Tom Dillard
Mr. Dillard graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1964. He began private practice in 1965, serving for nine years as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. From 1976 to 1978 he was the district’s first full-time federal magistrate. He then returned to the U.S. Attorney's office, serving as its chief assistant until 1983, except for a period in 1981 when the U.S. District Court Judges for the Eastern District of Tennessee appointed him to serve as the district's U.S. Attorney.
In 1983, the President of the United States appointed Mr. Dillard to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida. In 1987, he joined the firm of Ritchie, Fels & Dillard, today called Ritchie, Dillard & Davies.
Mr. Dillard represents clients in an extensive range of state and federal matters. He has successfully defended numerous individuals in a wide range of complex white collar criminal actions, high profile murder prosecutions, and other serious cases.
Mr. Dillard is certified as a criminal trial specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Tennessee Bar Foundation. He is a Master of the Bench of the Hamilton Burnett American Inn of Court.
Mr. Dillard has served on the Board of Directors of the Helen Ross McNabb Center, the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense lawyers, the Knoxville Bar Association, the Knoxville Bar Foundation, and the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee. Mr. Dillard is the founding president of the Knoxville Defense Lawyers Association. He was appointed to the Mayor's Commission on Police, the Tennessee Bar Association's Committee on Professional Standards, and the Advisory Commission to the Supreme Court on Rules of Practice and Procedure.
The Knoxville Bar Association in 2002 awarded Mr. Dillard its highest honor, the Governor's Award, recognizing professional achievement and community commitment.
Mr. Dillard frequently instructs at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. He is an adjunct professor of trial practice at the University of Tennessee College of Law. He lectures at seminars for various national, state, and local bar associations and other professional organizations. Mr. Dillard has achieved the highest rating awarded by the Martindale Hubbell Law Directory (AV), and he is listed in Best Lawyers in America, The National Directory of Criminal Lawyers, and Who's Who in American Law.
Wade V. Davies
Mr. Davies, who has been with the firm since his first year at the University of Tennessee Law School, graduated first in his law school class in 1993. He became a partner in January 1999. Today he serves as the firm's managing partner.
Mr. Davies earned his Bachelor of Arts in History from Pomona College in Claremont, California.
Mr. Davies concentrates his criminal defense case practice on representing individuals at both the trial and appellate levels. His practice ranges from state court cases to the most complex federal matters. His civil practice includes an emphasis on representing individuals in litigation against state and federal government and agencies.
Mr. Davies represents doctors and other health care providers in criminal, civil and administrative cases. Mr. Davies participated in the class action lawsuit leading to fundamental reform of Tennessee’s foster care system.
Mr. Davies is named in The Best Lawyers in America publication. He is a graduate of the National Criminal Defense College. He is a member of the American Bar Association, Tennessee Bar Association, Knoxville Bar Association, Knoxville Defense Lawyers Association, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He has been named a Master of the Bench of the Hamilton Burnett American Inn of Court. He has served on the TACDL Board and chaired its publications and ethics committees. He is currently the chair of the amicus curiae committee, authoring briefs on critical legal issues. He is also co-chair of the Knoxville Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section.
Mr. Davies lives on a small farm with his wife and two young sons.
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Wayne A. Ritchie II
Mr. Ritchie practices civil litigation, specializing in representing plaintiffs and defendants (individual and corporate) in personal injury, defective product, medical malpractice, civil rights, and business and workers' compensation cases. Mr. Ritchie also handles domestic relation cases and will contests.
Mr. Ritchie is certified as a civil trial specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Education and Specialization. Less than two percent of Tennessee lawyers hold this board certification.
Mr. Ritchie is a member of the Executive Committee of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association, serving as TTLA’s East Tennessee vice president and for years on its Board of Governors. He also has served on the Knoxville Bar Association’s Board of Governors. Mr. Ritchie is a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the Tennessee Bar Association. He is a Master of the Bench in the Hamilton Burnett American Inn of Court and currently serves as its treasurer.
Recently, Mr. Ritchie spoke at seminars for the East Tennessee Federal Bar Association, on “Killer Cross-Examinations,” and for the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association Mid-Winter Conference on “Winning Ways Of Master Trial Lawyers.”
Mr. Ritchie was elected as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives in the 98th, 99th, and 100th General Assemblies from the 17th State House District (1992-98), serving on the Finance, Ways and Means and Judiciary Committees and the Select Committee on Ethics. He was recognized by Common Cause for his work on ethics and campaign finance reform legislation. Mr. Ritchie received the Citizen Action Leadership Award for his work on consumer rights issues.
Mr. Ritchie received his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University in 1986. He attended Vanderbilt University Law School, serving as associate editor of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. He graduated in 1989.
Mr. Ritchie is a member of the Sequoyah Hills Presbyterian Church, where he has served as an Elder. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Bijou Theatre, the Knoxville Opera Company, and Nucleus Knoxville. Mr. Ritchie has served as Chairman of the Board of the Greater Knoxville SAFE KIDS Coalition, which promotes educational programs and grants to the needy to prevent accidental injuries to children through the joint efforts of local hospitals, pediatric practices, law enforcement officials, and community volunteers. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lakeshore Mental Health Institute.
