Jan. 28, 2021—Clarke’s article has been reprinted in the UCLA Law Dukeminier Awards Journal, which annually recognizes the best legal scholarship on sexual orientation and gender identity issues.
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Dec. 18, 2020—Sharfstein is a legal historian whose work addresses race and citizenship in the United States. He is the author of two award-winning books, “The Invisible Line” and “Thunder in the Mountains,” and received a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship.
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Nov. 16, 2020—McFarlane is now a partner at Gerger Khalil Hennessy & McFarlane in Houston. She represented Maurice Hall, a passenger in the car when George Floyd was stopped by police in Minneapolis who was himself arrested in Houston days after Floyd's death. McFarlane was a trial attorney with the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice before she entered private practice in 2018. She focuses on defending clients in federal procedings.
Nov. 12, 2020—James P. Danly ’13 has been named chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Danly has served as one of five FERC commissioners, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, since March 2020. Before being appointed to the FERC commission, Danly had served since 2017 as general counsel for FERC, where...
Oct. 15, 2020—Assistant Dean for Public Interest Spring Miller launches a new practicum through which students advocate for the employment rights of low-wage workers.
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Sep. 21, 2020—The ABA Council on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar is recognized at the national accrediting agency for programs leading to the J.D. Kay has previously served on the Standards Review Committee and Accreditation Committee of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar.
Sep. 18, 2020—The award recognizes Tennessee advocates who promote state-wide collaboration that supports projects that strengthen access to justice across the state.
Sep. 17, 2020—All members of the VLR staff donated the fees they would customarily use to pay for meeting space and supplies to the ABA's Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund, which provides $15,000 scholarships to up to 20 diverse law students each year.
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Sep. 4, 2020—The report reflects the results of a community-wide survey and input from three anti-racism task forces representing VLS students, faculty and staff. It recommends short- and long-term actions designed to address racial inequities and injustices in the VLS community and beyond.
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Aug. 17, 2020—Skiba cochairs an interdisciplinary group of scholars who recommend interventions to protect households from debt collection, foreclosure, eviction, and bankruptcy, and to position the bankruptcy system to respond to consumer needs during the pandemic.
Aug. 13, 2020—Prusak has joined Vanderbilt’s clinical law faculty. She has more than 15 years of experience advocating for low-income tenants and fair housing
Aug. 10, 2020—Students in the clinic, directed by Gautam Hans, worked with Daniel Horwitz ’13 to defend a nonprofit group’s satirical mailer criticizing a Tennessee state representative.
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Jul. 28, 2020—Owings joined the Justice Department as counsel to the assistant attorney general in February 2018. She had previously practiced antitrust law in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Jul. 14, 2020—James F. Blumstein, a noted expert in constitutional law and health law and policy, and finincial regulatory expert Yesha Yadav will serve four-year terms on the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the US. Commission on Civil Rights.
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Jul. 10, 2020—Legal historian Sara Mayeux’s book focuses on the legal struggle for due process in twentieth-century America.
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Jul. 8, 2020—Cloe Anderson ’21, Grace Ko ’21 and Sarah Dvorak ’22 help draft resolution passed by the Nashville Metropolitan Council drawing attention to increased harassment and discrimination directed at Asian immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Jun. 25, 2020—The Supreme Court's DACA decision has given Dreamers new hope, but it could have dangerous implications for anti-discrimination law, by suggesting that courts should not consider the biased statements of policymakers in evaluating whether their policies were motivated by discriminatory intent.
Jun. 12, 2020—In a forthcoming California Law Review article, Slobogin proposes the establishment of separate federal courts specializing in criminal cases, backed by a National Court of Criminal Appeals, along with a “modernized regime” of indeterminate sentencing to relieve overcrowded dockets in the federal justice system and reduce the federal prison population. The article is discussed in a June 12 article, "The Case for Federal Criminal Courts and Sentencing Reform," published by The Crime Report. Slobogin directs the Criminal Justice Program at Vanderbilt.
Jun. 5, 2020—The recent killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and countless others form part of a long and tragic history of racial violence and injustice. It is time for us to act.
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May. 20, 2020—Rising 2Ls and 3Ls will work in federal and state judicial chambers, agencies and law offices, with prosecutors and public defenders, and with public interest and advocacy organizations.
May. 13, 2020—Akinnawonu will work as an immigration attorney at the Mississippi Center for Justice in Jackson. She connected with the MCJ while working at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Jackson during summer 2019.
May. 6, 2020—Banks is one of eight 2020 law graduates honored for their exemplary commitment to public interest law and pro bono work. She was a Garrison Social Justice Scholar.
May. 4, 2020—Sandford will join the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office in Knoxville, Tennessee; DeFuccio will join the Mecklenberg Defenders in Charlotte, North Carolina.
May. 1, 2020—Amber Banks ’20 completed 611 pro bono hours as a VLS student. Eunice Lim ’21 and Jackson Hill ’22 were also recognized for leading their classes in pro bono hours with 299 and 99 hours, respectively.
Apr. 21, 2020—Dozier is working at Just City as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. He supervised a team of students who worked on expungement cases, participating a Court Watch program, and supported other criminal justice advocacy initiatives.