Gary Wade Leaves the Supreme Court for the Duncan School of Law

If Gary Wade had a better singing voice, things might have turned out differently, both for him and the Tennessee judiciary. As a high school sophomore, his aspirations were high as he sang and played the guitar at his hometown Sevierville’s Music and Arts Festival on the same Sevier County courthouse stage where Dolly Parton, a senior, had performed only a few minutes earlier.

“Dolly turned it into a nice career,” Wade laughs.

He already had another job — as a clerk in his father’s store, which was located just across the street, only a few feet from where a statue of Parton would later be dedicated. He describes his beloved hometown as then being not much more than a “wide place in the road, a typical county seat,” but there was “no better place to live.” He saw the downtown up close as he grew up “a block and a half from the courthouse.”

“From the time I was old enough, I was a clean-up and last resort sales guy at Wade’s Department Store,” he says. “Later on, during a summer break from college, I became the singing, guitar-playing cowboy at Gold Rush Junction — now Dollywood.”

There he worked 70 hours a week for $1 per hour “and many people suggested I was way overpaid. My job was to make the comedian in the saloon cry,” he says. “I was successful at that. At the end of the season the general manager invited me to find a new line of work,” he chuckled.

He then graduated from the University of Tennessee, about 25 miles up the road, and went directly into law school there. His father sold the store in 1971 while Wade was still in law school, and so he worked part-time for two Sevierville lawyers in different firms — Bob Ogle primarily and also Bill Holt. 

“I did property work because neither of them had the patience or time to do it,” he says. He graduated in 1973 and went into practice with Ogle and his associate, Al Schmutzer Jr., who was elected district attorney a year later.  A few years later, Holt was elected circuit judge. Later, Coppley Vickers, Lanning Wynn, Rich Wallace and Donna Orr practiced with what became Ogle and Wade PC that same year. Wade practiced law there until 1987 when he was appointed to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, eventually serving as presiding judge of the court from 1998 until 2006.

That year he was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. It was from that high office that Wade found himself considering, in the spring of 2015, making a final career change. The folks at the Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law in Knoxville had wondered if he might be interested in being the school’s dean. During the spring and summer of this year, President Jim Dawson, board members and the faculty began “dropping by” to talk. 

“While I did not go through an official interview process, I did spend over 50 hours with the faculty asking them to assess the school operations and to outline their goals — just to see if I might be a proper fit,” Wade says.

“When they proposed back in June that I be their next dean I had to think long and hard, knowing that I loved my work in the judiciary and I would miss it. I will genuinely miss the great people who I worked with in the appellate courts.”

But the draw to work with law students was also strong. 

“I view the prospect of working with young people as a veritable fountain of youth,” he says.

When the school chose to employ both of his judicial clerks — Brennan Wingerter and William Gill — to teach there, and proposed to hire his long-time administrative assistant, Melissa Van Kirk, the choice was made easier.

“I enjoy my work and he is wonderful to work for,” Van Kirk says.  “He works so hard and still continues to give so much to non-profit organizations and his community. I don’t know anyone who cannot appreciate, admire and look up to someone like that, much less consider it an honor to work for him.”

From Justice to Dean

On the day of this interview, Wade, 67, was still a Supreme Court justice, and he was cleaning out his office in Knoxville’s Supreme Court Building. But the following week he would change his name from Justice Wade to Dean Wade, as he took the reins of the Duncan School of Law, the newest law school in the city where he already worked. He planned to take “about 14 hours off” between jobs, with his retirement taking effect Sept. 8 and him reporting to work at the law school the next morning at 9 a.m.

“I have 28 years of ‘stuff’ [my wife] won’t let me take home,” he says of all his paperwork, books, pictures and memories at the courthouse. “Leaving this office is going to be very difficult.” He describes his office, which was U.S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor’s before it was his, as “like living in a museum — it’s big enough for a family of 10.” He says it was just not all going to fit into his new office at what he calls “the Duncan School.”

The new office, however, is not without history. The school is housed in a building that was built in 1848, later used as a hospital during the Civil War, and for many years served as Knoxville’s City Hall. It sat “relatively unused for at least several years,” Wade says, until LMU restored the facility for the 2009 school year. “The courtroom is fabulous. My new office space is also like working in a museum,” he says, noting that he is simply moving “from one museum to another.”

