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- Jahari M. Dowdy, a criminal defense lawyer with 20 years of experience, has applied for an open judgeship in Shelby County Criminal Court Division 1.
- Dowdy has been censured twice by the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility for financial errors in handling client funds.
- Dowdy maintains that the censures and current investigation do not reflect her ability to be a fair and impartial judge.
Jahari M. Dowdy’s focus for the last 20 years has been in criminal defense law. She is the president and owner of J. M. Dowdy PLLC, a law firm she began in 2005 when she began handling criminal defense cases.
Now, she is hoping to be appointed as the next judge to sit on the bench in Shelby County Criminal Court Division 1. Paula Skahan held the position before her, but retired on June 30.
Dowdy is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and currently the audit committee co-chair of the Divine Nine sorority. In 2010, she was awarded the BVisible Business Award for Excellence in Community Service, and in 2017, she was named in the American Institute for Criminal Law Attorneys’ Ten Best Attorneys list.
This is her first time applying for an open judgeship, but she said in her application that she “pulled a petition last year to run in an election before the legislature abolished the judicial seat.”
“My experience and demeanor can be an additional asset in service to the community from the bench,” Dowdy wrote in her application. “I am passionate about the system working correctly. That does not mean everyone should go free; it means they should matriculate through a system before fair and impartial judges, allowing them to have their day in court. I am confident I can be that fair and impatient [sic] judge, who keeps a clear head and calm demeanor.”
She graduated from Southern University A&M College in 1999, earning her bachelor’s degree in political science. Dowdy then earned her juris doctor — her law degree — from Southern University Law Center in 2002. She has been licensed to practice law in Tennessee since 2005.
After graduating in 2002, Dowdy started working for the National Civil Rights Museum as the assistant to the operations director. She later was promoted to assistant to the museum’s executive director and remained in that position while studying for the bar exam.
Since starting her legal practice, Dowdy has handled mostly adult criminal defense cases. In her application, she said, “state criminal law accounts for 60 percent of my practice, federal criminal law for about 20 percent, and child and family law for the last 20 percent.”
“Most of my experience comes from the trial court, where I have handled thousands of general sessions and criminal court cases,” Dowdy wrote in the application. “I have also handled a state post-conviction. I practice regularly in the federal court and have handled one federal appeals case. I have also handled several administrative cases with the Department of Safety and as a special hearing officer. Lastly, I have handled several juvenile, circuit and chancery cases. However, I have been a constant in the criminal law community.”
Dowdy said in her application she has never been suspended from the Tennessee Bar, though she has twice been publicly censured by the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. A censure is a public rebuke and warning of an attorney’s actions, but it does not come with legal suspension.
In October 2019, the board censured Dowdy for not taking action to place money in escrow during a guardianship case involving a child.
“The final order required Ms. Dowdy’s client to place designated funds in escrow, with both Ms. Dowdy and her client named as co-trustees over the funds,” the censure read. “Ms. Dowdy failed to take any action to facilitate the transfer of the funds and did not respond to subsequent inquiries and directives from the court and the clerk and master concerning this matter. Ms. Dowdy also failed to maintain good communication with her client during the representation.”
In her application, Dowdy said the communication with her client fell apart after the client “relocated and did not forward any good contact information to me. I was not able to reach the client.”
Her second censure from the board came in January 2021. The censure came from another financial error, with Dowdy submitting a trust account check on behalf of a client prior to the client sending the funds to a commercial lessor.
“Through an inadvertent office error, a check drawn on Ms. Dowdy’s trust account was delivered to the commercial lessor before Ms. Dowdy received funds from the client to cover the check,” the censure read. “As a result, the check was returned for insufficient funds. Ms. Dowdy failed to take proper remedial action after becoming aware of the error. Ms. Dowdy also subsequently deposited personal funds into her trust account to provide enough funds for a replacement check, thereby comingling her personal funds with her trust account funds.”
Though Dowdy’s application explained the censures similarly to the language used by the Board of Professional Responsibility, she added that “after practicing criminal law consistently for 20 years, two public censures are not indicative of my ability to be a fair and impartial judge,” in response to The Commercial Appeal’s request for comment.
Dowdy also said in her application that the Board of Professional Responsibility is currently investigating her due to a complaint from a former client.
“The client had mental health and drug issues, along with a long criminal history in Arkansas,” Dowdy said. “The client missed court and was rearrested four times while I handled her cases. I secured rehab with probation for the client, and she entered a plea back in April of last year. Before the rehab facility could pick her up from the jail for treatment, she was picked up by AR on an arrest warrant. She has made several false statements in her complaint, but ultimately, she is upset that AR has charged her with conduct that she feels Tennessee has already convicted her of.”
Lucas Finton covers crime, policing, jails, the courts and criminal justice policy for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by phone or email: (901)208-3922 and [email protected], and followed on X @LucasFinton.
