Like most legal professionals, Judge Gary Starnes has a few good stories tucked away for the right occasions. His election in August as a general sessions court judge gives him an opportunity to tell one.
It takes place 26 years ago at an IHOP at 3 a.m.: “Chuck Fleischmann, Jeff Haygood and I were studying for the bar exam. We were drinking coffee because it was three in the morning, and we were dead tired but we were trying to stay awake, so we started talking about what we were going to do after practicing law for 25 or 30 years. Fleischmann said he was going to be a politician, and Haywood and I said we were going to be sessions court judges,” Starnes says.
Fast forward nearly three decades and the words two of these men spoke over coffee at 3 a.m. have come true – Fleischmann is a U.S. representative and Starnes is a judge.
Starnes won the election after four-and-a-half-months of intense campaigning that took him to parts of his home county to which he’d never been.
“I was driving through Snow Hill and saw a man weed eating what turned out to be his neighbor’s lawn. I parked my car and got out in my suit and tie and walked over and talked with him in 105 degree heat,” he says.
During his run for judge, Starnes talked with anyone who would lend him an ear. He says he shook about 15,000 hands, attended over 600 public events and ate more meals than he could count.
“I wanted everyone to know I’d work hard to get the position and then work hard once they elected me,” he says.
Wherever Starnes went, he spoke about how he planned to use the experience and knowledge he gained during 26 years of practicing law to deal with the criminal element in Chattanooga and talked extensively about Chattanooga’s gang problem.
“When I described the magnitude of the problem to the people I met, their jaws dropped. We’re going to have to start talking with kids in elementary school because the gangs are using middle school kids to do their dirty work,” Starnes says.
In addition to physically canvassing for votes, Starnes pulled off an effective social media blitz. In the end, he won what can arguably be called a landslide victory.
As hard as Starnes labored over the summer, the work that lies ahead of him will be exhausting. He has six months to close down his solo practice, which he’s housed in the Dome Building on Georgia Avenue since 1993. Until then, he’ll be going to his office well before dawn to work, then putting in full-time hours as a judge and then returning to his office to tie up loose ends. His desk is covered with papers related to open cases, many of which he’ll be turning over to other attorneys.
Before running, Starnes counted the price he’d have to pay to become a judge, and he believed the benefits would outweigh the cost. He says the bench will allow him to not only help Hamilton County deal with the tens of thousands of new criminal and civil cases that land in general sessions court each year but also increase the effectiveness of his community service.
For years, Starnes has served on local boards and done volunteer work for various non-profit organizations, including the American Red Cross, the Children’s Advocacy Center, Shepherd’s Arms Rescue Ministry and Children’s Home-Chambliss Center, to name a few.
He’s also talked with middle school students about the dangers of crime. He says doing the same thing as a judge will make these discussions more memorable for the children. “Judges can make a difference because kids listen to them.”
Starnes was born in Detroit, Mich., and then moved to Tennessee when his father became a state trooper. He graduated from Lookout Valley High School, where he set scoring records on the basketball team that stand to this day, in 1977 and then earned an undergraduate degree in education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Starnes had intended to coach but chose to pursue the law instead, and in 1986, he graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He passed the bar that same year after a long night of drinking coffee and hitting the books at an IHOP.
Starnes worked for a year in Knoxville and then returned to Chattanooga to work for Spears, Moore, Rebman & Williams, where for seven years he did insurance defense work. He left the firm in 1993 and hung his own shingle.
Over the years that followed, Starnes developed a diversified practice, focusing primarily on personal injury work and mixing in workers compensation, wrongful death and a few other areas of the law. He estimates he’s tried 120 jury trials, including several high profile cases, and tried hundreds more non-jury trials. Through it all, he’s held licenses to practice in both Tennessee and Georgia, and become a certified mediator and arbitrator in both states. “It’s been hectic, but I’ve enjoyed it,” he says.
Starnes credits his family for giving him the strength he needed. He and his wife, Carol, started dating their freshman year in high school and have been together ever since. They have three children: Leslie, 27, an EMT at Erlanger; Christina, 24, a full-time mom; and Robert, 19, a Baylor graduate who intends to become a lawyer. Starnes and his wife have one grandson, a spitfire who will be two in September. “We took him on vacation with us to Destin. Navy Seals couldn’t keep up with him,” Starnes says, laughing.
Although a hard worker, Starnes knows how to relax. He and his wife take their pontoon and jet skis out whenever they can and Starnes likes to depressurize at a shooting range in Cleveland, Tenn. A “big gun advocate,” he’s a member of the NRA and owns several handguns and semi-automatic weapons. In the fall, he can be seen at the football games of several local high schools.
During the week, he can now be found on the bench. He took his place for the first time on Aug. 20 after being sworn in the preceding Friday. “I promised everyone I’d work hard, so I’m going to be there every day,” he says.
Starnes knows he must make good on his campaign promises because he’ll have to run again in 2014. During the next two years, he’ll be finishing out the term Judge Moon, who passed away in January, started in 2006. Essentially, Starnes is already campaigning to be re-elected.
“I’m going to be fair and impartial, as I swore to be, and treat people with dignity and respect,” he says.
Starnes is not, however, going to be soft. “Prosecutors are going to have to prove their cases, or I won’t be able to rule in their favor. That’s the law,” he says.
There’s no school for judges, yet judges must understand the law to do their job. In that sense, Starnes has been preparing to take the gavel since the day he decided to go to law school. Moving forward, he’ll do as all new judges do: learn as he goes.
He’ll also be tucking away a few good stories for the right occasions.