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History

The University of Tennessee College of Law

The University of Tennessee College of Law first opened its doors in 1890. For well over 100 years the College has dedicated itself to training competent, ethical attorneys who serve their clients, the state and the nation. As the practice of law has changed, the curriculum has changed to keep pace with the growing demands of the profession. However, the fundamental tasks - the development of skills, the nurture of intellect, and the molding of character - have never changed.

The first law school classes were held in a downtown Knoxville law firm office with nine students attending. The sounds of streetcars clanging could be heard outside the window. Later that first year classes were moved on campus and over the years the College of Law has had several homes on and around "The Hill." In 1997 the College moved into a state-of-the-art facility on Cumberland Avenue across the street from the University Center. The new law center was an expansion of the Cumberland Avenue building first opened in 1950 and later expanded in 1971. The 1990s project included the addition of several classrooms, the expansion of the Legal Clinic and the library, and additional space for student activities. The current facility includes the latest innovations in teaching and research technology.

The early Tennessee law school program was two years instead of the one-year program at most law schools. While all of the first nine students were from Tennessee, by the turn of the century 15 different states were represented among the student body. The UT Department of Law became a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools in 2000 and was the only member south of the Ohio River. In 1913, UT added a third year of study, in part to accommodate a requirement of AALS. In 1926, Tennessee joined the list of law schools approved by the [[American Bar Association]].

Enrollment increased significantly after World War I and II, and one of the College's most significant developments occurred in 1947 when Charles A. Miller was lured from Duke University to start a Legal Clinic at Tennessee. At the time it was only the second clinic in the nation (Duke being the other) and the program has flourished ever since. Tennessee remains the nation's longest continually operating legal clinic.

In 1966, the College of Law building, located on Cumberland Avenue across from the University Center, was named The George C. Taylor Law Center in honor of a federal judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee and president of his UT Class of 1908. The facility allowed for an enrollment of 450 students, and the number that has fluctuated between 450 and 500 ever since. During the mid-1990s, the 1960s building was renovated and an addition was added that provides 140,000 square feet of space for faculty, staff and students.

Today, the College is Tennessee's premier state-supported law school and provides graduate training leading to the conferral of the Doctor of Jurisprudence degree after three years of successful legal studies. In addition to earning a generalist law degree, students may concentrate their studies in either Advocacy and Dispute Resolution or Business Transactions. The College has nationally ranked academic programs, including the nation's oldest continually operating Legal Clinic.

The faculty includes more than three dozen full time professors whose backgrounds include working for large and small law firms, the courts, government agencies, and public interest groups. The full time faculty is bolstered by numerous currently practicing attorneys who share their knowledge and experience as adjunct instructors with a student body approaching 500 each academic year.

The academic programs are housed in a state-of-the-art physical facility that includes the latest in instructional and legal technology. The faculty, students and staff comprise the "Law School Community," which refers to a way of thinking, planning, and communicating that emphasizes partnerships among the College's diverse population.

Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution

In the 1990’s giants in the Tennessee legal community envisioned a law school curriculum that would better prepare law students for a career in advocacy and dispute resolution. These visionaries saw an opportunity for UT, a law school already recognized for its strong clinical education program, to capitalize on the strong tradition of helping students to learn by doing. Together, they founded the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution to provide a specialized curriculum for interested students.

The Center offers a unique series of courses taught by an experienced faculty utilizing the College’s state-of-the-art facilities. The Center also provides extra-curricular programs for students and the legal community which includes a distinguished lecture series, multi-disciplinary symposia, and a popular “Skills Series” at which judges and lawyers visit the law school for a presentation and lunch with the students.

The lawyers and law firms whose insight led to the Center’s creation are among the most respected members of Tennessee’s legal community. They include Donna R. Davis[1]; Sidney W. Gilreath[2]; T. Robert Hill[3]; Thomas R. Prewitt, Sr.[4]; Robert E. Pryor and Family[5]; John T. Milburn Rogers[6]; Jerry H. Summers[7], and Bass, Berry & Sims PLC[8]. Curriculum

The advocacy curriculum[9] is a unique series of special courses for students interested in trial and appellate advocacy and alternative dispute resolution. The curriculum includes courses in pretrial litigation, trial practice, interviewing and counseling, negotiation and dispute resolution, advanced trial advocacy, and advanced appellate advocacy.

