Attorneys

Kevin H. Sharp

Tennessee native Kevin Sharp is a founding partner and the “Employment Law Guru” at Drescher & Sharp. If you have a need in the area of employment law, employee benefits, commercial disputes or other federal court litigation, Kevin is your guy. 

Having litigated for clients across the state as a partner in a large Nashville law firm and working for the U.S. Congressional Office of Compliance in Washington D.C. enforcing labor and employment laws applicable to the legislative branch of government, Kevin’s experience and track record for getting results is widely documented.

Affectionately known around the office as “the Professor,” Kevin can often be found late in the day drinking coffee and flipping through his collection of history books. 

Kevin is a summa cum laude graduate of Christian Brothers College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.  He received his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from Vanderbilt University, where he was the Weldon B. White Scholar, an Associate Problem Editor on the Moot Court Board, a recipient of the Appellate Advocacy Award and a research assistant on issues of constitutional law and habeas corpus.

Kevin has been awarded an "AV" rating by Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in Who’s Who in American Law. He was voted by his peers as one of the Nashville Business Journal’s Best of the Bar (2003, 2005 through 2009), and in 2003, he was selected for the Nashville Bar Foundation Fellows program. A former member of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law class of 2005, Kevin is included in "Mid-South Super Lawyers" and The Best Lawyers in America.

Prior to his legal career, Kevin served in the United States Navy as a flight crew member on the P-3 Orion operating in patrol/reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare capacities as part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Kevin, his wife, Holly and daughter Sydney live in Nashville, Tennessee. They are members of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

James Dresher

Jay Drescher grew up on the Mississippi River in Quincy, Illinois and developed his love for the outdoors through scouting, reaching the rank of Eagle at age 15. 

He attended the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where he began his military career as a Marine Corps officer candidate.  Upon graduation in 1978, Jay was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and transferred to the Platoon Leaders Class-Law program.  During law school at the University of Missouri, Columbia, he was a member of the Law Review, the Board of Advocates and the Order of the Coif.  He graduated in 1982 with honors. 

As a Marine Corps judge advocate, he defended his first court-martial in Okinawa, Japan.  From there he spent four years at Parris Island, South Carolina.  While in South Carolina, he assisted in the prosecution of a capital murder trial and was later selected to join the National Security Task Force in Quantico, Virginia.  The task force was comprised of Marine lawyers from across the country who were assigned to investigate and prosecute espionage and related misconduct arising at the U.S. Embassy in the Soviet Union.  Jay was sent to Moscow to interview witnesses and further the investigation during this five month assignment.  His last tour of duty was with the Navy Legal Service Office in London, England.  During his eight years on active duty, Jay traveled extensively, visiting sixteen different countries including the U.S.S.R., China, Japan, Portugal, Spain and most of Western Europe.  He has a genuine love of travel, foreign languages, and history. 

Jay came to Nashville in 1991 and began using the trial skills honed in the Marine Corps to pursue his interest in civil litigation.  He continued to serve in the reserves, retiring in 2000 as a Lieutenant Colonel. 

He has been the President of the Marine Corps Coordinating Council in Nashville for many years and is deeply involved in veterans’ matters.  He is an active supporter of the Wounded Warrior Project, the Warriors Legacy Fund and the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.   Through his membership in the Nashville Kiwanis Club, Jay also serves on the board of the Bootstraps Foundation, which raises money to provide scholarships for disadvantaged college students.   

While a Marine, Jay began counseling service members and their spouses dealing with a myriad of family law issues.  Since the founding of Drescher & Sharp in 2003, family law has emerged as his predominant area of practice.  He is the Chairman of the Nashville Bar Association domestic relations committee.  His commitment to providing assistance to individuals confronted with the trauma of divorce extends beyond his own clients to the community as a whole.   

Jay is married to Amy Drescher, a private investigator.  They reside with their family in Franklin.

David Burn

David Burn has been a resident of Middle Tennessee for almost forty years. He has practiced law since 1980 and is a Martindale-Hubble “AV” rated lawyer with broad and deep experience in corporate and business law. He has served as a corporate general counsel, a private practice lawyer in a variety of settings (including large firm) and as a state securities regulator. In addition, he has been an arbitrator for FINRA (formerly the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc.) since 1989 and has chaired nearly 20 FINRA arbitration panels. He presently concentrates his practice in corporate and transactional work, but also does complex commercial litigation and represents debtors in workout and Chapter 11 bankruptcies. 

David has been a member of the Board of Directors and also Counsel to the Executive Committee of U.S. Lacrosse, the national governing body for the sport of lacrosse. He has also been President of the Tennessee Chapter of U.S. Lacrosse and has been a men’s referee for both high school and college lacrosse for the past fifteen years. 

David is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and received his doctorate of jurisprudence from the University of Memphis.  David and his wife, Julie, live in Nashville, Tennessee. They have five children, including three who have graduated from college, one who is in college and one who is in high school.

Bryan E. Pieper

Whether it’s an employment law case or a complex business dispute, Bryan Pieper has litigated across the country, from New York to Oregon to Tennessee.  As much as he loves being in the courtroom, Bryan is equally comfortable in the boardroom, counseling clients through internal labor and employment disputes or conducting in-house training or policy review in order to prevent disputes.   

In the commercial litigation arena, Bryan’s experience is broad, covering matters as diverse as trademark infringement, corporate fiduciary duties, breach of contract and fraud.  In the employment law arena, Bryan represents both employers and employees, and he firmly believes it makes him better at both.  Bryan contends that you cannot be the best you can be unless you have walked in the shoes of your opponent.   

