Education

B.A., University of Tennessee
M.A, University of Tennessee
J.D., University of Tennessee

About

Paul E. Helton is a senior associate counsel with the Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS) in the Office of General Counsel, where he started working in 2010.

He works in the Knoxville DHS office and represents DHS in a 35-county area in East Tennessee in adult protective services matters, child care agency licensing matters, employment and disciplinary matters, rule-making hearings, and assists with drafting state-wide regulations. He also supervises a litigation team of attorneys across the state. Prior to working for DHS, he was a regional general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, also supervising a large legal team; in addition, he was in private legal practice from 2001-2008 in both Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, where he concentrated his practice on business and construction litigation as well as on other types of litigation.

During law school, he served as a research assistant and teaching assistant to several professors. He has taught legal writing courses to first-year law students at the UTK College of Law since 2005 as well as teaching pretrial litigation in 2023. In 2023, he was awarded the Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award at the UTK College of Law.