Rascoe S. Dean

Rascoe Dean is a former federal prosecutor and experienced trial and appellate lawyer whose practice focuses on complex civil litigation, white collar criminal defense, government and internal investigations, and regulatory compliance.

Rascoe represents individuals, companies, and non-profits in civil matters and a broad range of investigative, regulatory, and enforcement matters before the Department of Justice, state authorities, and other regulatory agencies. He recently represented Kilmar Abrego Garcia in his federal criminal prosecution in the Middle District of Tennessee, helping secure dismissal of the charges on grounds of vindictive prosecution. The New York Times and The Washington Post described the dismissal, respectively, as “a stinging rebuke of . . . the Justice Department,” and as “an extraordinary defeat” for the federal government.

Prior to joining Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, Rascoe served for seven years as a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Middle District of Tennessee, where he handled hundreds of cases and served as lead counsel in multiple federal jury trials. He also conducted numerous investigations with federal and state law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

Rascoe also held multiple leadership roles at the USAO. As Deputy Criminal Chief of the General Crimes Section, he supervised a group of federal prosecutors handling cases involving firearms, violent crimes, threats, illegal narcotics, and child exploitation offenses. He also served as the office’s Appellate Chief, supervising all of the office’s criminal and civil appellate litigation, drafting and reviewing numerous briefs, helping resolve many of the office’s most complex and sensitive legal issues, and arguing multiple appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Before entering government service, Rascoe was an associate at Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, and clerked for the Honorable Gilbert S. Merritt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Rascoe earned his law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2015, where he served as an Articles Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Before law school, he taught tenth and eleventh grade English and coached high school baseball in Memphis, Tennessee through Teach For America. He holds a B.A. in political science from Sewanee: The University of the South.

Rascoe serves as an adjunct professor of law at Vanderbilt University Law School, and is active in the community, serving on the Board of Trustees for Montgomery Bell Academy and as a board member for Teach For America Nashville-Chattanooga, the Joe C. Davis YMCA Outdoor Center, and the Nashville Public Library Foundation. He previously served on the board of Valor Collegiate Academies.