Mr. Bullock has practiced law for over 37 years. From 1977 to 1984, Mr. Bullock practiced in the Criminal Courts of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee where he was a member of the major violator unit and the capital defense team. During this period of time he represented the defendant accused of impersonating a Memphis police officer in the attempted grave robbery of the tomb of Elvis Presley, as well as the accused hired to kill the attorney for James Jones prior to the massacre in Guyana.

In a legal career spanning almost four decades, Mr. Bullock has handled thousands of criminal cases including over 25 homicide cases and tried numerous jury trials in State and Federal Court. Through the years he has been involved in cases receiving regional attention in West, East and Middle Tennessee from the State v. Brownlee capital murder case in Memphis in 1979 where the jury found Mr. Brownlee not guilty after finding that another man was responsible for the death of the victim in his home1 to United States v. Wilson in Federal District Court in Chattanooga in 1994 where the jury acquitted Mr. Wilson after concluding that his employee was guilty of jewelry heist in Palm Beach, Florida2 to State v. Houser in Coffee County in Middle Tennessee in 2006 where the first degree murder charge was dismissed after Dr. Ron Uscinski, pediatric neurosurgeon from Washington, D.C. concluded after reviewing medical records that the victim had died from a re-bleed of injuries received prior to birth and the state medical examiner amended the autopsy to natural causes.

From 1984 to present Mr. Bullock has practiced in Murfreesboro, Rutherford County south of Nashville. In two of the more famous murder cases in Middle Tennessee history, in 1985 he represented the defendant in the Jones Locker Murder case and in 1986 he was a member of the defense team that represented Johnny Ogles in the McGill Double Murder trial. The current focus of his practice is criminal defense involving child deaths, shaken baby syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder and diminished capacity. In Knoxville in 2002 in a shaken baby syndrome case he used a consulting radiologist whose opinion concerning the age of the subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages was inconsistent with the Assistant Attorney General’s time line of events. In 2007, in an Innocence Project murder case in Nashville, he called Dr. Pat Barnes, Pediatric Neuroradiologist, from Stanford University Medical School to testify concerning new evidence inconsistent with shaken baby syndrome. In 2009 in Rutherford County he retained Dr. John Hutson from Memphis who found that a soldier who had received the Bronze Star in Iraq suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and lacked the capacity to form the requisition intent to murder the Sheriff of Rutherford County.

Mr. Bullock was born in Houston, Texas in 1951. He is a graduate of Southwestern at Memphis, (Rhodes College) and the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, University of Memphis. He attended the National College of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Houston, Texas in 1978. He is a member of the Rutherford County Bar Association, the Tennessee Trials Lawyers Association, and the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. In 1997 he received the Daily News Journal award for Attorney of the Year in Rutherford County. In 2008 he was named SBS Defense Attorney for the State of Tennessee. He is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for Middle Tennessee and all the State Courts in Tennessee. He is a member of the Rutherford Society and has served as Clerk of Session, Assistant Treasurer, and Treasurer of historic First Presbyterian Church for over 30 years. He is married to Dr. Sally Bullock, M.D., longtime internist with the Murfreesboro Medical Clinic and Director of the Hospitalist Program at Middle Tennessee Medical Center.

William Bullock
Attorney at Law

Bar Admissions

  • Tennessee, 1977
  • U.S. District Court Middle District of Tennessee, 1986

Education

  • Memphis State University School of Law, Memphis, Tennessee
    • J.D.
  • Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee
    • B.A.

Honors and Awards

  • Daily News Journal award for Attorney of the Year in Rutherford County, 1997
  • SBS Defense Attorney for the State of Tennessee, 2008

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • Rutherford County Bar Association, Member
  • Tennessee Trials Lawyers Association, Member
  • Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Member

Activities

  • Member, Rutherford Society and has served as Clerk of Session
  • Assistant Treasurer, and Treasurer of historic First Presbyterian Church

Litigation Percentage

  • 80% of Practice Devoted to Litigation