Spencer Fane Bone McAllester attorney Trace Blankenship was honored to host Dr. Alex Jahangir, a distinguished trauma surgeon and fellow Leadership Nashville classmate, for “A Conversation Among Friends” and book signing at the firm’s Nashville office.
Dr. Jahangir’s experiences as the volunteer board chair of the Metropolitan Board of Health—which included navigating a health crisis amid ethnic, racial, and cultural tensions—are detailed in his newly-released memoir, Hot Spot: A Doctor’s Diary From the Pandemic. Event attendees each received a signed copy. During the event, Trace interviewed Dr. Jahangir about his role as the unexpected leader of Nashville’s Coronavirus Task Force, and Dr. Jahangir shared memorable stories and observations about this historic and unusual time in the city’s history. Guests also enjoyed a candid Q&A session and a cocktail reception.
Trace and Dr. Jahangir were both selected for Leadership Nashville’s program in 2022. Leadership Nashville is an independent leadership education program that fosters a diverse network of business, nonprofit, education, and government leaders. Each year, 44 leaders are selected from hundreds of nominees and over 250 applications to experience an unbiased view of Metro Nashville Davidson County, opening their eyes to realities beyond the zip codes where they live and work. The year-long series of classes explores pressing issues in Nashville involving government, criminal justice, education, social services, transportation, business, religion, race relations, urban planning, media, and the arts. This comprehensive view of the city allows program alumni to address community challenges and opportunities. The class includes native Nashvillians and people who have moved to the city in executive leadership positions. Participants are educators, doctors, bankers, artists, corporate and nonprofit senior executives, rabbis, ministers, lawyers, and representatives of labor, public service, international communities, and the volunteer sector.
In addition to Trace, there are several more Leadership Nashville alumni at Spencer Fane; these include Charles W. Bone, James Crumlin, Stacey Garrett Koju, Jack Stringham, and Stephen Zralek.
At the firm, Trace regularly advises entrepreneurial founders, CEOs, boards, and senior management of public and private companies on strategy and execution of complex mergers and acquisitions, capitalization at all stages (including VC financings, securities offerings, leveraged buy-outs, and company re-caps), as well as tough governance issues. He’s been called in as independent special counsel for boards and committees and often helps companies navigate difficult investor controversies, founder transitions, and board functionality. In addition to speaking engagements and training seminars for boards in numerous industries, he’s a long-time faculty member of Nashville’s Young Leaders Council and annually trains over 150 young professionals in best governance practices for boards of directors.
Learn more about Trace’s practice here.