Harry S. Mattice, Jr. is a Chattanooga attorney with decades of vast and varied experience. Born and raised in the Scenic City, Mattice received his B. S. in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1976, and his J. D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1981. While in law school, he served as Student Materials Editor for the Tennessee Law Review, and was elected to Phi Kappa Phi and the Order of the Coif, an honor society for U.S. law school graduates.
In the years between undergrad and law school, Mattice worked for two years as a Senior Staff Accountant at the then “Big Eight” international accounting firm of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells, and went on to earn his license as a Certified Public Accountant in Tennessee. During his time at Deloitte, he conducted independent audits of client financial statements for compliance with GAAP and SEC reporting standards.
After law school, Mattice went to work for the Chattanooga law firm of Miller & Martin, where he engaged in the private practice of law, with an emphasis in government and business investigations and ligation, securities, tax and regulatory law compliance, and white-collar criminal defense. He also engaged in a government relations practice.
In 1997, at the request of then United States Senator, Fred Thompson, Mattice went to Washington, DC, where he served as Senior Counsel to the U. S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs – Special Investigation. This group was tasked with investigating illegal or improper activities in connection with the 1996 presidential election campaign. Mattice assumed senior supervision of the majority staff, which consisted of approximately 55 attorneys, investigators, and support staff. While working for the committee, he also conducted nationally-televised hearings and served as a legal liaison to the national media.
Upon returning to Chattanooga, Mattice went to work for the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell, where he continued to focus his practice on investigations, litigation, regulatory compliance, and white-collar criminal defense.
In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Mattice as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. In that capacity, he served as the chief legal representative and the chief spokesman on legal matters for the U. S. Government within the district. During this part of his career, he supervised a staff of 44 Assistant U. S. Attorneys, and more than 50 support personnel across multiple offices.
In 2005, President Bush appointed Mattice as United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee, where he served as an Article III judicial officer exercising plenary jurisdiction over federal, civil, and criminal cases across the district. While on the bench, he presided over more than 100 jury trials and sat by designation on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was also appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to the Committee on Defender Services of the Judicial Conference of the United States, where he served from 2011 through 2017.
Mattice resigned his federal judicial commission in 2021, and soon thereafter formed The Mattice Group.
Mattice is a graduate of Leadership Chattanooga and a member of the Rotary Club of Chattanooga. He is also a Life Member of the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference and a member of the National Association of Former United States Attorneys. Additionally, he’s a Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation and the Chattanooga Bar Foundation. A lover of the Chattanooga community, Mattice also has years of active leadership service and fundraising involvement in various local charitable organizations, including United Way of Greater Chattanooga and Chattanooga Goodwill Industries. He and his wife Janet reside in Signal Mountain, Tennessee, and have three adult sons and four grandchildren.
