Paul Morris is an experienced business operator, attorney, and civic leader who helps clients manage complex projects.
He is the Managing Partner of RL Partnership, which owns and manages commercial real estate in Tennessee. He also oversees capital allocation and investment decisions for a multi-generational family portfolio.
During Paul’s tenure as president of Jack Morris Auto Glass, he and his team scaled the business, added locations, and doubled retail sales, while navigating through a global pandemic. Paul then attracted multiple bidders and negotiated the sale of the business to a publicly traded company for a record-breaking multiple in the industry.
Before joining the glass business, he served as chairman and then president of the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC), where he led efforts to redevelop Downtown Memphis after the Great Recession. His work included facilitating the redevelopment of One Commerce Square, The Chisca, the James Lee House, the Tennessee Brewery, the Main Street Mall, and the South Main neighborhood. He left the DMC in late 2015 with Downtown Memphis experiencing large-scale growth and forward momentum, along with great civic optimism and positive morale.
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 assembled a small management team and 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 to 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 infrastructure initiative connecting Arkansas and Tennessee. Its centerpiece is the Big River Crossing along the Harahan Bridge over the Mississippi River. He helped secure public and private funding and coordinated leaders across two states, two counties, two cities, and the federal government. Working with over ten funding partners, he directed construction of the six project segments, delivering the full project two weeks ahead of schedule and 4% under budget.
When improvements were needed to FedExForum, Memphis Mayor Paul Young asked Morris to lead discussions with the Memphis Grizzlies and coordinate the funding and approvals needed to advance the project quickly. Working with City and County governments, the Sports Authority, and the Memphis Grizzlies, Morris helped make substantial progress toward a new long-term lease for the Grizzlies at FedExForum.
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 worked closely with outgoing Mayor Mark Luttrell and his administration to orchestrate a smooth leadership transition. Acting as an effective intermediary between government leaders of opposing political parties, Paul ensured that the daily operations of county government were not interrupted.
Legal Practice
Paul practices law in Tennessee and maintains his law licenses in both Tennessee and New York.
Before his public sector leadership, Paul was a shareholder and director of the Martin Tate law firm, where he focused on federal court litigation and advising small businesses as general counsel. 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 federal judicial law clerk for the Chief Judge of the Western District of Tennessee, Julia S. Gibbons. When Judge Gibbons was later elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, she called upon Paul to serve among her first law clerks on the court of appeals.
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 Memphis & Shelby County 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.