Stephen Ross Johnson
Mr. Johnson’s practice is concentrated in federal and state courts. His criminal practice ranges from defense of complex white collar and other major felonies in federal court to charges in state court. His civil practice emphasizes representation of individuals in litigation with state and federal governments, including immigration, administrative, and other matters.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the bars of the United States Supreme Court, the Tennessee Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Seventh, Sixth, and Fourth Circuits, the United States District Courts for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Tennessee, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. He has also been admitted to practice on a pro hac vice basis in a number of other state and federal courts.
Mr. Johnson is the 2006-2008 chair of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) Criminal Justice Section, and for a number of years has served on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (“TACDL”). He is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA), the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and the Hamilton Burnett American Inn of Court. He also serves on the judicial committee of the Knoxville Bar Association (KBA).
Mr. Johnson has published articles and taught other lawyers on the topics of wiretapping, ethics, federal grand jury investigations, the death penalty, and other criminal law issues. He is a graduate of the National Criminal Defense College at Mercer Law School. He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence, with honors, from the University of Tennessee College of Law. At the College of Law, Mr. Johnson was a member of the Moot Court Board and the Constitutional Law Moot Court Team, where for two straight years he was selected as one of the top oralists at national competitions. He also served as the chairperson of the College of Law’s Speaker Series, co-chaired UT Pro Bono, and helped found and coordinate the Tennessee Innocence Project.
His community work earned Mr. Johnson the William M. Leech, Jr. Public Service Prize from the College of Law, and the Tennessee Commission on Higher Education awarded Mr. Johnson its Community Service Award. He was also the recipient of the Excellence in Criminal Advocacy Award from the UT Legal Clinic. Additionally, during his legal education, Mr. Johnson worked with the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, concentrating on civil rights and death penalty litigation, and with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. He was selected as the Tennessee Bar Association’s Law Student Volunteer of the Year, the highest honor that the state bar confers to law students.
Mr. Johnson received his undergraduate education at Carson-Newman College, where he studied economics and political science. He was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to the United Kingdom, where he received a graduate degree in economics from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and served as a consultant to an economic development agency. He married his college sweetheart, and they live with their son in Maryville, Tennessee, where they are active members at Fairview United Methodist Church.
Charles W. B. Fels
One of the founding partners of the firm, Charles Fels is currently of counsel with Ritchie, Dillard & Davies. He graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia with a Master of Divinity degree in 2005, and is an Episcopalian priest in New York.
Mr. Fels was educated at Stanford University, where he received his undergraduate degree. He then earned his masters and law degrees from Vanderbilt University. Mr. Fels has practiced law for twenty-five years and has been a partner at Ritchie, Fels & Dillard, P.C. since its inception. He has both state and federal prosecutorial experience, serving as an Assistant District Attorney in Knoxville and as an Assistant United States Attorney in Knoxville and Nashville.
Mr. Fels has participated as a Court TV commentator and taught as a visiting lecturer at the Federal Bureau of Investigation training center in Quantico, Virginia. He has achieved the highest rating awarded by the Martindale Hubbell Law Directory (AV) and is listed in the Best Lawyers in America, The National Directory of Criminal Lawyers, and Who's Who in American Law.
Mr. Fels served in the Peace Corps in Tanzania, East Africa and was employed by a major law firm in Queensland, Australia for two years. Mr. Fels has represented both individual and corporate clients in a broad range of criminal investigations and prosecutions. He has represented executives of Fortune 500 companies and foreign corporations in complex white collar criminal investigations and prosecutions. In recent years he has successfully represented the personal interests of doctors, lawyers and businessmen in civil disputes.
For over a decade, Mr. Fels served as a faculty member at the National College of Criminal Defense. He served two terms as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), a group of 28,000 specialists in criminal defense drawn from all over the United States. He has taught other lawyers at continuing legal education seminars in nineteen states and one foreign country.
Staff bios
One of the firm’s most valuable assets is its experienced and professional staff.
Richard Bolus
Richard Bolus joined the firm on July 1, 1983. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture, and later received a paralegal certificate. Mr. Bolus is the paralegal for the firm’s criminal defense division.
Linda Carter
Linda Carter joined the firm on February 1, 1993 as a litigation paralegal, after serving in Brussels, Belgium as office manager for a corporate law firm. Ms. Carter assists with civil litigation and also works with the firm’s criminal defense division.
Ms. Carter currently serves as the Chair of the Paralegal Affiliates of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association, a position she has held since 2002. During the mid-1990’s, in addition to her work for the firm, Ms. Carter served as administrator of Tennessee’s 17th Legislative District local office during the time partner Wayne Ritchie served in the Tennessee state legislature.
Karen Montooth
Karen Montooth is the firm’s office manager and bookkeeper. She graduated with highest honors from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. degree in Business Administration in 1990 and completed a legal assistant’s program at UT in 1985. She is a member of the Association of Legal Administrators. She has been with the firm since 1966.
Debbie Rose
Debbie Rose joined the firm in June of 1989 after eight years with the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, U.S. Department of Justice. She also was a legal assistant with the Career Criminal Unit of the Knox County District Attorney’s Office. Mrs. Rose is legal assistant for partners Tom Dillard and Wade Davies.
Tammy Wright
Tammy Wright joined the firm in November 2001 as a receptionist and legal assistant. She was previously an assistant with Tupperware Corporation and E.F. Hutton. She is a graduate of Braughons College.
Robert W. Ritchie