An Introduction by Congressman Bill Jenkins
My Fellow East Tennesseans:
Mike Faulk is the 8th generation of his mother’s family that has called Hawkins County home. Mike is what some folks call a “Mountain Republican.”
The Scots-Irish blood that flows through his veins, like that of Ronald Reagan whose mother was Scots-Irish, in large measure defines who he is. Mike says he is an old fashioned, leave-me-alone, common-sense conservative and a self-sufficient, rugged individualist who believes in small-government and values individual liberty most highly.
His people are farmers and factory workers. Mike, too, has spent his share of time in hay fields, tobacco barns, and on factory floors.
He’s proof that the American dream is alive and well in Tennessee. Mike Faulk is the first of his family to graduate from college. His mother, Rose, will tell you he had to work his way through college, graduate school, and law school. But Faulk says there are plenty of folks who deserve the credit for helping him along his way.
I first met Mike during a political campaign in 1970 while he was still in high school and working at WMCH Radio in Church Hill. We became reacquainted in 1982 when he managed the Tennessee Supreme Court campaign for my friend, Tom Hull, who is now a retired Federal Judge from Greeneville.
At the end of that campaign, Mike decided to move his family home – to Church Hill to be a country lawyer. When you sit down at his office conference table you'll see a quote from another pretty fair country lawyer, Abraham Lincoln, which has guided Mike Faulk in his law practice in East Tennessee. It reads: "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can . . . As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough."
His legal career has been exceptional. I know first hand. I was Circuit Court Judge in Hawkins County. A young lawyer named Mike Faulk became Hawkins County's first certified Civil Trial Specialist.
From t-ball coach to Juvenile Court Referee, to County Commissioner, to Vice-Chairman of the Hawkins County Republican Party and as the Vice-Chairman of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission, Mike Faulk has shown the heart of a servant.
I strongly recommend you take the time to get to know Mike by reading his story below. And get to know him personally. You'll find him easy to talk to, down to earth, and as hard working as they come.
Your friend,
Bill Jenkins
ABOUT MIKE
Born in Kingsport on September 10, 1953, Mike Faulk was the first of three children born to Glade Faulk and Rosella Dykes Faulk. Mike had two half-brothers, too. Talk to Mike Faulk for more than two minutes and you’ll hear about his pride and joy – his two exceptional children, Katy and Andy.
In his early years Mike delivered newspapers, bagged groceries, butchered meat, stocked shelves, worked tobacco and hay fields and disc jockeyed at local radio station WMCH all while he was in high school. His classmates, as a harbinger of things to come, elected Mike Faulk as Mr. Church Hill High School.
Mike says attending the University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM) was a godsend. Any place bigger and he may never have graduated. With the Mississippi River, Kentucky Lake and Reelfoot Lake all nearby, there were plenty of opportunities for a college boy like Mike to hunt and fish. Learned from his dad, he’s always had a great love for the outdoors.
Faulk graduated from UTM in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration as an economics major.
Before graduating from college the political bug bit him. In the spring of 1974 Faulk was popularly elected as the President of the UT Martin student body. In the fall of that year another young politician, Lamar Alexander, from Maryville, recruited Mike and Mike’s student government vice-president and best friend, Art Swann, also from Maryville, to jointly head Lamar's campus campaign for Governor.
From UT Martin it was off to Memphis for a Masters Degree in Public Administration and a law degree. While in Memphis, Faulk taught economics and business law at Draughons Junior College, worked as a Management Analyst in the Shelby County, Tennessee Office of Budget and Management, and served Chancellor Robert Hoffmann as his courtroom clerk.
Alexander recognized the talent he saw in Faulk back in 1974 and asked Mike to run his 1978 campaign for Governor in House District 91 in Memphis while Mike was still in law school. Graduating in 1979 from law school, Memphis State University gave the Kirby Bowling Award to its most outstanding labor law student – Mike Faulk.
After two years of practice as a labor lawyer and starting a family in Memphis, Faulk accepted the call of the Tennessee Republican Party to serve as the statewide campaign manager for the three GOP candidates for the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1982 that included east Tennessee’s own Tom Hull who later became a federal judge in Greeneville.
