Bill Randolph

Bill Randolph has previously served as district public defender, assistant district attorney and assistant district public defender, and was elected district public defender for the 27th Judicial District – Obion and Weakley Counties – in 2022. Mr. Randolph graduated from Spurgeon Academy in Memphis. He was educated at the University of Memphis, where he received a BA in political science in 1983, as well as a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in 1987. He passed the Tennessee bar examination on his first attempt. In 1990, after having served in private practice and the district public defender’s office for the 29 th Judicial District – Dyer and Lake Counties – Mr. Randolph was appointed district public defender by Governor Ned McWherter. After serving in that position for two years, Mr. Randolph entered the district attorney’s office and later opened a private practice, where he concentrated in capital litigation and representing disabled veterans before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in Washington, D. C. Prior to his 2022 election to district public defender, he was an assistant district public defender for 21 years, where he received the President’sAward from the Tennessee Public Defenders Conference “in recognition of dedicated service to the cause of justice in indigent defense.” He was a member of the incorporating board of directors for Christ Classical Academy in Dyersburg, Tennessee. For more than 20 years, Mr. Randolph has been a fixture at Dresden High School football games, grilling for a stadium full of fans. Mr. Randolph is past president of Dresden Rotary Club, where he was awarded the 2003 Rotarian of the Year. He is also a Paul Harris Fellow. He has been married to Brenda Randolph since 1983. She is a retired schoolteacher. They raised their two children at their rural home near Hornbeak.