Senior Attorney, Institute of Justice
Kirby Thomas West is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, where she is also the co-director of IJ’s National Initiative to End Forfeiture Abuse. She joined IJ in 2018 and litigates cases defending property rights, free speech, and educational choice.
In her time at IJ, Kirby has launched challenges to unconstitutional civil forfeiture and impoundment schemes. She has also litigated educational choice cases, including as part of the IJ team that litigated Carson v. Makin, a landmark educational choice case decided in 2022.
In 2024, Kirby was a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School.
Before joining IJ, Kirby Was an attorney at Baker Botts LLP, in Washington D.C. She clerked for Judge Dennis Shedd of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Kirby received her law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2015.
Vice President, Americans for Prosperity
Of Counsel, Fisher & Phillips, LLP
Greg Grisham has over 25 years of successful experience counseling and representing employers in all aspects of workplace law in Tennessee and across the United States.
He has helped employers avoid claims, charges and lawsuits with a focus on preventative practices. Preventative practices include counseling in situations involving discipline, termination, demotion, promotion and other workplace changes in the terms and conditions of employment, harassment investigations, wage and hour compliance, FMLA Compliance, Reasonable Accommodation assessment, supervisor training and the review of employment policies and procedures. In addition, Greg's practice includes the representation of business entities subject to Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act in Public Accommodation cases.
Greg has successfully litigated hundreds of administrative charges, employment lawsuits, and arbitration demands on behalf of employers, including federal and state law claims alleging discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, defamation, invasion of privacy, breach of contract, wage and hour violations and ERISA violations, among others. He also represents employers before the National Labor Relations Board in unfair labor practice proceedings. He represents employers in the enforcement of post-employment restrictive covenants such as non-compete, non-solicitation and non-disclosure agreements and related trade secret litigation. Greg's practice also includes the defense of property owners and property management companies in federal and state Housing Discrimination charges and litigation. He also advises Tennessee Public Charter Schools on education law and workplace compliance matters.
Greg has extensive experience working with insurance carriers and their insureds in the defense of EPLI claims. He is a regular speaker at public seminars on workplace law issues and has authored numerous articles on a variety of labor and employment law related topics.
Greg holds an AV Preeminent Peer Review rating from Martindale-Hubbell and has been selected for inclusion in Mid-South Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America for Employment Litigation-Management side. Greg was elected as a 2016 Fellow to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has been selected to the “Top 20 Lawyers in Traditional Labor & Employment Law” list in conjunction with Human Resource Executive Magazine and LawDragon’s 2017 and 2018 “Most Powerful Employment Attorneys” lists and specialty guides. Greg was also named a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation in 2017.
Learning to Change: New Takes on Education Reform
Kirby Thomas West
A Review of: The Choice We Face: How Segregation, Race, and Power Have Shaped America’s...
State Court Docket Watch: In Re Individuals in Custody of the State of Hawai’i
Jeremiah Grant Mosteller
As COVID-19 spread across our country, many jurisdictions struggled with how to protect those in...
Beyond the Red-Blue Divide: An Overview of Current Trends in State Non-Compete Law
J. Gregory Grisham
Introduction Covenants not to compete (“non-competes”)[1] have a long history dating back to the medieval...
Engage Volume 8, Issue 3, June 2007
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW & REGULATION Gasoline, Markets, and Regulators by Andrew Morriss CIVIL RIGHTS The Legal...