Sam Elliott is a member of the firm and practices primarily in the field of litigation. He has tried jury cases involving products liability, personal injury, employment discrimination and eminent domain. Sam also represents the municipal governments of Soddy Daisy, Collegedale and Lakesite, and therefore is experienced in such diverse matters as government land use regulation and civil rights litigation. He also advises clients on issues of employment law, environmental law, commercial disputes and professional liability, and has served as an arbitrator.
Sam is the current President of the Tennessee Bar Association. He previously served as President of the Chattanooga Bar Association for 2001. Sam began his career clerking in 1981-82 for then U. S. Magistrate Roger Dickson, and has been with the firm ever since. In 1995, in an appointed criminal case which he argued before the Tennessee Supreme Court, he and his co-counsel obtained post-conviction relief for a prisoner on death row. He has also appeared as co-counsel for the Chattanooga Bar Association in suits to enjoin the unauthorized practice of law, and volunteers in the pro bono program for Legal Aid of East Tennessee. In 2008, Sam was named the first chairman of the Tennessee Bar Association’s newly formed Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee, and has chaired and participated in other committees of the Tennessee and Chattanooga Bar Associations.
Sam is the Chairman of the Tennessee Historical Commission, and previously chaired its Tennessee Wars Commission Committee from 2006-2008. He is also a member of the board of the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association. Sam served on the board of the Friends of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park for a number of years, and was president of that organization for two terms. He also is a member of the Society of Civil War Historians and the Historians of the Western Theater.
Known for his scholarly work on Tennessee during the Civil War era, Sam is most recently the author of
Isham G. Harris of Tennessee: Confederate Governor and United States Senator (2010), published by Louisiana State University Press as part of its prestigious Southern Biography Series, an essay entitled “’I Regard Maj. Genl Stewart as the Best Qualified of the Maj. Genls. of this Army’: Alexander P. Stewart and His Division in the First Phase of the Atlanta Campaign” in vol. 2 of
Confederate Generals in the Western Theater (2010), and an introduction to Charles Todd Quintard's
A Confederate Soldier's Pocket Manual of Devotions: Including Balm for the Weary and the Wounded, (2009). He is also the author of
Soldier of Tennessee: General Alexander P. Stewart and the Civil War in the West (1999) and editor of
Doctor Quintard, Chaplain C.S.A. and Second Bishop of Tennessee: The Memoir and Civil War Diary of Charles Todd Quintard, (2003). He is the author of an essay entitled: “This Grand and Imposing Body of Brave Men” in the forthcoming
The Chattanooga Campaign to be published as part of Southern Illinois University Press’s Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series in 2011. Sam has written book reviews for the
Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tennessee Bar Journal, Blue and Gray Magazine, Atlanta History and
Civil War History, and is the author of an article entitled “Tennessee’s Declaration of Independence: Armed Revolt and the Constitutional Right of Revolution” which appeared in the December, 2008 issue of the
Tennessee Bar Journal. Sam has spoken on Civil War topics to groups from Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, New York, Ohio and Virginia, and has evaluated manuscripts for four university presses, one private press and a historical journal.
Sam and his wife, Karen, have two daughters, and attend Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church.
Education: University of the South, B.A. 1978; University of Tennessee College of Law, J.D. 1981.
Admissions: Tennessee, United States Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth and Eleventh Circuits, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, United States Tax Court
Legal Associations: Tennessee Bar Association, Board of Governors 2004-present; Vice President 2008-2009; President-elect 2009-2010; President 2010-2011; Tennessee Legal Community Foundation Board member, Chattanooga Bar Association, Board of Governors 1997-2002, President 2001; American Bar Association; Federal Bar Association; Fellow, American Bar Foundation; Fellow, Tennessee Bar Foundation; Fellow, Chattanooga Bar Foundation; Justices Brock and Cooper American Inns of Court (Secretary 2005-2006); Listed in Publication Best Lawyers in America for Bet the Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation and Municipal Law; selected as a Mid South Super Lawyer; AV® Preeminent™ 5.0 out of 5 Peer Review Rated in Martindale-Hubbell; Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers 2010; Chattanooga Trial Lawyers Association; Tennessee Municipal Attorneys Association.
Community Legal Service: Pro bono volunteer, Legal Aid of East Tennessee
Community Activities: Member and Chair, Tennessee Historical Commission; Board of Directors, Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association; Trustee, Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church; Rotary Club of Chattanooga; Friends of University of Tennessee Library Executive Committee; former board member, National Association for the Craniofacially Handicapped (FACES) and Friends of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
