(Nashville, TN/September 4, 2007) Technology industry veteran and Nashville native Steve Wood Jr., has joined Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC as Of Counsel, bringing the number of Nashville attorneys in the technology group to 11.
“We pursued Steve because of his unique background in the business of technology,” said Bruce Doeg, managing shareholder of Baker Donelson’s Nashville office and co-founder of the firm’s Business Technology Group. “As a former tech company CEO, he understands the practical technology and business challenges that business owners face and is able to help them better balance the legal issues.”
Mr. Wood brings to his law practice an unusual background that includes business experience in both commercial real estate finance and the vertical market software industry. He began his career as a commercial construction lender with a major bank in Charlotte, North Carolina, for three years before returning to Nashville as a commercial mortgage banker for two more years. Mr. Wood then attended law school at Vanderbilt, where he began work on a software application for automating the administration of commercial mortgage investment portfolios.
While practicing law in Nashville in the 1990s, he co-founded a business with his father to bring the technology to market, and he eventually left law practice to devote full attention to running the growing software business. The company achieved a 35% market share and was acquired by a NYSE-listed firm, and Mr. Wood stayed for two more years as division executive with the acquiring company.
Mr. Wood then spent five years as a full-time faculty member of Vanderbilt Law School, concentrating on practical business transactional law, and as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management. During that time he also worked as a business consultant and advisor to technology-oriented businesses.
The Business Technology group at Baker Donelson helps clients navigate the complex and wide-ranging issues of eBusiness and technology. The group’s attorneys have a broad range of experience working with traditional companies incorporating technology, as well as business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies, eHealth concerns, financial service companies, eSolutions providers, capital sources and infrastructure companies.