NRW November Luncheon

Jonathan Skrmetti was sworn in to an eight-year term as Tennessee’s Attorney General and Reporter on September 1, 2022. Prior to his current role, General Skrmetti served as Chief Counsel to Governor Bill Lee and as Chief Deputy Attorney General to his predecessor, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery. Before working for the State of Tennessee, General Skrmetti was a partner at Butler Snow LLP in Memphis.  His legal career began with nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor.  He worked at the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice and then at the Memphis U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecuted sex traffickers, corrupt government officials, and violent white supremacists.  In addition, General Skrmetti taught cyberlaw as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis. General Skrmetti earned honors degrees from George Washington University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.  Following law school, Jonathan clerked for Judge Steven Colloton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and four children.

 

Matt Rice joined the Office of the Solicitor General in June 2022. In 2024, Matt was appointed by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to serve as Tennessee’s Solicitor General. In that role, Matt supervises and coordinates all state and federal appellate work for the State of Tennessee and oversees the preparation of all Attorney General Opinions. Before joining the State, Matt worked in private practice at Williams & Connolly LLP. There, his practice centered on appellate work in a variety of complex civil litigation matters. Matt clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the United States Supreme Court in October Term 2019 as well as Judge Sandra Ikuta on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Matt graduated from Western Kentucky University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is also a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law where he finished first in his class. Before his legal career, Matt played professional baseball in the Tampa Bay Rays organization.