Stacey Garrett Koju provides proactive legal advice on all aspects of critical corporate matters, recognizing each transaction is important to the future of a business and its owners and allowing them to maintain successful operations. She concentrates her law practice in the areas of corporate transactions, labor and employment law, employment practices, health care, and higher education. Her practice includes business transactions and strategic legal advice, review and negotiation of complex contracts, commercial loans and leases, estimation and mitigation of risk, internal corporate governance, employment practices and immigration, charitable giving and deaccessioning, gift deviation, and cy pres. Stacey believes the energy of the firm’s attorneys and staff is the reason the firm forges extraordinary client relationships.
As general counsel to a local higher education institution, Stacey managed a team of litigators over the course of a seven-year case, which included multiple appeals. The school sought to reform the terms of a gift document for 101 works of art gifted by Georgia O’Keeffe as the executrix of her husband’s estate. Ultimately, the client prevailed and was permitted to lift outdated restrictions to appropriately preserve the collection of art and enter into a sharing arrangement with a museum.
In 2003, former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen appointed Stacey to serve as a commissioner on the Tennessee Human Rights Commission through 2009. In 2009, he reappointed Stacey to serve on the commission through 2015, where she served as the chair. Bredesen also designated her to serve on a judicial redistricting study committee and the Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty.
Stacey was formerly deputy chief of staff for Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. of Memphis. Early in her legal career, she served as associate general counsel for two companies and as director of legal affairs for another.
Stacey believes deeply in community investment through charitable and civic activities. She began her commitment to community service at the age of 14, volunteering in a nursing home. There she learned the value of service to others and continues to participate in charitable activities throughout the state. Stacey is a vocal supporter of diversity, inclusion, and individual empowerment.
A native Nashvillian, she is an avid runner and an adventure travel enthusiast. Even though she says she is afraid of heights, Stacey has rappelled twice down the side of a 27-story office building to benefit the Special Olympics of Tennessee and once down the side of a 20-story hotel to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee. She and her husband enjoy adventure travel and have trekked to Mt. Everest Base Camp — at an elevation of 17,890 feet — as well as explored the Italian Dolomites.
Representative Industries Served:
For-profit and nonprofit organizations
Banking and finance
Retail
Restaurant
Technology
Physician practices
Commercial real estate firms
Public relations firms
Health care
Plumbing
Heating and air companies
Foundations
Museums
Institutions of higher education
Education consulting
Commercial cleaning
Manufacturing
Apparel
Corporate
Corporate governance, including best practices for ethical and accountability standards, board oversight and authority, and internal disputes
Business formation and services, including shareholder and operating agreements
Member withdrawals and disputes
Mergers and acquisitions
Loan agreements
Franchise agreements
Complex contracts and disputes
Regulatory compliance and external investigations
General counsel services
Employment
Executive compensation plans and agreements
Workplace investigations
Wage and hour issues
Diversity and inclusion training and consulting
Employment practices and procedures
Union matters, including negotiation of collective bargaining agreements
Contract and tort claims
Compliance and regulatory matters
Severance agreements
Noncompetition and nondisclosure agreements
Training
Consulting on development of internal procedures/operations manuals
Disciplinary matters
General training and education
Risk estimation and mitigation
Immigration (H-1B, TN, L, O and P visas, employment-based permanent residence)
PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
An Outside (Counsel) Perspective: Building Your Crisis Management Playbook, Association of Corporate Counsel Tennessee, 2022
Women’s Executive Roundtable, Interdenominational Services Organization of America, 2010 through 2017
Diversity, Emerge Tennessee, 2017
Diversity, The Marion Griffin Women’s Symposium, 2017
LLC, Sole Proprietorship, S-Corp, etc.: What’s the Best for Me? And For Sale: Your Internet Browsing History, National Association of Catering Executives, Nashville Chapter, 2017
Panelist for Tennessee Bar Association’s Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity Job Fair, 2012
National Origin Discrimination, Tennessee Human Rights Commission’s Employment Law Seminar, 2010
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Leadership Tennessee, Chair, Advisory Council
Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Inc., Board Member
National Museum of African American Music, Board Member
Abe’s Garden, Board Member
The Links, Inc., Member, Treasurer
Women’s Fund – Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Former Advisory Board Member
YWCA, Former Board Member
Tennessee Human Rights Commission, Former Chair of the Board
Special Olympics of Tennessee, Former Board Member
Make-A-Wish of Middle Tennessee, Former Board Member and Wish Committee Member
Leadership Nashville, Class of 2012
Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, Former ex officio Board Member and Lead Counsel
Metropolitan Nashville Board of Zoning Appeals, Former Board Member
Tennessee Judicial Redistricting Study Committee
Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty
MEMBERSHIPS
The National Black Lawyers Top 100, 2023 (Tennessee)
Nashville Bar Association, Board of Directors, 2007-2010
Tennessee Bar Association
DISTINCTIONS
Distinguished Rating, Martindale-Hubbell
“Legal Challenge” Award of Excellence, YWCA, 2014
Leadership Tennessee Inaugural Class, 2013
Most Powerful Women, Nashville Post, 2013
In Charge, Nashville Post, 2013, 2017
InCharge, Nashville Medical News, 2017
Napier-Looby Trailblazer Award, 2013
Leadership Nashville, Class of 2012
YWCA Academy for Women of Achievement Honoree, 2012
Women’s Center at Tennessee State University: “Woman of Legion and Merit,” 2012
ATHENA Nominee, 2011 and 2013
Women of Influence, Entrepreneur, Nashville Business Journal, 2007
Best of the Bar – Immigration Law, Nashville Business Journal, multiple years
Nashville Leadership Program, Partnership Institute, 2003-2004
Top 40 Under 40, Tennessean, 2003
