BACKGROUND CHECK
Honorable Randy Kennedy | Bart Pickett
For all his life, Judge Randy Kennedy has lived within a ten miles radius of his first home. He grew up in Donelson, in a blue-collar family. He recalls, at the age of twelve, he accompanying his father, a steamfitter and pipefitter, to a National Labor Relations Board grievance hearing where his dad stood against his former employer. At that moment, Kennedy first saw justice. It was “justice for the little guy,” and it stuck with him. Kennedy went to Donelson for elementary and high school. Kennedy and his wife, Debbie, met at a young age and married while they were still teenagers. Being a newlywed, Kennedy decided on college at MTSU where he could easily commute. He initially majored in speech/broadcasting with the hope of being a disc jockey or a sportswriter but ultimately switched to business with a minor in speech for more financial security. Kennedy graduated college in three years. Married with a toddler, he took a year off after college to enjoy not being in school and to make some money working for Aetna Casualty Insurance Company. He then started night law school and when Aetna asked him to move to Iowa, he had to quit after
learning he would lose his law school credits. Kennedy started working at the old Nashville City Bank, ultimately becoming the Hermitage Branch Manager. Upon graduating from Nashville School of Law in 1977, Kennedy joined with two other lawyers to start a practice with offices in Hermitage and Lebanon. He did that until the early 80’s when they split the offices up and he formed an association of attorneys in the Hermitage office. He quickly went from a junior associate to essentially a managing partner. The group eventually became known as Kennedy & Brown and moved into a building in Donelson. Kennedy remained at that firm until December, 2003. He considered the firm to be a classic, general practice in both litigation and transactional law. He did a significant amount of work related to probate, estates, divorces, and conservatorships but also represented lots of small businesses in the Donelson-Hermitage area. Kennedy dipped his feet into electoral politics in 1989 when the Metro Council seat in his district opened. He ran and won that contested race and was re-elected in 1991. Having served the remainder of an unexpired term and one full term, he chose not to run for a third time in 1995. In 1998, Kennedy ran, unsuccessfully, for an open General Sessions judgeship. He looks back on that loss as a blessing, as he feels that was not the right job for him. At the time, his son David had recently graduated from UT Law and had joined his father’s practice. Kennedy continued his firm focus on serving Davidson County and particularly his
Donelson-Hermitage community until the fall of 2003 when several judicial openings in sparked Kennedy’s interest in the judiciary again. Judge Frank Clement had been appointed to the appellate court, thereby opening the Seventh Circuit Court seat. Kennedy, along with seven others, applied for the opening. Kennedy remembers driving to court around Thanksgiving and receiving a call from Governor Bredesen saying, “Congratulations, your Honor.” Kennedy took the oath of office on December 4, 2003, and has served in that role ever since. He survived a contested election in 2004 and then was re-elected in 2006 and 2014. Davidson County residents will have the opportunity to vote for him again in 2022 as he seeks another term. Probate court is one of the busiest courts in Davidson, yet Judge Kennedy absolutely loves what he does every day from trials in the beginning of the week to dockets on Fridays and everything in between. Kennedy and wife are in their 53rd year of marriage, have two adult children, David and Shelley, and three grandchildren. When not working, you may find Kennedy enjoying sports, particularly the Titans, or in the water. Kennedy believes you must have balance in life and has tried not to lose sight of that throughout his career. n BART PICKETT is an attorney at the Law Offices of Julie Bhattacharya Peak where he represents Liberty Mutual Group, Inc.’s insureds and customers of its affiliated groups in litigation throughout Middle Tennessee.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 | NASHVILLE BAR JOURNAL
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