Public Interest News

Students who take the pledge volunteer a minimum of 75 hours of pro bono legal work and community service during their law school careers. Seventeen  members of the Class of 2023 were also recognized this spring for completing their pledge service. Read More

Malbrough will focus on preventing houses from becoming “heirs property” by promoting estate planning as an EJW Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. His two-year fellowship is funded by the Albert & Anne Mansfield Foundation. Read More

2022-24 Equal Justice Works Fellow, Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands Read More

A student team headed by Raghav Gupta ’24 worked with attorneys at the Tennessee Justice Center to observe and interview pro se litigants. Read More

A student team headed by Emma Harrison ’24 traveled to Whitesburg, Kentucky, to collaborate with attorneys at the Appalachian Citizen’s Law Center on cases involving mine safety and disability benefits for former coal miners. Read More

Pritchett will join the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice through the Attorney General's Honors Program. Read More

Burgess will serve as a law clerk for Judge Travis McDonough '92 of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. She is a Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey Public Interest Scholar and a Justice-Moore Family Public Interest Scholar. Read More

Judge Jackson is the first Supreme Court justice whose prior experience includes work as a federal public defender. Mayeux asserts that "given that several...justices previously worked as federal prosecutors, Jackson's confirmation injects a welcome measure of professional balance to the lineup" and that Jackson is the "first justice since Thurgood Marshall with meaningful criminal defense experience." Read More

As a law clerk at FERC, Philip Morel works at the intersection of law and energy policy. He joined FERC's Office of Administrative Law Judges as a clerk after graduation. Read More

Chris Slobogin, who directs the law school's Criminal Justice Program, moderated "Reform for Redemption," a March 18 discussion on criminal justice reform with Cyntoia Brown-Long, who was incarcerated as a juvenile, and former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, who granted Brown clemency. Watch the event, which was sponsored by the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, now. Read More