Tabitha Bailey, Chief Legal Officer
Tabitha Bailey is senior vice president and chief legal officer at Sonida Senior Living, Inc., overseeing all legal matters, including corporate governance, M&A and commercial transactions, litigation, regulatory matters, and compliance.
Tabitha has deep public and private company experience, having aided the successful growth of multiple companies and having led the negotiations and closings of numerous complex deals.
Prior to joining Sonida in 2024, Tabitha was the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Avantax, Inc., a publicly traded tax-focused financial planning and wealth management company. In this role, Tabitha was a member of Avantax’s executive leadership team and led and set strategy for a legal and compliance team of approximately 80 employees. During her tenure at Avantax, Tabitha successfully completed a $1.2B take-private merger with a private equity owned competitor, following the carve-out sale of TaxAct, a tax prep software company, for $720M.
Prior to joining Avantax, Tabitha served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd., a publicly traded international oil and natural gas field exploration services company. In this role, Tabitha advised the special committee of the board of directors and negotiated the take-private merger of TransAtlantic by an affiliate of its preferred shareholders, which included the CEO and multiple members of the board of directors.
Tabitha began her career as an attorney in the corporate departments at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Haynes and Boone, LLP, where she represented clients in mergers, acquisitions, capital raising, securities compliance, investment fund formation and management, and other strategic transactions across a broad range of industries.
Tabitha has a J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Mississippi. She was named 2023 DFW General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.