Paul Morris is an experienced operator, attorney, civic leader, and project manager.

Paul is the Managing Partner of RL Partnership, which owns and manages commercial properties in Tennessee.

During Paul’s seven-year tenure as president of Jack Morris Auto Glass, he scaled the business, added locations, and doubled retail sales. Paul then negotiated the sale of the business to a publicly traded company.

Before joining the glass business, Paul was president of the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC). He led the community’s efforts to redevelop Downtown Memphis. In particular, Paul helped facilitate the redevelopments of One Commerce Square, The Chisca, the James Lee House, the Tennessee Brewery, and the South Main neighborhood.

Consulting & Project Management Experience

When the manager of the Beale Street Entertainment District went bankrupt after years of litigation, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton retained Paul as the Interim Manager of the District. Paul introduced professional property management procedures, added bold and effective security measures, signed new tenants, and developed new programming and events. Within one year of Paul’s leadership tenure, the District was fully leased, clean, safe, and vibrant. And the District began generating net income for the City of Memphis for the first time in history.

The City of Memphis also hired Paul to direct the Main-to-Main Project, a $40 million, 10-mile bike and pedestrian public infrastructure project featuring the Big River Crossing over the Harahan Bridge as its centerpiece. Paul helped secure funding from various public and private sources and directed the construction of the project, opening on time and under budget.

When improvements were needed to FedExForum, Memphis Mayor Paul Young asked Paul Morris to work with the Memphis Grizzlies to coordinate the funding and approvals needed from City and County governments to advance the project quickly.

When Lee Harris was first elected as Mayor of Shelby County, he called upon Paul to lead his mayoral transition team and identify and recruit his administrative leadership team.

Paul has also been retained as a consultant on several private business projects.

Legal Practice

Before his public sector leadership, Paul was a director and shareholder of the Martin Tate law firm, where he focused on intellectual property law, commercial litigation, and the general representation of small businesses. Before Martin Tate, he practiced law in New York City for the global law firm O’Melveny & Myers, representing Fortune 500 firms.

Paul’s first job out of law school was as a judicial law clerk for federal judge Julia Gibbons, whom he served when she was the Chief Judge of the Western District of Tennessee and again when she was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Paul practices law in Tennessee and maintains his law licenses in both Tennessee and New York.

Community Service

Paul currently chairs the board of The Works, Inc., Memphis’s largest community development corporation. Paul has chaired several local nonprofit boards, including the Community Alliance for the Homeless, Neighborhood Preservation Inc., Memphis Area Legal Services, the Center City Commission, and Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal School. Paul has also served on the boards of Regional One Health and the Crime Commission.

Professional Education

Paul graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, where he majored in civil engineering with a minor in political philosophy. He also graduated from Vanderbilt’s School of Law, where he served on the editorial staff of the Law Review.