Gov901

Willie Herenton

Person

Speaking turns

• Memphis City Council: April 28, 2026 10:36

  I met Allan Wade, but before I met Alan, I knew his father. I knew his father very well and his his father was a trailblazer and I respected him a great deal. So, I kind of felt that Allan Wade was really a good guy. He was smart cuz it said it was a good guy and very smart. But, uh, when I became the mayor, uh, I had interactions with Alan uh, learning about municipal government, uh, how the City Council related to the office of the mayor. And then, uh, we had a number of critical legal issues that required an opinion, uh, from Allan Wade. And let me just tell you, I have worked with a lot of lawyers, okay? A lot of lawyers in Memphis, worked with some lawyers outside of Memphis. I can truly say that Allan Wade is an extremely competent, uh, dedicated, professional. I mean, his his knowledge of law stretches across, I mean, a lot of areas. Uh, it it is finance, it's municipal government, it's state law, it's federal law. So, Allan Wade is, uh, very competent attorney, a strategic thinker, and, uh, for Alan to be in this position, I think for several decades, uh, he must be very dedicated about it. Um, let me let me just reflect on two very significant legal matters that Allan Wade really demonstrated, uh, some highly acumen, uh, in the area of jurisprudence, law. Um, we had a case dealing with the creation of the toy towns. And many people will may not remember that. That was a serious threat to the growth of Memphis, uh, because there were suburbanites who didn't want, uh, some of our reserve areas to be annexed. So, there was a movement on the part of some suburban areas to kind of succeed. Uh, they wanted to make sure that Memphis could not annex their areas. So, there was a a very onerous bill that was passed in Nashville, the toy town legislation, which it if it had been implemented, would have impeded Memphis' ability to grow. So, what I did, I knew this was a critical legal matter. So, we talked with Alan and we hired a very reputable law firm to represent the City of Memphis and Allan Wade was on that team. We took this matter all the way up to the Tennessee State Supreme Court. And Alan, along with other members of the team, they argued this case before the Tennessee, uh, Supreme Court and we prevailed. Had we lost that toy town legislation, the Memphis that you are enjoying today would not have existed. So, I saw Allan Wade, in my judgment, in one of his finest hours in assisting our legal team in in in getting that victory for Memphis. To me, Allan Wade is one of the wisest lawyers I've ever encountered. When I think of him, I think of wisdom, institutional knowledge, you know, extreme intelligence, you know, genius level, uh, intelligence, wisdom, um, history. All of those things are what Alan means to me specifically. My most memorable experience was when we were adverse in a pretty big, pretty controversial case.

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