Our College
The University of Tennessee College of Law offers sound legal education and boasts the longest-running legal clinical program in the country.
Our College
The University of Tennessee College of Law offers sound legal education and boasts the longest-running legal clinical program in the country.
Diversity and Inclusion at UT Law
The College of Law is committed to promoting and cultivating diversity, which is expressed in myriad forms, including race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, military status, socio-economic status and viewpoint.
Our immediate aim is to foster a more inclusive learning and working environment for our entire community – one that succeeds and thrives because of its diversity.
Our broader aim is to learn, teach and practice the principles of equity and justice to ensure that all people have the opportunity to grow, contribute and achieve their aspirations. We commit to pursuing deliberate efforts to ensure that our college welcomes differences and is a place where different perspectives are heard and every individual feels a sense of belonging.
To ensure equity, we also commit to challenge and respond to bias, harassment, and discrimination, and to provide equal opportunities for our students, faculty and staff.
Click here to learn more about the Intersection of Race, Pandemic, and Higher Education via the research guides offered by the University of Tennessee Libraries.
The College of Law is committed to promoting and cultivating diversity, which is expressed in myriad forms, including race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, spirituality, ethnicity, culture, national origin, citizenship, abilities, age, socio-economic status, veteran status, domicile, life experiences, viewpoints and philosophy.
Our immediate aim is to foster a more inclusive learning and working environment for our entire community – one that succeeds and thrives because of its diversity.
Our broader aim is to learn, teach and practice the principles of equity and justice to ensure that all people have the opportunity to grow, contribute and achieve their aspirations. We commit to pursuing deliberate efforts to ensure that our college welcomes differences and is a place where different perspectives are heard and every individual feels a sense of belonging.
To ensure equity, we also commit to challenge and respond to bias, harassment, and discrimination, and to provide equal opportunities for our students, faculty and staff.
Click here to learn more about the Intersection of Race, Pandemic, and Higher Education via the research guides offered by the University of Tennessee Libraries.
2023 Pride Month Resources
Vol means all! During the month of June, and each day throughout the year, we celebrate and support the members of the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies. If you’re looking for ways to get involved during Pride Month and beyond, University of Tennessee’s Pride Center is an excellent resource. The mission of the Pride Center is to provide academic and social support for the LGBTQIA+ community at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The Pride Center strives to be a space for all members of the UT community to engage with and explore issues relating to gender and sexuality. Learn more about the Pride Center, Lambda Student Organization, Knox Pride, and more below.
Resources:
UTK Pride Center Upcoming Events
UTK Pride Center Allyship Resources
UTK Pride Center, Getting Involved
News:
History of LGBTQ+ in Knoxville
Pride Month Begins with a Call for Change in Knoxville and Beyond
Local Reaction to Unconstitutionality of Tennessee Drag Ban
Annual Blackshear Gala
The annual Julian Blackshear Jr. Scholarship Gala celebrates students and alumni who have positively impacted the University of Tennessee College of Law through their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The event, presented annually by the College of Law in partnership with the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), helps the College of Law fund scholarships for diverse students.
College of Law Legal Clinic
Our Legal Clinic works extensively with our neighboring communities to offer a variety of legal services. Students in the Expungement Clinic assist residents of underserved communities by expunging charges from their juvenile or adult criminal records.
Students in the Transactions Clinic interact with local, state and federal agencies on behalf of underrepresented clients to draft contracts and governance documents; conduct regulatory research and provide compliance advice; and give legal presentations to the community.
Student organizations offer our students support, community and advocacy.
Our organizations represent some of the diversity of culture at the University of Tennessee College of Law.
These include:
- Black Law Students Association
- Latino Law Student Association
- Lambda Law
- Law Women
- Native American Law Students Association
- Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender and Social Justice
Faculty scholarship and research in the areas of diversity, inclusion and civil rights
The faculty of the UT College of Law are engaged in a wide variety of research that crosses cultures and appeals to those with multiple interests. Their work spans a wide range of fields including human rights, civil rights, international law and criminal law.
Following the death of George Floyd, the faculty produced a video series titled “How Did We Get Here?” designed to help non-lawyers understand how the legal system has been involved with and even perpetuated racial disparities in the United States and beyond. You may access that series below.
Learn more about their valuable research that focuses on themes of diversity and inclusion.
Our curriculum exposes law students to a variety of perspectives and diversity and inclusion issues within the legal profession.
The following courses feature diversity-focused components:
- Advocacy Clinic
- Bioethics and Public Health Law Seminar
- Disability Law
- Domestic Violence Clinic
- Employment Discrimination
- Gender and Justice
- Human Rights and Environment
- Immigration Law Clinic
- International Human Rights
- International Religious Freedom
- Lawyers as Leaders Seminar
- Lawyering and Professionalism
- Poverty, Race, Gender and the Law
- Sex, Gender and Justice
- Women and the Law
- Wrongful Convictions/Innocence Clinic
How Did We Get Here?
After the killing of George Floyd, College of Law faculty produced and launched this series to examine how the U.S. legal system evolved to what is has become and how our legal system institutionalizes racism and allows such tragedies to happen.
College hosts discussion on policing challenges within the Knoxville community
Revising policing in the city of Knoxville is a costly endeavor that requires honest policy assessment, additional manpower, understanding from the community and more funding,
College of Law students become mentors, coaches to high school mock trial team
When a team from Knoxville’s Fulton High School earned high scores last month in a district-level high school mock trial competition, onlookers may not have
TN Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice will host symposium examining abortion law, civil rights
The University of Tennessee College of Law will host a day-long symposium on March 9 that examines the consequences of making abortion illegal in the