K&L Gates Opens 25-Lawyer Nashville Office, Citing City’s Growth

K&L Gates has opened a Nashville office with 25 new lawyers, including 18 partners from Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis; Butler Snow; Dickinson Wright; and Bass, Berry & Sims.

Nashville’s significant growth in recent years largely drove the decision to open the office, said Mary Beth Johnston, the office’s managing partner and co-leader of the firm’s health care and FDA practice. The firm said it expects to expand there in coming months.

“Nashville’s status as a leading center for the health care industry of course creates significant and strategic synergies with our national health care practice,” Johnston said in a statement. “But the city’s strong growth in the technology, finance, construction, manufacturing, and related industries also provides many other outstanding opportunities.”

The partners at the new office cover practice areas including health care, litigation, corporate, intellectual property, finance, and construction.

Joining K&L Gates from Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis are health care partners Kim Looney, Stephen Page, Wells Beckett, and Ken Marlow, who served as chair of Waller’s health care practice.

Partners joining from Butler Snow include Adam Smith, Joseph Welborn III, Charles Malone, Jason Callen, Lauren Patten, Erin Palmer Polly, Robert Walker, Beau Creson, and David Bartz.

The new group also includes former Dickinson Wright partners Jack R. (Rob) Dodson III, Slade Sevier, Emma Wolfe, Ryan Lee; and former Bass, Berry & Sims partner R. Gregory Parker.

K&L Gates has observed Nashville’s growth “with keen interest in recent years,” Craig Budner, the firm’s global strategic growth partner, said in a statement.

Companies with headquarters or significant operations in Nashville include Amazon.com Inc., Bridgestone Americas, Community Health Systems, iHeartMedia, HCA Healthcare, and Nissan North America, according to the region’s chamber of commerce.