In 2013, Professor Teri Dobbins Baxter joined the University of Tennessee College of Law faculty, where she was later named a Williford Gragg Distinguished Professor. Professor Baxter served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development from 2016-2019, Acting Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 2020, and Interim Associate Dean for Faculty Development for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Professor Baxter graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in Computer Science and later earned her J.D. from Duke Law School. Professor Baxter practiced in the litigation and appellate sections in the Houston office of Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP (now Locke Lord LLP) for five years before she transitioned to academia and joined the faculty at the Saint Louis University School of Law in 2002.

At the University of Tennessee College of Law, she has taught Constitutional Law, Constitutional Rights and Liberties, Torts I, a Family and Privacy Seminar, and Secured Transactions. Professor Baxter’s expertise in constitutional and family law informs and inspires her scholarship, which has appeared in prestigious academic journals, including the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Northwestern University Law Review of Note, Temple Law Review, Utah Law Review, Hastings Law Journal, and University of Richmond Law Review, just to name a few. Her scholarship focuses primarily on the potential conflicts between the fundamental rights of parents and the government’s obligation to protect children. She also writes about how laws can both create and eliminate racial health disparities and can affect access to justice. She is a frequent speaker and presenter to both academic and professional legal audiences.

In 2024 Professor Baxter was awarded the L. R. Hesler Award for Excellence in Teaching and Service, a university-wide honor sponsored by the Provost’s office. At the College of Law, she has received the Harold Warner Outstanding Teacher Award, the Carden Award for Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship, the Extraordinary Leadership and Service Award, the Carden Faculty Award for Outstanding Service to the Institution, and the W. Allen Separk Faculty Scholarship Award.

Professor Baxter’s service to the College of Law includes chairing the Strategic Planning Committee, serving on the Governance Committee, Dean Search Committee, Academic Standards Committee, Appointments Committee, Curriculum Task Force, and serving as Co-Advisor to the Law Women student organization. At the university level, she has served on the Provost’s Tenured Faculty Advisory Council, Honorary Degree Nominating Committee, Academic Honors Award Review Committee, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Search Committee, Graduate Council Appeals Committee, Cluster Hire Proposal Review Committee, and served as IRB Department Review Chair.

Outside of UT, Professor Baxter serves on the Board of Directors for the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking. She loves reading and traveling with her husband and two awesome children.

• Education & Experience
• Publications

J.D., 1997, Duke University School of Law

B.A., 1993, Duke University

Curriculum Vitae

Child Sacrifices: The Precarity of Minors’ Autonomy and Bodily Integrity After Dobbs, 26 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 988 (2024)

Constitutional Demotion, 41 MINN. J. L. & INEQUAL. 1 (2023)

Traumatic Justice, 56 U. RICH. L. REV. 331 (Spring 2022)

True Causes of Racial Disparities in the Covid-19 Pandemic, Nw. U. L. Rev. Of Note, (May 29, 2020)

Torts A Modern Approach (with Alex B. Long) (Carolina Academic Press, 2020)

Dying for Equal Protection, 71 HASTINGS L.J. 535 (2020)

Represent, 86 TENN. L. REV. 671 (2019) (symposium issue)

Child Marriage as Child Abuse and Constitutional Violation, 19 NEV. L.J. 39 (2018)

Employer-Mandated Vaccination Policies: Different Employers, New Vaccines, and Hidden Risks, 2017 UTAH L. REV. 885

Marriage on Our Terms, 41 N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change 1 (2017)

Respecting Parents’ Fundamental Rights in the Adoption Process: Parents Choosing Parents for Their Children, 67 RUTGERS L. REV. 905 (2015)

Tort Liability for Parents Who Choose Not to Vaccinate Their Children and Whose Unvaccinated Children Infect Others, 82 U. CIN. L. REV. 103 (2013)

Constitutional Limits on the Right of Government Investigators to Interview and Examine Alleged Victims of Child Abuse or Neglect, 21 WM. & MARY BILL RTS. J. 125 (2012)

Low Expectations: How Changing Expectations of Privacy Can Erode Fourth Amendment Protection and a Proposed Solution, 84 TEMP. L. REV. 599 (2012)

Private Oppression: How Laws that Protect Privacy Can Lead to Oppression, 58 U. KAN. L. REV. 415 (2010)

Secured Party’s Liability for Collection or Enforcement of Account Debtor’s Obligation when Secured Party has no Right of Recourse Against the Debtor, 63 Consumer Fin. L. Q. REP. 225 (2009)

Great (and Reasonable) Expectations: Fourth Amendment Protection for Attorney-Client Communications, 32 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 35 (2008)

The Hidden Costs of Contracting: Barriers to Justice in the Law of Contracts, 7 J. L. SOC’Y 116 (2005)

Losing Faith: Extracting the Implied Covenant of Good Faith from (Some) Contracts, 84 OR. L. REV. 227 (2005)

Protecting the Unpopular from the Unreasonable: Warrantless Monitoring of Attorney Client Communications in Federal Prisons, 53 CATH. U. L. REV. 295 (2004)

Excerpt reprinted in SEARCHES AND SEIZURES: THE FOURTH AMENDMENT, ITS CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY AND THE CONTEMPORARY DEBATE, p. 273-277 (ed. Cynthia Lee, Amherst, N.Y: Prometheus Books, 2010).