Nashville attorney Matt Sweeney of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz has qualified to run for the Davidson County Chancery Court Judgeship. The judiciary seat came open when Chancellor Richard Dinkins was recently appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Sweeney is a former Circuit Court Judge and Presiding Judge of the Davidson County Trial Courts. He applied for the chancery seat with the Tennessee Judicial Selection Commission, who chose to nominate three other individuals for the job instead. Those three are Alan D. Johnson of Willis & Knight, PLC, Russell T. Perkins of the Attorney General's Office, and Cristi Eileen Scott, who is currently Clerk and Master of the Davidson County Chancery Court.
While one of those three will be appointed by Gov. Phil Bredesen in the near future, they will have to stand for election to the post in August. Sweeney has opted to essentially challenge the selection commission's nominee and take his case directly to Davidson County voters.
An honors graduate of Seton Hall University and a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School, Sweeney practiced law in Nashville until his appointment to the Davidson County bench in 1986 as the youngest Circuit Court Judge in Tennessee. He was subsequently elected to complete the term.
During his tenure on the Circuit Court, he was elected by his fellow judges as the Assignment Judge and then as Presiding Judge of the Davidson County Trial Courts.
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