{"county":"Shelby","description":"","district":"shelby","districtgroup":"county","id":50,"key":"probate_court_div_2","lastchangeby":null,"name":"Joe Townsend","next_election":"2022-11-08","notes":"60","officegroup":"probate_court","partisan":0,"party":"","qualities":"- Probate-court judge: hears wills, estates, guardianships, conservatorships, and mental-health commitments. Equity-style reasoning with substantial fiduciary oversight.\n- Judicial temperament: the willingness to listen, deliberate, and apply the law dispassionately to people whose lives are deeply affected by the outcome.\n- Impartiality and ethics under the Tennessee Rules of Judicial Conduct, including disqualification when conflicts arise.\n- Working knowledge of the substantive and procedural law applied in the assigned court (cited per court below) and the published precedent that controls.\n- Docket management \u2014 moving cases efficiently while honoring due process and the time pressures that fall on litigants and witnesses.\n- Clear written and oral explanation of rulings, so the parties and the public can follow the reasoning.","quantity":1,"source":null,"state":"TN","term_end":"2026-09-01","term_start":"2022-09-01","term_years":8,"terms":[{"current":1,"description":"","electiondate":"2022-08-04","name":"Joe Townsend","person":{"biography":"Joe Townsend was elected Probate Judge for Division 2 of the Shelby County Probate Court on August 4, 2022. Joe Townsend is a third-generation Memphian, a graduate of Memphis Catholic High School, the University of Memphis BA, and JD, and the College of William and Mary LLM in Taxation. He served as a Judge Advocate on active duty in the United State Air Force and then in the Air Force Reserves and the Air National Guard. Joe Townsend served as a Shelby County Public Defender and a Federal Public Defender. He was in private practice in Memphis, Tennessee for twenty-four years, representing clients in probate, chancery, circuit, bankruptcy and federal court.","firstname":"Joe","lastname":"Townsend","token":"Fv7kECCZlu"},"term_end":"2026-09-01","term_start":"2022-09-01"}],"title":"Probate Court Div 2","type":"judicial","url":null,"whenchanged":"2026-04-25 19:49:19"}