TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Dec 31, 2019

Former Nashville attorney Fred P. Graham died on Dec. 28 at his home in Washington, D.C. at the age of 88. Born in Little Rock, Graham attended high school in Nashville and earned his undergraduate degree from Yale. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in Korea and Japan, he attended Vanderbilt University Law School where he also worked as a reporter for the Tennessean until receiving his law degree in 1959. Graham practiced law in Nashville before moving to Washington to serve as chief counsel of a Judiciary subcommittee under Sen. Estes Kefauver, D-Tennessee, and as an aide to Labor Secretary W. Willard Wirtz. In 1965, he became the first lawyer covering the Supreme Court for the New York Times, covering the 1971 Pentagon Papers case. Additionally, Graham served as a legal correspondent for the CBS network, as a local news anchor for Nashville’s ABC affiliate, WKRN, and in 1991 joined Court TV where he covered the trial of O.J. Simpson. Graham is survived by his wife, Skila Harris, and three children from his first marriage.