Wearing More Than One Hat

Two of his favorite jobs so far have been ones for which he was not paid. First, when he was 28 he was elected as the “unpaid, volunteer mayor of Sevierville,” serving five terms for a total of 10 years.

“There is nothing better than being mayor of your hometown,” he says. “All of my memories of those years are so pleasant.”

Of “equal stature” is another job he did for free: he was co-founder of the Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and served as its president and board chair from 1993 until he went to the Supreme Court in 2006, when he was granted emeritus status.

“I’m proud of being involved in its creation and continuation,” where he reports that the group has thus far generated just short of $50 million for the benefit of the park.

“I found that during my years as a lawyer and mayor the key to success was to hire people smarter than I was,” he says. “I have had huge and glorious success in that regard.”

“He was always wearing at least three hats,” Sevierville lawyer Cindy Wyrick recalls, “one as a business owner, one as a judge and one as a community servant.” Wyrick, a past president of the Tennessee Bar Association, worked for Wade as a law clerk on the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Wade remembers his time on the intermediate court with happiness and credits the judges who were on the court when he was new with “breaking him in.” “Judges Joe Duncan, John Byers, Houston Goddard and Herschel Franks were especially helpful in the early years.” As to his time on the Court of Criminal Appeals, he says, “If there was ever a more collegial court anywhere, I’ve never seen it. All that I had the honor to serve with were and are still great friends.”

Wade spent 19 years on that court, noting that Judge Riley Anderson, Al Birch and Lyle Reid, who were appointed with him in 1987, had “all graduated on to the Supreme Court and had served as chief justice within 10 years. All were great friends and all were great judges,” he says.

“By comparison, I was on the remedial plan,” he laughs.

One thing he is pleased about from his 28 years on the bench is the promptness with which his office has “kept up.”

“I have never missed a deadline, thank goodness,” he says. “I’m very pleased with that. My office has prided itself on meeting all circulation guidelines.”
That’s quite a feat. “But I’m particularly proud of and for my colleagues throughout the judicial branch. We have such a strong trial bench, and that makes our work a lot easier at the appellate level.”

The Election of 2014

Although he says he “has enjoyed practically everything” about his legal career, Wade admits that last summer’s hotly contested retention election “was not exactly how I intended to spend my summer vacation …  traveling all over the state in an attempt to persuade the citizens of Tennessee that partisan politics have no place in our courtrooms.”

The months-long statewide campaign to defend the seats for himself and two other justices — Sharon Lee and Connie Clark — was grueling but not without its rewards.

“I will remember that as the single greatest experience of my life,” Wade says. “Because it took place during my term as chief justice, it was a special honor to help successfully defend the concept of an independent judiciary. It was probably the single most memorable time in my professional career on the bench.”

“While I’m not sure that I learned any particular lesson, I often thought of the old adage: ‘the man/woman who rolls up his/her sleeves seldom loses his/her shirt.’ It’s accurate to say when we were under siege beginning in the spring of 2014, each of us rolled up our sleeves to defend the integrity of the judicial branch. Of course, we got a lot of help. I have never seen the bench and bar more united, more resolute. If there is a lesson, it is that hard work, preparation and dedication to a valid principle will usually serve as its own reward.”

With the state’s speaker of the Senate, Ron Ramsey, a vocal critic of the three justices based primarily upon the fact that each was appointed by Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, the battle was heated.  Wade, however, can look back philosophically now.

“I’ve enjoyed the relationship I’ve had with the speaker, and during the last three years in particular,” Wade says. “I really think that he just has a basic misunderstanding of how our system should work. The founders of our constitution envisioned a balance of the executive, legislative and judicial branches — none dominant over the other.”

“We [judges] play a role comparable to an umpire or a referee. The great referee knows the rule books and makes the call on the merits — not based on the political party of the litigant.  Our goal as judges has always been to make the right decision, treating everyone the same. Political party should never play a role in a judicial decision.”

