May. 5, 2023—Cruz brings significant public interest law experience from Nashville Public Defender’s Office.
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Apr. 17, 2023—Student teams worked on projects to provide end-of-life resources for low-income clients, support indigent criminal defense, and offer civil legal services to formerly incarcerated women
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Apr. 11, 2023—Vanderbilt Law School alumni reflect on their clinic experiences, discuss how the clinics influenced their careers, and offer advice to current students. Judge Sheila Calloway, JD ’94 Davidson County Juvenile Judge Criminal Practice Clinic Alumnae How did your clinic experience impact the trajectory of your career as a lawyer? When I started in the summer...
Sep. 23, 2022—The Turner Family Community Enterprise Clinic launched in 2018 as an experiential course at Vanderbilt Law School. Students enrolled in the Clinic gain transactional lawyering skills and experience through the representation of entrepreneurs and community organizations in Middle Tennessee. The clinic’s goals are to teach substantive law and practice strategies, give students the opportunity to apply their skills in the public interest, and facilitate inclusive economic and community development. This report covers the work of students under the direction of Associate Clinical Professor Lauren Rogal in the 2021-22 academic year.
May. 2, 2022—This past year, the Youth Opportunity Clinic has participated in researching, drafting and advocating for legislation to eliminate youth fees and fines. This legislative advocacy effort grew from students’ clinic work helping young adult clients navigate the collateral consequences related to fees and fines that stem from delinquency or criminal cases, such as the ability...
May. 2, 2022—Because Vanderbilt Law School’s seven legal clinics function as one firm, students enrolled in different clinics often have opportunities to collaborate with one another. Cross-clinic collaboration enriches Vanderbilt Law students’ professional development by exposing them to a wider array of legal issues and clients than they would otherwise see, and provides clients with a more...
May. 2, 2022—Students in the Advanced Criminal Practice Clinic had a crash course in trial preparation this semester. Opting to continue their clinical work for a second semester, Nerenda Atako ’22, Christina McLaughlin ’22, and Bryan Teresi ’22 prepared to go to trial defending a client indicted on serious felony charges. In addition to filing and arguing...
May. 2, 2022—As an immigrant, I recognize the importance of a well-functioning immigration system. Yet, as I work within the immigration system, I have quickly realized the horrors of our system, especially within the realm of humanitarian immigration. This past semester the Immigration Practice Clinic, in partnership with Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors, has taken on many...
May. 2, 2022—As a participant of the Vanderbilt Immigration Practice Clinic, I was able to put the knowledge acquired in various courses into practice by helping families and individuals with their immigration issues. Meeting with clients and learning about their stories and legal issues was a reminder of the reason I decided to pursue a legal career....
May. 2, 2022—Law school can be an impersonal experience. Students read opinion after opinion delineating the legal contours of people’s lives, but rarely do they learn about the individuals whose lives necessitated the opinions in the first place. However, for lawyers in some fields of practice, navigating the face-to-face interactions is just as important as understanding the...
Dec. 10, 2021—Miller, McKanders and Jeffrey discuss their public interest legal work with David Plazas, director of opinion and engagement for USAToday Network Tennessee, in this 20-minute podcast. Miller is the Assistant Dean and Martha Craig Daughtrey Director of Public Interest, McKanders directs the Immigration Practice Clinic, and Jeffrey will earn his J.D. and Ph.D. in law and economics in 2023.
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Sep. 29, 2021—In a column published online at The Conversation, Prusak explains why providing more tenants facing evication with access to a lawyer could be the key to keeping more people in their homes. Prusak is an associate clinical professor of law. She launched Vanderbilt's Housing Law Clinic in spring 2021.
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Sep. 1, 2021—Law deans express a commitment to ensuring that families and individuals facing eviction have access to legal representation, counseling and assistance.
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May. 24, 2021—From an early age, I have had mixed feelings about law enforcement. The fact is many police officers perform their jobs with dignity and pure intentions. I have always understood what police officers were supposed to represent: protection, dependability, and service to the community. However, from my vantage point, law enforcement rarely lived up to those...
May. 24, 2021—Wesley Dozier ’19 (BA’16) is the Equal Justice Works Fellow at Just City in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. His work at Just City has adapted to the realities of practicing during a pandemic. “I felt like individual representation wasn’t as effective in changing what needs to be changed. Now, I’m doing a lot of coalition work with other actors in this space, partnering...
May. 24, 2021—During the fall 2020 semester, the Turner Family Community Enterprise Clinic collaborated with Law for Black Lives to explore ways of increasing Black land ownership and community wealth. Law for Black Lives is a network of legal advocates for Black Lives Matter and related social movements. Each semester the organization connects a cohort of law school clinics with community organizations to...
May. 24, 2021—Stress. Burnout. These words are all too familiar to both law students and legal professionals. People working in the legal profession need to develop insights into how these play out in their professional and personal lives to build the skill of resilience. I should know. I am a former lawyer myself, who “burned out” after practicing law...
May. 24, 2021—Funmi Akinnawonu entered law school planning to pursue a public interest career. Her experiences at Vanderbilt–particularly her work in the Immigration Practice Clinic–solidified her interest. She spent the year after graduating from law school as a George Barrett Social Justice Fellow with the Mississippi Center for Justice in Jackson and is now a fellow with Immigrant...
May. 24, 2021—In Spring 2021, Jennifer Prusak launched the new Housing Law Clinic at Vanderbilt. The clinic represents tenants facing eviction proceedings, advances Fair Housing Act claims on behalf of disabled clients, and advocates for affordable and accessible housing in Nashville. Prusak previously directed the Nonprofit Legal Clinic at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, a transactional clinic that she created and managed for six years. Before joining the...
May. 24, 2021—This semester I externed working on post-conviction relief in death penalty cases with the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs in Austin, Texas. This experience caused me to reflect on the concept and application of the “future dangerousness” doctrine in capital cases. The United States death penalty system has always been racist, and this is especially apparent in the system’s...
May. 24, 2021—In 2017, the Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County found that nearly half of Nashville-area renters spent at least 30 percent of their monthly income on housing, and nearly a quarter of renters spent more than 50 percent of their income on housing. This gap between housing costs and renters’ ability to pay them has widened during the COVID-19 pandemic, both in...
May. 24, 2021—Each year the clinic awards the Carl J. Ruskowski Clinical Legal Education award to the clinic student, who in her representation of clients in the law school’s clinical program, demonstrates excellence in the practice of law and best exemplifies the highest standards of the legal profession. This year the award goes to Cloe Anderson ‘21...
May. 24, 2021—This year marks Vanderbilt Legal Clinic’s 50th year of providing pro bono representation through its clinical faculty and student attorneys. The founding of VLC in 1971 by Junius Allison was grounded in community-centered lawyering. Allison was a lifelong advocate for indigent people. He joined Vanderbilt from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association where he...
Oct. 22, 2020—Amid stay-at-home orders and uncertainty over the availability of summer jobs, Cloe Anderson ’21, Grace Ko ’21 and Sarah Dvorak ’22 turned their concern into action. Working fully remotely with Professor Karla McKanders in the Immigration Practice Clinic, the students helped to pass Metro Council resolution RS 2020-433, which supports communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19....
Oct. 22, 2020—During spring and summer 2020, the Turner Family Community Enterprise Clinic represented human trafficking survivor and criminal justice reform advocate Cyntoia Brown-Long. After her case received national attention, Gov. Bill Haslam granted Brown-Long clemency in 2019 after she had served a 15-year sentence for killing a man who had paid to have sex with her...