The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced that a portrait of retired U.S. District Judge Harry S. Mattice, Jr., will be unveiled and presented to the Court in a ceremony at the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse at 3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5.
The unveiling will take place in the third-floor courtroom, where he presided before retiring on Sept.
30, 2021. A reception will follow in the courthouse.
The portrait was painted by Jamie Lee McMahan, who maintains a studio in Memphis. He has painted U.S. senators, governors, mayors, judges, and university presidents. His subjects include U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor; the prizewinning author of Roots, Alex Haley; and Harry Belafonte.
Judge Mattice was appointed to his position by President George W. Bush on Nov. 18, 2005. Prior to his appointment to the judiciary, he served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee from October 2001 until November 2005. In that capacity, he was responsible for representing the United States’ legal interests and for prosecuting federal criminal violations throughout the district’s 41 counties, which extend from Johnson County in northeastern Tennessee to Lincoln County in the middle of the state.
Prior to assuming office as U. S. Attorney, Judge Mattice was a shareholder with Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell in Chattanooga and before that a partner with Miller & Martin, also in Chattanooga. He was engaged in the general practice of law, with an emphasis in business investigations and litigation, securities, tax and regulatory law compliance, and white-collar criminal defense.
In 1997, at the request of Senator Fred Thompson, Judge Mattice served as Senior counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs’ Special Investigation and conducted nationally-televised hearings on alleged illegal and improper activities in connection with the 1996 federal election campaigns.