Epstein Becker Green, five years after opening an office in Nashville, Tenn., is counting on its health care strength to fend off Big Law rivals in the now-hot legal market.
The office has grown to roughly a dozen lawyers and the firm Nov. 1 announced its hire of John Tishler, who counsels creditors and debtors in bankruptcy proceedings in health care, from local firm Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis.
Epstein Becker is moving from its temporary location in the city to new space in the South Gulch neighborhood with quick access to major health systems. Doubling the firm’s size in Nashville is a “very doable proposition” in the near future, said Mark Lutes, chair of the firm’s board of directors. …
Nashville had the most economic growth of any large US metropolitan area in 2021, according to Stessa Inc., a real estate investment company that analyzed data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US Census Bureau and Redfin.
“You have this combination of things going on here in Nashville that have created quite the boom economy,” said Tishler, who led Waller Lansden from 2008 to 2014.
Healthcare Haven
Nashville is home to more than 500 healthcare companies that do business nationally and internationally and generate more than $92 billion in revenue annually. The headquarters of 17 publicly traded healthcare companies are in the area, which supports more than 570,000 healthcare jobs.
“It is the Silicon Valley of for-profit healthcare,” said Christopher Dunn, leader of Epstein Becker’s healthcare construction team, who joined Epstein Becker in January from Waller Lansden. …
Epstein Becker is using its existing healthcare clients to gain a foothold in the competitive market, said Nashville-based Barbara Mayden, a former Big Law attorney turned legal recruiter at Young Mayden.
“Where it would have been very hard for them to break into a big way to the Nashville market 20 years ago, all of a sudden, they can do it,” she said.
Epstein Becker also specializes in labor and employment and commercial litigation.