By Luis Ruuska
Micki Fox, business manager of the Tennessee Law Review and continuing legal education (CLE) coordinator, has been with UT Law for forty-four years and has no plans of stopping any time soon.
Affectionately known as the “mother of the Law Review,” Fox began working with the publication in 1971 as a manuscript typist. Within the decade, she was promoted to senior bookkeeper and eventually business manager. A little over a decade ago, Fox took on an additional role at the college, becoming the CLE coordinator.
Q: What are some of your proudest moments working with the Law Review?
FOX: I’ve liked the reaction to the good work that these kids do. Just today we got another e-mail from an author who worked with us on our last issue saying how professional we were compared with other journals they’d worked with. These kids do really good work, they work hard, and everybody works together as team. Nobody gets competitive or stressed. I consider this my second home and I keep in touch with the kids, I go to their weddings…it’s been so much fun.
You also work as the CLE coordinator. What has that been like?
I love it. It’s just a lot of fun. The subjects are so interesting and we have great speakers here. The attorneys are required to get the CLE hours, so we want to give them hours that are really beneficial and we try to keep the price low (which they also appreciate). Other organizations charge $375 and up for their CLE programs, which doesn’t include transportation and lodging. The only time we’ve charged that is for three foreign CLE cruises and one land trip in Ireland. I loved that trip because I love travel. The Baltic cruise was just fabulous, too. We went to Estonia, Finland, Sweden, St. Petersburg, and a port in Germany. I never thought in my wildest dreams thought I’d get to go to St. Petersburg, Russia, so that was a great thing for me. I loved that.
How do you like to spend your free time?
Travel is the thing I love to do most, but I’m also big into needlepoint, and I’m president of my church. I guess that’s it: travel, needlepoint, church, and my family. I’m very close to my family; we do great, fun things together.
Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
Right here. I plan to be right here doing CLE programs and having a new crowd of students every year on Law Review. My job is different every day; you can’t get bored. I wonder if I’ll get up to 50 years working here. That would be something, wouldn’t it? I love this job. The law school has allowed me to grow and progress and gives me major new challenges every few years. I like juggling hats.