Joshua Lehde has been named the George Barrett Social Justice Fellow for the Vanderbilt Law Class of 2024. The Barrett Fellowship will fund Lehde’s work with the Appellate Division of the Public Defenders Conference of Tennessee.
Lehde’s appointment as a George Barrett Social Justice Fellow was announced by Dean Chris Guthrie. The Barrett Social Justice Fellowship honors the legacy of renowned Nashville civil rights attorney George “The Citizen” Barrett ’57 by enabling a Vanderbilt Law graduate to carry out a one-year public interest project under the supervision and sponsorship of a host organization. The law school funds the fellow’s salary and health insurance at the host organization.
Lehde interned with the Appellate Division in the summer of 2022. The following year, he interned with the Choosing Justice Initiative, a Nashville nonprofit that provides an alternative to appointed council in cases where the public defenders are not available due to conflict. As a 2L and 3L student, Lehde was involved in a student-led initiative to create a for-credit learning opportunity at local incarceration facilities. This group also met with Death Row inmates at Tennessee’s Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in the spring of 2023 and made biweekly visits to the Davidson County Male Correctional Development Center to provide limited legal aid services in the fall of 2023.
As a Barrett Fellow, Lehde will provide appellate criminal defense services to indigent criminal defendants, reducing the already-heavy caseloads of trial-level public defenders’ while providing representation to a vulnerable group of people who could not otherwise choose their legal representatives.
“Since undergrad, it has been my goal to spend my career helping those who are harmed by the criminal legal system,” said Lehde. “I would be willing to do that work at any stage of the criminal process, but working for the Appellate Division allows me to do it at a stage in the process where the legal issues are fully in focus.”
At Vanderbilt Law, Lehde served as Treasurer for the Vanderbilt Law School’s chapter of the American Constitution Society. He was awarded the Lightfoot & Franklin Best Oralist award for his section of legal writing as a 1L student.
Lehde earned his B.A. from Lipscomb University, majoring in Law, Justice, and Society with a minor in Bible.
