The American Bar Association Business Law Section has appointed Davidson County Chancellor Anne C. Martin as a Business Court Representative for 2022-2024. Chancellor Martin was selected, along with one other judge in the United States, as a judge who presides over a court consisting primarily of complex business and commercial litigation.
“I am honored to be selected and value the opportunity to network with other business court judges as well as business litigators from different parts of the country,” said Chancellor Martin. “I look forward to continuing to share with those colleagues how we are operating the Business Court Pilot Project in Tennessee and to learn from them what they are doing in their states that could be incorporated here. Additionally, the deep exposure to complex business litigation developments in specific areas of the law will assist me in handling these types of matters for Tennessee litigants.”
The program is designed to provide educational opportunities to judges on cutting-edge business law developments and provide Business Law Section members with exposure to judicial leaders in order to obtain their input on those same developments, and gain their insights and perspectives on business and commercial litigation.
“The Business and Corporate Litigation Committee, to which I am attached, is very active and has many lawyers and judges with diverse interests participating,” said Chancellor Martin. “There are subcommittees focused on white collar crime, business divorce and torts, securities litigation and derivative actions, and any other business litigation subtopic you can imagine. Participation is providing me a tremendous opportunity for exposure to litigators and judges handling and hearing cutting edge business matters across the country.”
One goal of the program is to use ABA communities and other communication means available through the Judicial Division, National Conference of State Trial Judges, the Business and Commercial Court Judges Committee and the American College of Business Court Judges to inform judges of the activities of the Business Law Section relevant to them, and opportunities open to them to participate in Section activities. Chancellor Martin recently attended the Spring Business Law Section meeting in Seattle, Washington, as a newly appointed Business Court Representative.
“I have just returned from my first meeting so am considering the best way to do this,” said Chancellor Martin. “One possibility is to prepare a newsletter or memorandum regarding the substantive legal issues discussed, as well as trends and other topics of interest that arise at the meetings. The meetings are a combination of subcommittee conferences to discuss upcoming programming and mechanisms for communicating with members, as well as continuing legal education programs on complex and business litigation subjects. For instance, there was a program in Seattle on crypto currency, smart contracts and blockchain transactions. Another session involved recent developments in directors and officers liability litigation and Delaware law, as well as handling media requests in high profile trials.”
Chancellor Martin is already thinking ahead to the next Business Law Section meeting, which is taking place in Chicago in September.
“I signed up to participate in several of the subcommittees and anticipate being asked to participate in some of the substantive panels at upcoming meetings,” she said.
Anne C. Martin is judge of Part II of the Chancery Court of Davidson County, Tennessee, and has served as a chancellor since September 2018. Effective November 1, 2019, the Tennessee Supreme Court appointed Chancellor Martin as the Business Court Docket Pilot Project judge for the State of Tennessee. Chancellor Martin earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Smith College in 1989 and her Juris Doctorate from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1992.