The City of Murfreesboro announced today that it has hired Adam Tucker to serve as City Attorney. Tucker had been serving as Interim City Attorney since June 5, 2018, following the promotion of Craig Tindall to City Manager.
The Murfreesboro City Council hired Tucker following a nationwide recruitment process that began in June. Three panels—a 7-member Community Panel, a Staff Panel, and City Council interviewed three finalists, all from Tennessee, on August 15.
“Adam Tucker has faithfully served as Staff Attorney, as Assistant City Attorney, and Interim City Attorney on a number of important legal matters, including the highly publicized rally last October,” said Mayor Shane McFarland. “The City Council and the Community and Staff panels are impressed with his sixteen years of legal experience as a private and municipal attorney, including extensive work on civil litigation, contract negotiations and intergovernmental affairs.”
The Murfreesboro City Council voted Thursday, August 16, to begin contract negotiations with Tucker and appointed outside legal counsel to draft the contract.
Tucker joined the City’s Legal Department in August 2010 and has represented the City in federal and state court in many civil litigation matters, including civil rights, employment, contract, and land use cases. In addition, he has represented the City before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, negotiated contracts with private vendors and government entities, and drafted ordinances, resolutions and policies for the Council and City.
Tucker’s legal knowledge and experience in First Amendment law served the City and Rutherford County successfully in preparing to protect constitutional rights and public safety for the Oct. 28, 2017 rally on the Public Square in downtown Murfreesboro.
Organizers of the rally publicly stated their reason for deciding not to attend the “permitted” event was because it was a “lawsuit trap.” Tucker worked closely with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) based at Georgetown Law Center to communicate conditions and restrictions for the rally.
Before joining the City’s Legal Department, Tucker worked in private practice for Harris Beach, PLLC in Ithaca, New York from 2007 to 2009, McGuire Woods, LLP in McLean, Virginia from 2004 to 2007, and Jones Day in Washington, D.C. from 2002 to 2004.
He has also served as an independent contractor for Cornell University and as a public policy consultant with The Lewin Group. pTucker is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association, International Municipal Lawyers Association, Tennessee Municipal Attorneys Association and Rutherford County Bar Association.
A 2002 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia, Tucker served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Law and Politics and participated in the school’s Trial Advocacy Institute. He earned his A.B. in Economics with a minor in Russian Language studies at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, graduating summa cum laude in May 1995.
Tucker is married to Lauryl Tucker, an associate professor of English who serves on the faculty of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. The couple has a 6-year-old son.
