TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Former U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell Dies After Long Illness

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Apr 12, 2021
News Type: Passages

Former U.S. District Court Judge Todd Campbell, a longtime Nashville legal mind and adviser to a vice president, died Sunday at the age of 64. The Tennessean reported that the cause of death was multiple system atrophy, a neurodegenerative disease Campbell battled for years. A 1982 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, Campbell first joined the Nashville law firm of Gullett, Sanford, Robinson & Martin, where he focused on constitutional law and federal election law. Several years later, he became a legal adviser to U.S. Sen. Al Gore Jr.’s 1988 presidential campaign. Gore’s selection as then-President Bill Clinton’s running mate and the campaign’s electoral win took Campbell to Washington, D.C., where he served as counsel to the transition and then counsel and director of administration in the vice presidential office.

Campbell returned to Nashville and private practice in 1995, but Clinton soon appointed him to fill a district court seat after Judge Thomas A. Wiseman Jr. took senior status. Campbell served on the bench for 21 years, including seven years as chief judge. While on the court, he heard several high profile cases, including the murder trials of Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, Perry March and serial killer Paul Dennis Reid. Off the bench, he took a special interest in the Tennessee School for the Blind, visiting often to teach the students about the U.S. Constitution and judicial system. Campbell retired from the court in 2016, but went on to serve as an adjunct law professor at his alma mater, as well as the Nashville School of Law and Belmont University College of Law. He will be buried in a private ceremony tomorrow. A public event in his memory will be planned for a future date. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee has more on Campbell's career.

Law-Related Blogs AND PODCASTS

Check out other law-related blogs and podcasts generated from the Tennessee legal community or of interest to the Tennessee lawyers.