Attorney Scott LeRoy of LeRoy, Hurst and Bickerstaff, and unintentional “Moc,” will start his term as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga alumni association president June 6.
LeRoy grew up in Chatta-nooga, and attended East Ridge High School. When he graduated in 1976, he says he picked UTC because that was the only place he could afford. At the time, UTC was more of a commuter type campus and hadn’t been a part of the UTC system very long. LeRoy graduated with an accounting degree from UTC, and he says he always thought he wanted to go to law school.
Working almost three years at a small law firm in town during his undergraduate years as a runner, where the attorney was president of the Chattanooga Bar Association, allowed LeRoy to literally hand deliver notices to each of the (then) 300 or so members of the bar association. LeRoy liked the practices he encountered, and after graduation, enrolled at UT Knoxville’s law school.
After passing the bar, LeRoy says his plan was to stay with a smaller firm. At first, it appeared this plan would pan out, until the small firm he was with rapidly became one of the larger firms in the area. LeRoy says he has nothing against large firms, but growing up in Chattanooga, and having most of his clients in Chattanooga for the 30 years he has been practicing, larger firms tended to pull him out of Chattanooga more and more and his rates were increasing. About four years ago, LeRoy switched from the larger practice to his current small firm at LeRoy, Hurst and Bickerstaff.
Around the time that LeRoy refocused his practice back into Chattanooga businesses, he decided he wanted to be more involved in the alumni association of UTC. LeRoy’s wife and daughter were graduates of UTC as well, and LeRoy felt a strong connection to the university from his time there in study and as a former Lambda Kai president.
LeRoy was nominated onto the alumni board in 2007, and has steadily become more involved. The alumni board is the most visible thing the outside world sees with their participation in homecoming and golf tournaments, pre and post game parties, and similar areas, he says. But on a more formal level, the alumni board is there to support and help the university grow and achieve its plan and develop it anyway it can.
The benefit of the alumni association involving businesses with the university is that larger businesses can employ many UTC graduates, he says. Many would be surprised to realize how many UTC graduates actually find themselves hired at UTC, LeRoy says.
“We help the university through things like development and helping attract donors. We support scholarships, and the alumni board has several scholarship of their own we award each year. We interact with the administrative staff, the development staff and attend a lot of student functions,” he says.
When LeRoy fully assumes the president’s role, he says much of these tasks will stay the same, and he will be interacting more directly with Chancellor Roger Brown to find out what ways the alumni board can assist the university.
“Some of the things we may help out with involves many of the long term initiatives, improving the graduation rate and improving the retention rate,” he says. “We are two years into a five-year strategic plan that has very specific goals about forming partnerships with different aspects of the community.”
As alumni are spread throughout every major and minor employer in Chattanooga, the alumni association is also working to bring those contacts into the university for more internship type programs for students. The 10-year growth plan the university recently announced will be a major area of the alumni association support, as housing is already at capacity and construction on the new library progresses. Through this, they will be looking for ideas from the community and UTC alums throughout the area.
LeRoy says that he likes to spend his spare time working on outdoor projects, a holdover from growing up on a farm. He also does renovation work, such as the remodeling he did on his firm’s McCallie Avenue office, a building dating back to 1906.
With his legal work, LeRoy enjoys traveling. With one client in particular, he has had the benefit of several trips to Asia, visiting China, Thailand, Vietnam and several others as well as trips to South America and across the U.S. LeRoy’s eight-year-old grandson encourages him to fish more, and spend time in his hobby of canoeing.
As LeRoy assumes the duties of UTC alumni association president this month his involvement with the university that chose him reaches a peak, allowing him to give back to his alma mater.