Department of Environment & Conservation
Jim Fyke, Commissioner

Specific Judging Considerations

To recognize individuals who have devoted at least 25 years of effective and valuable service to Tennessee’s environmental protection or conservation stewardship; posthumous awards not made

Notable personal achievements in areas such as natural resource management, conservation, education, public service, and political support toward Tennessee’s conservation and/or environmental protection

2009 Winner of Lifetime Achievement

Judge Larry E. Potter of Memphis

The 2009 Robert Sparks Walker Award winner is the Honorable Larry E. Potter of Memphis.

TDEC Commissioner Jim Fyke, Deputy Governor John Morgan, Honorable Larry E. Potter and TDEC Deputy Commissioner Paul Sloan present the 2009 Robert Sparks Walker Award to Judge Potter at the Ellington Agricultural Center.

In 1982, Mayor Wyeth Chandler asked Larry Potter, a young attorney in Memphis, to start an environmental court in the Memphis. There were no environmental courts in Tennessee at the time; there were only two environmental courts in the entire nation. However, the law was not the first or only vocation for Larry Potter.  Preacher, teacher and principal are all job titles held by Potter before he became the Honorable Larry E. Potter. These life experiences, combined with a love of the land and a family legacy of environmental activism in Middle Tennessee, made him the right person for this brand new post.

For more than a quarter century since his appointment, the Honorable Larry E. Potter has been the prime move for the Memphis Environmental Court. This court was established without cost to taxpayers by transferring all environmental cases (codes, fire, health, housing and police) to his docket. Judge Potter soon began a practice of personally performing “on-site inspections” in order to see firsthand the problems that were being brought to his court. While his case load grew, Judge Potter was still concerned that many areas of the city didn’t know of the Court and its results to remove blight, so he “went to the people. ”He annually made 25 to 40 public appearances in order to raise communities’ consciousness for a safer and cleaner home space. As a teacher and former principal, Potter believed in education and its power to change culture. He continues to average more than 30 speeches per year in the community teaching compliance and court’s impact.

Judge Potter developed Citizen Review Panels and Community Courts to empower neighborhood leaders to fight blight and expedite bringing code infractions to justice. There are now six Community Courts in Shelby County. He used the concept of “SWAT” teams to unite the housing, codes, fire, zoning and health agency inspectors into Environmental “E-Teams” to sweep an entire neighborhood for compliance. He also held training seminars for city inspectors to improve professionalism in presenting evidence.

His positive impact drew attention to Memphis and this Environmental Court. Since 1984, Judge Potter has traveled and consulted with many major American cities as they established Environmental Courts in their jurisdictions. Many of the concepts that are now standard to for Environmental Courts in America were designed and developed under his leadership. The American Bar Association recognized this Court of Specialty, using Judge Potter to build a network of recognized Environmental Courts. Today there are over 100 courts in the U.S., including seven in our state. Judge Potter is credited with helping form Environmental Courts in Jackson, Nashville, Knoxville/Knox County, Chattanooga and Cleveland/ Bradley County.

Judge Potter has also been instrumental in helping local and state lawmakers take meaningful steps toward better public policy. In 1991, Judge Potter helped write a law that created a countywide Environmental Court with authority to deal strongly with environmental problems confronting Memphis and Shelby County, making it the first county-wide court of this type in the nation. His latest achievement was to spearhead a move to rewrite Tennessee’s litter laws in 2007. The new statutes make it much easier for law enforcement to write litter tickets and makes penalties equitable with volume of litter involved.

As Keep Tennessee Beautiful State Leader Edith Heller said, “Judge Potter has a unique and very special quality for making people feel important and appreciated. He is a Memphis leader who enjoys strong support from a wide variety of people in the community, including all races, religions and others of differing backgrounds. He embodies and personifies the term public servant.”