BRADENTON, Fla. — Milwaukee-based Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP announced last week that the minority-owned law firm opened a new office in Nashville in an effort to expand its nationwide footprint.
Nashville attorneys Natasha L. Blackshear and Dennis Nunez joined GSH to open its 13th office. Both were formerly with the firm Natasha L. Blackshear & Associates PLC, which merged with Gonzalez Saggio.
Blackshear’s practice is concentrated in public and corporate finance while Nunez is a registered patent attorney focusing on intellectual property law.
With clients all over the U.S., Blackshear helped GSH fulfill an opportunity to expand in Nashville and surrounding areas, according to Jennifer Pflug Murphy, a partner in the firm’s public finance and transactional practices.
“We’re really excited to have [Blackshear] aboard,” Murphy said. “We’ve already started working on some deals in the Nashville area and look forward to expanding and growing with her on board.”
At her own firm, Blackshear offered public finance legal services, including bond and underwriters’ counsel. Her firm also provided services such as handling transactions, due diligence, corporate formation, business planning, and tax matters.
Blackshear’s prior experience also includes working as a venture capitalist at Council Ventures LP and as a senior associate in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ corporate valuation consulting division. She earned a law degree from Harvard University, an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell.
She serves on nonprofit boards and civic organizations, including the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, to which she was appointed by Gov. Phil Bredesen. She also is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers.
“I am pleased to join forces with such a respected minority-owned law firm,” Blackshear said in a statement. “Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan brings the considerable resources of a nationwide law firm to bear on public and corporate finance matters in Nashville, Memphis, and across the state of Tennessee.”
GSH ranked 27th nationwide as underwriters’ counsel in the first nine months of 2009 with $2.24 billion in four issues, according to Thomson Reuters. It rose to the 54th position in the top 100 bond counsel firms in 2008, which was up from 88th place in 2007. The firm also has offices in Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Nevada, California, Wisconsin, New York, Arizona, and Washington, D.C.
