Over 70 incoming Vanderbilt 1Ls attended the Public Service Orientation on Sunday, August 11, before the start of the law school’s week-long student orientation program. Sponsored by the Public Interest Office and the Admissions Office, this annual event exposes first-year law students to the public service tenets of the legal profession and provides them an opportunity to learn about various pro bono legal service opportunities available to students at the law school and in the Nashville area. Assistant Dean for Public Interest Spring Miller welcomed the students with a brief introduction to pro bono in the profession and at Vanderbilt. Attorneys and Vanderbilt Law faculty then held breakout sessions focusing on a diverse array of pro bono service practice areas.
Speakers for the 2019 breakout sessions included Jesse Harbison of the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville; Tom Castelli of ACLU-Tennessee; Andrae Crismon ’03 of Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands; Beth Cruz ’02 of the Nashville Defenders Education Rights Project; Assistant Clinical Professor of Law Lauren Rogal, who directs Vanderbilt’s Community Enterprise Clinic, which provides civil legal services to nonprofit organizations; Alvaro Manrique Barrenchea LLM’19 of Tennessee Justice For Our Neighbors, an immigration law nonprofit organization; Kevin Coker ’18, a Gideon’s Promise Fellow with the Nashville Defenders; and Angie Bergman ’13, an associate with Bass Berry & Sims in Nashville, winner of the Tennessee Bar Association’s 2019 Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year Award.