Laura fitzgerald cooper
From Acting to Law, to the Head of AT&T Tennessee » Washington and Lee University
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By Linda Evans
June 12, 2017
Joelle Phillips ’95L
Uncas McThenia looked over the collection of students on their first day of class – his contracts class. He posed a question, then glanced at the roster students for a name and settled on Joelle James (now Phillips). It was the first day, the first question, and adrenaline-fueled students turned toward their classmate.
She was nervous, but Joelle Phillips steadied the butterflies in her stomach with practiced calm. Before deciding to go to law school, Phillips planned on a career acting and spent a year touring with a children’s theater. Law school was new, but managing stage fright wasn’t.
The similarities between acting, practicing law and her current position as president of AT&T Tennessee are not lost on her.
“I was surprised by how much of my theater training was useful as a law student,” Phillips recalls. “I was accustomed to memorizing lines, and reading cases reminded me of reading plays and looking for the underlying theme.” Best of all, free from the paralyzing stage fright some students felt as they faced the Socratic method, Phillips could relax and listen – not just to professors but also to other students. “My classmates were smart. I learned so much from their perspectives.”
Phillips found the same type of camaraderie with other students that she had enjoyed as a cast member. She was pleased to find it after law school among law associates and her AT&T team members.
Her progression from actress to bankruptcy lawyer to corporate attorney led her to the top position at AT&T Tennessee. President since 2013, she joined the company – BellSouth then – as a general attorney in 2001.
Under her leadership, the company undertook a multi-year campaign to reform state telecom laws. Success enabled the company to enter new lines of business and set the stage for big investment (more than a billion dollars for capital expenditures over just the last three years) in infrastructure to support new technologies in the state.
Phillips’ focus on regulatory reform began before she arrived in the C-Suite. She describes it as a product of her experience as the company’s attorney and her training at W&L. “As a regulatory lawyer, it seemed absurd to apply rules fashioned for old technology to new and different technology. Rules designed for monopolies did not align with today’s competitive ecosystem of players,” she says. “Sometimes the best thing a lawyer can do is recognize that the law needs a change.”
Lately much of her time is spent on state education policy, with a focus on the talent pipeline. Jobs with AT&T used to be mechanical. “We trained technicians to make physical connections using manual tools.
” Today, those same technicians need digital skills, installing and repairing service with software and coding skills.
The need to keep building skills and expertise extends to Phillips personally as well. “To be strategic, I need to be informed on what’s next,” she said. To that end, she reads a lot to keep up with technology that is continually advancing.
With nearly 6,000 AT&T Tennessee employees, Phillips has adopted a management philosophy that draws on what she admires most about the famed research and development arm of the former AT&T monopoly – the former Bell Labs. “It was an amazing place that produced 12 Nobel Prizes,” she said. Phillips focuses on two of the labs’ rules: mix up the specialties (creating teams of people who have different skills) and leave your door open (accepting assignments from other teams beyond one particular silo). “As I think about harnessing talent and driving innovation today, I try to remember the magic that Bell Labs made by encouraging diverse teams to collaborate and help one another.
”
The daughter of an engineering professor at Auburn University, Phillips has adopted the personal and professional qualities she saw in her father and other engineers. “Engineers are optimistic people; they assume there is a right answer,” she said.
She uses that background to tackle challenges today. She starts with the assumption that “there is a way to get this worked out.” She also emphasizes the importance of being prepared. While people think some lawyers are just naturally good on their feet, “it’s because they did their homework,” she said. “Preparation enables you participate in the moment, to be ready when a colleague has an inspired idea and needs your help to bring it to fruition.”
Joelle Phillips with Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. As chair of the Business Alliance for the Drive to 55, Phillips works with Haslam and other state leaders to expand Tennesseans’ post-secondary attainment rates.
Phillips sees W&L law faculty creating the same type of cross-disciplinary opportunities and benefits that she admires in the scientists and engineers of Bell Labs.
“The faculty was both interested and interesting,” she remembers, “not just in their own course work or specialties but also in the other areas we were studying. By talking with us about all the areas we were studying, they helped us to find the patterns in the law”
“We often hear the concept of ‘thinking like a lawyer,’ but I think the faculty at W&L helped instill a lawyer’s instinct as well.” Over time the students developed an instinct based on the patterns revealed by W&L faculty.
