Tim has a B.A. in Mass Communication from the University of Montevallo and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law. Upon graduating from law school in 1991, he went to work for a large law firm in Birmingham, Alabama, where he worked for twelve years. After a three-year stint at another local law firm, he joined Baker Donelson in 2005 and became CEO of the firm in 2019. He presently leads 1,300 employees in 24 offices across 15 states in executing their five-year BakerVision 2028 strategic plan.
Tim has been married to his wife Ellen, whom he met while both attended the University of Montevallo, for thirty-four years. They have a twenty-five-year-old daughter who was married in February 2024. In early 2023, Tim began a non-profit called Everybody Leads, which is focused on bringing basic leadership training to underserved communities (everybodyleads.org). Timâs family has traveled to Disney theme parks annually for over twenty years and has served on five short-term mission trips in Northern Thailand, where Tim led leadership lessons for non-profit team members while his wife and daughter taught VBS classes. Tim and his daughter have shared many years of attending live music concerts together.
As the CEO and Chair of Baker Donelson, one of the 100 largest law firms in the United States, Tim has faced significant leadership challenges, including turning a $500 million organization from declining profits to record growth, navigating a global pandemic, leading transformative change in a 100+-year-old organization, and maintaining engagement and community in an increasingly remote workforce. As a self-professed âleadership junkie,â Timâs journey to understanding what it meant to step up as a leader began thirty years earlier as a young lawyer after he disappointed a boss with an epic failure on a project. The boss challenged Tim (after significant yelling and tough love) by saying that he saw in Tim a strong leader who needed to step up and own his projects, his career, and ambitions.
In the three decades since, Tim has studied, read, and grown his leadership skills through hard work, trying novel ideas, failing, learning from failures, and getting better every day. Along the way, he has seen stories all around him of individuals leading regardless of title, position, background, or circumstances. No matter an individualâs background, race, gender, or ethnic heritage; no matter their education, degree, skill, or talent; no matter if they have made significant life mistakes in their past; no matter if they lead a company of thousands, a group of volunteers at a church, synagogue, or non-profit, are a stay-at-home parent, or a mailroom clerk, leadership is something everyone does every day. It is also something that we can get better at with effort and focus.
Timâs leadership journey began with the understanding that he was a leader, and as such, he had to focus on becoming better at leading. The first step of his leadership journey focused on becoming better at leading himself. He had to understand what it meant to fully own and execute every issue or problem that came his way, whether or not it was part of his job description. With this crucial understanding, Tim showed up and gave his best work, committed to excellence in everything he did, gained knowledge from his mistakes and missteps, and learned how to get better at leading in every setting. As he grew in his understanding and practice of leading, Tim was better able to lead others. Initially, this was one or two other individuals, but over time, and with increased learning, training, hard work, and growth, his sphere of influence expanded.
Training and Workshops
Since launching his non-profit organization, Everybody Leads, last year, Tim wrote a 6-session workbook to facilitate basic leadership training in partnership with several existing non-profits. Below are some of the organizations he has partnered with:
· Youth leadership sessions for the Dannon Project (dannonproject.org), Birmingham, Alabama
· Leadership seminar for 26 small businesses in Baltimore, Maryland, participants in the Bloomberg Philanthropies and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business led by John Hopkins Universities (hub.jhu.edu)
· Training for City of Refuge in Atlanta (cityofrefugeatl.org)
· Training for participants at the Covenant House in New Orleans (covenanthousenola.org)
· 12 leadership training modules in development for the Birmingham-area Salvation Army to conduct in-person training in 2024 for various non-profit community partners (southernusa.salvationarmy.org)
Everybody Leads Podcast
On January 10, 2024, Tim launched the Everybody Leads Podcast focused on interviews with executive-level leaders from for-profit and not-for-profit organizations about practical leadership insights and experiences. He will incorporate leadership stories and storytelling by the guests to make the content compelling, accessible, and useable. He will conclude each episode by asking his interviewee to identify an influential leader in their life or organization who did not have a title, position, or power and how this person impacted them. This podcast will build and reinforce the principles of Everybody Leads. Tim has already recorded the initial episodes for the launch, including interviews with CEOs and executives of many organizations, including, First Horizon Ban, 1953 Tequilla, Monticello, Trillion Communications Corporation, EBSCO Industries, Universal Hydrogen, Regions Bank, Blackbaud, Monogram Foods, Synovus Bank, Protective Life, Therapy South, Sheppard Pratt, and GrowthPlay. He has also interviewed authors Bob Goff, Jon Acuff, Liz Wiseman, and Stephanie Nelson.
Everybody Leads Book
Blue Hat Publishing will publish Timâs book Everybody Leads: How You Lead and Why it Matters on July 22, 2025.
Social Media
Tim can be found on Linked-In, Instagram, and Facebook @timlupinacci. Baker Donelsonâs website is bakerdonelson.com and Timâs non-profit is at everybodyleads.org.