Smith, Currie & Hancock LLP (Smith Currie) announced the opening of it’s 10th office located in Nashville, Tennessee. Smith Currie is one of the nation’s most recognized construction and government contracts law firms. The expansion further broadens the firm’s footprint to provide legal counsel to construction, engineering, and other companies involved in public works projects, private commercial development ,and construction.
Smith Currie’s leadership team has been eyeing Nashville’s major growth during the last few years, as evidenced by Metro Nashville Codes and Building Safety Administration’s issuance of more than 14,000 building permits in 2021 valued at nearly $5.5 billion. The firm already represents a large number of clients based and/or conducting business in Tennessee.
The opening of the Nashville office is partially in response to that increase in growth in construction and development projects not only in Davidson County (Nashville). It also is a result of the overall Nashville Economic Market which includes Greater Nashville’s 9 surrounding counties. Those counties include:
- Cheatham
- Dickson
- Maury
- Montgomery
- Robertson
- Rutherford
- Sumner
- Williamson
- Wilson
“As a national construction industry law firm, Smith Currie’s partners and leadership team believe Nashville is ideally situated for continued, unprecedented development growth and our firm’s expansion to the city,” said Jeanne Harrison, an associate attorney with Smith Currie who moved from Atlanta, Georgia, to open and oversee the new Nashville office. Harrison, who is a native Tennessean, maintains a national-scope law practice focused on construction law that is rooted in Georgia and Tennessee.
Harrison will spearhead the new Smith Currie office in the downtown One Nashville Place building, from which she will work closely with the firm’s construction industry clients who are corporately located or have building projects in the state and region. She has made early inroads in the region, involving contract reviews for new construction projects, offering in-house training seminars and presentations, and opening project counsel opportunities for large commercial projects. Harrison, grew up in Murfreesboro, TN and earned a Doctor of Law (J.D.) and Master of Public Administration (M.P.A) from the University of Tennessee College of Law. She is also an active member of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), Nashville Chapter, among other Tennessee associations and organizations.
Associate attorney Alex Hoppestad will also be relocating from Smith Currie’s Atlanta office to Nashville this spring to join Harrison in servicing the firm’s area clients on the ground. Hoppestad is a native Tennessean and graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law.
Smith Currie partner Lochlin Samples, also a University of Tennessee College of Law graduate, will serve as resident partner for the Nashville office. Samples’ practice includes all aspects of construction law, government contracting, environmental law, and commercial litigation.
Five other Smith Currie attorneys are also licensed to practice law in Tennessee, yielding a strong presence and legal bench representation to address the needs of construction-focused businesses in the state. These attorneys include Bill Baggett, Phil Beck, Alex Jennings, Brent Laman, and Steven Stuart.
One of the primary functions for the Nashville attorneys will include drafting and negotiating project contracts for clients as a result of the region’s accelerated construction growth. Additionally the Smith Currie Nashville team will focus its practice in the areas of:
- construction law
- government contracting
- regulatory compliance
- general litigation, and
- alternative dispute resolution.
Additionally, they will represent construction project owners, construction managers, general contractors, major trade contractors, sureties, architects, and engineers in disputes involving:
- payments
- changes and extra work
- delay and impact claims,
- construction defects
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