Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution
Educating Today the Successful Lawyers of Tomorrow
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.
Center Founders
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; Sidney W. Gilreath; T. Robert Hill; Thomas R. Prewitt, Sr.; Robert E. Pryor and Family; John T. Milburn Rogers; Jerry H. Summers, and Bass, Berry & Sims PLC.
Curriculum
The advocacy curriculum 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 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.