The Honorable Annie Tauer Christoff ’96 is a Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Tennessee’s U.S. District Court (Jessica Coulson Photography)
“I make mistakes and learn new things all the time,” she added. “I think getting comfortable with that is part of what made me a good lawyer and now a good judge. Humility creates opportunities for growth, whereas hubris stymies it.” (Jessica Coulson Photography)
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Annie Tauer Christoff ’96: A Nonlinear Path to a Dream Job
Annie Tauer Christoff ’96 never had any inclination that she would one day be a magistrate judge. She didn’t know any lawyers growing up or much about the practice of law.
While presiding over a federal courtroom carries immense weight, Annie describes herself as “warm and friendly to a fault. People who don’t know me are typically surprised when they find out what I do for a living!”
As an undergraduate at Tulane University, Christoff gravitated toward economics before switching to a pre-med track. After college, as she was applying to medical school, she discovered through Vicki Fisher, her eighth-grade algebra teacher, that Hutchison was looking for a chemistry teacher. Having recently completed chemistry classes in her pre-med track, she was a perfect fit. She ended up teaching chemistry and algebra at Hutchison for four years.
After being accepted to medical school, Christoff was about to make the move but she had a gut reaction that it wasn’t the right next step. Meanwhile, her brother, her fiancé, and her best friend from Hutchison had all graduated from law school, and they all told her the same thing: she might really enjoy a career in law.
She was accepted to Georgetown Law School just as her husband, Mike, was offered his dream job in Memphis. Nevertheless, they moved to Washington, D.C., for three years. When she graduated, they were eager to move back to Memphis. Her husband returned to his dream job, while Annie started clerking for Judge Jon McCalla of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, a dream job of her own. She considers McCalla her most significant mentor.
“It’s a great opportunity for that first year out of law school. You get to learn how the courthouse works, learn how cases progress. It’s an excellent education in writing and courtroom presentation style,” Christoff explained.
Christoff often meets with Hutchison students and shares her circuitous journey with them.
“When I’m talking with the girls, I stress that my path was not linear … I went through all these different stops and starts … before I got to law school and immediately knew this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
The logic-based approach of the law, she explained, was what appealed to her. “Getting back into the languages part of my brain was ultimately more of a natural fit for me.”
Building a Solid Base in Law
Even though she worked for a judge, Christoff still had no idea that she would become a judge. Instead, after a year clerking for Judge McCalla, she started a job at the Memphis law firm Bass, Berry & Sims.
“My favorite parts about practicing law are research, writing, and being in the courtroom.”
“I had been learning about how to practice law from a judge’s perspective,” Christoff said, “but you can’t truly learn how to be a lawyer unless you are practicing, have clients, and have people depending on you. I was able to learn from some of the best lawyers in the city, and then ultimately became a partner in the firm.” She worked at the firm for 10 years.
Her practice was almost exclusively business litigation. At one point, she had the opportunity to work on the defense team for a white-collar criminal case. The trial took place in Chattanooga over three months. The other members of her defense team were former federal prosecutors, and she also observed the prosecutors on the opposing team.
“I was enamored with this idea of being a federal prosecutor,” Christoff remembered. “I heard stories from my colleagues and was able to watch them every day in the courtroom.”
When she returned to Memphis, she ran into a friend from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and described the criminal trial she had just been a part of and how much she enjoyed it. To her surprise, she was offered a job. It’s not unusual for a federal prosecutor to eventually take a job at a law firm, but moving from a law firm to a job as a prosecutor is less common.
She started prosecuting white-collar crimes. Eventually, she was involved in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) case against a gang in Memphis that dealt with violent crimes and drug distribution. After that, she became a gang prosecutor exclusively. “That’s when my parents got a little worried,” she admitted.
“My favorite parts about practicing law are research, writing, and being in the courtroom. As a federal prosecutor, that’s almost exclusively what you’re doing.”
Christoff worked as a prosecutor for a year and a half and admitted she might have stayed in the prosecutor’s office for the rest of her career. However, she was presented with an opportunity she could not pass up.
Not a Goal, But a Dream
In the fall of 2019, Christoff learned that one of the U.S. Magistrate Judges for Western Tennessee, Diane K. Vescovo, was going to retire. She had served in the role for 25 years.
“District judges keep their jobs for life. Magistrate judges have eight-year appointments, but judges are often reappointed, so they may hold that position for the rest of their career,” Christoff explained. “The openings are few and far between.”
In Western Tennessee, there are three magistrate judges in Memphis and one in Jackson. For Christoff, that’s why becoming a judge “wasn’t a goal, it was a dream. While I always thought, ‘Oh, I would love to be a judge,’ you never know if the opportunity is going to come up at the right point in your career.”
While district judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by a majority vote in the U.S. Senate, magistrate judges are filtered through a merit selection committee composed of local lawyers and lay people who interview candidates and make an initial cut. Eventually, a small number of candidates are invited to be interviewed by the district judges.
Christoff remembered being ushered into a room with a long conference table where she faced 10 judges. She said she wasn’t particularly nervous. “These are the judges whose courtrooms I had been in multiple times a week.”
Christoff made the final cut and was appointed a Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Tennessee’s U.S. District Court in July 2020, just as the pandemic was unfolding.
