The Church Law Institute is sponsoring a free seminar to Pastors, Ministers and those in church leadership in the Nashville and surrounding area on May 19, 2012. The focus of this seminar will be to better equip those in full-time Christian service with relevant, legal information on a wide range of topics facing churches and pastors today. It will also emphasize a proactive approach to guide churches in avoiding legal pitfalls that can distract them from their evangelical purpose and mission.
The seminar will also serve to announce the formation of this new outreach to churches and ministries in Tennessee. Invitations will be going out to all of the churches in the Middle Tennessee area.
Seminar Speakers:
Larry L. Crain
Larry Crain, founder of The Crain Law Center, LLC, is a constitutional law attorney who for the last thirty years has specialized in First Amendment, religious liberty cases. He has represented churches, church leaders, and Christian ministries in a wide range of legal issues in federal and state courts in more than twenty-six states, and in legal briefs before the United States Supreme Court. During his legal career Mr. Crain has served as General Counsel for The Rutherford Institute and Senior Counsel to The American Center for Law and Justice, international public interest law firms that represent First Amendment, religion‐clause issues. He served for several years as Adjunct Professor for Religious Studies at Moody Graduate School in Chicago and has lectured at the University of Strasbourg, France on the subject of religious liberty.
Mr. Crain will discuss the growing concerns facing the local church and liability topics over which churches and pastors find themselves increasingly in court today. He will also discuss proactive approaches church leaders should take to avoid these legal pitfalls, enabling them to instead focus time and financial resources on their ministry’s goals.
Joshua R. Denton
Josh is a Nashville attorney with more than a dozen years of experience. He counsels both hierarchical and connectional churches on a variety of legal issues, including real estate matters, compliance issues, and church organizational and governance issues. Josh has extensive experience litigating the rights to church property in lawsuits arising from church schisms. A member of Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC, Josh also routinely represents clients in complex commercial litigation involving breach of contract claims, business torts, real estate disputes, and land use planning and zoning matters. He has represented clients in jury and bench trials, appeals, arbitrations and mediations. Josh is licensed to practice law in all state and federal courts sitting in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.
Josh will discuss proactive steps church leaders can take to minimize the risk of costly litigation in the event a church dispute later arises, including steps to ensure proper organizational and church governance documents are in place. Josh also looks forward to speaking with you regarding real estate issues that regularly face churches today, as well as safeguards church leaders can put into place to protect valuable church property.
Paige Waldrop Mills
Paige has practiced law in Nashville, Tennessee for more than 19 years. Her practice centers around helping businesses identify and protect their intellectual property in the most cost effective manner possible. She routinely consults with clients in the selection, registration, and protection of trademarks; provides business advice in the area of copyrights, trade secrets, data security, and internet issues; drafts and negotiates license agreements for the exploitation of intellectual property; and litigates in all aspects of intellectual property law. She also has extensive experience in litigating general business disputes, tort claims, and employment matters. She is a member of Bass, Berry and Sims, PLC and co-chairs the firm’s Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group. Paige welcomes your questions and would love to connect with you through her blog, IP @ Tennessee [& beyond], found at paigemillsblog.com, or through Twitter, where she tweets about IP issues under the handle “tniplawyer.”
Paige will be speaking on the topic, “The Biggest Mistakes Churches Make Regarding their Intellectual Property and How to Avoid Them.”
