Wright Lindsey Jennings
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Wright Lindsey Jennings is pleased to announce the addition of four associate attorneys to the firm: Daveante Jones, Jessica Pruitt Koehler, Nathan R. Finch and Sidney L Leasure. All four will be based in the firm’s Little Rock office.
Daveante Jones is a labor and employment attorney who represents employers and professionals in a variety of employment matters. His areas of practice include discrimination, minimum wage and overtime, employee leave, employment contracts, severance agreements, covenants not to compete, unemployment claims and EEOC/DOL investigations.
Before joining the firm, Jones worked as a law clerk to the Honorable Brian S. Miller, Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Jones earned his J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law, graduating cum laude in 2016. While in law school, Jones served as an Articles Editor for the Arkansas Law Review and as Secretary/Treasurer of the Board of Advocates. He also received the annual M. Jeff Starling, Jr. Award for excellence in labor and employment law. Jones worked in the University of Arkansas School of Law Civil Litigation and Advocacy Clinic representing clients seeking to enforce their rights in a variety of employment law matters.
Jones graduated from Ashdown High School. While earning his Political Science degree with a minor in Africana Studies as a member of the Southern Arkansas University Honors College, he served as the polemarch (president) of the Lambda Kappa chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and also received the Mulerider Leadership Award.
Jessica Pruitt Koehler is engaged in an active litigation practice that encompasses insurance defense, medical malpractice defense, products liability defense and general commercial litigation. Before starting at the firm, Koehler served a two-year term as a federal law clerk for the Honorable Kristine G. Baker at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Koehler earned her J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law, where she graduated in the top 5% of her class and summa cum laude in 2015. While in law school, Koehler served as the Articles Editor for the Arkansas Law Review and as a teaching assistant in Civil Procedure.
Koehler is from Little Rock, Arkansas, where she graduated from Pulaski Academy. While attending Vanderbilt University, where she earned degrees in English and Human & Organizational Development, Koehler served as the Vice President of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
Koehler was the recipient of numerous awards and accolades in law school: the Judge Thomas F. Butt Legal Excellence Award for Excellence in Civil Procedure, the James H. Mckenzie Award for Professional Responsibility and Ethics and the T.C. & Rosemary Carson Memorial Award for Constitutional Law.
Nathan R. Finch counsels individuals, businesses, public entities and nonprofits in areas concerning corporate law, administrative law, real estate, state and municipal utilities, government relations, and healthcare. Additionally, he assists clients with estate planning issues by preparing wills and trusts, and advising beneficiaries on probate matters. Finch also regularly writes on topics concerning heavily regulated entities and industries.
Finch was raised on his family’s farm in Northwest Arkansas and graduated from Springdale High School. He obtained his J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law, and his B.A. in Public Administration with minors in Economics and Political Science from the University of Arkansas. In law school, Finch was president of the Environmental Law Society and an active member of the Business Law Society. He also participated in the American Bar Association’s National Appellate Advocacy Competition, where his team received an award for writing one of the best briefs in the nation at the finals round in Chicago. He served on the Arkansas Law Review as a Note and Comment Editor.
Prior to law school, Finch attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York and worked in the hospitality industry for more than a decade. He also serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for abused, abandoned and neglected children.
Sidney L. Leasure utilizes her LL.M. in Taxation to serve as counsel to individuals, partnerships, closely held businesses and charitable organizations in all manner of tax-related areas. She addresses clients’ needs in entity formation, real estate transactions, corporate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, sales tax issues, and federal and state tax law. Leasure also assists clients with their estate planning needs, such as succession planning and the preparation of trusts, wills, healthcare directives and powers of attorney. She advises nonprofit organizations in applying for, obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status.
While earning her LL.M. at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Leasure served as a Graduate Student Editor for the Florida Tax Review. Leasure graduated with honors from the UALR Bowen School of Law, where she was Assistant Managing Editor and Associate Research Editor for the UALR Law Review.
Before joining WLJ, Leasure worked for three years in the Tax Accounting Department of Stephens Investments Holdings, researching tax issues and preparing returns for a number of private equity partnerships, trusts, high-net-worth individuals and private foundations. Leasure is a board member of the Central Arkansas Estate Council. She is also a member of the Junior League of Little Rock, working with the organization’s Stuff the Bus project.