Cameron S. Hill Sr. has two seemingly opposite occupations: attorney and cattle farmer. His leisurely Southern drawl and clear, concise diction are instantly soothing, which explains how Hill can assist clients and wrangle cattle on the same day.
Hill, along with his brother Cooper and sister Ashley, own and operate Hill-Vue Farm in Blairsville, Georgia. They are the fourth generation to own the cattle farm after inheriting it from their father, Bud.
“It’s a great place for me to clear my head and do something that I think is constructive and productive in a completely different area than law,” says Hill, who says he visits the farm a few times every month.
By day, Hill is a shareholder at Baker Donelson in Chattanooga, where he primarily practices four subsets of litigation: construction, commercial, employment and ERISA law. While some lawyers focus on one or two subsets, he explains, he enjoys being challenged by various types of law, legal questions and scenarios.
“There’s no regular day,” Hill says of his position.
After finishing his morning coffee, Hill finds that developments often occur unexpectedly – court decisions, timeline advances, sudden reports – forcing him to pivot from one case to another. “It wouldn’t surprise me if I come in on a Wednesday morning and, by that afternoon, I’ve done nothing I thought I was going to do when I got there.”
Working on the cattle farm has a similar unpredictability. Hill says Hill-Vue is very weather-dependent, so the effects of unforeseen rainfall or drought trickle into many aspects of daily life. He also says that not all calves or cows live through birth, and he and his siblings must decide what to do in the aftermath. “There’s violence, tragedy, sadness, stresses that occur every day on the farm that you just have to deal with.”
Back at Baker Donelson, Hill handles an abundance of client work. Remarkable growth in Nashville and Chattanooga is prompting a lot of construction, he says, inevitably leading to contractual and employment issues, which bring him more legal work.
Mentorship still part of the job
Hill recently transitioned out of his role as the firm’s professional development shareholder but still welcomes the chance to mentor younger attorneys.
“You have an opportunity to mentor every day,” he says, adding he has a responsibility as a senior-level attorney to help less-experienced colleagues find their way.
Hill says he loves helping others solve – or better yet, avoid – problems. He says practicing law is largely educating, advising, advocating for and sharing with people, whether they’re clients or peers.
“Secretly, I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I’ve always wanted to teach high school English or history. That’s sort of my secret dream.”
In new associates, Hill looks for many key qualities: energy, commitment, responsibility, accountability, reliability, objectivity, honesty, integrity and, he emphasizes, curiosity. He adds the importance of intellect and street smarts, but admits they are tricky to define.
Hill also is interested in attorneys who are authentically themselves. He asks that younger attorneys incorporate their unique perspectives and intuitions into their practice rather than blindly adhering to age-old standards.
“One of the things I would like people to do is practice law the way they think it should be practiced,” Hill says. “We don’t need automatons. We don’t need robots. We need people who are willing to work within a given framework and add value where they can.”
Hill says that with his age and experience as an attorney, he brings wisdom, empathy, an ability to adjust and to listen.
Baker Donelson has three first-year law students interning at the firm this summer. Hill says they are all young women from different locations and schools across the country but all have a soft connection to the area.
“Chattanooga is a great place to live, but a lot of people don’t know about it,” he says. “They think it’s a little sleepy backwater of Southeast Tennessee. So having some familiarity with Chattanooga in particular is a good thing to have.”
He goes on to describe the firm’s summer associates: “They’re bright; they ask good questions; they are willing to learn; and they’re all pleasant personalities.”
Growing into his dreams
Hill has three children – two daughters and a son – who are all entering, or newly part of, adulthood. Hill says watching them grow up feels bittersweet but he looks forward to watching them fly. Hill says he loves to spend time with his children, especially at Hill-Vue Farm.
“They enjoy it very much, probably for different reasons – four-wheelers and shotguns and cold drinks as opposed to hammers and fences and rounding up cattle,” he smiles.
Growing up on the farm, the oldest of three children, Hill admits he felt the same way. As a boy, he says he wished for trips to Disney World or the beach instead of driving back to Hill-Vue. “I confess that the appreciation I have for the farm now, I probably did not fully achieve until I was in my late 20s or early 30s.”
Before he dreamed of classrooms and courtrooms, Hill says, “I went through the regular litany of things that little tow-headed boys want to do – fireman and cowboy – which I guess I’m kind of doing now on the farm. I guess I’m kind of a fireman, too, putting out fires.”
His initial inspiration was two of his parents’ friends. Hill says he liked how they engaged with people and spoke intelligently about engaging topics. Once he found out they were lawyers, Hill says he saw that as his path. His aspiration was cemented after studying history and political science for his undergraduate degree.
After taking French classes for eight years and studying abroad in Paris, Hill completed his law degree at Tulane in New Orleans. He had sought out its French setting and Napoleonic civil law track, connected to the language.
And despite the lack of local French speakers, Hill has since worked on a case through Baker Donelson that took him to France a second time. He says he hopes to return once more – to a village in the French countryside where he can “get enmeshed in the life of a smaller town and be a citizen for a month.”
When not in a courtroom or at the farm, Hill can be found fly-fishing, keeping up with world events, reading historical fiction or books by Tolkien or C.S. Lewis, and cooking. Hill says he is passionate about cooking, which he considers a mixture of culture, creativity and science. He favors Italian food, French cooking, curries, hamburgers (“I’m a cattle farmer – I gotta shoutout hamburgers”) and omelets – “tricky sometimes, basic, but they’re so dang good if you know how to make them!”
In the next several years, Hill says he hopes to grow wiser, have a positive influence on newer attorneys, become a better person and spend more time at his family farm.
“I love rugged beauty. I wouldn’t exactly call it peaceful, but it’s natural. It’s beautiful. It happens the way it is supposed to happen.”