Nashville Electric Service on Thursday told The Tennessee Star that it was not a conflict of interest for the municipally-owned power company to enlist Sherrard Roe Voigt and Harbison as one of two law firms who will supervise the completion of a third-party report, despite NES board chair Anne Davis being the mother of the firm’s attorney, Rascoe Dean.
NES tapped both Sherrard Roe and a second law firm, Adams and Reese, to oversee a third-party review of the company’s response to Winter Storm Fern, telling The Star the attorneys would, “ensure that an unbiased, independent review will be conducted, including a review of the board’s own actions.”
Asked whether board members were aware Dean worked for Sherrard Roe, NES told The Star, “Everyone is aware, he is being walled off from any participation.”
Dean is part of the legal team representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen from El Salvador, in the federal human smuggling case alleging that he spent nearly a decade embroiled in a human smuggling ring.
It was largely Dean who was negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors last year in June 2025, which would have seen Abrego Garcia deported to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to one count of human smuggling and completing his sentence in the United States. During these negotiations, the U.S. State Department obtained diplomatic assurances from Costa Rica that Abrego Garica’s immigration attorneys have since used to justify his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
Dean was in court for Abrego Garcia on Thursday, as U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw called an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the human smuggling case should be dropped for vindictive prosecution. At least eight attorneys were part of the legal team representing Abrego Garcia in the courtroom.
In addition to Sherrard Roe, Abrego Garcia is represented by the New York-firm, Hecker Fink, which previously represented E. Jean Carroll in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump, and was recently retained to be the personal lawyers of former President Joe Biden.
Both Sherrard Roe and Adams and Reese also represented litigants who sought to intervene in the Tennessee lawsuit by Star News Digital Media Inc., which owns and operates The Star, that seeks to compel the release of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
Sherrard Roe represents a collection of Covenant parents who successfully intervened in the case in a bid to block the release of the killer’s writings based on copyright grounds, while Adams and Reese represented the Covenant Church in its request to intervene.
NES continues to face scrutiny following the storm, which saw about half its 470,000 customers lose power, including thousands who did not have service restored for more than a week.
State lawmakers confirmed last week they are still weighing legislation that could change NES’ governance, while the Metro Nashville Council is scheduled to consider a resolution calling for the NES board to fire CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin. U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also called for Broyles-Aplin to resign.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Rascoe Dean” is by Sherrard Roe Voigt.
One cannot make this stuff up. What a stinking mess. Fire her.
Both of these law firms are staffed with ultra-woke democrats who will protect their own.