Chattanooga lawyer Thomas Maxfield "Max" Bahner of Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C., has been appointed chairman of the American Bar Association Senior Lawyers Division. Bahner took office at the conclusion of the recent ABA annual meeting in Chicago.

Attorney Bahner is a senior member of the firm's litigation section, and his practice concentration is primarily in complex litigation. He is an AAA arbitrator and also a Rule 31 certified mediator. He is currently an active member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the Defense Research Institute.

He is admitted to practice in Tennessee and also before the Supreme Court of the United States and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 11th Circuits and the Federal Circuit.

A longtime member of the ABA, attorney Bahner served nearly 17 years in the ABA House of Delegates, leading the Tennessee delegation for nine years, and served on the ABA Board of Governors from 1999 – 2002—the last year on its executive committee.

Attorney Bahner chaired the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Advisory Commission on the Rules of Civil Procedure for seven years during which the commission wrote the Tennessee Rules of Evidence, which were adopted by the Court. He is a founding member of the Tennessee Bar Foundation and the Chattanooga Bar Association.

Among recent honors, in June he received the Equal Justice Partner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Legal Aid of East Tennessee that cited him as having “supported the ideals of equal justice from the very beginning of his legal career.” He was lauded for his wide efforts—from volunteering with the original Chattanooga Legal Aid Society and pro bono work to encouraging governmental support of legal aid.

Among other accomplishments, attorney Bahner is a recipient of the President’s Award for Distinguished Service to the Legal Community, Chattanooga Bar Association, and the Ralph H. Kelley Humanitarian Award; has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for more than 20 years and in Business TN Magazine’s Top 150 Lawyers in Tennessee, and other listings.

A graduate of Carson-Newman College, he received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia. Among his publications, he is senior contributing member to Evidence in America, the Federal Rules in the United States and author of “Waiver of Attorney-Client Privilege by Issue Injection: A Call for Uniformity,” Defense Counsel Journal.

The ABA Senior Lawyers Division serves the interests and needs of the legal profession by sharing the accumulated knowledge and experience of its members and providing services to the practicing lawyer. The division’s services and programs are uniquely tailored to meet the needs of elder law lawyers of all ages and practicing senior lawyers admitted to the bar 25 years or age 55 and older. For more about the division, go to http://www.abanet.org/srlawyers/home.html.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.