Knoxville Chapter August Meeting

As a senior manager within PYA's valuation services group, Matt provides business valuation and related advisory services for a variety of entities, including physician practice groups, joint ventures, hospitals, and health systems. He has significant experience evaluating compensation and service arrangements between health facilities and physicians. Additionally, he provides litigation consulting services related to lost profits, merger-and-acquisition transactions, wrongful termination, and marital dissolution matters.

Tracy Edmundson has represented both large and small business clients, in private practice and most recently as General Counsel/Chief Legal Officer at a mid-market medical device manufacturer and distributor. In addition to advising on all legal matters impacting the business, Tracy also managed the Quality Assurance/Regulatory Affairs and Safety/Risk Management departments. He is a licensed Patent Attorney and routinely counsels clients on strategies in protection, transactions and potential litigation related to intellectual property assets and, guides them on how to minimize the intellectual property risks associated with such activities. He also takes a particular interest in the product realization process and his clients' electronic presence on the web and in social media.

Tracy's knowledge of business operations and management allows him to integrate solid legal advice into his clients' business and financial objectives. As a legal advisor, Tracy's primary objective is to identify a client’s primary business objectives and strategies, while utilizing his legal expertise to facilitate the implementation of those strategies in order to achieve the client’s objectives. His experience includes providing legal advice and ongoing corporate support for the establishment of holding companies and operating entities in the Netherlands, Ireland, the U.K., Hong Kong, China, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Tracy has routinely worked with in-house and private practice counsel in the formation and leadership of the Knoxville Bar Association’s Corporate Counsel Section, and has been a speaker in numerous seminars relating to business law, litigation and intellectual property. He also routinely speaks at the University Of Tennessee College Of Law in the Technology Law course with regard to the legal implications of the product realization process and has taught contract drafting at U.T. as an adjunct professor. He has also voluntarily advised businesses in the incubator stage with respect to regulatory and intellectual property issues. In addition to his legal practice, Tracy is active in the community. He has recently served on the Vestry and as Senior Warden at The Episcopal Church of the Ascension and led the parish through the retirement of its Rector and the hiring of his replacement. He also volunteers with several service ministries at Ascension and with FISH Hospitality Pantries in Knoxville.

Keith Burroughs is a shareholder of Egerton McAfee Armistead & Davis, PC, in Knoxville. Previously, Keith was a founding member of the Knoxville law firm of Burroughs, Collins & Newcomb, PLC. After obtaining his Bachelor's Degree with a major in Accounting in 1984 and his Masters of Accountancy with concentration in Taxation in 1985 from the U.T. College of Business, Keith obtained his Law Degree from the U.T. College of Law in 1990. His practice is concentrated in the areas of estate planning and probate, taxation and business organization, sales and acquisitions and estate and trust litigation. Keith is a member of the American, Tennessee and Knoxville Bar Associations and in 2018 was President of the Knoxville Bar Association. Keith has served on the Board of the Knoxville Bar Association, American Red Cross, East Tennessee Regional Chapter, St. Mary's Foundation Board, the Helen Ross McNabb Foundation, East Tennessee Foundation and the Wesley House Community Center Board.

John assists technology companies and companies using technology with outsourcing arrangements, licensing agreements, privacy issues, reseller agreements, entity formation, and various other matters. John also actively advises companies on trademark, trade secret, and copyright law.

Prior to attending law school, John worked for 14 years in the computer software industry. He worked for IBM before joining startup company NetIQ/Ganymede Software in Raleigh, where he held various programming and managerial positions. He and his family then moved to Calabasas, California, where John held a directorial position at Ixia, an IP performance testing corporation.

Penny Arning received her undergraduate degree from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and returned home to East Tennessee for law school. While at the University of Tennessee College of Law, Penny served as a student editor of the Tennessee Law Review, a member of the National Trial Team, and as a member of the Moot Court Board. Penny is a member of the Knoxville and Tennessee Bar Associations and is a past President of the Hamilton Burnett American Inn of Court. Prior to joining Egerton McAfee, Penny served as a judicial law clerk to two federal district judges for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Judge Thomas A. Varlan and Judge Thomas W. Phillips, and worked as a Staff Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. While in practice and while working for the federal court system, Penny has been an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law, teaching Legal Research and Pretrial Litigation. Penny represents employers in all aspects of employment law, including representation before state and federal courts and administrative agencies. Penny works with employers to craft workplace policies and procedures that comply with current law and are effective in practice. She particularly enjoys helping clients find practical solutions to employment issues in the workplace and implementing proactive steps to avoid litigation. Penny's practice involves all issues that affect the workplace such as employment discrimination, workplace harassment, retaliation, whistleblower claims, wage and hour claims, workplace leave, and enforcement of non-compete agreements.

Allison Jackson joined the Egerton, McAfee as an experienced litigator, having represented individuals and businesses in both state and federal courts throughout East Tennessee. Allison now assists her clients with a range of range of dispute resolution-related matters, including providing legal counsel to avoid and resolve anticipated or existing disputes, assisting with the maintenance and enforcement of rights, and handling the prosecution and defense of civil cases. She has primary responsibility for the prosecution and defense of labor and employment, construction and lien, business and commercial, and trust, estate, and probate cases filed in federal and state court, and those pending before AAA, JAMS, the United States Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, National Labor Relations Board, the Tennessee Human Rights Commission, the Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs, and the State of Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors.

Ms. Jackson also helps clients comply with federal and state law by developing and implementing employment policies and procedures; reviewing and preparing forms, handbooks, and employment agreements; assisting with the understanding of employee benefits and rights; directing and conducting investigations; performing terminations and layoffs; reviewing and preparing construction-related agreements; preserving and enforcing lien rights; assisting with contractor licensure and compliance; and evaluation and correction of conforming and non-conforming work.

Allison graduated cum laude from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with a B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in Public Administration. She earned her J.D. from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where she graduated cum laude with a concentration in Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. While a student at the College of Law, Allison earned Certificates of Academic Excellence in Business Associations, Pretrial Litigation, and Interviewing and Counseling. She also served as a Student Materials Editor for the Tennessee Law Review and as a student-attorney for the University of Tennessee Legal Clinic.

Allison is active in a number of professional and community organizations. Those affiliations follow: American Bar Association; Tennessee Bar Association (Litigation Section Executive Committee 2021 - Present; Vice President); Tennessee Bar Association Leadership Law (2019); Knoxville Bar Association (Board of Governors 2019 - 2022; Barristers President 2020 - 2021); Tennessee Lawyers' Association for Women (Recording Secretary 2020 - 2021; Board of Directors 2018 - Present; ETLAW Representative 2018 - 2020; Vice President 2022 - 2024; President); East Tennessee Lawyers’ Association for Women (President 2020 - 2021; Board of Directors 2017 - 2022; Membership Chair 2017 - 2019); Hamilton Burnett American Inn of Court; Tennessee Defense Lawyers Association; Tennessee Association of Construction Counsel; Nucleus Knoxville; Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Parishioner; Sacred Heart Cathedral School Homeroom Representative; Alpha Delta Pi Alumnae Association.