Editorial
Front Page - Friday, December 24, 2010
Baker Donelson senior associate Sveadas enjoys a healthy work, life balance
David Laprad
Justin Sveadas is a senior associate at Baker Donelson. He concentrates his practice on business bankruptcy, does volunteer work for Legal Aid of East Tennessee and spends as much time as he can with his wife and three sons.
- David Laprad
It’s hard to imagine Justin Sveadas being anything but a lawyer. He’s tall, fit and his looks were evidently cut from good cloth. His polished surroundings at Baker Donelson fit him as comfortably as his well-tailored suit. And the confidence with which he carries himself must be a source of comfort and relief to his business bankruptcy clients.
Sveadas projects such a natural persona that it’s difficult to picture him with a beard and a tweed sweater teaching Russian history in a college classroom. But that was his original plan.
“I was a Russian history major at Grand Valley State University near Lake Michigan,” he says in regard to his undergraduate work. “I wanted to be a professor, but that wouldn’t have paid the bills. I had some friends who’d tried it, and they couldn’t find work, so I decided to go to law school.”
While the change in direction might sound radical, Sveadas is highly adaptable. Upon graduating from Emory School of Law in Atlanta in 2002, he took a job defending nursing homes in medical malpractice lawsuits at Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel. It wasn’t the path he chose, but he was pleased to be working.
“When you start at a law firm, you do the work that’s available, and when I started out, there was a lot of nursing home work,” he says.
In addition to being adaptable, Sveadas is a good career strategist who understands the importance of learning from those who have already succeeded in his field and using the connections he establishes through those relationships to begin developing his own client base.
For example, to learn the ins and outs of long-term care litigation, Sveadas trained under Joshua Powers, who today is listed in “Best Lawyers in America” in the category of medical malpractice law. He enjoyed working with Powers, so when his mentor moved to Baker Donelson, he made the switch as well.
Sveadas was able to test his ability to learn a new line of work soon after he set up shop at Baker Donelson, as the work he’d been doing on behalf of nursing homes dried up. In need of a new pursuit, he turned to his peers.
“A number of older lawyers here were doing commercial bankruptcy, so I started working with them, and here I am. It’s been great because I started doing this when it wasn’t a hot area to be in, when the economy was still doing well. But now that we’re going through this big recession, the last three years have been busy,” he says.
Sveadas learned business bankruptcy work by teaming up with a leader in his field: Richard Gossett.
“He’s the best bankruptcy lawyer in the state, in my opinion, and I owe a lot to being able to work under him. He’s introduced me to clients and helped to establish me,” he says.
While Sveadas appreciates the boost his mentors have given him, he says he’s also done a lot of on-the-job learning, which suits his way of doing things.
“When I was a less experienced lawyer, I tended to jump into things that might have been over my head, but I always did well at them. That’s what I do. I adapt and learn on the job,” he says.
Sveadas has also adjusted well to being a family man. When he moved to Atlanta in 1999, he was as free as a bird; today, he’s married with three sons, the oldest of which is six and the youngest of which is two months.
“I’ve been able to coach their basketball, baseball and soccer teams. Chattanooga offers that. If I’d stayed in Atlanta or took a job in Chicago, where work life balance isn’t as respected, that wouldn’t have been the case,” Sveadas says.
Sveadas also enjoys the time he spends with his wife, Heather, an attorney who’s currently raising their children full-time. When the couple spends time together, a sport is usually involved.
“My wife’s father is a football coach, so Heather legitimately likes the sport. I had a lot of girlfriends who acted like they enjoyed football, but they didn’t. We go to a lot of games, we work out a lot and we tend to do sports activities with our kids,” Sveadas says, adding that he doesn’t let his wife’s passion for the Tennessee Vols get in the way of his love for her.
“Growing up in Michigan, I’m a big Wolverine fan. Our teams met once, and Tennessee won in decisive fashion, so I take a tremendous amount of grief from Heather’s brother about that,” he says, laughing.
Sveadas spends the rest of his time giving back to his profession and his community. He handles pro bono cases and coordinates fundraisers with Legal Aid of East Tennessee, is an occasional presenter and teaching assistant at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and is on the board of trustees at Moccasin Bend Mental Health Center. In addition, he’s a member of Baker Donelson’s BakerGreen Committee, which is dedicated to reducing the firm’s environmental impact.
Sveadas and his wife moved to the Chattanooga area after graduating from Emory. They’d looked for jobs “all over the Southeast,” and both found work in the Scenic City. Sveadas is glad they did.
“It was a blessing to come here. Not only is it a good place to raise kids, but the economy is starting to take off. I’ll be shocked if I don’t live here the rest of my life,” Sveadas says.
Sveadas and his family moved from Hixson, Tenn., to Signal Mountain about a year ago, and are currently enjoying the amenities of living in the small community.
“We love Signal Mountain. It has a reputation for having great public schools, and the people there make up a wonderful support group. It’s shocking how good the people at Signal Mountain Church of Christ have been to us. When we had our baby, they came to the hospital, showered us with gifts and gave us meals for about a month,” Sveadas says.
Although Sveadas didn’t draw up a detailed map of his future when he decided to become a lawyer, he’s pleased with where he ended up. And while he believes Providence has had a hand in his life, his ability to adapt to new situations, his willingness to work hard and even his impetuousness early on have allowed him to turn each bend in the road into a success story.
Sveadas is “up for partner” Feb. 1, which means he’s reached the point where he’s bringing in business and is
capable of sustaining his own practice. He’s hoping he makes it. Given his track record, it’s hard to imagine he has any cause for concern. Besides, if things don’t go his way, he can always grow a beard and buy a tweed sweater.
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