The Honorable Lew Conner - truly a lawyer for all seasons
For a significant part of seven decades, Lew Conner has been a giant of the Nashville bar - first as a trial lawyer, next a highly respected Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge, then an arbitrator for half a century and finally, for the last 25 years, one of the fathers of mediation in Tennessee.
After a 30-plus year career as a very successful trial lawyer, Judge of the Middle Section of the Tennessee Court of Appeals and arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, Lew became a widely sought-after mediator, being one of the first in Middle Tennessee to recognize the value of mediation as a leading dispute resolution tool in the early 1990s. He not only helped put mediation on the map in Tennessee, but also to move it to the forefront of dispute resolution here with an extremely high success rate.
In addition to his legal career, Lew has been a leader of the Tennessee Republican Party, extremely active in charitable causes, particularly the Boys & Girls Club, and multiple religious, educational, cultural and community organizations, especially his alma mater, Vanderbilt. Finally, he has been heavily involved with the game of golf in Tennessee for more than 50 years as a championship player, senior administrator and benefactor with an emphasis in the latter categories on junior golf. He is a member of both the Tennessee Golf and Vanderbilt Sports Halls of Fame.
The trust clients feel when working with Lew derives not only from his vast experience but also from his sharp mind and business-like approach. With his evaluative mediation style, Lew brings candor, empathy, and integrity to the resolution table, thereby gaining the confidence of all parties that he will exhaust every possible avenue to fairly resolve a given dispute. Whether representing clients before an adjudicative body or serving as an arbitrator or mediator in a complex business case, Lew repeatedly finds a successful resolution for those relying upon him. Over the last quarter of a century, Lew has conducted some 850 mediations with a success rate exceeding 85%.
Since 1971 he has served as a neutral panelist in over 50 arbitrations, most large, complex AAA arbitrations and as an advocate in numerous other disputes in the court system as well as serving as a jurist on the Tennessee Court of Appeals from 1980-84 and as a Special Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1979-80. He began his career as a trial lawyer in private practice in Nashville in 1966 after serving as a prosecutor for the U.S. Army, 101st Airborne Division, Ft. Campbell, Ky. for some 2.5 years after he graduated third in his class from Vanderbilt University Law School.
His professional specialties have included:
- Mediation and arbitration
- Complex business litigation
- Domestic disputes
- Construction and real estate litigation
- General litigation