KBA President Wayne R. Kramer presided over the Annual Meeting of the Knoxville Bar Association on Friday, December 9, 2016. More than 250 lawyers and judges were in attendance. Mr. Kramer announced that the following KBA members were elected as officers for 2017: Keith Burroughs – President-Elect; Wynne Caffey-Knight – Treasurer; and Hanson Tipton - Secretary. The membership elected the following KBA members to the four open positions on the Board of Governors: Dwight L. Aarons, Kathryn St. Clair Ellis, Stephen Ross Johnson and Mary D. Miller. Amanda M. Busby assumed the presidency of the Knoxville Bar Association at the close of the meeting.
Amanda M. Busby is a founding member of the law firm of Anderson Busby PLLC. She graduated from Lambuth University in Jackson, Tennessee with a BBA in marketing and received an MBA and her law degree from the University of Tennessee. She is active in many organizations, both related to the law and community. Ms. Busby was a founding member of the Rocky Hill Elementary School Foundation. She serves on the Executive Council of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Health Law Section. She is an active member of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension where she has served as the Senior Warden and is currently the Chair of its Endowment Committee. Ms. Busby, along with her law partner, Adrienne Anderson, and their law firm, were named 2016 Attorneys for Justice by the Tennessee Supreme Court for each providing over 50 hours of pro bono services during the prior calendar year. Ms. Busby’s primary practice areas include health care, corporate law, business transactions and litigation, estate planning, and probate.
In her remarks to Members of the Knoxville Bar Association at its annual meeting, Ms. Busby thanked the members of the bar association for their continued commitment of service to the KBA and to the people of our community in need of legal services. She emphasized the importance of attorney involvement in the activities of their local bar association 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.
Mark Stephens was presented the highest award of the Knoxville Bar Association, the prestigious Governor’s Award. The Governors’ Award is given each year to a lawyer whose peers believe to have brought distinction and honor to the legal profession. A 1979 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, Mark began his legal career in private practice before serving as an assistant district attorney. He was elected Public Defender in 1990 and is the only elected Public Defender Knox County has ever had! Under Mark’s direction, the Public Defender’s Office has achieved national acclaim for its innovative approach to criminal representation and efforts to reduce recidivism. Mr. Stephens is a worthy recipient of the Knoxville Bar Association’s Governors’ Award for his enduring, faithful and distinguished service to the community.
The Presidents’ Awards for 2016 were presented to Chancellor John Weaver and Garry Ferraris for their outstanding service as Chairs of the Professionalism Committee. Nick McCall was recognized with the DICTA Award for Outstanding Writing for his Last Word column in the Association’s monthly magazine.
Samantha Parris was introduced as President of the Knoxville Barristers, the Young Lawyers Division of the Knoxville Bar Association and it was announced that Mikel Towe and Elizabeth Towe were presented the Barristers’ Presidents’ Awards.