Student Organizations
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UT Pro Bono
UT Pro Bono is a community service organization with significant student leadership and staff direction at the University of Tennessee College of Law. The program strives to connect law students with area attorneys representing indigent clients. Working in cooperation with attorneys and local legal aid societies, UT Pro Bono serves as a resource by providing law students for research, educational, and investigatory assistance.
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Staff Coordinator: Brad Morgan (rmorgan2@utk.edu)
UT Pro Bono operates the following service projects:
Animal Law Project
Student Coordinators: Becky Parsons (rparson5@utk.edu) and Tina Osborn (cosborn6@utk.edu)
The Animal Law Project's current missions include:
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compilation of a complete reference detailing the law relating to all animal laws in Tennessee, outlining some of the pertinent federal laws, and interpreting applicable acts of congress such as the Animal Welfare Act
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creation of appendices to increase utility of our reference to people not familiar with or literate in legal terminology including sentencing guidelines and definitions
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discussion with the Tennessee Judiciary their interpretation of animal laws especially the applicable criminal statutes.
Homeless Project
Student Coordinators: Heather Graves (hgraves@utk.edu), Kole Masters (kmaster2@utk.edu), John Barham (jbarham2@utk.edu)
The Homeless Project is designed to accommodate the legal needs of the homeless population. This project allows students to assist in the legal representation of individuals who are temporarily or permanently displaced. Twice a semester, a group of students will visit the Knox Rescue Ministries and/or the Serenity Shelter to render legal services and to educate the homeless. The topics for each semester will vary and may include: Minor Criminal Offenses, Food Stamps, Social Security Benefits, Subsidized Housing, and Family Law. The goals of this project are to provide practical experiences for the students and to assist the homeless with their administrative or legal problems.
Immigrant Assistance Project
Student Coordinators: Kimberly Hamilton (khamilt8@utk.edu) and Becca Anguiano (ranguian@utk.edu)
The Immigrant Assistance Project is dedicated to assisting those who cannot obtain access to justice due to immigration status and/or the language barrier. Our goal is to provide translation and research for those who cannot otherwise obtain legal services. We work with other UT Pro Bono organizations to expand their services to immigrants in East Tennessee, such as Saturday Bar, Saturday Justice, the Volunteer Tax Assistance Program, the Animal Law Project, and the Domestic Violence Project. The IAP also seeks to serve as a liaison between the local legal community, the law school, and immigrants in our area and to provide education and awareness about issues facing the immigrant community in East Tennessee.
Saturday Bar
Student Coordinators: Knoxville—Brittany Thomas (bthoma22@utk.edu), Maryville—Justin Pruitt (jpruitt2@utk.edu), and Anderson County—Carlos Yunsan (cyunsan@utk.edu)
The Saturday Bar projects provide student volunteers the opportunity to assist attorneys working with Legal Aid of East Tennessee and Legal Aid of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. The projects permit students to serve a diverse community in three distinct areas surrounding the College of Law. It is an excellent opportunity for students to volunteer their time and to meeting the tremendous needs of low-income clients in the community. Saturday Bar allows students to develop their communication skills by assisting with the intake and interviewing of clients. Students also have the opportunity to observe volunteer attorneys who provide providing practical legal advice to clients.
Street Law
Student Coordinator: Kitron Madison (kmadiso7@utk.edu)
The Street Law Program aims to make issues in the law relevant and interesting to adolescent students. Serving as instructors, UT law students research and prepare weekly lessons to present to students. Those topics include First Amendment freedoms, 4th Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights, as well as Tennessee gang and drug laws. At the conclusion of each semester, students participate in a mock trial to simulate what it is like to be a lawyer. Through the Street Law program, high school students are given the opportunity to understand the history of the law and to use both critical thinking and communication skills to solve problems. They are also encouraged to have an open dialogue on how to develop a justice-centered society. Ultimately, Street Law is a magnificent opportunity for law students to utilize what they have learned in law school to help others in the community.
Students for the Study of Law and Culture
Student Coordinators: Leslie Starritt (lstarrit@utk.edu) and Monica Rice (mrice15@utk.edu)
Students for the Study of Law and Culture (SSLC) is a new and exciting Interdisciplinary Student Organization at the University of Tennessee. SSLC is a research organization for students and faculty that examines the underpinning of legal systems, i.e. the whys of how we arrived at current legal systems, how justice systems affect users, and how those users affect systems. In this way, SSLC asserts that law and culture are mutually constituting.
Our goal is to not only discuss these important issues in a useful and provocative manner, but to produce a journal and a series of lectures that builds from and expands these conversations. We also hope to encourage interdisciplinary curricula offerings that push to expand the understanding of individual disciplines. Finally, we will conduct workshops that engage the greater Knoxville Community.
While SSLC has thus far been a collaboration between graduate students and individual faculty in the Department of Art, the Department of Anthropology, and the College of Law, we at SSLC encourage and request that all students and faculty interested in participating in our forum bring their skills and interests to the table.
VITA -Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
Student Coordinator: Matt Duggin (mduggin@utk.edu)
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is a volunteer outreach program funded and managed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The VITA mission is to help disabled, elderly, and low-income taxpayers file their returns electronically. Electronic filing helps the IRS achieve the fastest possible turnaround time to get tax refund checks to those who need them as quickly as possible. Student volunteers run the Law School VITA site. Those volunteers are trained in basic tax law and in the use of tax preparation software at the beginning of each tax season.
VITA International
Student Coordinator: Jeanai Ranero (jranero@utk.edu)
VITA International