UT Law student one of only two recipients of prestigious nationwide scholarship

Casey Duhart, a third-year law student at the University of Tennessee College of Law, is one of only two recipients nationwide of a prestigious diversity scholarship.

Duhart received the 2015 Law Student Diversity Scholarship from the Defense Research Institute (DRI), the largest international membership organization of attorneys defending the interests of business and individuals in civil litigation. On June 10, Duhart traveled to Chicago to receive the $10,000 scholarship at DRI’s annual Diversity Seminar.

“I am very grateful to be the recipient of the 2015 DRI Diversity Scholarship,” says Duhart. “More than anything, winning the scholarship gave me the opportunity to meet many talented, diverse lawyers from all over the country. Of course, the funds helped tremendously, but the relationships I built with the DRI lawyers during the conference will last a lifetime.”

In February, Duhart was elected by her fellow members of the Tennessee Law Review student staff to serve as the 2015–2016 editor-in-chief. She will be the first black editor-in-chief of the publication, which was first published in 1922 and is the oldest legal publication in Tennessee and the oldest law journal at UT Law.

Duhart entered the College of Law with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Landmark College in Vermont and a master’s degree in special education from Armstrong State University in Georgia. She previously taught for nearly a decade in the area of special education services. After graduation, Duhart plans to specialize and practice in employment and labor litigation and one day serve as a federal judge. She is originally from South River, New Jersey, and has lived in Knoxville for more than five years with her husband of eight years, Otis, and their two children, Alex and Alayna.