Brittany Thomas Faith
Judge Alexander McVeagh
Justin B. Faith
John A. Carreras
Four local attorneys have been elected to the Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyer's Division Board.
Brittany Thomas Faith, of the law firm of Grant, Konvalinka & Harrison, P.C.; General Sessions Judge Alexander McVeagh; Justin B. Faith, of the law firm Gearhiser, Peters, Elliott and Cannon, PLLC; and John A. Carreras, in-house counsel for CommonSpirit Health (CHI Memorial) have been elected by their peers to serve on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyer’s Division (“TBA YLD”).
The TBA YLD is comprised of lawyers across the State of Tennessee under 36 years of age or in their first five years of practice, and is dedicated to serving the professional needs of young lawyers. The TBA YLD is also the “service arm of the bar.”
Mrs. Faith was elected by young lawyers across the state as vice president of the TBA YLD for 2020-21. She will serve as president-elect the following year, and then as TBA YLD president in 2022-2023. Mrs. Faith is a founding member of GKH’s Immigration Practice Group and focuses her practice on business, family and individual immigration matters. Beginning with her president-elect year, she will sit on the TBA Board of Governors. She is also responsible for planning and developing new Young Lawyer projects and the budget proposal for her presidential year.
Mrs. Faith currently serves as the Chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA) Midsouth Chapter. She has also served on the AILA national Nominating Committee and the Annual Conference Family Track Committee this past year. She also has been active in the regional and state legal community., serving as past president of the Chattanooga Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and a past president of the South East Tennessee Lawyers Association for Women. Through her bar work, she has led several state-wide immigration-focused service projects on their behalf. Mrs. Faith also serves on the board of La Paz of Chattanooga, which has been the inspiration for many of her service projects. She enjoys spending time with her husband, son and three cats.
Judge McVeagh was elected as East Tennessee governor of the TBA YLD. He has served as judicial liaison and as Hamilton County’s representative to the Board since 2015 and is currently the president-elect of the Chattanooga Bar Association Young Lawyer’s Division. Currently Tennessee’s youngest judge, Judge McVeagh was appointed as Hamilton County General Sessions judge by Governor Bill Haslam in May 2017. He previously practiced with Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, the Tennessee Public Defenders Conference and with the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee.
Governor Bill Lee recently appointed Judge McVeagh to help make changes to the state’s criminal sentencing laws on his Criminal Justice Reform Task Force. Judge McVeagh also serves on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission and on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Technology Oversight Committee, where he is helping draft standards for electronic filing in all courts throughout Tennessee. The Chattanooga Bar Association and the CBA YLD has previously honored Judge McVeagh as Volunteer of the Year for his past service on the board of Legal Aid of East Tennessee and for his role in organizing Hamilton County’s local high school mock trial competition for the past four years.
Justin Faith was elected by the TBA YLD membership to lead the group’s finances as its treasurer. This will be Mr. Faith’s third consecutive term serving on the Executive Committee as the division’s treasurer. Mr. Faith practices primarily in the areas of civil business litigation and estate/probate administration at Gearhiser Peters. He has been very active in the Chattanooga bar, Tennessee bar, and American bar for many years, serving in various leadership capacities and volunteering through service projects. Mr. Faith is a graduate of the TBA’s Leadership Law program, a recipient of the TBA YLD President’s Special Recognition Award, and an honoree of the Supreme Court’s Pro Bono Service Award.
John Carreras was selected by the TBA YLD Executive Committee to be the secretary. Mr. Carreras is an in-house corporate healthcare attorney for a national non-profit healthcare system, with a focus on healthcare operations, clinical research, HIPAA/Privacy and EHR/HIM, and serves as dedicated legal counsel for CHI Memorial healthcare system based in Chattanooga. This will be his second year on the TBA YLD Board, as he currently serves on the Membership Services Committee. Mr. Carreras has served in a number of roles within the ABA, ABA YLD and various local bar associations since graduating law school in 2012. He attended law school at the University of Denver and undergrad at the University of Florida, after which he moved to Chattanooga in 2017 with his two dogs.