John T. Blankenship

Founding Member

Practice Areas: Construction; Commercial; Real Estate; Arbitration; Mediation; Business Law

Admitted: 1977, Tennessee; 1978, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee; U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit; 2003, U.S. Supreme Court

Law School:  University of Missouri College of Law, LLM, Alternative Dispute Resolution, 2009;  University of Tennessee, J.D., 1977

College: Middle Tennessee State University, B.S., 1973

John T. Blankenship's Curriculum Vitae

Member: Rutherford/Cannon County (President, 1997) and Tennessee Bar Associations; Christian Legal Society; American Arbitration Association; Andrew Jackson American Inn of Court (President, 2003-2005); College of Commercial Arbitrators; Tennessee Association of Construction Counsel; Phi Delta Phi.

Affiliations:  Approved Rule 31 Mediator, Tennessee Supreme Court; Member, Panel of Arbitrators, American Arbitration Association; Member, College of Commercial Arbitrators.

Awards: Recipient, Richard F. Laroche, Sr., Pro Bono Award, 2003; AV Preeminent® rating from Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings

Items of Interest

John and Pat met in 1976 while they were both attending the University of Tennessee College of Law.  Upon graduation, they moved to Nashville and were married in January, 1979.  At the time, John was in solo practice on Gallatin Road in Inglewood, his home neighborhood.  Pat joined the firm and began to work with John in the private practice of law.

They are the proud parents of four children, all of whom are artists.  Oldest child, Katie, graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, and most recently, from New York University with a Masters Degree in the arts and humanities.  Her Master’s thesis focused on the formation and operation of non-profit arts organizations.  She is a singer and a songwriter, and the “front” woman for an all girls blue grass band known as The Havens.  She plays both the guitar and the banjo.  You can hear her music at myspace.com/TheHavensBrooklyn.

Second child, Ben, graduated from The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Works, and currently lives in Portland, Oregon where he works as a commercial editor, videographer, photographer, and filmmaker.  He works at Bent Image Labs and owns and operates his own media works company, Blackbird Media.  He is the drummer in a band called Oceana.  He also plays the guitar and the keyboard and writes music.  You can hear his music at his myspace.com/________.  He also played drums in a band with his brother, Joe, when they both lived in Olympia, known as Bare Knuckle Bear, and you can hear their music at myspace.com/Bare Knuckle Bear.

Third child, Joe, has completed two years of college at The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, studying experimental theatre, puppetry, and recording arts among other things, but he recently moved back to Tennessee and is living in Nashville.  He is enrolled at Nashville State Community College, works in the food industry to support his music habit, and is the front man, singer, and songwriter for his band, Shoot the Mountain.  Shoot the Mountain was recently featured on the cover of The Nashville Scene and appeared in Next Big Nashville music festival in 2008.  Joe plays lead guitar.  He also has experience in community theatre, professional theatre, film and improvisational comedy, and is happiest when he is on stage.  You can hear his music at myspace.com/Bare Knuckle Bear and myspace.com/Shoot the Mountain.

Molly rounds out the family as the 4th child.  She is 15 years old and is attending high school at Urban Academy Laboratory High School in Manhattan, where she is a freshman.  She has chosen to attend high school in New York City so that she can pursue training in acting and theatre arts.  She has been performing on stage since she was a baby, and has chosen the theatre and acting as her life’s work, and she is anxious to get started!  She attended a month-long acting workshop at The Atlantic Theatre in Manhattan during the summer of 2008, and will continue studying there as an extra-curricular activity.  She also plays softball and writes music, sings and plays the guitar.

The kids are not the only ones who like to be on stage though.  They come by it honestly, as their dad, John, is a pretty big ham himself.  He can often be found on stage acting, singing and dancing, or picking and grinning with his bluegrass/country music buddies.  He plays guitar, banjo and mandolin, and can be found on stage at the Cannon County Arts Center, Murfreesboro Center for the Arts, or most recently at The City Café where he participates in a jam session every Saturday morning that is open to the public.  He serves as a board member for the Murfreesboro Rutherford County Arts Center.

John T. Blankenship's Curriculum Vitae