Pro Bono Project

Serving the Legal Community in Assisting Low-Income Persons To Navigate the Justice System

I am pleased to introduce myself as the new Pro Bono Project Attorney at Legal Aid of East Tennessee in Knoxville. I grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina and attended Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem for both undergraduate and law school. After graduating law school and passing the North Carolina bar exam in 2011, I practiced for two years handling a wide variety of cases ranging from basic criminal cases and child support defense to car accidents and worker’s compensation. In 2014, I was hired to teach the legal classes for the paralegal and criminal justice programs at Davidson County Community College. I fell in love with teaching and continued to teach classes online after moving to Knoxville in the summer of 2016 for my husband’s education. I worked at the YWCA of Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley for two years as their Court Advocacy Program Coordinator and taught the Divorcing Parenting class until that program ended in 2018. My family quickly fell in love with East Tennessee and Knoxville, and we decided to set down roots in the area. I passed the Tennessee bar exam in the fall of 2018 and am so excited to start working as the Pro Bono Attorney in the Knoxville office of Legal Aid. I look forward to getting to know more members of the local bar and continuing to grow the successful Legal Aid Pro Bono program in the years to come. My goal is to offer opportunities and support to make pro bono service as easy and effective for the all the local attorneys whose efforts make our program.

On Wednesday September 16 th we held our Virtual Veteran’s clinic from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Veteran’s Legal Advice clinic is a joint project of the Knoxville Barristers, the Young Lawyers Division of the Knoxville Bar Association (KBA), KBA/Barristers Access to Justice Committees, Legal Aid of East Tennessee, Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office, the University of Tennessee College of Law, Lincoln Memorial University – Duncan School of Law, and our local VA. Veterans and qualifying family members went through intake with Legal Aid in the days leading up to the clinic and were matched with a local attorney who contacted the client by telephone during the appointed time. The Legal Advice Clinics for Veterans are popular with both veterans and local attorneys, and we will continue to facilitate virtual clinics in the immediate future while COVID makes in person clinics unsafe. Any attorneys interested in providing advice to veterans in upcoming clinics are encouraged to sign up online through the KBA website at https://www.knoxbar.org/index.cfm?pg=Upcoming-Legal-Clinics.

We are excited to offer a new way for interested attorneys to match with pro bono clients in the area through the Pro Bono Matters section of the Legal Aid of East Tennessee website. Pro Bono Matters is a new addition to our program and provides attorneys with the ability to survey available cases and sign up to represent a client through our website. A brief description of the client and their legal needs are provided and new cases are added regularly. Cases can be searched based on county, subject matter, and various other key factors. To check out cases currently available please visit https://www.laet. org/pro-bono-matters/.

October is Pro Bono month and we are incredibly grateful for all the support we receive from our local bar. Our program currently has approximately 300 open cases where we have matched clients with local attorneys: your continued, enthusiastic support makes such a difference in our clients’ lives. In recognition of Pro Bono month, we are working with the University of Tennessee School of Law clinic program to organize a phone advice clinic. If you are interested in participating please email me directly at ctorney@laet.org or fill out a volunteer form at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JPM2X6C.

Our annual fall fundraiser Forging Justice is fast approaching and although we will be unable to hold a live, in-person event this year we will be hosting a virtual event. There will be an online silent auction with a wonderful and diverse array of experiences and products generously provided by businesses from across East Tennessee. The event this year will be Derby themed, and we will be introducing a virtual horse race where you can support a local personality by donating to their “horse,” the horse with the most donations wins! Tickets are available on our website for $45.00 per ticket or two tickets for $80.00. Although we will miss being able to be together in person, we hope you will continue to support the quality work our program provides for local residents in need of legal services and join us to celebrate this year’s award winners.