Since Currin had died during the war, Jackson started a new legal practice with a former colleague. Their clients consisted mainly of banks and other business enterprises. The firm was successful, arguing numerous cases before the Memphis courts. Jackson's political sympathies had by this time moved toward the Democratic Party. A Redeemer, he was against Reconstruction-era policies and efforts toward racial equality. After his first wife died in 1873, he returned to the town of Jackson, where he started a law practice with General Alexander W. Campbell. Their firm litigated many cases involving property and criminal law. Jackson was well regarded as a lawyer: he sat as a judge on the local courts and served as a law professor at Southwestern Baptist University.