Phelps Dunbar Adds M&A Partner Duo to Nashville Office
Law.com published this article April 15, 2026.
Expanding its Tennessee team, Phelps Dunbar has added a partner duo from FBT Gibbons in Nashville who form a core M&A team in Nashville.
Corporate partners Jason Brace and Wes Scott joined Phelps on Friday, extending the firm's M&A team from Middle to West Tennessee and then to the Mid-South.
New Orleans-founded Phelps expanded into Tennessee in January 2024 when it combined with Farris Bobango, a 28-lawyer firm with offices in Memphis and Nashville. Brace and Scott join other recent hires in Nashville—real estate partner Alex Porter and health care partner Doug Wolford, with both coming from Holland & Knight.
“With Jason and Wes on board, we’re expanding our capacity to execute large, complex deals on both the buy-side and sell-side,” Wolford, managing partner of the Nashville office, wrote in a press release.
“The deep transaction experience these two bring to Phelps, combined with our established real estate and health care operations and regulatory capabilities, puts us in a unique position to help a wide variety of clients from early planning through deal execution, all from one dedicated M&A base here in Nashville. And we’re linking our growing Nashville office to our corporate, finance and tax lawyers in Memphis and throughout the Phelps platform," he wrote.
Scott said in an interview that he and Brace moved to Phelps for a variety of reasons including its single partnership tier, a culture of collegiality "paired with a real sense of drive and eagerness to build and grow," and a stable of lawyers with sophisticated practices.
Brace said he and Scott work together closely and generally work on the same matters regardless of which of them brings in the client. Their move benefits their clients, he said, because Phelps has an extensive footprint throughout the Southeast, and the firm provides them with flexibility in offering mid-market billing rates.
"With all of the big firms—international, global firms—coming into the market in Nashville specifically, a true middle-market rate is a big plus," he said.
They declined to identify their clients, but said they do buy-and-sell work in sectors including transportation, logistics, energy and essential services. They advise founders, owners, private equity firms, family offices and independent sponsors, with some of their work serving as outside general counsel.
Brace said they strengthen Phelps' corporate and M&A practice by adding it to the Nashville office.
Marshall Redmon, managing partner of Phelps, wrote in the release that clients want "high-quality, business-focused legal counsel delivered in a way that fits the scale and needs of their market,” and the Nashville team provides the firm with opportunity to meet that market need.
A spokesperson for FBT Gibbons did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the departures.