Faculty Profile: Jonathan Skrmetti

Jonathan SkrmettiTennessee Attorney General's Office
Previous Courses Taught (5)
  • Federal Law 2020: Constitutional and Statutory Developments
  • Federal Law Winter Forum: Criminal Justice Reform in Three Branches
  • Federal Practice Winter Forum
  • Federal Practice: Presenting in Federal Court
  • Federal Practice Seminar 2018
Biography

Jonathan Skrmetti has served as chief deputy attorney general for Tennessee since December 2018. In that role, he worked as a negotiator in the multibillion dollar national opioid settlement discussions, coordinated with other state attorney general offices to launch multistate antitrust suits against Google and Facebook, and managed 170 attorneys through the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. His clients include the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government and numerous agencies therein.

Prior to joining the Attorney General's Office, Jonathan spent nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor and five years in private practice. At the Department of Justice, Jonathan prosecuted high profile cases involving child sex traffickers, violent hate groups, and corrupt public officials. His docket included successes against neo-Nazi conspirators plotting to assassinate Barack Obama, the white supremacist murderer of a Memphis law enforcement officer, and the arsonist leaders of the Aryan Alliance.

As a partner at Butler Snow, Jonathan focused on complex litigation, government investigations, and data security and privacy. Jonathan also taught cyberlaw as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis.

Jonathan serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Bar Association's Federal Practice Section and previously served as chair of the section.

Jonathan earned honors degrees from George Washington University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Steven Colloton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.