Ashley Upkins, a prominent Nashville attorney, has been elected president of the National Bar Association (NBA), marking a historic milestone as the first woman from Tennessee to lead the organization.
Upkins, who heads litigation at Silicon Ranch, a Nashville-based renewable energy company, was named president-elect during the NBA’s annual convention on July 16 in Las Vegas.
The National Bar Association, established in 1925, is the largest organization of Black legal professionals in the United States, with over 67,000 members, including lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students.
The NBA was founded as a response to the exclusion of Black lawyers from the American Bar Association.
“This is a defining moment for the National Bar Association and a testament to the progress that we have made as a community,” Upkins stated in a press release. “I am eager to lead with passion, purpose, and a deep sense of responsibility as we write the next chapter in our storied history.”
A native of Nashville, Upkins graduated from Vanderbilt University and was part of the inaugural class of Belmont University College of Law.
Before her election as president, she served as the NBA’s vice president of finance.
Upkins will collaborate with current NBA President Wiley Adams until she officially assumes the role of president at the association’s 100th annual convention next year in Chicago.
She will become the 83rd president in the organization’s nearly century-long history.
