As a young high school student growing up in East Tennessee, John G. Brock (UT BA ’93, JD ’96) met a prominent local businessman who said going to law school had been a pivotal part of his success. “As I think back, that’s what first sparked my interest in attending law school myself,” says Brock, who later set his sights on the University of Tennessee College of Law. “It was a longtime goal of mine through high school and college.”
Brock excelled as an undergraduate student at UT and enjoyed investing in other students through clubs, extracurricular activities, student government, and campus tours. “Anything I could do to make the student experience better, I jumped in,” he says. The university chose Brock to receive the Torchbearer Award during his senior year. “That was a great honor for me. I’d truly enjoyed my four years there, and was glad that perhaps I’d made a difference.”
As a Tennessee Law student, Brock participated in the college’s new opportunity for a concentration in business transactions. He graduated in 1996 and practiced in the commercial finance and mergers and acquisitions department of a large international law firm.
Eventually, Brock went in-house with a dot-com company in the early 2000s. “This was in the very early days of the public internet, and it was a very exciting time,” he recalls. The company sold after a few years, and Brock decided to return to private law practice. “I joined a wonderful local firm and was there for about fifteen years.”
Then, in 2019, Brock started his own Knoxville firm, Brock Shipe Klenk PLC, focusing exclusively on business law. Brock represents banks and businesses in many types of transactions—commercial and venture financings, mergers, acquisitions, real estate development transactions, security offerings, and reorganizations. “In particular, these days I’m doing a lot of mergers and acquisitions of privately held companies all over the country, and even further afield,” he says. “Last year, we closed two international deals.”
Brock’s practice has also garnered a good reputation in sports, media, and entertainment law. “That’s been sort of a surprise for me,” he says. “But I’ve always been interested in business, so I was naturally drawn to those fields.”
Looking back, Brock places a high value on the foundation of legal knowledge and connections he gained as a law student. “Attending Tennessee Law was a dream come true for me,” he says. “I cannot put a price on the lessons and relationships I received there. One of the more rewarding aspects of my career has been connecting and reconnecting with friends from those days.”
More than anything, Brock says, he’s held onto a belief that good work will be rewarded with more good work. “I’ve tried to work hard and take advantage of the opportunities that come my way. Starting my law firm has been one of the most satisfying accomplishments of my life, and we’re just beginning, so I’m hopeful that the best is yet to come.”