Faculty also helped Phillips chart a career course. Prof. Alan Ides recommended her to serve as a law clerk to Judge Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. That recommendation carried extra weight because Ides and Barksdale had both clerked for U.S Supreme Court Justice Byron White.
Phillips also recalls good advice from professors Brian Murchison and Laura Fitzgerald Cooper about choosing between practice areas. Both professors highlighted the difference between studying the law and practicing and encouraged her to talk with practicing lawyers about how their specialty looked day to day.
“It was great advice. It helped me realize that I wasn’t actually interested in practicing trust and estate law. I just loved listening to Ned Henneman talk about it.”
After her clerkship, she joined the Atlanta firm Long, Aldridge & Norman. After marrying Brant Phillips ’97L, the couple relocated to Nashville where she joined Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis. At both firms, she specialized in business bankruptcy litigation, so she was surprised when a headhunter insisted she was the right fit for an opening in the in-house regulatory litigation group at BellSouth.
The headhunter was right. Phillips moved up through the legal department and became the first female to serve as president of AT&T Tennessee. Today as one of Tennessee’s most high-profile business leaders, she is an outspoken advocate on education policy, which she believes is key to the state’s prosperity. As chair of the Business Alliance for the Drive to 55, Phillips works with Tennessee Gov.
Bill Haslam and other state leaders to expand Tennesseans’ post-secondary attainment rates.
Still interested in the arts, Phillips serves on the board of the Nashville Repertory Theater. She loves that the theater has become an “incubator” for playwrights. Recently, professional playwright Christopher Durang came to Nashville to work on his latest play, while mentoring aspiring playwrights through Nashville Rep’s Ingram New Works Festival. Phillips looks forward to the festival’s growth, making Nashville the “Sundance” for new theatrical works.
Does her work with Nashville Rep make her wonder about the road less traveled? She laughs as she considers her unlikely career path, but she sees a consistent theme. “My work places me in the center of a very creative enterprise. It’s about innovation, communication and surprising changes.”
If you know any W&L alumni who would be great profile subjects, tell us about them! Nominate them for a web profile.
Nashville Fashion is Moving Forward — Nashville Fashion Week
It's been a very productive few weeks.
Last week, Nashville Fashion Week hosted and collaborated with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) President, CaSandra Diggs and CFDA Connects Consulting Director Elliot Carlyle to align and build the foundation for a viable fashion industry ecosystem in Middle Tennessee.
Nashville Fashion Week has invested over $1.4 million into Nashville's fashion community over the past twelve years. This was accomplished with the heart and hustle of an all-volunteer led and run organization that has relied solely on sponsors and ticket sales to produce events and activations while providing experiential opportunities to nine Nashville Fashion Forward Fund recipients through The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
Fashion is one of the most influential drivers of culture, a beloved art and entertainment form, but we have not taken advantage of the fact that it is also one of the largest economic forces in the world.
Now is the time for Nashville to change that.
The Nashville Fashion Week team, including new Nashville Fashion Forward leadership team member David Fischette of Go West Creative, invited and met with a curated group of community leaders, elected officials and organizations at W Nashville on Wednesday, May 4. The focus of the event was to present a proposed new direction for Nashville Fashion Week and to lobby for the Nashville fashion industry securing resources and financial support to build the foundation for a fashion industry ecosystem.
The following community and industry leaders attended the event with commitments to continue the conversation on how to support moving Nashville fashion forward. The individuals highlighted below in pink made statements to the group in support of the mission of moving Nashville fashion forward:
Office of Mayor John Cooper
- Courtney Pogue - Director of Economic & Community Development
- Mrs.
Laura Fitzgerald-Cooper
Metro Nashville Council Members
- Kyonzte Toombs, District 2
- Jeff Syracuse, District 15
- Freddie O’Connell, District 19
- Joy Styles, District 32
Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation
- Heather Middleton, SR Vice President Of Marketing
Nashville Chamber of Commerce
- Hannah Holmes, Manager of Member Value
- Victoria Quigley, Director of Small Business Growth
Supermodel, Entrepreneur, Artist, & Activist
- Karen Elson
- Bonnie Dee Bowden - Karen Elson, Inc.
