Bryan Brantley, Tom Zahn and Stefan Dann Honored With Professional Excellence Awards

May 20, 2022

The Legal Intelligencer, an American Lawyer Media publication, has honored McGuireWoods partners Bryan Brantley and Tom Zahn and counsel Stefan Dann as 2022 Professional Excellence Award winners.

Brantley was recognized as a Law Firm Innovator, Zahn was honored as a Distinguished Leader and Dann was chosen for the Diversity Initiative award. All three attorneys are based in McGuireWoods’ Pittsburgh office.

The annual awards recognize significant achievements in the Pennsylvania legal community. Winners will be honored at an awards dinner June 29 at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel.

“These awards are fitting tributes to three outstanding lawyers who have made tremendous contributions to the firm and our clients,” said David Hornyak, managing partner of the Pittsburgh office. “We are delighted to congratulate Bryan, Tom and Stefan on these honors.”

Brantley is a member of McGuireWoods’ Board of Partners and leader of the firm’s transportation industry team. He has national litigation experience across industries including transportation, retail, construction equipment, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. Brantley was instrumental in the firm’s creation of an innovative litigation management dashboard with analytics components to give clients greater insights and predictability in their litigation portfolios.

Among his many honors, Brantley has been named a Pennsylvania Trailblazer by The Legal Intelligencer and an MCCA Rainmaker by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association.

Zahn chairs McGuireWoods’ Corporate & Private Equity Department and previously served as a member of the Board of Partners. He was a key architect of the firm’s deal-sourcing infrastructure, which helps McGuireWoods’ transactional lawyers expand their networks and generate deals by introducing companies and investors to business opportunities. Zahn also leads the firm’s regional independent sponsor roundtable groups in New York and Pennsylvania.

Under Zahn’s leadership, McGuireWoods has continued to rank among the leading law firms for M&A and private equity deals in league tables published by Refinitiv and Bloomberg.

Dann worked with the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund’s Name Change Project to create a special procedure in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, that standardizes often-complicated rules and provides some anonymity and safety for the transgender community. The Name Change Project provides pro bono legal name change services to low-income transgender, gender nonconforming and nonbinary people through partnerships with law firms and corporate law departments.

Dann helped create a special name change court that streamlines the process and allows clients to waive the publication of a name change and seal the record to protect their identities. In 2021, Dann handled more than 80 name changes. For his efforts, he has been named a finalist for Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year in Chambers and Partners’ Diversity & Inclusion Awards: North America 2022