Edward M. "Ed" Yarbrough

When it comes to civil and criminal cases, Edward M. Yarbrough is the attorney you want on your side. A former United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, he is an award-winning lawyer with more than 40 years of experience. Ed practices Criminal Defense and Government Investigations, Personal Injury Law and Litigation and Dispute Resolution at Bone McAllester Norton.

Ed has tried more than 150 jury cases to verdict, including more than 40 homicide cases. He has served as both prosecuting attorney and defense attorney in matters involving white collar crime, wrongful death, personal injury, public corruption and a variety of criminal charges at the state and federal levels. “The most satisfying experiences come from representing individuals whose lives and fortunes were on the line in court,” he said. “Winning their cases is the greatest possible thrill in the legal profession. One of my heroes is Gen. George S. Patton, who said, ‘Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser.’”

Prior to Ed’s appointment as U.S. Attorney in 2007, he was in private practice for 31 years. He has also served as an assistant district attorney for Davidson County, Tennessee. Ed’s success has earned him numerous listings among the nation’s top lawyers, like SuperLawyers and Best Lawyers in America for more than 25 years, as well as awards from the Nashville Business Journal and the Nashville Post.

He has been elected a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. In 2011, he received the first Criminal Justice Section Service Award from the Tennessee Bar Association. And the Nashville Bar Association awarded him with the Jack C. Norman Sr. award for excellence in criminal law.

While in college, Ed served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Sou’wester. That experience taught him that law and politics were at the epicenter of American life and that a career in the legal profession would keep him in the thick of the action. The desire to be on the front lines served him well as an infantry lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He was a ceremonial platoon leader at Arlington National Cemetery and received the Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge for his service in Vietnam.

Ed graduated from Vanderbilt School of Law and Rhodes College. The most important things to him are faith, family and work, in that order. He and his wife, Cindy, have three children, Charles, Robert and Allison. An active caver, he has been exploring caves since the age of 15 across the United States, in Mexico and in Honduras. He also enjoys taking photographs, particularly of his caving expeditions, with his Nikon cameras. His photography collection consists of more than 17,000 Kodachrome slides and more than 6,000 negatives.