Public service in a new way: Former acting U.S. Attorney talks new gig
By Aarron Fleming, Daily Memphian
Updated: August 25, 2025 6:51 AM CT | Published: August 25, 2025 4:00 AM CT
Reagan Fondren led the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee office from September 2024 until March. Now she’s a senior attorney at Burch, Porter & Johnson. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
Reagan Fondren recalls spending time with her grandfather at the former Tennessee Club on Court Avenue in Downtown Memphis, where he was a maître d’ and waiter.
They’d get snacks before heading out to watch the Cotton Carnival proceed down Main Street and later come back to cool off.
At the time, the Tennessee Club, now the home of law firm Burch, Porter & Johnson, was exclusive to white men.
Fondren, a Black woman, is now a senior attorney at the firm.
“It’s sort of serendipitous that this was a place that my people weren’t allowed to come in, and now I’m actually working here,” she said in a recent interview.
Fondren, former acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, joined the firm in July, following her departure from the prosecutor’s office earlier this year.
Fondren led the office from September 2024 until March after former U.S. Attorney Kevin Ritz resigned to accept an appointment to the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In an unusual move, she was fired in a one-line email from the White House, rather than being allowed to return to her previous position, when President Donald Trump nominated former acting U.S. Attorney Joe Murphy to replace her.
Fondren declined to discuss further details of her departure with The Daily Memphian.
A career prosecutor, Fondren now finds herself on the opposite side of the fence, focusing on helping companies stave off government investigations as well as white-collar criminal defense and commercial litigation.
“My training as a prosecutor is as an investigator. That’s what I’ve always done. That’s what I’m good at and that’s how I’ll be helpful to my clients,” she said.
Having been on the other side is also helpful in that she knows how her now-legal adversaries think, she said: “And I have an advantage in knowing how the federal government implements things. And I know how they will review documents, I know how they will review policies, I know how they will review implementation because I’ve done it.”
Jennifer Hagerman, who joined Burch, Porter & Johnson in 2002, said Fondren has been “great to have around.”
She said that Fondren’s “wealth of experience,” particularly as a trial attorney, will aid the firm in its work.
“A lot of civil cases settle, so if you have a case that does go to trial, it’s good to have that experience,” she said.
Fondren sought a judgeship before going private, something she sees as “heaven-sent” for not working out.
She applied for the Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court seat vacated by former Judge Bill Anderson, who retired March 1.
“For me, it was something very different,” she said. “As a government employee, you don’t have to step outside the comfort zone of the government office. You don’t have to ask for anything. It’s always coming to you. Cases land in your lap. You don’t really have to search for anything.”
Taylor Bachelor, a former Shelby County Juvenile Court magistrate, was appointed to the seat. Fondren called her an “excellent choice.”
Having spent the last 20 years in public service, Fondren sees her new role as an opportunity to continue that work, even if it’s in a different way.
“I can operate in public service in any work that I do. My work as a prosecutor wasn’t limited to just violent crime, that was a part of it. My work as a prosecutor was protecting the community at large in all types of ways. Preventative, rehabilitative… but also through prosecuting,” she said.
“I can continue in that work, it just looks different now.”
To read more about, Reagan Fondren, click here.