Charles K. Grant, a shareholder in the Nashville office of Baker Donelson, received the Nashville Bar Association John C. Tune Public Service Award on December 9, 2021, at the bar association's annual membership meeting.
The John C. Tune Public Service Award is given to the Nashville Bar Association member 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.
The award, which is the bar association's highest honor bestowed upon a member and is only given when someone is deserving, recognizes members who make outstanding contributions to the greater Nashville area community, while distinguishing themselves as practicing attorneys.
Mr. Grant is a veteran litigator who has tried more than 50 jury trials to verdict in both federal and state courts, and he has represented numerous clients in mediation and arbitration proceedings across more than a dozen states. He is a past member of the Advisory Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Tennessee Supreme Court and the Tennessee Supreme Court Disciplinary Hearing Committee, District V.
Mr. Grant's leadership roles in the legal industry have included serving as president of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, the Nashville Bar Association, and the Napier-Looby Bar Association. He is former chair of the Tennessee Bar Association Diversity Summit Committee, and for the Nashville Bar Association served as co-chair of the Employment Law and Civil Rights Committee and chair of the Judicial Incumbent and Candidate Evaluation Committee.
Mr. Grant's numerous honors include the Napier-Looby Bar Association Trailblazer Award as well as its A.A. Birch Outstanding Public Service Award, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee's Bruce Kramer Cooperating Attorney Award, and the Tennessee Bar Association Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Award. Baker Donelson has recognized him with its Nashville Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award, its Firm-wide Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award, and its Barry Ford Diversity Award. He has been listed in Mid-South Super Lawyers since 2006 in the area of Employment Litigation Defense and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the areas of Employment Law – Litigation, Employment Law – Management, and Commercial Litigation.
In 2010, Mr. Grant co-produced "Civil Disobedience and the Rule of Law: The Nashville Sit-ins and Lessons in Courage," which is a dramatization of the 1960 Nashville Sit-in Trials sponsored by the Nashville Bar Association, the Napier-Looby Bar Association, and the Nashville Bar Foundation.