Legal Clinic

The Advocacy Clinic is the longest-running legal clinic in the United States and remains one of the most successful programs of its kind.

In this clinic, students represent their own clients in various types of legal disputes involving criminal, housing, and juvenile law. Under Tennessee’s Student Practice Rule, students who have reached their fourth semester of law school, are allowed to represent clients under the supervision of faculty members. Client representation requires students to engage in the full range of lawyer duties, beginning with client interviews and proceeding through factual investigation, case development, negotiation, and often on to hearings or trial. Thus students, develop a wide range of lawyering skills, including:

• – fact investigation
• – client interviewing and counseling
• – witness interviewing
• – developing of case strategy, theme, and theory
  – drafting and arguing pretrial motions
  – trial preparation and presentation
  – negotiating with opposing parties
  – developing and exercising professional judgment

The Advocacy Clinic functions like a law firm, with the entire “firm” meeting weekly with clinic faculty and guest speakers to discuss cases, tactics, applicable law and strategy.

The Advocacy Clinic is a six-credit course, offered fall and spring semesters, and occasionally during summer semesters. Students who wish to enroll in the Advocacy Clinic must have taken Evidence and must either have taken or be taking Legal Profession.

The Appellate Litigation Clinic, established in 2014, enables students to develop their appellate litigation skills, including:

– researching and analyzing legal issues

– constructing a coherent and effective narrative

– drafting clear and concise legal arguments

– writing analytically and persuasively

– editing and proofreading a written product

– preparing and presenting a clear and persuasive oral argument

Students in the Appellate Litigation Clinic have argued filed briefs and argue successfully in administrative proceedings and in appellate courts, including the Tennessee Supreme Court.

The Appellate Litigation Clinic is a year-long six-credit course. Students who wish to enroll in the Appellate Litigation Clinic must have taken Evidence and must either have taken or be taking Legal Profession.

In the Business Law Clinic, third-year law students, working under the close supervision of a full-time law professor with vast transactional experience, represent the business clients. Students in the clinic have the unique opportunity to acquire skills, training, and experience essential to working successfully with business clients and thus, to bridge the gap between law school and the practice of law.

The Business Law Clinic is modeled after the structure of a transactional law firm and provides legal advice to business owners in the following critical areas:

– Business planning
– Entity selection and registration
– State and local business licenses
– Federal, state, and local tax issues
– Financing documentation and securities issues
– Leases and other commercial contracts
– Employment agreements
– Trademark and copyright registration, IP licensing agreements, and material transfer and non-disclosure agreements
– IP counseling regarding branding, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, freedom to operate, unfair competition, antitrust, publicity rights, and privacy rights

Through this model, the Business Law Clinic, in conjunction with the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, is one of the cornerstones of the innovation ecosystem in the Knoxville area.

Students must have taken Fundamental Concepts of Income Taxation, Intro to Business Transactions, Business Associations, and Income Taxation of Business Organizations and must have taken or be taking Legal Profession and Contract Drafting to participate in the Business Law Clinic, although Intro to Business Transactions may be waived for students with sufficient business background. The Business Law Clinic is a six-credit course, offered during the fall and spring semesters.

Trademark

As part of the college’s Business Clinic, students in the Trademark Clinic provides trademark legal services to independent inventors and small businesses on a pro bono basis. Students represent clients before the U.S. Department of Commerce’s U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under the guidance of a faculty supervisor experienced in trademark matters.

Students in the Community Economic Development Clinic provide a valuable service to the community while developing skills essential to the ins and outs of business law practice. Students will interact with local, state, and federal agencies on behalf of their clients; draft contracts and governance documents; conduct regulatory research and provide compliance advice; and give legal presentations to the community.

The clinic handles transactional legal issues for nonprofits, artists, and non-scalable businesses, such as sole proprietorships.

Students in the Expungement Mini Clinic assist individuals in expunging charges from their juvenile or adult criminal records. Students gain valuable experience working within a statutory framework, identifying expungable charges and convictions, and providing a meaningful service to those in need of legal assistance.

The Expungement Mini Clinic is a one-credit hour course.

Students in the Homer A. Jones, Jr. Wills Clinic represent economically disadvantaged clients in trust and estate matters. Students in the Wills Clinic interview clients, ascertain their legal needs, and draft and execute relevant documents, including wills, living wills, and trusts). The students also may handle probate matters. The clinic was established with a grant from the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) Foundation. Continued support comes from an endowment begun with a generous gift from Homer A. Jones, Jr., an ACTEC fellow who practiced in Bristol, Tenn.

The clinic is offered as a three-credit, one-semester course, offered during the fall and spring semesters.