“The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same- Reflections on the Battle for Ratification of the 19th Amendment”

Keith Simmons is an attorney by education and profession. In 1976, he joined the Nashville-based law firm of Bass, Berry & Sims where he spent his entire legal career until he retired at the end of 2012. From 1995 through 2012, he served as the firm’s Managing Partner. Prior to accepting the role of Managing Partner, Keith had a successful law practice focused on public finance. He was instrumental in notable financing transactions across the state of Tennessee in some of the smallest communities in the state to the largest, including the financing of Nissan Stadium and Bridgestone Arena. Keith is a native Kentuckian with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University Kentucky. Following college, he served in the United States Air Force as an ICBM missile launch officer stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota, where he also obtained a Master of Science degree in Economics from South Dakota State University. His law degree is from Vanderbilt Law School. Keith is active in community affairs, both locally and nationally. He is currently chair of the Board of Trustees of the Nashville Public Library. He was a founding board member of the Nashville Public Library Foundation and served as its Board chair from 1997 through 2006. He has also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Urban Libraries Council, a national association of public libraries serving urban communities across the United States and Canada, Chair of the Board of Directors of Lex Mundi, an international association of the world’s leading independent law firms, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation.