminal defense firm. Among the largest law firms in the city, Waller, is a major player in Nashville’s booming health care industry. It has made several mergers, including with Pepper Hamilton LLP – a Philadelphia- and Washington-based firm of more than 500 attorneys – and Madison, Platteville and Belleville, Wis.-based Quarles & Brady LLP – one of the 100 largest firms in the U.S . While they are making significant investments in larger firms, many of Nashville’s larger practices are also bringing on attorneys specializing in areas, such as health care, that reflect the current needs of their clients. "At Bass Burkhardt, our experience is based on a need for solo firms and mid-size firms to ‘scale up’ to meet client demands in a market with increased competition," Johnson said. "As a firm, we have concentrated on building a team of strong criminal defense, business and commercial lawyers – lawyers who have not only the reputation, but the relationships to build solid business." Articulating the impact that changes in technology and current client needs is having on the size of law firms is Janet Rudd, who leads strategic growth for Bass Burkhardt. "I think there’s a trend towards filling niches and finding people who can help your firm meet a need, whether that’s a business setting or a practice area," Rudd said. "If you’re a firm who builds off of those areas and goes out and stakes a claim in the market, that’s a really successful way to bring different people together." With mergers and new technology growing two of the biggest trends in Nashville’s legal industry, law firms will continue to make investments in their associates and senior attorneys in order to meet the demands of their clients. Wingo isn’t entirely sure what will happen to Bass Burkhardt in the next several years. "We’re still navigating how a lot of this is going to shake out and the reaction of clients," Wingo said. "We’re now getting to a point where we’re starting to see clients ask how it’s going to be that they’re going to create this synergy and how it’s going to be that you have an integrated firm. In some ways, no matter how they do it, it’s going to be artificial. When you have other firms doing it this way, you have to do it or else you’re going to be falling behind."
Careers With Nashville’s Biggest Law Firms
Career opportunities at large firms are often the most lucrative and plentiful. Millennials, who now comprise over a third of the workforce, are especially drawn to high-paying positions because they are paying off student loan debt. Traditionally, large law firms and corporate legal departments have recruited the largest percentage of law students nationwide because of their attractive salaries and because some law firms offer summer associates and second-year internships which allow those firms to groom potential future associates.
There is no shortage of career potential for large firm employment in Nashville because of the increased number of large firms in the area. This influx of firms has led to a statistical increase in the overall number of attorneys in Davidson County. These economic and social factors have made Nashville an attractive landing place for legal employment. According to the National Law Journal, Davidson County ranked 22nd nationally for law firms in its Most Popular Places to Practice. In North America, Tennessee was recently voted one of the most "highly rated states for career opportunities." There are several categories of career opportunities at large firms, including litigation support jobs, jobs for law school graduates, paralegals and law clerks.
Litigation support jobs are exactly what they sound like. Those in these positions support litigation services at these large law firms. Litigation support jobs are diverse and range from records management and billing to library services and courtroom technology. Litigation support positions require a wide variety of skills and experience. The best candidates for litigation support positions are flexible enough to handle different tasks that are both technical and non-technical.
Once employed as a paralegal in a large law firm, career opportunities abound. Paralegals act as liaisons between attorneys and clients, preparing legal documents to be filed for court cases. They also manage the scheduling of appointments and filing of paperwork. Serious paralegals can eventually go on to acquire jobs that offer more responsibility and autonomy such as those of project managers or legal administrators. As paralegals gain experience, they are given more responsibilities such as managing clients and overseeing files.
Law school graduates and newly admitted attorneys begin their legal careers in one of two places, either as a clerk or a junior associate. A law clerk differs from an associate in that clerks are more focused on independent research and their career stage is only temporary. On the other hand, junior associates are hired for their firm on a permanent basis. Jobs for law school graduates can be found in both public and private sectors of the legal field. Graduates may work for the federal government, for a judge, or they may go into private practice. If recent law school graduates are hired by a large law firm, they will start out working under a partner or associate to whom they will then report.
Law clerks typically do one year of legal work for a state supreme court or lower court, federal appellate court, or the supreme court. Their primary responsibility is conducting research and writing. Although most law school graduates work as judicial clerks for one year, they can use this experience for leverage to secure more desired positions in the private sector with large law firms. Large law firms usually offer offers summer associates or second-year internship positions for selected law school graduates. Summer associates and second-year interns are paid roughly half of what a first-year associate would be paid.
In general, the glory days of the legal field for large law firms are over, but these organizations still offer great salaries and on-the-job training for new attorneys.
Final Thoughts: Major Law Firms in Nashville
In the years to come, Nashville’s major law firms will likely continue to play a significant role in Tennessee’s legal landscape. The state is forecasted to experience modest economic growth, and with that, the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is expected to continue as one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities. Despite this, the future also shows considerable challenges to law firm leaders as they pressure-test their most recent strategic plans and track the progress of their newest initiatives . Additionally, rival firms are constantly searching for ways to differentiate their offerings and strengthen their practices even now.
Good grass-roots strategies will also be important to the goal and firm culture, as top talent acquisition will remain a necessity for any successful firm in coming years. As competition for top-of-the-line talent becomes more fierce, firms with a strong technology and social media presence should be well positioned in order to attract the next generation of top-flight legal talent.
