David Siegel, Richard Gordon honored by Tennessee Bar Association

Special Recognition for Pro Bono Work

This year the TBA Access to Justice Committee and the Board of Governors voted to offer special recognition to attorneys who take on a single, complex and controversial case pro bono. The TBA awards this special recognition to David Siegel and Richard Gordon, both of Memphis, for their extraordinary service in an adoption and child custody case in the Memphis area.

In that case, Chinese nationals Shaoqiang ‘’Jack’’ He and his wife, Qin Luo “Casey,’’ gave their infant daughter to Jerry and Louise Baker. The financially distressed Hes said their arrangement was temporary, but the Bakers said they were told they could keep the girl until she was grown.

Circuit Judge Robert ‘’Butch’’ Childers terminated the Hes’ parental rights after a 10-day trial last spring. The case is currently being appealed and has attracted the help of lawyers from Vanderbilt University and the University of Memphis law clinics and Chicago-based Loyola University, all of which have asked to submit briefs in the high-profile case.

Siegel’s law practice focuses on the areas of family and general law, as well as civil litigation. Gordon practices family law.

— Becky Rhodes

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