Ryan Hoss wanted to play professional baseball. But a phone call ended that dream. So he became a lawyer instead.
Hoss grew up in East Brainerd and attended McCallie, where he played baseball and football until he graduated in 1993. He continued to play baseball in college at Denison University in Ohio, where he double majored in history and creative writing.
Summers, Hoss traveled to Kansas, where he played Jayhawks Baseball, a collegiate league consisting of six teams. The summer after his junior year, he was signed up to compete in a different league in California when the coach replaced him with another Division I prospect.
Hoss doesn’t offer any hint of the call from the coach disappointing him. Rather, he simply changed his bearing.
“I was left with no summer baseball and no job, so I came back to Chattanooga and worked in the district attorney’s office,” he says in a matter-of-fact tone.
Hoss wasn’t content making copies, so he spent a few days knocking on doors asking for something else to do. Attorney Lee David handed him a first-degree murder case and said, “Help me to get this ready for trial.”
Hoss’s early experiences with Lee might read like the pilot for a television show in which a wise mentor steers a young man toward the law – and that more or less is the case.
“I interviewed witnesses, went to crime scenes, reviewed police reports, created time lines, developed photos – I did whatever Lee needed me to do,” he says. “Working on a first-degree murder and then sitting in the courtroom watching the case was a hell of an experience to have before law school. I knew that was what I wanted to do.”
After graduating from Denison, Hoss worked on more homicide trials and ran Davis’s campaign for district attorney before attending what is now the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in Memphis. He did everything he could to prepare for trial work.
“Early on, I did appellate arguments, and as second-year students, we beat all of the third-years and won awards for advocacy,” he says.
After law school, David offered Hoss a job working for his firm. Hoss accepted, and has never looked any direction but forward with his fellow attorney.
The two men run a general law practice out of a stately old home on 5th Street in downtown Chattanooga. Hoss does personal injury, divorce, and defends police officers through their unions.
“When they have employment issues, their unions hire us to help them,” Hoss says.
Hoss and Davis recently represented Chattanooga police officers Sean Emmer and Adam Cooley, who were originally fired over what Police Chief Bobby Dodd said was excessive use of force against federal inmate Adam Tatum. In September, Judge Kim Summers ruled the officers be reinstated with full back pay and benefits.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a phone call in the middle of the night about an officer involved in a shooting, and jumped in the shower, thrown on my clothes, and headed to the scene to start helping him,” Hoss says.
The bulk of Hoss’s work, however, involves state and criminal defense. While he’s tried more cases than he can count, some have stayed with him.
“There was the Chattanooga police officer who, on day three of his job, conducted a traffic stop. He thought he saw the motorist pull out a gun and shot him. He was charged with criminally negligent homicide,” Hoss says. “We had to try that one twice. The first wound up with a hung jury and the second resulted in an acquittal. That case has stayed with me.”
Hoss also will never forget assisting on the murder trial of Tawana Blair, a death penalty case that resulted in an acquittal on all charges.
In these and other cases, Hoss has served as an advocate for people accused of committing a crime. But his help doesn’t start and end in the courtroom. Rather, it often extends to dealing with the root of the defendant’s problem.
“For me, the law is also about helping a young kid who comes to us seeking guidance,” Hoss says. “Usually, a drug, drinking, or anger problem got him in trouble, and part of our job is getting him help. Over the years, we’ve become good at that.”
Hoss also believes in being an active member of his community. His civic work over the years has included Dare to Dance, a fundraiser for the local Kidney Foundation in which he won the People’s Choice award for raising the most money – nearly $15,000. Hunt also helps Habitat for Humanity pull off its annual Mud Run in August, and is on the boards of the Chattanooga Ballet and the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy.
Hoss is also helping to raise his two daughters – Charlotte, 3, and Campbell, 7 – with his ex-wife, Courtney Hoss. Dad and daughters spend a considerable amount of time at his Signal Mountain home with his dog.
Despite being busy, Hoss makes time to “throw some weights” at a local cross-fit gym during his lunch hour and hunt with friends. “I killed a 9-point and threatened to hang it over the television [in our conference room], but Lee talked me out of it,” Hoss says, smiling.
Although an unexpected phone call and a random knock on a door are largely responsible for setting Hoss’s feet on the path to the law, he seems to have been born for the job. But more than that, he loves it.
“I’m excited every day about coming to work,” he says. “I never know who’s going to walk through our door and tell us some crazy story we couldn’t make up.”