Joseph G. Jarret is the Knox County Law Director.  This is the third time in Joe’s 20+ year legal career that he has served a local government as chief legal counsel. Joe is a Tennessee attorney, Federal District Court Mediator and Arbitrator, and Tennessee Rule 31 Listed Civil Mediator, who has litigated matters before the Tennessee Supreme Court, Tennessee’s lower state courts and federal courts.  He currently serves the University of Tennessee, Graduate School of Public Administration as an adjunct instructor, where he teaches courses in local government law and administration. Before moving to East Tennessee, Joe served Polk County, Florida, a charter form of government with a population 554,000, and a 1.3 billion dollar budget as its County Law Director.  He is the former chief legal counsel for the Hardee County, Florida 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office and is a former Manatee County, Florida, (population 316,700) Deputy County Law Director, during which time he also served as the County’s risk and insurance manager.  He has appeared before the Florida Governor and his Cabinet and has served on the Governor’s Disaster Task Force, and frequently lectures around the country on behalf of public agencies and professional organizations.

Joe is a former active duty United States Army Armored Cavalry Officer and former United States Air Force Special Agent with service overseas.

Joe has recently presented blocks of instruction on behalf of the Tennessee Supreme Court, Administrative Law Judges Conference, the Tennessee Bar Association, the Knoxville Bar Association, the Tennessee Law Director’s Association, the Tennessee Municipal Attorney’s Association, the Tennessee and Knoxville Bar Associations, the Tennessee Sheriff’s Association and frequently guest lectures on behalf of the University of Tennessee, College of Law and Carson-Newman College.

Joe is an award-winning writer who has published over 85 articles in various professional journals and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree, a Masters in Public Administration degree, a Juris Doctorate degree and a post-Graduate Certificate in Public Management. He is the 2009 recipient of the Florida Association of County Law Director’s Gordon Johnston Award for Ethics and Professionalism in the Practice of Local Government Law.