Public service is at the heart of the legal profession. Pro bono work allows students to strengthen their lawyering skills while making a positive impact upon the community. Pro bono service provides an opportunity to see the law in practice and to develop skills such as client interviewing, legal research, and writing.
Most states have adopted a rule of professional responsibility that encourages attorneys to provide at least fifty hours of pro bono legal service each year. Vanderbilt Law provides the vision, support, and resources to enable our students to practice law for the greater good both during and after law school.
The Woodbine Immigration Project provides select students with the opportunity to work alongside immigration lawyers from Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors to screen Nashville families for potential avenues of immigration relief. Students are selected from an application process and commit to attending one training and five Saturday legal clinics during the academic year.
The Vanderbilt Law Legal Aid Society's Street Law program provides student volunteers with the opportunity to teach "Know Your Rights" legal education sessions at a local homeless shelter and school.
In conjunction with the Vanderbilt Bar Association, they also host several Free Legal Answers Clinics over the course of the academic year. Student volunteers are paired with an attorney from a local law firm to help answer legal questions that have been posted by community members on the Tennessee Free Legal Answers website.
The Vanderbilt Law Legal Aid Society's Medical Legal Partnership provides student volunteers with the opportunity to conduct legal "wellness checks," providing resources and limited legal advice to patients at local medical student-run clinics.
The Community Justice Legal Project provides civil legal assistance to justice system-impacted individuals at the McGruder Family Resource Center in North Nashville. Select student volunteers assist community members with civil maters such as expungement, voter rights, housing stability, and court costs.
Through the Pro Bono Spring Break program, students are selected from an application process to engage in pro bono service work with established Southeastern legal services organizations during the law school's Spring Break. The program is co-sponsored and funded by the Public Interest Office and the George Barrett Social Justice Program.
The Vanderbilt Law School Pro Bono Pledge is a voluntary program through which students make a commitment to dedicate a portion of their time to pro bono legal work and community service during their law school careers. The purpose of the Pledge is to recognize all students who engage in pro bono, public interest, and community service activities while enrolled at Vanderbilt Law School and to encourage greater student participation in such work. Students may elect to sign the pledge at any point during their law school career but must complete 75 hours of community service work throughout their 3 years at school.
Collectively, Vanderbilt Law students reported a total of 6,020 pro bono and community service hours through the Pro Bono Pledge program during summer 2024, fall 2024, and spring 2025. Students also perform thousands of hours of pro bono legal work each year in Nashville through summer and semester externships with local government offices, district attorneys and public defenders, and legal nonprofits, and through their work in the Woodbine Legal Clinic, the Shade Tree Clinic, and other Law School programs.