Faculty Profile: Trace Blankenship

The Nashville Business Journal has said, "If one of Trace Blankenship's clients has a big decision to make, you can bet he has a seat at the table." Trace is a partner at Spencer Fane Bone McAllester in the corporate and business transactions practice. He regularly advises entrepreneurial founders, CEOs, boards, and senior management of public and private companies on strategy and execution of complex mergers and acquisitions, capitalization at all stages (including VC financings, securities offerings, leveraged buy-outs, and company re-caps), as well as tough governance issues. He's been called in as independent special counsel for boards and committees and often helps companies navigate difficult investor controversies, founder transitions, and board functionality.

He was one of the initial members of Bone McAllester Norton PLLC, serving on the board as firm general counsel for 19 years and providing leadership on growth strategy, firm governance, compliance, and risk management. He frequently leads seminars for boards and CEOs on common-sense strategies for effective leadership through high-integrity governance. He has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America since 2014 for mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and nonprofit matters and has been selected in multiple years for the Nashville Business Journal's Best of the Bar for mergers and acquisitions and banking and finance expertise, most recently in 2023.

A Nashville native, Trace has served on or chaired the boards of several nonprofit organizations and has been involved with alumni leadership of The Oak Hill School, Brentwood Academy, and Williams College. He’s a graduate of Leadership Nashville (Class of '22) and is immediate past board chair of the Center for Nonprofit Management. He is outside counsel to the CMA Foundation (charitable arm of the Country Music Association). He serves on the session of West End Community Church (PCA) and is an honorary director and outside counsel of Daystar Counseling Ministries, Inc. He served two terms on the board of Cumberland Region Tomorrow and now serves on the advisory council. Trace led the law firm’s participation as co-founder with Lipscomb University of the Dean Institute for Corporate Governance and Integrity and served on its founding advisory board. He also chaired the Blankenship CPA Group advisory board in the mid-2000s. He and his wife are past presidents of The Oak Hill School Parents Association, and he was the founding co-chair of Oak Hill's alumni council.  He chaired the Tennessee Governor's Prayer Breakfast in 2012 and remains an active member of the Citizens Committee that sponsors and presents the annual prayer breakfast during each legislative session. He was an officer and director of Nashville's Young Leaders Council of Nashville from 1998 to 2001 and currently serves on YLC's faculty, annually training 175+ young professionals in best governance practices for boards of directors.

He graduated from Williams College in 1989 and from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1996. At Williams, he was president of the student body and college council and was a recipient of the Francis Sessions Hutchins `00 Memorial Fellowship Prize at commencement. Upon graduating from law school, he was awarded the Dean's Citation for Extraordinary Contributions to the College of Law. He is a native of Nashville, where he lives with his wife, Jennifer (also an attorney), and their two children.