Chattanooga Bar Foundation Fellows Class Of 2025 Honored

The Chattanooga Bar Foundation Fellows held its annual meeting to honor the Fellows Class of 2025. Selected are:

Cameron S. Hill, Sr., focuses on construction, employment, ERISA and non-ERISA benefits disputes, and general commercial litigation matters. He joined the Chattanooga office of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz in September 1997. During 2017-2024, Mr. Hill served as Baker Donelson’s Professional Development Shareholder, a position driving the professional development and training of the Firm’s associates. Mr. Hill has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for Construction Litigation (since 2013) and Construction Law (since 2016), named the Best Lawyers® 2023 and 2018 Construction Law "Lawyer of the Year" in Chattanooga, and named the Best Lawyers® 2014 Litigation - Construction "Lawyer of the Year" in Chattanooga. Mr. Hill co-authored the Tennessee chapter on Mechanic's and Materialman's Lien Law for lienlawonline.com.

Mr. Hill was a member of the Leadership Chattanooga class of 2001. He served as President of the Chattanooga Chapter of the Federal Bar Association during 2005-2006. Since 2017, he has been a Master in the Brock-Cooper American Inn of Court.

While at Tulane Law School, Mr. Hill served as Managing Editor of the Tulane Maritime Law Journal. From 1995 until 1997, he served as law clerk to Judge Curtis L. Collier, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Mr. Hill is a Rule 31 Listed General Civil Mediator by the Tennessee Supreme Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Commission.

Mr. Hill is the proud father of three wonderful children, Maggie Hill Ratliff, Lizzie Hill, and Strobe Hill. He is a member of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church.

C. Scott Johnson grew up in Tullahoma, Tn. after his birth in Memphis to a minister and a teacher. He entered and graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga in 1995 after serving in multiple offices of the Sigma Chi fraternity wherein he spearheaded fundraising efforts for the Children’s Miracle Network and other Chattanooga entities. He also served as a member of the student-alumni relations council, a liaison for the dean of student affairs, and as a avid fan and attendant of Mocs basketball and football games.

He attended the University of Memphis School of Law where he was fortunate enough to live with beloved family and regularly engage with his vast family members living in the Memphis area.

He has been a Chattanooga trial attorney since his return to Chattanooga in 1998. Mr. Johnson is a trial lawyer. He has engaged in multiple areas of litigation throughout Tennessee and in the Eastern and Middle sections of the United States District Courts of Tennessee as well as the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has litigated cases and appeared in approximately 35 Tennessee counties from Memphis to Johnson City.

Mr. Johnson is currently a shareholder in the law firm of Spears, Moore, Rebman and Williams. He previously had the privilege of working with the fine lawyers at: Luther-Anderson, The Fleissner Firm, and Fleissner, Davis and Johnson before he joined Spears Moore.

Mr. Johnson is proud to have served for or assisted the Chattanooga Rescue Mission, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Goodwill, First Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland Youth Foundation, Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church, Signal Mountain youth sports and the Chattanooga Bar Association, where he has served as a board member, secretary, and president-elect.

Mr. Johnson is a member of the Chattanooga Sigma Chi alumni chapter, and he remains proud of its successful charitable fundraising throughout Hamilton County. Scott loves singing and was fortunate enough to travel the country doing so for three years. Nonetheless, his God and his family remain his greatest loves. Scott would also like the Signal Mountain Golf and Country Club to note his beneficial donations to the club in the form of golf balls unintentionally placed within the woods and hazards of the golf course.

Judge Alex McVeagh presides over the Third Division of Hamilton County’s Circuit Court, following in the footsteps of retired Judge Marie Williams and his friend and mentor, the late Chief Justice Muecke Barker. He previously served as judge of Hamilton County’s General Sessions Court for seven years, where he helped to found the misdemeanor track of Hamilton County’s Drug Recovery Court. Judge McVeagh is the incoming president of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division, is past president of the Chattanooga Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division, and is a member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates.

Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, Judge McVeagh obtained his economics and law degrees from Vanderbilt University. He worked as a Tennessee and Georgia litigator at Chambliss, Bahner, & Stophel, as Assistant City Attorney for the City of East Ridge, and as head research analyst for the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee.

Judge McVeagh previously served as the Vice Chair of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission. During this time, he helped to start an online dispute resolution program in Chattanooga to assist healthcare patients and hospitals in resolving outstanding medical debt before a lawsuit is filed. Judge McVeagh also helped implement Hamilton County’s eviction mediation program and is a key leader in the Chattanooga Bar Association’s new Courthouse Mediation Program. The Chattanooga Bar Association has honored him in the past as its “Volunteer of the Year” for his past pro bono service, his volunteerism on the bench, and for his work organizing Hamilton County’s local high school mock trial competition for over a decade

Steve Smith is an alumnus of Red Bank High School and native resident of Hamilton County, Tennessee. After graduating from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and working briefly as a geologist across the southeast, he attended law school at the University of Memphis. Coming home to Hamilton County in 2001 after graduation to raise a family, he practiced initially in the civil courts of the Chattanooga region, first at Leitner, Williams, Dooley & Napolitan, PLLC, then later as a partner at Philyaw & Smith, PLLC. He is a father of four: three daughters and a son. His wife Mary is a cardiac nurse at Park Ridge Medical Center, and together they raise their family on Signal Mountain just on the outskirts of Chattanooga.

Elected in 2014 after having been a prosecutor for a number of years, Mr. Smith is currently the Public Defender of the 11th Judicial District. His office oversaw the creation and establishment of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Mental Health Court, and staffs the many recovery courts tasked with diverting as many people as possible from prison directly into treatment and rehabilitation. He serves as a Past President of the Tennessee Public Defender’s Conference. He also serves as immediate Past President of the Chattanooga Bar Association. He is a Master Member of the Brock-Cooper Inns of Court. He is a member of the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Chattanooga Bar Association. He has served his community as a board member for several non-profits. He is a fledgling sailor, gardener and musician.