As part of the advocacy concentration, students participate in either a legal clinic or externship. These programs give students the opportunity to represent clients and resolve disputes in a real-life setting while under the supervision of skilled instructors or practitioners. Scholarship

The Center also offers an annual scholarship, the Summers-Wyatt Trial Advocacy Scholarship, to a student who has demonstrated excellence in advocacy courses and who intends to pursue a career in advocacy and dispute resolution. Faculty

The Center’s prestigious faculty is one of its strongest assets. The full-time faculty includes law professors who have served as judges and as lawyers in the public and private sector. Adjunct faculty includes state and federal judges, private and public lawyers, and certified mediators. Many have experience practicing in litigation groups of national and international law firms. The faculty is uniquely qualified to mold a curriculum that merges practical dispute resolution experience with sophisticated analysis of advocacy and dispute resolution theory. Facilities

The College of Law has state-of-the art facilities which provide an excellent laboratory for teaching and learning advocacy-related skills. The College houses five courtrooms, all with multiple technological capabilities, and classrooms that are conducive to collaborative and engaged learning. Programs, Publications, and Symposia Programs

The Center offers a variety of different extra-curricular programs for students as well as members of the university and legal community. A distinguished lecture series, the Founders Lecture, features a prominent speaker on a current topic in advocacy and dispute resolution. In addition, the Center offers it is popular “Practice Series” at which lawyers, judges, and other professionals visit the law school to discuss a topic of interest and have lunch with the students. Publications

Twice each year the Center publishes a newsletter, The Advocate, which features articles about the Center’s events, faculty, student activities, and other items of interest to the community. Symposia

The Summers-Wyatt Symposium[10] is an endowed symposium that focuses on rights guaranteed by the American Bill of Rights and that is published in the Center edition of the Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy each spring.

Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law

The Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law[11] seeks to improve the training of business lawyers in both transactional and litigation practices through the College of Law curriculum, faculty and student scholarship, and presentations for the business bar and community both regionally and nationwide.

The Concentration in Business Transactions[12] a curricular pathway for law students at the College of Law who are interested in careers in law and business. Many of the faculty members that teach within the Concentration have practiced with prestigious law firms and are uniquely qualified to mold a curriculum that merges practical experience, black letter law, theory, and policy.

The Clayton Center offers a Visiting Professor Program[13] to attract and deploy within the institution individuals that are interested in teaching business law related courses and who are seeking to enter the academy from private practice. This includes the Visiting Professor of Corporate Governance and Investor Rights program.

Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law[14] is a law journal produced by students with the assistance of the College of Law faculty that covers the Center's activities, topical issues, and legal developments of interest to the business bar.

In order to provide research opportunities for students and research resources for faculty, the Center solicits research associates and projects to further its mission. All projects are business- or business-law-related and many include large scale collaborative efforts by students who survey and report on the state of the law in a particular area or work to produce commentary regarding transactional and other business and business-law matters.

The namesake of the Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law is James L. Clayton of Knoxville. Clayton, a 1964 graduate of the UT College of Law, is the founder of Knoxville-based Clayton Homes, Inc., now a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

The Center's Director is Professor George W. Kuney[15], who may be reached @ gkuney@utk.edu or 865-974-2500. Professor Kuney is also faculty advisor to Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law and the faculty advisor and coordinator of the University of Tennessee's joint JD/MBA program.

Legal Clinic

For more than sixty years, the College of Law's Legal Clinics [16] have provided law students with opportunities to learn by doing—representing clients and helping resolve legal disputes. Our Advocacy Clinic is the longest continuously operating for-credit Clinic in the country and remains one of the most successful programs of its kind. In 2008 U.S. News and World Reports ranked our Clinical Program 16th nationally among the more than 180 clinical programs considered, and first in the Southeast.