Lew Conner to Receive 2015 John C. Tune Public Service Award From the Nashville Bar Association

NASHVILLE, TN--(Marketwired - Nov 30, 2015) - In recognition of more than 50 years of service to both the legal profession and the Middle Tennessee community, Waller attorney and mediator Lew Conner will be presented the John C. Tune Public Service Award at the Nashville Bar Association's annual meeting and banquet on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015 at the Music City Center in Nashville.

The John C. Tune Public Service Award is presented by the Board of Directors of the Nashville Bar Association to the member of the Association who has shown the highest degree of dedication not only to his or her work as a lawyer but to the betterment of the community in which he or she lives. Because the award is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a member, it is not necessarily given annually, but only when someone is deserving of the award.

"This is the pinnacle of my professional career.  It is a deeply gratifying and unbelievably humbling experience.  I had the privilege of knowing John Tune well," Conner said. "He was a tremendous lawyer and an even better person who was in the middle of so many important community initiatives. To be mentioned on the same page as Mr. Tune is the highest honor I can imagine."

After graduating from the Vanderbilt School of Law in 1963 Conner spent three years as a J.A.G.C. officer with the 101^st Airborne Division prosecuting over 100 general courts martial. Following his honorable discharge from the Airborne, Conner spent 45 years as a Nashville litigation attorney and four years as a judge on the Tennessee Court of Appeals. He also served as Chief Justice of the Special Supreme Court when the validity of the then existing court was challenged in 1979. In the early 1990s he became a trailblazer in bringing mediation to Tennessee as a viable alternative to trial in the resolution of disputes. Since that time Conner has successfully mediated more than 800 disputes as mediation entered the mainstream of dispute resolution in Tennessee. Last year when three Tennessee Supreme Court justices faced a retention election, Conner was a leader in organizing the members of the bar statewide in bipartisan support of retaining the justices. The justices were ultimately supported by 93% of the bar, and all three justices were reelected in a landslide. Conner, along with the involved justices and many other members of the bar, viewed the results as a reaffirmation by Tennessee voters for an independent judiciary.