Alumna receives New Advocate of the Year award

University of Tennessee College of Law 2013 graduate Christina Magráns-Tillery has received the 2017 New Advocate of the Year Award.

Magráns-Tillery is a staff attorney at Legal Aid of East Tennessee.

She began working with the organization in 2014 as a benefits attorney in the Johnson City office. In 2015, she moved to the Knoxville office to focus on housing issues.

The award, given annually by the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services, recognizes those employed with a legal services program for five or fewer years and “who use their legal skills in an active, creative way that produces outstanding benefits for individual clients and the communities in which they live.”

Jane Kopp Morris, managing attorney of the Legal Aid of East Tennessee Knoxville office, said Magráns-Tillery is an asset to the organization and deserves recognition for her incredible work.

“Christina has been fearless and relentless in identifying fair housing issues and advocating for our fair housing clients,” Kopp Morris said. “She has put a stop to racially discriminatory processes, and she has often ensured that clients with therapy and service animals do not need to give up this needed support in order to find housing.”