Public Interest News

Jackson Hill named 2022 George Barrett Social Justice Fellow

Jul. 8, 2022—Hill will work with the Powell Project, offering resources and assistance to capital defense teams.

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Brian Ruben named 2022 George Barrett Social Justice Fellow

Jun. 24, 2022—Ruben will work with the Colorado Center on Law and Policy to support the development of an automated process for criminal record sealing.

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Natalia Wurst named Garrison Social Justice Scholar for the Class of 2024

Jun. 23, 2022—Wurst is working this summer at Her Justice, a New York-based legal nonprofit that connects low-income women with legal needs to pro bono representation.

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Alumni Barrett Program News and Events Public Interest News



Social Justice Reporter, new scholarly journal, to launch at Vanderbilt in 2022-23

Jun. 7, 2022—The Social Justice Reporter will publish cutting-edge intersectional scholarship and expert perspectives on social justice, civil rights and public-interest lawyering after it launches next year. Its name acknowledges the legacy of the historic Race Relations Reporter, which was published at VLS from 1956 to 1972.

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12 members of the Class of 2022 recognized for completing Pro Bono Pledge

Apr. 29, 2022—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.

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Alumni Public Interest News


Miles Malbrough ’22 to address estate planning in Nashville’s Black community as Equal Justice Works Fellow

Apr. 28, 2022—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.

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Miles Malbrough, Class of 2022

Apr. 28, 2022—2022-24 Equal Justice Works Fellow, Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands

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Students work at Tennessee Justice Center during Pro Bono Spring Break 2022

Apr. 27, 2022—A student team headed by Raghav Gupta ’24 worked with attorneys at the Tennessee Justice Center to observe and interview pro se litigants.

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Students work at Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center during Pro Bono Spring Break 2022

Apr. 27, 2022—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.

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Profile: Chase Pritchett, Class of 2022

Apr. 27, 2022—Pritchett will join the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice through the Attorney General's Honors Program.

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“Implicit Bias, Structural Bias and Implications for Law and Policy,” April 21 lecture by California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu

Apr. 20, 2022—The Dean’s Lecture Series on Race and Discrimination for spring 2022 will conclude with Justice Liu's lecture in Flynn Auditorium from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 21. The public is invited to attend the lecture via Zoom.

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Emily Burgess ’22 (BS’19) uses law school experience to expand advocacy work

Apr. 18, 2022—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.

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“And a Public Defender for All”: Sara Mayeux’s opinion piece addresses Judge Ketangi Brown Jackson’s historic SCOTUS appointment

Apr. 12, 2022—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."

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“Thirsty Places: The Roots of Water Injustice in Flint and Appalachia,” a lecture by Priya Baskaran, scheduled Monday, April 11

Apr. 5, 2022—Baskaran directs the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic at American University Washington College of Law. Her lecture, scheduled in Flynn Auditorium from 12:30 to 1:30 April 11, will address water insecurity and its links to redlining.

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“Patient or Prisoner: Hospitals as Carceral Settings,” a lecture by Ji Seon Song, scheduled April 1

Mar. 30, 2022—Song is an assistant professor of law at University of Calfornia Irvine. Her scholarship examines the deployment of policing authority and its effects on racial minority and other marginalized groups. Her lecture, scheduled from 12:30 to 1:30, Friday, April 1, is free and open to the public and available via Zoom.

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Philip Morel, Class of 2021, Law Clerk, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Mar. 24, 2022—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.

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Watch now: Slobogin discusses criminal justice reform with Cyntoia Brown-Long and Gov. Bill Haslam

Mar. 19, 2022—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.

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Steven Mintz reviews Robert Barsky’s book, Clamouring for Legal Protection, in Inside Higher Ed

Mar. 7, 2022—Barsky's book asks what great works of literature can teach us about the plight of immigrants and refugees.

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Chris Slobogin to moderate criminal justice reform panel featuring Cyntoia Brown Long and former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam March 15

Mar. 2, 2022—The event, “Reform for Redemption: Cyntoia Brown Long and Gov. Bill Haslam on Criminal Justice Reform and the Power of Mercy,” will be held in Langford Auditorium and livestreamed at 6 p.m. March 15. Now an author and advocate, Brown was a trafficking victim when she was convicted of murder at 16. She was later granted clemency by Gov. Haslam. Professor Slogobin will moderate a discussion about criminal justice reform. The public is invited to attend in person or virtually.

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Julie Su, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, to deliver Barrett Social Justice Lecture Feb. 24

Feb. 11, 2022—Su is a nationally recognized expert on workers’ rights and civil rights who served as secretary for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency before her appointment as deputy secretary of labor. Her talk, "Fulfilling the Unfulfilled Promise of Racial and Economic Justice," will draw on her trailblazing career as a civil rights and workers' rights attorney.

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VLS Housing Law Clinic students, faculty support national call to action to address eviction crisis

Jan. 28, 2022—Students in the Housing Law Clinic directed by Jennifer Prusak represented Nashville tenants facing eviction and advocated for changes in housing policy during the COVID=10 pandemic.

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Terry Maroney named to 2022 cohort of Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholars

Jan. 18, 2022—Maroney will work in residence at the RSF in New York City during the 2022-23 academic year. Visiting scholars pursue research and writing projects in the social, economic and behavioral sciences.

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Wesley Dozier ’19, Dawn Deaner and Erica Perry to discuss Law and Organizing at VLS Feb. 1

Jan. 15, 2022—Wesley Dozier '19 and Dawn Deaner of the Choosing Justice Initiative and Erica Perry of the Nashville Community Bail Fund will engage in a panel discussion sponsored by the Public Interest Ofiice on Tuesday, Feb. 1, at 1230 p.m. The event will be held live if circumstances permit.

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Matthew Shaw joins VLS faculty as assistant professor

Jan. 13, 2022—Shaw joined the law faculty from the faculty of Vanderbilt Peabody College. His research focuses on the intersection between federal law and education policy.

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