William M. Barker of Chattanooga was unanimously elected Tuesday by the Tennessee Supreme Court to serve as its chief justice. He will be sworn in Wednesday at the Supreme Court Building in Nashville prior to the start of a 10 a.m. docket.
“I am deeply honored to have been chosen by my colleagues on the Supreme Court,” he said. “I have the highest respect for the court’s intellectual integrity, enthusiasm, work ethic and commitment to service. I consider it a great privilege to serve as a member of the court, and now, as its chief justice.”
He succeeds interim Chief Justice E. Riley Anderson of Knoxville, who agreed to serve until a vacancy on the court was filled and a new chief justice could be elected to a full term. Anderson, who will swear in Barker, served following the Sept. 2 retirement of former Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota, III. Drowota’s vacant seat on the court was filled by Justice Cornelia Clark, who was appointed Sept. 19 by Gov. Phil Bredesen.
Barker, 64, was appointed to the five-member court in April 1998 and was elected to a full eight-year term in August 1998. He was a Circuit Court judge from 1983-1995 when he was appointed to the state Court of Criminal Appeals where he served until his appointment by Gov. Don Sundquist to the Supreme Court.
Barker earned his B.S. degree in 1964 at the University of Chattanooga and his J.D. at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He served in the United States Army Medical Service Corps from 1967-69.He is former president of the Chattanooga Trial Lawyers Association and is a fellow of both the Chattanooga Bar Foundation and the Tennessee Bar Foundation. His civic activities include membership in the Rotary Club and American Legion. He is a ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga.
Barker and his wife Catherine, a teacher, traveled to Slovakia and the Czech Republic in April where they had been invited to lecture at several schools, including two Slovakian law schools. He taught the prospective lawyers in the former communist nations about United States and Tennessee legal systems, inspiring a student to write that Barker had motivated him to continue his studies and taught him “how a good lawyer should think and behave.”