Owings, Wilson & Coleman

Owings, Wilson & Coleman has a long and celebrated history as a Knoxville law firm that began in 1982. At that time, we were known as Robertson, Williams, Ingram, Faulkner & Overbey in recognition of our founding partners Claude K. Robertson, J. Edward Ingram, Norman H. Williams, Shannon D. Faulkner, III, and J. Douglas Overbey.

Attorneys of spirit and character, they believed strongly in the idea of supporting one's community by promoting the highest standards of professional ethics combined with community involvement outside the practice of law.

Few held this philosophy more than Claude Robertson, senior founding member, Eddie Ingram and Doug Overbey.

Claude served on the Board of Directors of United Way, Knoxville; Travelers Aid society; and Presbyterian Homes of Tennessee, Inc. (of which he was Chairman of the Board.)

Eddie served as Bond counsel to dozens of cities and counties throughout Tennessee. He also provided legal services for such high-profile projects as Thompson-Boling Arena, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Smokies Baseball Stadium in Sevier County.

Doug Overbey served on the Blount County Commission from 1982 to 1990 and later served for a total of seventeen years in the Tennessee General Assembly, the last nine years as State Senator for Blount and Sevier Counties. He also served as Chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee and on numerous community boards and committees.

Through the years that followed our inception, we provided a vast array of legal services that ranged from major civil litigation involving complex antitrust issues to serving as bond counsel, issuer's counsel and underwriter's counsel. Our clients were, and are, many of the most prestigious people and businesses in their respective fields.

As all firms do, we experienced periodic transitions with the addition of new members and the retirement and passage of older members. Prior to our most recent transition in 2017, the firm bore the name Robertson Overbey and featured four partners: Doug Overbey, senior partner; Shelly Wilson, managing partner; John Owings; and Stephanie Coleman, all of whom had been with the firm for years.

In 2017, our senior partner at the time, Doug Overbey, had the honor of being nominated by the President of the United States to serve as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. That nomination was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in October of 2017.

Doug resigned from his position with our firm to advance to the next chapter of his life, thereby creating our final transition which now bears the name Owings, Wilson & Coleman as of November 1, 2017.