Student Spotlight: Meet Public Interest Law Clerk Max Williams

Max Williams, a third-year student, is a jack of all trades. Prior to attending the University of Tennessee College of Law, he received a bachelor’s degree in music and theater and a bachelor’s degree in math. He has directed large scale theatrical and musical productions. Currently, he works to put himself through law school and to support his 13-year-old son by working part time in a hospital with oncology patients in both surgery and end-of-life care. 

On top of all that, Williams has been selected as the College of Law Legal Clinic’s Public Interest Law Clerk. 

The Public Interest Law Clerkship provides a second-year law student who excels in a clinic course and plans to pursue a career in a public interest field with a $10,000 stipend. This funding supports a full-time summer job in the legal clinic and 10 hours of work each week during the third year of law school. The clerkship is funded by the generous donation of Tennessee Law alumni Margaret Behm (’76), Wendy Goggin (‘76), retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Juliet Griffin (‘78), and Robert Tucker (’74), who passed away in December.

“When we learned that Max was selected, we agreed that he embodied the type of student the clerkship was created for – a student eager to devote his career to serving others and striving for a competitive public interest job after graduation,” says Behm. 

Before beginning the clerkship, Williams excelled in Advocacy Clinic last spring and Expungement Clinic in the fall. Williams and his clinic partner kicked off their semester with a lengthy hearing in Knox County Circuit Court to help a client get her voting rights restored. 

Max Williams (left) with his clinic partner, Brock Willis (right), and their client


“He is a natural in the courtroom,” says Joy Radice, director of clinical programs and associate professor of law, who supervised his cases. “He and his partner presented their legal argument and direct examinations of supporting witnesses and their client’s testimony. Williams then pulled it all together in a powerful closing argument. Their client was thrilled to have her full citizenship rights restored, especially her voting rights.”

When the job announcement went out, Williams jumped at the chance to be the Public Interest Clerk, a position that directly connected to his desire to be a lawyer. 

“From the day I entered Tennessee Law, I knew that I was here for a fairly simple purpose – to help people,” says Williams, “It may be a somewhat cliche answer, but it is undoubtedly the truth. Clinic offers a great many learning experiences, from statutory interpretation to the opportunity to test our skills in a live courtroom setting, but all of this is secondary to the reason I love clinic. I love clinic because it is the most profound reminder, that beyond the classes, and the tests, beyond the black letter law, are real living and breathing humans who are affected deeply by the work that we do.”

Over the summer, Williams juggled a dozen cases. He appeared in Juvenile Court, Criminal Court, Sessions Court, Circuit Court, and City Court. He worked with different professors in the clinic. He worked on both civil and criminal matters, appeared in front of at least eight different judges, prepped clients for court hearings, negotiated with prosecutors, and researched and wrote a substantive legal argument for a response in a Circuit Court case.

This past semester, Williams was a student in the Wrongful Convictions Clinic, where he worked with an investigator and a DNA expert, while helping interpret his client’s medical records to move his case forward.

“The clinic has been one of the defining parts of my law school experience,” said Williams. “It has been a privilege to be the public interest law clerk. I will not tell you that it’s an easy job. I will tell you that it is an enormously fulfilling one.”