 | |
| Headquarters | Nashville City Center Nashville, Tennessee |
|---|---|
| No. of offices | 5 total |
| No. of attorneys | 250 |
| Major practice areas | General practice |
| Key people | Matt Burnstein, Chairman. [1] |
| Date founded | 1905 |
| Founder | John Pitts & K.T. McConnico |
| Company type | Limited liability partnership |
| Website | wallerlaw.com |
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP (often simply Waller) is a large U.S. law firm in Nashville, Tennessee with other offices in the Southern United States.
As the oldest law firm in Nashville, Waller traces its roots back to the Nashville, Tennessee firm of Pitts & McConnico, founded in April 1905 [2] in Nashville, Tennessee by John Pitts [3] and K.T. McConnico. [4] McConnico was one of the attorneys who represented the state when John T. Scopes filed an appeal with the Tennessee Supreme Court of his famous conviction in the Scopes Monkey Trial for teaching evolution in a public school.
The current firm, headquartered in Nashville City Center, is the result of growth and a series of mergers with firms throughout the Southern United States. [5] The firm maintains additional offices in Tennessee, Alabama and Texas. The firm's early growth resulted from its handling of about 90 percent of the corporate securities work in Tennessee in 1950 through its relationships with Equitable Securities Company and J.C. Bradford & Co.
With a reputation as having one of the top healthcare law practices in the nation, [6] the firm also has attorneys engaged in corporate, mergers & acquisitions, labor and employment, real estate, bankruptcy, intellectual property, private equity and tax law.
Waller is a member of the World Services Group, an international professional services network of independent law, accounting and investment banking firms.
Waller represented Nissan Motor Corp. in its move to Tennessee and then later worked in securing the site for General Motors Corp.'s Saturn plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
Waller also helped start Surgical Care Affiliates and Logan's Roadhouse organize their respective initial public offerings.
When famed entrepreneur Jack Massey co-founded Hospital Corporation of America with Thomas F. Frist, Sr. and Thomas F. Frist, Jr. [7] in 1968, he personally selected Waller to assist with the company's incorporation and later complete many healthcare mergers and acquisitions for several decades as it became the nation's largest chain of for-profit hospitals [8]
William Harrison Frist is an American physician, businessman, conservationist and policymaker who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1995 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as Senate Majority Leader from 2003 to 2007. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Frist studied government and health care policy at Princeton University and earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard Medical School. He trained as a cardiothoracic transplant surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine, and later founded the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. In 1994, he defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Jim Sasser.
John Jay Hooker, Jr. was an American attorney, entrepreneur, political gadfly and perennial candidate from Nashville, Tennessee, who was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Tennessee in 1970 and 1998.
James Hayes Shofner Cooper is an American lawyer, businessman, professor, and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee's 5th congressional district from 2003 to 2023. He is a Southern Democrat and was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, and represented Tennessee's 4th congressional district from 1983 to 1995. His district included all of Nashville. He chaired the United States House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the House Armed Services Committee, and sat on the Committee on Oversight and Reform, United States House Committee on the Budget, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, more committees than any other member of Congress. At the end of his tenure, he was also the dean of Tennessee's congressional delegation. Cooper is the third-longest serving member of Congress ever from Tennessee, after Jimmy Quillen and B. Carroll Reece.
HCA Healthcare, Inc. is an American for-profit operator of health care facilities that was founded in 1968. It is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and, as of May 2020, owned and operated 186 hospitals and approximately 2,400 sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding emergency rooms, urgent care centers and physician clinics in 20 states and the United Kingdom. As of 2024, HCA Healthcare is ranked #61 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
Paul G. Summers served as attorney general of the state of Tennessee, United States, from 1999 through September 2006. He previously served as a Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals (1990–1999) and as a District Attorney.
Nashville City Center is a 27-story Class A office tower in Nashville with 480,000 square feet of commercial office space and 800 structured parking spaces. Designed by The Stubbins Associates, Inc., the building was completed in 1988. The logo for First Horizon Bank is at its peak.
Jack Carroll Massey was an American venture capitalist and entrepreneur who owned Kentucky Fried Chicken, co-founded the Hospital Corporation of America, and owned one of the largest franchisees of Wendy's. He was the first American businessman to take three different companies public.
Thomas Fearn Frist was an American physician and businessman who co-founded the Hospital Corporation of America.
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz P.C. is a large U.S. law firm and lobbying group with offices in the Southeastern United States and Washington, D.C. The firm was co-founded by James F. Baker, the father of Republican Representative Howard Baker Sr. and grandfather of Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker Jr.
Justin Potter Wilson is an American lawyer and Republican politician who was the 34th Comptroller of the Treasury of Tennessee. He has been Tennessee deputy governor, a federal judicial nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School.
Joe M. Rodgers was an American construction company executive and political operative who served as the United States Ambassador to France.
Brett Carter was the 2010 Democratic nominee for the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee's 6th congressional district. He is an attorney at Carter Shelton, PLC, where he practices tax law with his partners, Brian Shelton and Warner Jones. He has also practiced law at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Nashville, Tennessee. He is an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran.
Thomas Fearn Frist Jr. is an American billionaire physician and businessman. He is a co-founder of HCA Healthcare, and is the wealthiest person in Tennessee.
Mike Stewart is an American politician from the state of Tennessee. He was a Democratic member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, representing the 52nd district. Stewart was the chair of the Tennessee House Democratic Caucus.
Richard M. Bracken is an American businessman. He was the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Hospital Corporation of America, the largest for-profit healthcare provider in the world, from January 2009 to December 2013.
Waverly David Crenshaw Jr. is a United States federal judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Thomas F. Frist III is an American heir, businessman, investor and philanthropist from Tennessee. He is the Founder and Managing Principal of Frist Capital, an investment firm.
William R. Frist is an American heir, businessman, investor and philanthropist from Tennessee.
Dick Latta Lansden was a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1910 to 1923. He served as chief justice from 1918 to 1923.
Charles A. Elcan, also known as Chuck Elcan, is an American business executive. He is the co-founder and president of the China Health Care Corporation.