He is optimistic about the future of the court (his successor had not been chosen at the time of this interview). In fact, his vacated seat is the first one to be filled under the new plan that Tennessee voters approved through a constitutional amendment in November 2014. The deadline for applicants to apply for the seat is Oct. 12. 

“My view has always been that the Tennessee Plan as it once existed was the best plan for the selection of appellate judges,” Wade says. “The Tennessee Bar Association has always been a strong proponent of the [Tennessee Plan], and I believe that it was, and is, the best way to attract competent jurists at the appellate level. I suppose the constitutional amendment that was passed last November is the next best thing, although I do have concerns with a system that will likely place party loyalty above judicial competence. Who the governor is and how the General Assembly is made up will always make a difference, but the Tennessee Plan offered a real opportunity to make selections based primarily on merit.”

“Governors Bredesen and Sundquist stand out as appointing judges with backgrounds of both parties. I believe Gov. Haslam has taken the same approach. Each has looked at qualifications first and foremost,” he says. “That is the best way to do business, if you want a great judiciary.”

‘A Modest Amount of Criticism’

“I have received a modest amount of criticism for leaving office so soon after the 2014 election,” Wade says, acknowledging that there have been people who thought he should have stayed longer after working so hard to be retained last year. “Fair criticism,” he admits. “But most people have been very understanding.”

“Last year’s election, however, was all about principle.  Very few Tennesseans can name a member of the state Supreme Court but most understand the concept of separation of powers and believe that the judiciary should offer an even playing field for all litigants, not [being] beholden to anyone. So, even though I had told my colleagues early on that I intended to spend only eight years, I viewed it my responsibility as chief justice to stay on for a time. All three of us felt a responsibility to vigorously defend the principle of an independent judiciary.”

Looking Back

As Wade looks toward his career change, the question has to be asked: What do you most want to be remembered for?

“I hope that story is yet to be told,” he says. “I don’t plan to sit on my heels. As a judge, my goal has always been to serve as a voice for ordinary people, especially mindful of constitutional due process and the right to jury trials, with a strong preference for an adjudication on the merits whenever possible.  Today, however, I’m preparing for the task ahead. [The school has] a youthful, energetic faculty.  I really admire the support they provide their students for the Tennessee Bar exam,” he says. “They have come a long way in a short period of time. The accreditation last December bodes well for the future.”

Wade believes in his new school and its potential. “During his last days, President Abraham Lincoln asked friends to extend educational opportunities to the Southern Appalachian region, which had remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War.  Is there a better way to honor Lincoln’s memory than to offer an education in the field of law?”

Moving Forward

Now that he’s not a judge for the first time in nearly three decades, how does he feel about not being restricted from what he can say publicly?

“There will be some freedom to further involve myself in my favorite charitable activities. Over the years, I have often walked a fine line in my support of community initiatives — hoping to play a role in the betterment of my community without violating internal rules which preclude judges from fundraising activities. While I have been very selective in my support of nonprofit organizations, choosing only those which were not controversial in any way, I will feel free to speak for our national park, education, our library, the Boys and Girls Club, the United Way and any organization dedicated to the preservation of historic structures.”

One thing he’s especially looking forward to continuing is “spoiling” his grandkids, “each and every one of the four and hoping for more — at the same time invoking some level of retribution on each of my children,” he laughs.  He and his wife of 44 years, Sandy, have three children: Zach Wade, Katie Loveday and Gigi Simonis. Simonis was Wade’s campaign manager in the 2014 retention election. His son’s children, Gretchen and Chaz, are 11 and 7; Katie’s children, Taegan and Claire, are 11 and 8, and they all live nearby.

“They are my favorite things these days,” he says, “and Sandy is a terrific grandmother.”

“It’s been such a great run,” Wade says of his years on the bench. “Frankly I never could’ve imagined, as a student in the Sevier County school system, that one day I would have the opportunity to serve the people of Tennessee in the judiciary, much less as a justice on the Supreme Court.  And now I have the opportunity to help shape the future of our profession by representing a school bearing the name of perhaps the greatest country lawyer, and president, of all time.”

Suzanne Craig Robertson is editor of the Tennessee Bar Journal.