David Michael Dunavant is the incumbent United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, including the Memphis area and all the 22 counties under this district. He was sworn in officially on the 21st of September, 2017. Atty. Dunavant is the 50th official to serve as the Western District’s chief federal prosecutor.
President Donald Trump nominated Atty. Dunavant on the 12th of June in 2017 as a U.S. Attorney for Tennessee’s Western District. The Senate confirmed the president’s decision on the 14th of September, 2017. A week later, Atty. Dunavant was sworn into office.
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Law Career
David Michael Dunavant is a man of the law through and through. Before he was appointed as a United States Attorney, he worked in the office of the District Attorney General for the State of Tennessee from 2006 to 2017. During the span of his public service, he was able to accomplish so many things and fought for the rights of the people.
He was elected as the District Attorney General of Tennessee’s 25th Judicial District. Here, in West Tennessee, his responsibilities included being the chief criminal prosecutor for counties like Tipton, McNairy, Lauderdale, Hardeman, and Fayette.
Atty. Dunavant served as the District Attorney in West Tennessee during 2006 and served the same position again in 2014. Before he went on to serve a government position, however, he was a partner in the law firm of Carney, Wilder & Dunavant, which was based in Ripley, TN.
District Attorney General
Michael Dunavant held many other positions during his time as the District Attorney General. He was the President of the Tennessee District Attorney’s General Conference. He was also in the Child Support Committee, the Justice & Professionalism Committee, and the Legislative Committee.
Atty. Dunavant also worked on the Tennessee Joint Task Force on Children’s Justice and Child Sexual Abuse. For the Lauderdale County Carl Perkins Child Advocacy Center, Atty. Dunavant was also on the Advisory Board of Directors.
He was brought into office by then-Governor Haslam to the Tennessee Medical Examiner Advisory Council in 2012. There, he worked side by side with the district’s Department of Health Commissioner Dryzehner and many others. In relation to the medical examiner system and working on autopsy findings by forensic experts, Atty. Dunavant and his colleagues developed the best practices and policies within the field.
Awards
For his commitment to revolutionizing investigations on child sexual abuse cases, Atty. Dunavant received the CPIT Excellence Award. This was given to him in 2009 by the Tennessee Chapter of Children’s Advocacy Centers.
Atty. Dunavant also received the “Champion of Victims’ Rights Award” in 2014 for his work in fighting for crime victims’ rights and their advocacy. This award was given to him by the Trauma, Faith, and Resilience Initiative alongside his spouse, Marianne.
The award for the DUI Prosecutor of the Year was given to Atty. Dunavant in 2015. For his outstanding work on impaired driving prosecution, this award was bestowed to him by the Highway Safety Office in West Tennessee.
Other Notable Organizations
Other notable organizations he was in are the Covington Rotary Club and Tipton County’s Anti-Drug Coalition. Along with many other District Attorneys across Tennessee, he also worked on a Sovereign Citizen Working Group. The Tennessee Department of Homeland Security organized this working group for the sole purpose of responding better to threats of crime by individuals and organizations.
Educational Background
Michael Dunavant took up his bachelor’s in Political Science at Knoxville’s University of Tennessee. He received his J.D. with honors from the University of Mississippi at Oxford. Since 1995, he has been actively practicing law in Western Tennessee.
Areas of Expertise
- Business
- Criminal Defense
- Divorce and Separation
- Personal Injury
- Transportation
Contact Details
Full Name: David Michael Dunavant
District/State: Western District of Tennessee
Memphis Office
Western Divisional Office
167 N. Main Street
Room 242
Memphis, TN 38103
(901) 495-1200
Tennessee District Attorney’s General Conference
226 Anne Dallas Dudley Blvd., Ste. 800
Nashville, TN 37243
(615) 741-1696 / (615) 741-7459
Username: Mike Dunavant
URL: https://www.facebook.com/mike.dunavant
Username: WDTNNews
Tag: @WDTNNews
URL: https://twitter.com/wdtnnews
Updated: June 15, 2020
State’s Attorney Joseph Murphy is the next State’s Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee
Updated: July 6, 2021