CARL Q. CARTER, ESQUIRE

Carl Q. Carter, CEO and Managing  Partner, Carter Law, PLLC, and formerly, Associate General Counsel, International Paper Company (Retired), presently also serves as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer for Karrington Health Care Company-Karrington Clinical Laboratory, LLC.

Attorney Carter is a Summa Cum Laude, top 10 graduate of Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia and The University of Virginia, School of Law, Charlottesville, Virginia. Over a legal career of approximately thirty-five years, Attorney Carter has served in numerous Senior Level Executive Roles. 

 After graduation from law school, he served as a Federal Judicial Law Clerk to the late Honorable Odell Horton, formerly Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, and thereafter, was accepted into the Attorney General's Honors Program, U.S. Department of Justice. As a Senior Trial Attorney in the Tax Division, he tried both Jury and Nonjury Trials in Federal Courts across the Southern Region of the United States of America.  He received the outstanding Trial Attorney Award during his tenure with the Justice Department.  

Upon completion of a four-year commitment with the U.S Department of Justice, Mr. Carter initially joined International Paper Company, as Tax Director, Timber, and Partnership Tax. He was promoted to Tax Director, Audits and Litigation, and thereafter to Senior Tax Counsel. He was later promoted to Business Division Counsel, Consumer Packaging, with legal oversight for International Paper's Beverage Packaging, Foodservice, and Industrial Papers Businesses. He later served as Business Division Counsel, Industrial Packaging, where he had responsibility for providing legal counsel to seventy container plants, five containerboard mills, and Corporate Packaging Staff. He was then promoted to Chief Counsel, Global Supply Chain, and later to Associate General Counsel, Litigation; Associate General Counsel, Global Supply Chain, Global Sourcing, Real Estate, and International Trade; and Associate General Counsel, Global Papers Business.

Attorney Carter also served, for many years, as the Champion of International Paper's Legal Diversity Initiatives and as a representative on the Chairman's Diversity Council. He was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to the U.S. Commerce Department's Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness.  He is also an active member of the Morehouse Alumni Association Memphis Chapter; Delta Boule Fraternity (Sigma Pi Phi); Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity; American Bar Association; National Bar Association; American and National Bar Foundations; National Black Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers  2016, 2017, 2022 and 2025; and Tennessee Bar Association, Board of Governor's - 2018 Distinguished Service Award. 

He is a very active member of numerous boards past and present, including Regional One Medical Hospital, The Community Legal Center, LeMoyne-Owen College, Mid-South Regional Workforce Development Board, Tennessee Youth Courts, Perea Schools, Salvation Army, Tennessee Justice Center, Lambuth University, CASA (Child Appointed Special Advocates), United Methodist Nashville Area Foundation, Memphis Museum Systems, Inc. (Pink Palace and Lichterman Nature Center), United Methodist Neighborhood Centers, Connect, and Partners for the Homeless.