First-year corporate attorney Blake Heyer might have felt like a stranger in a strange land when he arrived at Husch Blackwell in September, a University of Georgia graduate dropped into a sea of orange.
So one of his early tasks was making a statement with his office, more specifically decorating with a bulldog or two and the black and red of his alma mater.
“Being a Georgia grad in Tennessee, we probably have 10 Tennessee graduates in the office, so I made sure to have a lot of Georgia gear in my office,” Heyer recalls.
A Georgia native, Heyer first came to Chattanooga in the summer of 2022 for a 10-week internship at Husch Blackwell. He wanted a city feel with exciting things to do and little traffic. At the end of the summer, Husch offered Heyer a full-time position upon his 2023 graduation – his first full-time job beyond summer work.
“Everyone was just so great, and I really enjoyed the people here and the community they have,” he says. “So all of that together, it was a pretty quick ‘yes’ to me.”
Heyer serves in Husch Blackwell’s newest class of lawyers in Chattanooga. Since joining in September 2023, the 26-year-old says he has become part of the company and the community.
Heyer’s practice focuses on corporate, transactional and security law, “like general contracting work,” he says.
In the corporate sector, his work can include drafting business contracts and helping negotiate conditions for suppliers or vendors. In transactional, he works with debt and secured financing. In security, he works for public or private companies to ensure they comply with security laws, required filings and disclosures.
As a first-year associate, Heyer finds himself “doing a lot of different things and just trying to take it all in.”
One of the items Heyer is taking in – or partaking in – is coffee. He says that the office coffee is the worst part of his otherwise excellent job but that his branch on the third floor, at least, has far better coffee than the second. “I probably drink too much coffee,” he admits, despite the taste.
Although Heyer doesn’t know who occupies The Dome Building’s higher floors, he says he would love to visit the dome one day. He theorizes that the upper levels have the tasty coffee: “Someone’s taking it.”
Aside from their coffee, Heyer has nothing but glowing compliments for his office at Husch Blackwell.
“It’s a great opportunity with a wealth of experience,” he says. “I’m learning constantly, and that’s part of the reason I love what I do, because there’s constant learning, no matter your experience.”
Heyer appreciates the chance to work with attorneys in other Husch offices throughout the country as well as the patience of his co-workers.
“I feel like our office has a sense of community. I enjoy who I work with. They care about who you are and things you do outside the office.”
When Heyer married his now-wife Kathleen in May, the office gave him a wedding gift. Several co-workers also checked in during his wedding, congratulating him and asking for photos.
“The personal side of it, building relationships, makes you want to go to work more than when you’re talking about strictly work,”
Heyer says he is grateful to work in person again after his isolating college experience with COVID-19 restrictions. He says his firm has a great approach to flexibility and variation, allowing its attorneys to control their schedules and work from home.
However, Heyer, who stresses he is exceptionally punctual, likes to work a steady weekly routine. He says that his wife works from home, “so it works perfectly because we share an office and, for multiple reasons, that doesn’t work.”
Since their permanent move in June 2023, Heyer says he and his wife have fallen in love with the Scenic City.
“There’s really nothing we want that isn’t here,” he says. “Also, my commute to work is five minutes, and you can’t beat that.”
Although it’s just begun, Heyer’s law career has been in the works for over a decade. “When I graduated law school, my mom gave me this letter I wrote to myself in sixth grade where I said I wanted to be a lawyer. It was really cute. And I said I wanted to go to Harvard Law – I didn’t do that, but I think I did better because I won two national championships and Harvard didn’t.
“I think at that point in my life, I just saw it on TV and thought that’s cool, so I think that’s what drove me in my younger years.”
Heyer worked myriad jobs while pursuing his law career. At his first job, he set up a church on Saturdays at a local middle/high school and dismantled the church on Sundays. Through college, he served as a golf course maintenance worker, a pizza delivery driver for Marco’s Pizza (“definitely a fan,” he says), a sales analyst for Textron Specialized Vehicles, and a data compiler for a startup now named House Analytics.
Before entering law school, Heyer graduated from the University of Georgia with his bachelor’s degree in economics. He was unwavering about becoming a lawyer and thought that the theoretical perspective of economics would be helpful in law.
Heyer was accepted into UGA’s law program a few days before Christmas in his senior year of undergrad. “I think I paid the deposit like an hour later. I was excited to go.” He entered Georgia Law in 2020 with his twin brother, Brennan, who also graduated from Georgia with a degree in economics, and they remained roommates all seven years of college.
“I knew I didn’t want to be in a courtroom,” Heyer says of his time deciding on a specialty, “because I knew that if I ever had to shake a hand, I would transfer over a pound of sweat. But I knew I wanted to go into the business side of it.
“I think it’s interesting to strategize ways to advise companies and draft things that are responsive to their needs. It’s more about strategy and not as adversarial as a courtroom or court case.”
Heyer says he would be a teacher if not a lawyer. “In a perfect world,” he says, “I think that would be a dream of mine.”
He says he yearns for “a profession that’s constantly evolving, you’re learning and not every day is the same. You could be 40 years into your practice and new things could come up.”
Working in law, Heyer says, allows him to regularly flex his teaching and learning muscles.
Later in life, Heyer imagines himself teaching business law classes to undergraduates. “Because if I taught in a law school, they’d be smarter than me,” he says laughing.
A husband, son and the third of four boys, Heyer says he is extremely lucky to have his family, adding he remains very close to his brothers and parents, who support and encourage him unconditionally.
His twin brother Brennan, who he considers his best friend, was recently the best man at his wedding. In his sixth-grade letter to himself, Heyer even mentioned one friend – who became a groomsman at his wedding. He is grateful to live so close to his family, friends, and in-laws and to pass a Buc-ee’s on the drive to visit them.
Heyer and his wife Kathleen spend their weekends visiting family and friends, going to the market in downtown Chattanooga, playing golf and watching Bravo, “Southern Charm” and “Vanderpump Rules” especially.
Heyer says he also is a passionate Georgia sports fan, mad for the Bulldogs and the Braves. He is very friendly, quick to smile and laugh.
In the distant future, Heyer dreams of becoming a partner and, in his wilder dreams, the head coach for Georgia. He also hopes to eventually teach a few classes at a college before slowly moving toward retirement.
“And then I’d want to sit in my rocking chair and watch Bravo or ‘Survivor’ on season 100,” he says.
In the next several years, Heyer looks forward to buying a house in Chattanooga with a yard, getting a dog, and starting a family with his wife. “I really like what I do and where I live. Hopefully, I have a few more championship rings; that’d be nice.
“But I feel really lucky where I’m at now. If it’s the same, I’d be pretty stoked.”