Apparently Congressman Bill Jenkins isn't the only one who thinks Faulk is an exceptional lawyer. He is one of only a handful of northeast Tennessee attorneys known as a civil trial specialist certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Practicing as a solo attorney since August 1996, Faulk maintains a peer review rating of AV - indicating very high to pre-eminent legal ability and very high ethical standards as established by confidential opinions from members of the Bar.
Mike Faulk was first elected to Who’s Who in American Law in 1987-1988. In 1993 he was chosen as one of America’s Leading Lawyers and was listed as one of the Outstanding Lawyers of America in both 2002 & 2003. Just recently Law & Politics named Faulk as one of the 2007 Super Lawyers of the Mid-South.
Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander appointed Faulk to the Tennessee Human Rights Commission in 1985 where he served a six-year term. From 1989 to 1991, Faulk was the Vice-Chairman of the State Commission. The Juvenile Court Judge for Hawkins County, Tennessee, the Honorable G. Reese Gibson, appointed Faulk to serve as Juvenile Court Referee in 1986. Mike conducted Court in that post until 1989.
He is a past-President of the Hawkins County, Tennessee Bar Association and served a term on the Board of Directors of Legal Services of Upper East Tennessee, Inc.
Faulk is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States of America in Washington, DC, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals headquartered in Cincinnati, and the United States District Courts in Tennessee. He is licensed to practice in all courts of the State of Tennessee. Mike served the Town of Mt. Carmel and the City of Church Hill as their city attorney for many years.
As the years passed, Mike Faulk's practice evolved. He has been called the state's leading authority on alcohol-related injuries. In fact he penned the cover story for the May 2007 Tennessee Bar Journal, "One Too Many." He writes extensively on the subject and actively promotes the prevention of drunk-driving by freely giving of his time to teach classes for the Town of Mt. Carmel's alcohol server training program, offering seminars to businesses on the same subject, and providing public service announcements to local cable television.
You know, a lot of folks don't care for lawyers. We all know lawyers whose behavior makes us feel that way. Many times when a lawyer offers himself for public office his opponents try to say the lawyer's personal views are the same as his client's views. Fred Thompson is going through some of that right now. But Mike Faulk has made his reputation by suing drunk drivers. It's called dram shop law.
By no means does being an attorney define Mike's life in East Tennessee.
Mike is an outdoorsman and conservationist. For over a decade he served as the Chairman of the Holston River Chapter of Ducks Unlimited raising thousands of dollars for wildlife conservation. He is an active member of the Holston Valley Sportsman's Club and a long-time NRA member who exercises his Second Amendment right on a regular basis. And, Mike Faulk has been a Cherokee Lake clean-up volunteer in both Hawkins and Grainger Counties. He enjoys whitewater rafting and snow skiing. He is an avid hunter and fisherman. His love for our great outdoors is often seen in the wildlife articles he writes for hunting and fishing publications that you may read at his sportsman's blog, Strum Island Journal.
Kids love Mike and Mike loves kids. A t-ball and little girls softball coach, Mike taught 2nd graders Sunday School for five years at his home church, Oak Grove Baptist, in Mt. Carmel. He routinely takes time during lunch hours to read to kids in the local libraries' summer reading programs. Besides being Hawkins County's Juvenile Court referee for years and Volunteer High School's Mock Trial Team coach, Mike was the founder of a highly successful program in Hawkins & Hancock Counties to fight childhood obesity called "Get a Hit: Stay Fit."
Faulk served a term on the Hawkins County Commission during which the county began a new building program resulting in a new elementary school and the renovation of other county schools. A new, safer highway, Bradley Creek Road, to a regional landfill was built and the Commission increased appropriations for volunteer first responders - all without voting for a tax increase. Since his time on the County Commission, Faulk has continued his commitment to the volunteer firefighters of Hawkins County by donating computers and raising funds to provide insurance coverage for the brave men and women who risk their lives daily to protect life and property.
Mike Faulk's approach to life came from advice from his dad: "There'll always be someone smarter. Just make sure they don't out work you." And so it has been for 54 years. Mike Faulk won't be outworked. And now he's ready to work for you!
