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Adams and Reese Partner Lucian T. Pera was elected President of the Southern Conference of Bar Presidents at its 2016 annual meeting held Oct. 13-16th at Big Cedar Lodge in Branson, Missouri. Pera currently serves as President-Elect of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) and will serve as TBA President during the 2017-2018 bar year. The SCBP Annual Meeting returns to Tennessee in 2017 at The Peabody Memphis.

The SCBP is a regional conference of bar leaders from 17 southern states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The group convenes three times a year in meetings held during the American Bar Association (ABA) Annual Meeting in the summer, the ABA Mid-Year Meeting in the winter, and the SCBP Annual Meeting held each fall. SCBP bar leaders meet to discuss and consider common issues facing state bars, state bar leaders and attorneys. SCBP members represent states from Florida to Texas, Kansas to Maryland, and those in between.

“I’m really honored to be elected president of the Southern Conference of Bar Presidents,” Pera said following the announcement. “The Conference provides those leading state bars really unique opportunities to share ideas and concerns about current issues facing our associations and our members, and to learn from each other what works and what doesn’t. And it will be just great for the TBA to host all our sister bar associations in Memphis in October 2017. It’s been 17 years since the SCBP visited Memphis, and we have big plans for them here in The Cultural Center of the Universe.”

At Adams and Reese, Pera is a litigation partner in the firm’s Memphis office. He focuses his law practice on commercial litigation, media law and legal ethics work. His civil litigation practice includes a variety of commercial personal injury and intellectual property litigation along with numerous state and federal appeals. Pera has represented Tennessee and national media outlets in a range of matters including those involving defamation claims and lawsuits; invasion of privacy; and access to courtrooms, public records and government meetings. As a long-time member of the Media Law Resource Center’s (MLRC) Defense Counsel Section, Pera has authored the Tennessee chapters in two of the MLRC’s annual 50-state surveys of media and privacy law for almost 20 years. He also chaired the MLRC’s ethics committee for six years.

In addition to serving as President-Elect and future President of the TBA, Pera is President of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that seeks to improve citizen access to public information and open government in the state. He also currently chairs the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, which houses the ABA’s ethics committee and other committees that work in the lawyer regulation arena.

A Memphis native, Pera is an honors graduate of Princeton University and Vanderbilt University School of Law.

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