The University of Tennessee Knoxville Alumni Association has recognized three College of Law graduates for their outstanding achievements.
During an event on Sept. 16, Justice Sharon G. Lee (’78) was honored with the university’s 2022 Distinguished Alumna Award. It is the university’s single highest alumni award given to those who have attained extraordinary distinction and success, brought credit and acclaim to UT and benefited society at large.
Col. Winston Williams Jr. (’04) received the Alumni Professional Achievement Award. It recognizes alumni who have achieved a high level of success in their chosen field with notable career accomplishments and a history of outstanding contributions to their profession.
Retired magistrate Carl Colloms (’66) was given the Alumni Service Award. He was honored for his long-term continuing service, leadership and resources given to the university.
Justice Sharon G. Lee
Lee practiced law in her hometown of Madisonville from 1978 until her appointment in 2004 to serve as the first woman on the Eastern Section of the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
During her early career as an attorney, she represented business entities and individuals in civil and criminal matters. She was the attorney for Monroe County, the City of Madisonville, and the City of Vonore and she served as the Madisonville municipal judge.
She was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2008, and retained by the voters in 2010 and 2014, serving as chief justice from 2014 to 2016. As the chief justice, she promoted access to justice, established the state’s first business court pilot project, implemented an electronic filing system and launched a docket cleanup initiative.
Lee has received numerous honors and recognitions including UT Centennial Alumnus, UT Alumni Professional Achievement Award, the Webb School of Knoxville Distinguished Alumni Award, the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award and the National Association of Women Judges’ Spotlight Award.
Col. Winston Williams, Jr.
Williams’ military service started in 1998 as an U.S. Army engineer officer and platoon leader in Korea. After graduating from the College of Law in 2004, he became a judge advocate in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps and went on to hold several legal positions in a range of military assignments including: chief of administrative and civil law and senior trial counsel at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; trial counsel in Iraq; senior operational law observer/controller at Fort Polk, Louisiana; and professor of operational and international law at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In 2021, he became the head of the department of law at the U.S. Military Academy.
Williams is the author of “Complex Battlespaces: The Law of Armed Conflict and the Dynamic of Modern Warfare,” a compilation of chapters from multiple authors that addresses issues of law and armed conflict. He has co-authored nine additional publications that explore the complexities of international law, military operations and warfare. In addition, Williams served as a managing editor for the Lieber Studies book series from 2016 to 2022, editing and supervising the publication of seven volumes dedicated to the study of the law of war.
Williams served on the University of Tennessee College of Law Alumni Council from 2013 to 2015.
Carl E. Colloms
Colloms, a first-generation college student and graduate, attributes his career success to a scholarship that enabled a small-town farmer to go to law school, serve as a judge and build over 30 residential complexes. Since his retirement in 2012, Colloms has donated millions in scholarship funds including $1 million to the College of Law in 2011 and another $1.15 million in 2019 to stretch over seven years. His donations made his endowed scholarship for Southeast Tennessee law students one of the largest in college history.
After graduating from the College of Law in 1966, he served as a Bradley County attorney and Charleston city judge. At age 32, he was elected judge of Bradley County (now known as county mayor) making him the youngest county judge in Tennessee. During that time, he founded, supported, and chaired the board of the Bradley/Cleveland Community Services Agency. In the late 1980s, Colloms was appointed as child support magistrate for the 10th Judicial District of Tennessee serving family courts in Bradley, Polk, Monroe and McMinn counties for 25 years until he retired.
Now as a resident of Charleston, Tennessee, he practices some law, manages a staff responsible for his apartment complexes – his property development and management agency has built 32 apartment complexes and five nursing homes to date – and chairs the board of the Charleston-Calhoun-Hiwassee Historical Society.