Bill Purcell Biography

Bill Purcell, a founding partner of Farmer Purcell White & Lassiter, PLLC, has worked in law, government service, and higher education for more than 30 years. During his eight years as Mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee (1999-2007), the city saw unparalleled economic growth, a 50 percent increase in Metro school spending, and the creation and preservation of nearly 26,000 affordable housing units. With a record-breaking 84.8 percent of the vote, he was re-elected mayor for a second term. In 2006, Governing Magazine named Mr. Purcell Public Official of the Year for his achievements as a civic leader. Nashville was named the number one city for corporate headquarters and the hottest city in America for company expansion and relocation twice during his tenure. Mr. Purcell was awarded a Harvard University Institute of Politics Fellow in 2007 after serving as mayor. After that, he was the Founding and Interim Dean of Tennessee State University's College of Public Service and Urban Affairs before returning to the Harvard Institute of Politics as Director (2008–2010) and a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Mr. Purcell was named co-chair of the Work Team for Allston by Harvard University President Drew Faust in December 2009, and he also served as Special Advisor on Allston. He proposed ways for creating a coherent academic and learning campus atmosphere in the Allston district of Boston, which is close to Cambridge, in these roles. He founded and directed the Vanderbilt University Child and Family Policy Institution (1996-99), a nationally known center that built a connection between academic research, politics, and best practices to benefit children and their families. He was a Visiting Professor at Meharry Medical College lately. He is presently a Vanderbilt University Adjunct Professor of Public Policy (appointed 2012). Mr. Purcell served in the Tennessee House of Representatives for five terms (1986-96), including as Majority Leader (1990-96). He proposed and approved legislation reforming Tennessee's schools, courtrooms, industrial facilities and boardrooms, criminal and juvenile justice, hospitals, and voting booths during his decade in the General Assembly. He was a member of the Judiciary, General Welfare, Finance Ways and Means, and Ethics Committees, as well as Chair of the House Rules Committee, Committee on Open Records, and Select Joint Committee on Children and Youth. Tennessee has twice been named the best-managed state in the country during his tenure. Mr. Purcell has been an active participant in the work of the bar, having represented clients in all of Nashville's trial courts as well as the federal and state appellate courts. He is a Fellow of both the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Foundations, as well as a member of the Commission on the Future of the Tennessee Judicial System, the Tennessee IOLTA Grant Review Committee, and the Board of the Nashville Bar Association. The Nashville Bar Association has given him the John C. Tune award in recognition of his excellent contributions to the community and long service as a member of the bar (2006). He received his bachelor's degree from Hamilton College and his law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law, where he was named Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2004.

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