Butler Snow attorney Gadson William (Will) Perry recently received the 2022 Chancellor Charles A. Rond Memorial “Judge of the Year” Award from the Memphis Bar Association’s Young Lawyers’ Division. The Young Lawyers’ Division includes licensed attorneys of Shelby County, Tennessee, who are 36 years of age and younger or are within the first five years of law practice. This award is presented by the Young Lawyers’ Division to a local judge on an annual basis in honor of the late Chancellor Rond, who was known for his intelligence, fairness, integrity, and wit. All Shelby County judges are eligible to receive the award, which was first given in 1976. YLD members vote on each year’s recipient based on ability, demeanor, integrity, and diligence.
Perry served on the Chancery Court for the Thirtieth Judicial District of Tennessee, which covers Memphis and Shelby County, from June 2021 to September 2022, appointed by Governor Bill Lee to finish the term of a retired Chancellor. Thirty-eight years old at the time, he became the youngest African American judge, and second youngest judge, in Tennessee’s largest county. As Chancellor, Perry presided over a civil docket of more than 2,000 business, governmental, tax, divorce, and child custody cases, reviewed civil service and state agency appeals, and mediated commercial cases referred by other judges.
Perry’s practice at Butler Snow focuses on complex commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution. He has represented businesses and governmental entities in litigation, arbitration, and mediation in more than a dozen states; tried bench and jury trials in state and federal courts; and argued before state and federal courts of appeal. Perry currently serves on the governing boards of the Tennessee and Memphis Bar Associations and is a Barrister in the Leo Bearman, Sr. American Inn of Court. He has earned several professional accolades, including “Best of the Bar” from the Memphis Business Journal (MBJ), the Sam A. Myar, Jr., Memorial Award from the Memphis Bar Association, and the A.A. Latting Award for Legal Excellence from the Ben F. Jones Chapter of the National Bar Association.
