Chattanooga attorney Tonya Cammon has become Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation, an association of 818 attorneys across the state. Invitations to membership were extended to 30 attorneys this year by the Bar Foundation’s Board of Trustees. The introduction of new Fellows took place in May at the annual Fellows’ Dinner in Nashville.
The Bar Foundation’s purpose is two-fold: to honor attorneys who have distinguished themselves in the profession and to administer a grant making program. That project, known by its acronym, IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts), has awarded grants in excess of $20,000,000 to law-related, public interest projects throughout Tennessee.
A native of Mississippi, Cammon earned a B.S. from Millsaps College and a post-graduate degree in Medical Technology. In 1990, she returned to school, earning a Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1992. While at Ole Miss, she was a Dean’s List scholar, served as vice chair of the Moot Court Board, and was a winner of the Steen, Reynolds, Dalehite & Currie Trial Competition. After law school, Cammon served as law clerk to the Hon. Armis E. Hawkins, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi.
In 1993, Cammon moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., and joined the law firm of Grant, Konvalinka & Harrison. She has served on the firm’s executive committee and is currently managing director for the firm. Cammon concentrates her practice in the areas of health care, employment, and commercial transactions and litigation.
A long-time member of the Federal Bar Association (FBA), Cammon currently serves as one of its two 6th Circuit vice presidents. She is a member of the Chattanooga Chapter of the FBA and has served on its board and as its secretary, president-elect, and president. As a member of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA), Cammon was the recipient in 1996 of its YLD Enterprise Award and was named a YLD Fellow in 1999. She served as chair of the TBA’s Public Education Committee in 2007 and 2008, and continued to serve on that committee until 2012. In 2015, Cammon was named a Fellow of both the Federal and Tennessee Bar Associations’ Foundations.
Cammon is a former member of the Chattanooga Bar Association’s Board of Governors (2001), as well as a recipient of its President’s Award (1998) and Albert L. Hodge Volunteer Award (1999). She also served as chair of its Law-Related Education Committee for several years, working with area teachers and students to emphasize the importance of the rule of law in society. A member of the Southeast Tennessee Lawyers Association for Women, Cammon has served as its president.
Cammon was an adjunct faculty member for the graduate program of the School of Business Administration at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for several years. She is a 1998 graduate of Leadership Chattanooga and was appointed to the Chattanooga Human Rights/Human Relations Commission in 1996. Cammon has served as chair of the Board of Directors of the AIM Center, a non-profit agency which provides psychosocial rehabilitation services for adults with mental illnesses. She also served as a member of the State Advisory Board for Project Citizen, a civics organization for middle school students, and was one of the founders of AMC³, an appellate moot court competition for Tennessee college students. Cammon served for six years as a member of the Memorial Health Care System Foundation Board of Directors, serving as its treasurer for two fiscal years. In 2009, she was a recipient of an UnBought & UnBossed Award from Girls, Inc. She has also been a volunteer for numerous other community organizations.
Cammon is married to Barry Cammon, owner of Advanced Video Solutions; they reside on Lookout Mountain. They have three adult children: Jenifer Hall, who lives with her husband, Dale, and 2-year-old son, Elliot, in Mount Juliet, Tenn.; Mary-Margaret Cammon of Chattanooga; and Lyle Cammon of Chattanooga. Barney, a rescued mixed-breed dog, and Sadie, a rescued boxer, complete the Cammon family. The Cammons are avid sports fans, and Ms. Cammon is a classically-trained pianist who loves travel, animals, cooking, reading, music, and gardening.
Source: Tennessee Bar Foundation