Bryan has lived around the world, having spent several years in Germany and Czechoslovakia, as well as having lived in international U.S. cities such as Miami and New Orleans, yet he loves to call Nashville home.  Bryan first came to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt University, and wherever his travels have taken him, he has always returned.   

Bryan received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he studied Political Science and German, though he completed a portion of his undergraduate studies at Regensburg University in Germany.  Similarly, he received his Doctorate of Jurisprudence degree from Vanderbilt School of law, though he also studied law at Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now, Czech Republic).  While at Vanderbilt School of Law, Bryan was the President of the Vanderbilt Labor Law Society and repeatedly named to the Dean’s List.  Bryan received the American Jurisprudence “Book” Award for the highest grade in Corporate Law. 

When he is not litigating a case or helping a client navigate a sticky employment or contract matter, Bryan’s practice provides him with the best possible perspective on the law – the view from the bench.  For several years Bryan served as an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), presiding over disputes between Nashville Electric Service and its employees.  Bryan currently serves as an Outside Review Officer, presiding over disputes between the Metro Nashville Public School System and its employees.  By representing plaintiffs, defendants and also presiding over employment law disputes, Bryan has a 360 degree view of what really works and what doesn’t. 

When he isn’t practicing law, Bryan loves public speaking, regularly teaching Continuing Legal Education seminars to other lawyers or speaking on employment topics through the Middle Tennessee chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).  

Bryan, his wife and two children live in East Nashville, where they are active members of their Lockeland Springs neighborhood. 

David E. Heller

David’s practice focuses on estate planning, which includes family wealth preservation and estate tax planning.  David helps clients and their families create plans to protect the family wealth from “outsiders” such as creditors, ex-spouses and divorcing in-laws. Additionally, David’s advises clients on reducing their potential estate tax liability.   Many of David’s plans combine asset protection planning, estate tax savings and planning for the family’s future generation.  David also advises families with business succession issues, pre-marital agreements and charitable planning. 

As an extension of his estate planning practice, David also handles the probate and administration of estates and trusts after an individual’s death and represents beneficiaries when controversies arise between family members.  David can also help with conservatorship and guardian issues if a person becomes incapacitated. 

David has been awarded the top “AV” rating by Martindale- Hubbell.  David is often a featured speaker at numerous seminars and teaches estate planning at various CLE courses. 

David graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1984 with a double major in Information Systems and Math.  He received his doctorate of jurisprudence with cum laude distinction from Widener University School of Law in 1994 and an LL.M. Masters in Tax Law, with honors, from Georgetown University in 1995. 

David serves on several boards and committees for non-profit organizations throughout the middle Tennessee area.

Tracey A. Kinslow

Paul Soper

Greg Oakley

Greg has fifteen years of experience as a litigator and advisor to clients of all types, focusing primarily in the area of commercial litigation and business disputes. He has successfully tried more than 50 cases to verdict, representing both plaintiffs and defendants. Greg has tried cases in state and federal courts across Tennessee, and has successfully argued a number of cases in the Tennessee Court of Appeals and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Although he often represents defendants, in the past four years alone Greg has collected more than $3 million on behalf of his litigation clients. Greg and his co-counsel recently received a $21 million dollar jury verdict in a complex class action involving commercial fraud and civil conspiracy against a large, publicly traded corporation. 

Most of Greg’s business clients are small to medium sized businesses or individual entrepreneurs. Greg is acutely aware of the costs of litigation and its effect on his clients’ bottom-line. As comfortable as he is in the courtroom, Greg has also developed a practice that helps his business clients stay out of litigation by assisting them with their business structure, contracts, and employee relations. This is part of Greg’s practice philosophy, which is striving to use his knowledge and experience to effectively and economically help his clients reach their goals.

Greg is a native of Memphis and a graduate of the University of Tennessee School of Law. He spent several years practicing with large firms, and with his partner, Paul Soper, led a successful small firm for almost ten years before he and Paul joined Drescher & Sharp in May 2010. In addition to his normal practice, Greg is dedicated to providing legal services to those who cannot afford them, and regularly represents clients on behalf of the Nashville Bar Association’s Pro Bono Program. Greg was named the 1998 Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year by the NBA.

Sean J. Martin

In 2005, with the firm in need of a top-notch personal injury lawyer, Drescher & Sharp, P.C. reached out to Sean J. Martin, who had distinguished himself both as a law clerk, working for Marietta Shipley, Judge of the Second Circuit Court for Davison County; and as a litigator, working for Cornelius & Collins, LLP.  He’s been representing injured persons ever since, in cases ranging from premises liability (slip & falls) to trucking accidents and wrongful death matters.  The success he has enjoyed in the area of personal injury is a tribute to the excellent mentors he has learned from along the way. 

Sean is cut from the same cloth as author Ernest Hemingway or journalist Hunter S. Thompson:  he is an aficionado of adventure, big game fishing in particular.  He gets away several times a year to chase snook or tarpon or redfish—or anything that will give him a good fight.  He travels with like-minded individuals, and always returns with thrilling stories.  His exploits have taken him around the world, but if you asked him where he would rather be over any other place, he would tell you Key West, in a little stretch of water he calls Tarpon Alley. 

In 2007, Sean traveled to Las Vegas with an entourage of 100 or so of his closest friends and family members and married the very beautiful Laura Martin (nee Barmer).  They honeymooned in the Bahamas, where Sean didn’t do any fishing at all.   

Sean began his collegiate career at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  Sean completed his law school education at the University of Tennessee as well, earning his Juris Doctorate degree in 1999. 

In November, 2009 Sean was named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers Magazine.  He expects his star will be on the rise for years to come. 

You can learn more about Sean at his personal website, www.seanjmartin.com.