Minority-owned law firm opens local office

Aggressive grower absorbs small local firm

Email | Print By NashvillePost.com People Dept.

Blackshear, left, and Nunez

One of the country's largest minority-owned law firms has set up shop in Nashville and hired two local attorneys.

Natasha Blackshear and Dennis Nunez are leading the charge for Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan, which runs more than a dozen offices nationwide and employs about 90 attorneys, almost half of them based in Milwaukee. GSH this fall absorbed the duo's practices at four-year-old Natasha L. Blackshear & Associates.

Blackshear's work is focused on public and corporate finance with an emphasis on capital formation, private offerings and investor due diligence. Before hanging her own shingle, she spent five years at Council Ventures, the downtown investment firm, and worked in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Corporate Valuation Consulting unit.

Nunez is a patent attorney who joined Blackshear & Associates in March of this year. Before that, the Puerto Rico native spent three years at local IP powerhouse Waddey & Patterson.

The new Nashville office is GSH's fourth in 2009. At the beginning of the year, the firm expanded out West with offices in Los Angeles and Phoenix. It also set up an outpost in Columbus, Ohio, in April.