Balancing Law and Empathy
There are many types of judges, but the work of a magistrate judge is not as well-known as some others. A magistrate judge assists district judges with federal cases by handling preliminary criminal proceedings, including arraignments, bond hearings, and grand jury reports. They also conduct pretrial matters and evidentiary proceedings referred by the district judges. Magistrate judges can try misdemeanor cases, and when civil litigants consent, a magistrate judge may try a civil case, too. In Judge Christoff’s court, cases are almost equally split between civil and criminal matters.
As she experienced in her days as a prosecutor, Judge Christoff has enjoyed being in the courtroom, only this time, she’s in charge. While much of the time in the courtroom involves preliminary conferences and hearings, they eventually lead to trials.
“Trials are the big show,” she said with enthusiasm. “You have the jury come in, and everything’s very formal. You’re making evidentiary rulings on the fly. People try to admit evidence, or someone’s testifying and there’s an objection to testimony that they present. I have to make those decisions on the spot. Trials are very unpredictable. It’s high pressure and intense, but exciting.
“I’m most engaged when I’m out on the bench and there’s a slight amount of chaos going on. We’re hearing witnesses and arguments from lawyers, and everybody’s on top of their game. Sometimes there’s an interesting legal issue that has no precedent, so we’re going to have to really dig in and figure something out.”
The Honorable Annie Christoff in court with her law clerks, Jacob Dickerson and Haylie Lovelace. Christoff credits them with keeping her on schedule and up to date on cases.
Christoff credits her two law clerks for keeping her on schedule and for helping do the initial research and writing about cases, which she then reviews and edits.
She also acknowledges how important her time clerking for Judge McCalla was in her first year out of law school. “I run my chambers the way he ran his, for the most part. He set the tone for my whole career. That involves excessive preparation, working hard, coming in early, staying late, and having the strongest, unassailable ethics.”
There are difficult parts to being a judge. “You see people at their worst or at the most challenging time of their lives, and you know that if they had made a better decision, their lives would be completely different,” she said. “Many of the people who come through the criminal justice system have substance abuse issues or mental health issues, and the system is not always best equipped to deal with those. That’s challenging and heartbreaking.
“My job as a judge is always to faithfully apply the law to the facts of the case, and so I am restrained in what I can do. There have absolutely been times where I’ve been faced with a challenging decision, and I always remind myself in those situations to just go back to the language of the statute and see what it says. There will always be guidance there.”
There is a balance to maintain, she said. “There is always room for empathy. To me, what empathy really means is understanding how someone got to this point, what motivated their decision-making. The legal standards I apply have room for that analysis. Ultimately my job is to make hard decisions, even if they cause others sadness or pain. The hope, of course, is always for rehabilitation, that the person will come out the other side in a better place.”
Christoff knows that her career path hasn’t been conventional.
“I had some tough decisions to make between what felt ‘responsible’ and what I thought would make me happy,” she said. “I ultimately chose happiness, and I’m so glad I did. There have been a lot of sacrifices, but I made the right choices.”
Helping Students Find Their Place
After serving as a magistrate judge for six years and previously working as a lawyer and prosecutor, Judge Christoff knows the importance of guiding those just starting out in the law profession.
“So much of the practice of law is not written in a book. It’s the things that you learn by doing, by watching other people, by having the conversation back at the office after you finish up at the courthouse,” Christoff said. “I benefited from much of that valuable teaching and knowledge when I was at my firm and when I clerked, and anything I can do to help others get that same experience, I am interested in doing.”
Judge Christoff also serves as an adjunct professor at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis, teaching a class on Federal Courts.
“I love getting to stay in touch with law students and see what they’re doing in their careers,” she said. “The teaching that I do now all started with my teachers at Hutchison and also the mentoring I received while teaching there.
“Being able to recognize talent and create opportunities is so rewarding, and I have a vested interest: the higher the quality of lawyers we have in Memphis, the better our legal system operates,” she explained. “I love helping young people discover their interests and find their place.”
The Honorable Annie Tauer Christoff ’96 met with Hutchison students in her courtroom to share her experiences in the legal profession during career exploration day.
She believes that meeting and talking with Hutchison students is vital. “It’s all about exposure,” she said. “First, in learning about the kinds of careers many girls would never even consider; and second, in learning that success can come in many different forms. I hope to show them that having confidence in your own distinct talents will lead to good, if unexpected, things.”
Christoff acknowledges that much of what she’s been able to do is because of the excellent education she received at Hutchison. “Hutchison instilled confidence in me,” she said. “My teachers knew my flaws and assets. My education was very individually directed. I think every teacher at Hutchison knows what is needed to motivate each girl and when to challenge and support them.”
She recalled a particular moment in an English class with teacher Pat Newberry [Kelly]. “We were studying poetry, and we read a William Blake poem. She could tell that I was interested in this particular poem. She took me aside and said, ‘When you find an author you like, read every single thing they’ve ever written.’ To other people that might be overwhelming or a ridiculous suggestion, but for me, it was a challenge.”
That kind of personalized encouragement helped instill the confidence Christoff carried through every dramatic career leap. Today, when she speaks with Hutchison students, she seeks to pay that mentorship forward, offering the same empowering push, tempered with a dose of realistic wisdom.
“I know that some students experience a lot of pressure, and I remember feeling the weight of expectations and the idea that anything short of perfection is disregarded,” Christoff reflected. “The reality is that perfection is unattainable, but also that failure can be just as rewarding as success. It’s okay not to have all the answers.
“I make mistakes and learn new things all the time,” she added. “I think getting comfortable with that is part of what made me a good lawyer and now a good judge. Humility creates opportunities for growth, whereas hubris stymies it.”
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