The health and safety of our Vanderbilt community are our highest priority. Plans for the spring were developed in close consultation with experts at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and our School of Nursing as well as national, state and local public health officials. The success of this approach requires a joint effort from every member of our community as we work together as One Vanderbilt.
Read law school-specific guidelines for returning to campus
Feb. 25, 2021
Belton was a pioneering scholar of labor and employment law and the law school’s first tenured African American professor. The position of Robert Belton Director of Diversity, Equity and Community will be endowed by an anonymous donor this year
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Feb. 23, 2021
Aaron Bernard ’22 and Emily Webb ’22 are Moot Court finalists, with Emily Detiveaux ’22 honored for Best Oralist and Peter Byrne ’22 and Caylyn Harvey ’22 for Best Brief.
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Feb. 11, 2021
The award recognizes the best paper written by a law student on a military justice topic. Fitzgerald’s essay, “Thank Me for My Service: An Ethics Oversight in DoD Social Media Policy,” will be published in the Harvard National Security Law Journal.
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Jan. 28, 2021
Clarke’s article has been reprinted in the UCLA Law Dukeminier Awards Journal, which annually recognizes the best legal scholarship on sexual orientation and gender identity issues.
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Jan. 18, 2021
Ryan’s Note, “The Fault in Our Stars,” addresses environmental review of commercial satellite launches. The award, sponsored by the ABA’s Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Section, recognizes the best paper addressing specific industries providing important services.
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Jan. 11, 2021
Ali will serve in the Office of the White House Counsel. She most recently served as a trial litigator at Wilkinson Stekloff in Washington. Before entering private practice, she was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, for Judge Sri Srinivasan of the D.C. Court of Appeals and for Judge Amul Thapar on the Eastern District of Kentucky.
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Dec. 21, 2020
In a co-authored opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the authors discuss the need for a national climate change strategy based on the same sort of public-private collaboration that led to the rapid production of COVID-19 vaccines.
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Dec. 18, 2020
Sharfstein is a legal historian whose work addresses race and citizenship in the United States. He is the author of two award-winning books, “The Invisible Line” and “Thunder in the Mountains,” and received a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship.
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Dec. 18, 2020
An expert in complex litigation, Fitzpatrick is most recently the author of The Conservative Case of Class Actions, a 2019 book published by University of Chicago Press.
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Finance Lawyer, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, London
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2019-21 Clerk, Judge Marcia Morales Howard, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida
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Staff Attorney, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Berkeley, California
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"I've always been passionate about criminal law and business transactions, and I wanted to see the American perspective in both areas."
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Attorney at Coronel & Pérez, Guayaquil and Professor of Civil Law at Universidad Espíritu Santo, Samborondón, Ecuador
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"I wanted to be at a law school where professors and more experienced attorneys care about my growth."
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Entertainment and Corporate Attorney, Shackelford Bowen McKinley & Norton, Nashville
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Associate, Special Matters and Government Investigations, King & Spalding, Washington, D.C.
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Clerk, Judge Jerome T. Kearney ’81, Eastern District of Arkansas
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2020-21 Clerk, Judge Eduardo C. Robreno, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
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2020-21 Clerk, Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr., U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky
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Clerk, Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Memphis
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chief Counsel Honors Program, Huntsville, Alabama
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2020-21 Clerk, Judge Joan L. Larsen, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
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We, at Vanderbilt Law School, mourn the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Daniel Prude, Breonna Taylor and so many other Black people who have been the victims of police brutality and racial injustice. We also condemn the shooting of Jacob Blake. As our nation is gripped by this moment of historic reckoning, we are reminded of its scarred beginnings, the constant struggle for freedom and civil rights for all, and the enormity of the work that remains to be done for our country to truly realize the ideals set out in the Constitution.
As a law school, we resoundingly reject racism and discrimination in all its forms. We strive to create an environment that is welcoming of all, inclusive, and committed to ensuring that every member feels themselves to be a full part of its community. Moreover, we are also deeply mindful of our role in teaching new generations of lawyers whose words and actions will continue the fight for racial justice, civil rights, equality of opportunity, and the rule of law. Put simply, we know that it is our responsibility to foster and maintain an anti-racist environment within our walls, as well as to equip our graduates with the educational and experiential tools they need to become anti-racist and productive members of the legal profession and society at large.
To that end, we are committed to building an engaged and visible program of Diversity, Equity and Community that underscores the significance of anti-racism and anti-discrimination across all aspects of law school life from the curriculum to our engagement with the broader community. Over the summer, we convened student, staff, and faculty task forces to develop a set of actionable recommendations to ensure the School can achieve the highest standards of inclusivity, diversity and community belonging. We are eager to begin this work.
We see that the lived reality of Black people and people of color falls far short of what is promised by our country's founding principles, laws, and guarantees. Looking forward, we are committed to harnessing the power of a legal education to continue the work of generations of Vanderbilt lawyers in the fight for the fullest attainment of the civil rights, equality and justice offered by the Constitution.
