John Wallace Crow II, Business Attorney in Clarksville, Tennessee

While I am a lawyer and my career is a large part of my life, its only a small part of who I am. So let me start off by telling you a little bit about me outside of the law:

To start off, I am sort of a nerd sometimes. I love to read and learn new things. My favorite books consist of histories and biographies, but I also have an affinity for good investment and business books. I try to stay physically active and have recently set a goal of cycling the entire Lewis and Clark trail from St. Charles, Missouri to the Pacific Cost in Oregon. To date, I have gone over halfway across the state of Missouri. Only several thousand miles left!

I enjoy going to the beach and lake and generally being outdoors. I play tennis when I can and will challenge anyone to a game of chess. Mention any sort of board game and I am usually quickly taking my seat. I thrive on competition and good conversation. While I am avid fan of the Vanderbilt Commodores, I usually wait till college baseball season to begin counting wins.

Much of my life revolves around my family. I am married and have a little boy who is 2 years old, and our lives primarily revolve around him. I grew up in a large family, having three older brothers I looked up to constantly. My parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles have all had a major impact on my life in one way or another and I deeply value the relationships I have with everyone in my family.

What matters to me above all is relationships and my faith. While my relationships with my family and friends are critical, my faith teaches me to treat others the way I would like to be treated and I try to remember that with anyone I meet. I am friendly, outgoing, and hope I have a good sense of humor. Laughter and being lighthearted are part of what keeps life enjoyable and I try to put others at ease.

Journey to the Law

My pathway to becoming a lawyer began during my junior year of college at Vanderbilt University. At that time, I was a history major with a concentration of studies on Latin American history, Classical history, and the late 19th Century. Due to rigors of these studies, I developed a passion for research, writing, and analysis.

During my time at Vanderbilt, I volunteered on President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, worked as press intern for Sen. Lamar Alexander in Washington, D.C., and worked at the Tennessee Republican Party in Nashville. I have an intense passion to help people, and at the time politics was, in large part, the outlet for this energy.

While I loved both history and politics, I felt that neither avenue suited me long term. I could not see myself in the classroom teaching all my life and have little desire to run for office or live the transient lifestyle of a political staffer. So I began looking at the law. It suited my research and writing abilities that I learned as a history major and it was an excellent outlet for my desire to make a difference in people's lives. In a way, my journey to the law began with the meshing of these two separate interests.

Once in law school, my interests in personal finance, business, and entrepreneurship grew and led me to focus my studies on estate planning, taxation, and business organizations. I enjoyed learning how to structure an estate plan to minimize the estate tax and use trusts for control of assets. Starting businesses the right way and with the right structure has similarly been a passion of mine. I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, from my grandparents to my nephews, and incorporating an estate and business plan together naturally fit my interests.

My Stats

I graduated high school from Clarksville Academy and attended Vanderbilt University where I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 2006. I joined Batson Nolan as an associate attorney in 2009 after earning my law degree from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. I became a partner at Batson Nolan in 2018, leading the estate planning and probate division of that firm. In both 2018 and 2019, I was named in Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in the Mid-South.

In 2019, I founded Crow Estate Planning and Probate with the desire to be different than other law firms in the area. I wanted to devote my time to only a few areas of practice: estate planning, probate, and business planning. In founding this firm, my desire is to focus is on the client, not the clock; to build relationships with my clients and to be readily accessible.

I am active in the local community, serving on several boards and participating in numerous organizations. I attend church at Madison Street United Methodist Church and was the past Chairman of the Board at First Christian Church. I also serve on the Board of Trustees at Clarksville Academy, and I am a member of the National Association of Independent Financial Advisers, the downtown Clarksville chapter of Kiwanis, and the Custom's House Museum. I have managed several political campaigns in Tennessee, served on the Salvation Army Advisory Board, and I am an Eagle Scout.