Educating Today the Successful Lawyers of Tomorrow
In the 1990’s giants in the Tennessee legal community envisioned a law school curriculum that would better prepare law students for a career in advocacy and dispute resolution. These visionary founders saw an opportunity for UT, a law school already recognized for its strong clinical education program, to capitalize on the strong tradition of helping students to learn by doing. Together, they founded the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution to provide a specialized curriculum for interested students.
The Center offers a unique series of courses taught by an experienced faculty utilizing the College’s state-of-the-art facilities. Members of the adjunct faculty include state and federal judges, private and public lawyers, and certified mediators. Courses include traditional advocacy courses such as trial practice and advanced appellate advocacy, as well as a host of more specialized offerings such as interviewing and counseling, negotiations, and mediations.
The Center also provides extra-curricular programs for students and the legal community which includes a distinguished lecture series, multi-disciplinary symposia, and the popular “Practice Series” in which judges and lawyers visit the law school for presentations and lunch with the students.
Scholarship
The Center awards an annual scholarship, the Summers-Wyatt Trial Advocacy Scholarship, to a student who has demonstrated excellence in advocacy courses and who intends to pursue a career in advocacy and dispute resolution.
Publications
The Center’s Symposia are published in conjunction with the Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy. Twice each year the Center publishes a newsletter, The Advocate, which features articles about the Center’s events, faculty, student activities and other items of interest.
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“The College of Law’s Concentration in Advocacy and Dispute Resolution immerses students in every phase of the litigation process, from alternative dispute resolution and pretrial litigation, to basic and advanced trial and appellate advocacy. The Concentration’s breadth of course offerings alone is impressive--everything from civil, criminal, education, and administrative law, to legislation and jurisprudence. Further, coursework is reinforced by a liberal array of offerings in the oldest continuously operating legal clinic in the country, which includes placements in state and federal prosecution and defense offices and judicial externships, as well as practice in civil disputes, juvenile justice, immigrant rights, domestic violence, and post-conviction matters. I am excited about becoming a litigator, and I can’t imagine any better preparation than I received here at UT.”
G. William Perry
Class of 2011
- The University of Tennessee
- College of Law
- Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution
- Suite 302
- 1505 W. Cumberland Ave.
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- 37996-1810
- Phone: 865-974-1477