Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 11, 2011
Experience prepared judge for other side of the bench
Erica Tuggle
Judge William Carter has been a United States Magistrate Judge since 1999. Before this, he was a criminal defense attorney who had lost cases in all state trial courts and courts of appeals, the Tennessee Supreme Court, the U.S. district court, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio and says he was even lucky enough to argue and lose one case in the U.S. Supreme Court. Although he had victories as well, he says with a laugh, such is the nature of being a criminal defense attorney.
- Erica Tuggle
When Judge William Carter was a criminal defense lawyer, he lost cases in all state trial courts and courts of appeals, the Tennessee Supreme Court, a U. S. District Court, the U. S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio and says he was even lucky enough to argue and lose one case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Carter says the fact is that criminal defense lawyers lose a lot of cases, and sometimes victory comes in the form of helping ease years off of a convicted client’s sentence.
“Not that I didn’t have some victories, and certainly got people out of trouble as well,” he says smiling.
Now, Carter is on the other side of the bench as a U. S. magistrate judge in U.S. District Court, where he tries civil cases regarding federal questions, violations of Constitutional rights and even cases involving wire tapping.
Since the Constitution guarantees every criminal the right to be tried by a judge who has a lifetime position, Carter doesn’t have to try criminal cases, but rather does everything to prepare the case for the district judge. Among other issues, including handling the review of social security cases and trying civil cases as though he were a district judge when parties consent, this variety of duties has been Carter’s career for 11 years.
Carter graduated from McCallie and attended the University of North Carolina with a major in economics before setting to work for his for father at Carter Brothers, a rug manufacturing business in town. Carter decided it would be a good idea to have a broad educational background in this work, and therefore attended law school at Vanderbilt before returning to Carter Brothers to work for three years.
Yet Carter still wanted to keep his educational base strong, so he attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and received his MBA. His father and business partners decided to sell the business at that point, so, after working for the successor for a year, he started practicing law with John Tallman at Tallman and Carter. When Tallman retired, Carter formed the partnership Carter, Mabee and Paris, where the group practiced together until 1999, when Carter got the job as a U.S. magistrate judge.
District judges are appointed by the President and have their jobs for life, but when magistrate judge positions be-come open, a committee is formed made of attorneys and non-attorneys that then take applications and interview to make the best selection based on knowledge and a comparison of backgrounds to recommend five names to go to the district judges for selection, Carter says. The approved nominees have to run for election, and then are re-evaluated every eight years for their position.
This places Carter in his second term as a U.S. magistrate judge, where he is just as busy outside his chambers as he is within them. He taught business law at UTC from 1973 to 1997, and continues his teaching contributions by teaching business law at Covenant College, which he has done for 11 years now. Carter says he likes that teaching gives him the opportunity to see a lot of young students wondering about the world that he knows.
Carter is a member of the Chattanooga Bar association, a fellow of the Chattanooga Bar Foundation, was the 2005-2006 President of the Ray L. Brock Jr. and Robert E. Cooper Chapter of American Inns of Court and is a member of the Board of the Chattanooga Federal Bar association.
He served as municipal judge of Lookout Mountain for two years before he became a U.S. magistrate judge. He is an elder at the Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church, was member of the board of deacons and has taught adult Sunday school for 15 years.
His wife Wiki and he live on Lookout Mountain in the house where Carter was brought home from the hospital years ago. Carter and his wife also play tennis and both enjoy the training Wiki has done to prepare their dog for agility obstacle racing.
Their son Mitchell attended his father’s alma maters, McCallie and University of North Carolina, then taught English for a year in China before attending Duke Law School. Now Mitchell and Brian O’Shaughnessy have created the firm O’Shaughnessy and Carter.
Of all of this that Carter does out of office, he says his day job is not one he could possibly do by himself, and therefore relies on his staff for assistance.
“It’s not possible to come to this job completely equipped with all the knowledge of everything,” he says.
Being a judge is a very fulfilling experience and is something to aspire to whether the stars align for it to happen or not, Carter says. He also enjoys watching lawyers in his courtroom, especially when they remain professionals.
“I’m very fortunate that the vast majority of lawyers who come here are real professionals. They understand what they are supposed to do. They treat each other with respect. There are times when the lawyers can get out of hand and I don’t like seeing that, but I have been there and done that, so I can understand sometimes that happens,” he says knowingly.
Unfortunately, Carter says there is also a regret he has in how unaware the public seems to be of how “desperately serious” drug offenses are and how long the sentences are in federal court for these violations.
He says, “I just don’t think people realize the consequence of what they do, and it’s a struggle for our society. I wish people were more aware of the seriousness of the situation we have locally and in this country about drugs.”
Carter’s many years of experience on both sides of the bench have given him the insight into issues like these, and provides to the public a sense of comfort knowing Carter takes this experience into his daily decision making for the betterment of our community.
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