Launch TN
- Ashley Currie, Marketing & Communications Director
BrainTrust
- Sherry Deutschmann, Founder & CEO
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
- Amy Fair, Vice President of Donor Services
OJAS Partners
- Lizzy LeBleu, Real Estate Advisor
oneC1TY
- Caitlin Arnold, Marketing & Development
Middle Tennessee State University
- Rick Cottle, Associate Professor of Fashion & Apparel
- David Foster, Director of Marketing & Communications
Vanderbilt University
Deanna Meador, Director of Entrepreneurship, Wond’ry - Vanderbilt’s Innovation Center
Go West Creative
- David Fischette, CEO & Chief Creative
Nashville Fashion Forward Fund Recipients
- Megan Prange, Prange Apparel (2019)
- Maria Silver, Black by Maria Silver (2017)
Nashville Lifestyles
- Alison Abbey, Editor In Chief
- Brian Barry, Publisher
Tennessean
- Sherah Ndjongo - Business Reporter
In addition, both Kelly Helfman, Commercial President of Informa Markets Fashion - Organizers of MAGIC, and Fern Mallis, the creator and founder of New York Fashion Week and long-time Nashville Fashion Week advisor, shared their support through written statements.
MAGIC Fashion Events also made a significant monetary contribution to support the vision of moving Nashville fashion forward. The gathering was a pivotal moment for the future of Nashville Fashion Week and for Nashville's fashion industry. Followup meetings and planning are in the works. The Nashville Fashion Week email list will receive updates as progress ensues.
View photos from the Meeting HERE.
VIEW NFW + CFDA RECORDING
The conversation was continued at an in-person fundraising event and live stream recording of Moving Fashion Forward - A Conversation with NFW + CFDA featuring CFDA President, CaSandra Diggs and NFW Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Marcia Masulla on Thursday, May 5. The interactive and engaging program included a dynamic customized Nashville Fashion Week branded set with high-level professional production presented in partnership with Go West Creative.
Guests also enjoyed savory bites from The Pink Hermit of The Hermitage Hotel and refreshments from Tito's Handmade Vodka and Love & Exile Wines while they mingled prior to the recorded conversation.
Screen the conversation from your laptop or mobile device at NashvilleFashionWeek.com.
View photos from the Conversation HERE.
Thank you for your continued support and feedback as we plan to make an impact for the future of fashion in Nashville together. Stay tuned! #WHYNFW
John Cooper (Tennessee politician)
John Cooper (born October 15, 1956) is an American politician and businessman, mayor of Nashville, Tennessee. A Democrat, he served as a council member at-large of the Nashville and Davidson County Metropolitan Council from 2015 to 2019.
He is the brother of U.S. Representative Jim Cooper, who represents Tennessee's Fifth Congressional District, which is based in Nashville.
Contents
- 1 Education and early career
- 2 Political quarry
- 3 Political positions
- 3.1 status of the city-reserve
- 4 Personal life
- 5 See also
- 6 used literature
- 7 External links and the beginning Nashville and grew up in Shelbyville, Tennessee. [1] Cooper earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard University, [2] and his MBA from Vanderbilt University at 1985 [2] He worked in finance for Shearson Lehman Brothers at [3] Wall Street before returning to Nashville to work in real estate development in Williamson County, Tennessee. [4]
Political career
In the 1980s, Cooper worked on the Congressional campaign. Buddy Roemer and Jane Eskind Campaign for the Tennessee Public Service Commission.
Roemer hired Cooper, then aged 23, as his chief of staff. At 19'82 Cooper returned to Nashville to help his brother, Jim, run for the US House of Representatives in Tennessee's 4th congressional district. [2] Cooper ran for a wide seat on the Nashville and Davidson County Metropolitan Council in 2015. [5] He was elected with the highest number of votes from candidates running for the five available seats overall. [6]
Cooper ran for mayor of Nashville in the 2019 Nashville mayoral election. [4] In the first round of elections, Cooper led all candidates with 35% of the vote, passing to the second round against David Briley, who received 25%. [7] Cooper defeated Briley in the second round of the election with 69% of the vote. [8] He is the first candidate to win an incumbent mayor of Nashville since its 1963 consolidation. [9] Cooper was sworn in on 28 September. [10] [11] Cooper's campaign funding included $1.
