Faculty Profile: Craig Willis

Biography: CRAIG E. WILLIS currently is the Administrator of the Civil Division of the Shelby County General Sessions Clerk of Court’s Office in Memphis, Tennessee. Prior to his appointment as Civil Division Administrator in September of 2016, Mr. Willis was an Assistant County Attorney in the Office of the Shelby County Attorney in Memphis, Tennessee, for twelve years. He also previously served as a local elected official in Cleveland, Ohio, was a staff attorney for the public housing authority there, and served as an attorney in the law department for the cities of Cleveland, Akron and East Cleveland in Ohio. Mr. Willis is licensed to practice in both Tennessee and Ohio and is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar Association. He is also a member of the National Bar Association (NBA) and its local affiliate, the Ben F. Jones Bar Association. Mr. Willis has published writings in the Tennessee Bar Journal and has been a c.l.e. speaker and presenter on the topic of the Tennessee Public Records and Open Meetings Acts, and has an extensive background in local government law, public policy and urban affairs. Mr. Willis earned his undergraduate degree in urban affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he was in ROTC, and received his law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law in Ann Arbor, where he was a Note Editor on the Journal of Law Reform. He also studied at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.