Thomas W. Shumate IV

Mark Smith’s clients include hospitals, doctors and other health care providers throughout the state of Tennessee. He handles the defense of medical negligence claims and suits involving allegations of wrongful death and catastrophic injuries with the potential for significant financial exposure. Other practice areas include general, commercial, estate and appellate litigation, as well as high-exposure plaintiff’s personal injury cases. Mark has practiced law 32 years, including m...

Cornell Kennedy is an experienced healthcare and corporate attorney who provides counsel tailored to the unique needs of specialty practitioners, such as dentists, veterinarians, and chiropractors, as well as to other general corporate clients he represents. Cornell appreciates that healthcare is not a monolithic industry and understands that effective representation requires understanding the nuanced business and legal challenges that vary across the broad healthcare landscape. In his health...

John Rodgers helps employers solve their employment-related problems. His practice is three-fold. First, he counsels clients on the numerous situations that can arise related to their employees, including termination and disciplinary decisions, reasonable accommodation issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), wage-and-hour issues under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state law, and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) problems. His goal is to work with clients in a pract...

Kevin Campbell's practice focuses exclusively on the representation of health care providers in transactional, regulatory and operational matters. Kevin’s clients include providers and companies in a number of sectors of the health care industry, but with a particular emphasis on representation of acute care hospitals, including both for profit hospital chains and nonprofit hospitals systems. Kevin also routinely works with large physician practices and other physician organizations. Ke...

Ryan D. Levy is the managing shareholder at Patterson Intellectual Property Law and co-chairs the firm’s Litigation Practice Group. He is an accomplished litigation attorney focusing on complex patent disputes in a variety of technologies, including industrial and automotive machinery, chemical, medical devices, and software ranging from web-based protocols to automated detection systems. Ryan has a wide range of litigation experience before federal district courts, the U.S. Internation...

Lisa Helton’s practice areas include estate and trust litigation, appellate practice, general and commercial litigation, environmental litigation, landlord/tenant law, representation of homeowners and homeowner associations (HOAs) in HOA disputes, and IRS tax litigation and controversy. Lisa was recognized by Best Lawyers ® as the 2025 “Lawyer of the Year” in Nashville for Trust and Estate Litigation and as the 2023 “Lawyer of the Year” in Nashville for both ...

David Taylor has for nearly 30 years been a commercial litigator, with an emphasis on construction and real estate dispute resolution. David has a national construction practice representing all participants in the construction industry, and has tried cases and disputes all across the United States. He has a national "neutrals" practice, and has been chosen more than 300 times by lawyers all over the country to help them either settle their clients’ disputes through mediation, or to ren...

Derek Crownover is a recognized leader in the music, entertainment, sports and media industries, counseling publishing companies, independent record labels, singers and songwriters who own their copyrights, and music publishing administration companies on licensing, liability matters and related litigation. He also counsels clients on recording agreements, employment agreements, LLC funding deals, real estate deals, asset purchase agreements and trusts and estates matters. In addition to his ...

Kris Kemp advises public and private companies on strategic merger and acquisition transactions, securities offerings, and compliance matters. He works closely with private equity firms, portfolio companies and venture-backed companies on investments, recapitalizations and other transactions. His corporate practice also includes providing capital structure advice to emerging and growth companies. Kris is ranked in Band 1 for Corporate/M&A in Tennessee by Chambers USA , one of only three a...