4 million in personal loans. Cooper raised less money for his campaign than his opponent, but surpassed Briley with his own money. [12] Political positions
This section needs to be extended . You can help by adding to this. (October 2019)
Conservation City Status
Cooper stated that "Nashville cannot and will not be a Conservation City." , introduced by former Mayor David Briley in the last few weeks of his tenure, which reportedly discouraged local cooperation with federal immigration authorities and encouraged the repeal of state laws called "anti-sanctuary" laws. [14]
Personal life
Cooper's wife, Laura Fitzgerald Cooper, former professor of constitutional law. They have three sons. Cooper's father, Prentice Cooper, was the 39th Governor of Tennessee. John's brother Jim is the US Representative for Tennessee's Fifth Congressional District, which covers Nashville and the two surrounding districts.
[2] See also
- List of mayors of the 50 largest cities in the USA
references
Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury. Aphorisms
Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury
(1671-1713)
philosopher, esthetician and moralist
All reasonable people profess one religion. True, they do not say which one.
Every passion is replaced by melancholy.
If people tolerate talking about their vices, this is the best sign that they are correcting themselves.
Of all the relationships that arise between people, the most fickle, the most confusing and changing is the relationship between writer and reader.
True humanity and kindness hide the bitter truth from loving eyes.
No matter how ephemeral my life may be, no matter how disordered the humor embedded in it, I do not know anything more significant, nothing more material than myself.
When a person gets along with himself, he gets along with the world.
Suspicious selfishness and baseness are the eternal companions of our fear.
Is there even one person in the world who has fallen so low as to give up his own pleasures?
Our manners, like our faces, however beautiful, must be different from each other.
Our first thoughts are usually better than the second; own views are always better than those acquired and borrowed from casuists.
Society greatly contributes to the development of our imagination. Our fantasies flourish at the table as luxuriantly as flowers in a well-loosened flowerbed.
Constancy is the most inventive way to make a fool.
Seriousness is in the very nature of deceit.
A happy life is not measured by more or less suns we see, not by more or less breaths we breathe or food we eat, but by whether we lived well, did our job and left Do this world with a smile on your lips.
It is believed that the truth is able to withstand everything, but there is no test for it harder than ridicule.
Only if the truth has passed the test of ridicule can it rightly be considered the truth. The one who turns out to be a real friend is a real person, he does not remain indebted to society either.
He who laughs and laughs at the same time is doubly ridiculous.
Philosopher!.. Explain to me what life is and how I should live it, so that when it comes to an end, when the life-giving source dries up, I don’t cry out in my hearts “Vanity of vanities!”, don’t curse and complain that , they say, "life is so fleeting." Indeed, why do we complain both about the transience and the length of life? Can vanity, vanity alone, bring happiness? And can a man survive his misfortunes?
Everyone considers himself well-bred.
Humor is the only true test of seriousness, and seriousness is humor. After all, a subject that does not stand up to ridicule is suspicious, and a joke that does not stand up to serious scrutiny is empty sneer.
D.
B. Cooper (20th century) D. B. Cooper (XX century) One of the most mysterious American criminals. Having captured the plane, he received a ransom in the amount of 200 thousand dollars in cash and overnight became a legend. Terrorist hijackers are a constant headache for governments
Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury (1671-1713) philosopher, esthetician and moralist All reasonable people profess one religion. True, they do not say which one. Any passion is replaced by melancholy. If people tolerate talking about their vices, this is the best sign that they are
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) writer Idleness is not rest. ... It is easier to circumvent deceit with reason than to overcome recklessness. Love is a delicate plant and does not live long if it is watered with tears.
There are many people with a beautiful appearance, who, however, have nothing to boast of Ashley Brilliant
Ashley Brilliant (b. 1933) cartoonist and humorist Beware of children! Someday they will take over the world! Most of my problems have no solution or the solution is worse than the problem itself. Be nice to the teachers. Even if they don't deserve your respect, they deserve yours
Cooper
cooper Cooper (James-Fenimore Cooper) - the famous American novelist; was born in 1789 in New Jersey. Shortly after his birth, his father, a fairly wealthy landowner, moved to the state of New York and founded the village of Cooperstown there, which has now turned into a town. Having received
Laura Ashley
Laura Ashley (1925-1985) She did not receive any special training in design or tailoring, but this did not stop her from creating her own unique style, delicate and feminine, reminiscent of past centuries and at the same time fits perfectly into
Phelps Anthony
Phelps Anthony Phelps (Phelps) Anthony (b.
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