Blakely, Deborah J.

A native of Maryville, Tennessee, Marty Black graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College in 1967. In 1973, she graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law where she was first in her class, a member of Order of the Coif, a member of the Tennessee Law Review, and Graduate of the Year. From 1973 to 1981, she was a full-time professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law, being an Assistant Professor from 1973 to 1976 and a tenured Associate Professor from 1976 to 1981. She joined Kizer and Black Attorneys in 1981 and has since then practiced there in the areas of estate planning, estate administration, and business transactions.

From 1990 to 1992, she served on the Tennessee Supreme Court Commission to study the Appellate Courts and from 1993 to 1996, she served on the Tennessee Supreme Court Commission on the Future of the Tennessee Judicial System. She was a member of the Tennessee Bar Association Commission on Legal Education and is a Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation and a Director of the Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society. In 1996, she was appointed a member of a Special Tennessee Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the validity of the election of the Court. From 1997 - 2003, she served as a Hearing Committee member for the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. She has an AV Martindale-Hubbell rating and is listed in Best Lawyers in America.

In 1985, she received the Knox County Bar Association Law and Liberty Award and in 2001, she received the American Bar Association Small Firm Merit Award.

She is certified both as an Elder Law Specialist and as an Estate Planning Specialist by the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education Specialization and is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the Tennessee Bar Association, the East Tennessee Lawyers Association for Women and the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys. She is a frequent speaker on Elder Law and Estate Planning topics and has organized and served on the Board of Directors of numerous community charitable entities.