Faculty Profile: Kaya Porter

Kaya PorterJackson Lewis P.C.
Previous Courses Taught (2)
  • Raising The Bar: What’s New and What’s Now - Workplace Advocacy in ACTION
  • Raising the Bar 2023: Advocating for Each Other & Ourselves
Biography

Kaya Grace Porter represents employers in workplace law matters, including preventive advice and counseling. Her focus includes discrimination and harassment; hiring, performance management and termination; and leaves of absence and disability accommodation.  Kaya helps clients stay current and compliant with ever-changing employment law developments by creating compliance strategies, providing workplace training to management and human resources staff, and drafting customized employee handbooks and policies for multistate and federal law compatibility. Kaya has experience strategically litigating on behalf of clients before state and federal courts alike.  She is licensed to practice in both Georgia and Tennessee.  Kaya has represented employers before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and equivalent state agencies by defending investigations and drafting position statements as well.

Kaya has been an active and charismatic member of local bar associations since admission to law practice.  Kaya was first appointed to lead the Nashville Bar Association’s Diversity Committee in 2018 and reappointed in 2019 and 2020, each year by a different NBA president.  Under Kaya’s leadership, the Diversity Committee planned a statewide diversity symposium, revamped the standards by which law firms and organizations are recognized for their diversity and inclusion initiatives, delivered cutting-edge programs on generational diversity, unconscious bias, neurological diversity, and so much more.  Kaya is particularly passionate about the Diversity Committee’s annual High School Summer Intern Program and mentoring youth of racially underrepresented backgrounds on their journeys through college, law school, and ultimately as practicing attorneys.

Kaya Grace Porter is the two-time recipient of the Nashville Bar Association’s President Award.  She was one of Nashville’s Top 30 under 30 in 2019 and graduated from Nashville Emerging Leaders with the Class of 2020.