PUBLIC INTEREST LAW AT VANDERBILT FAST FACTS
Vanderbilt offers students interested in practicing law in the public interest comprehensive preparation and support, including:
legal assistance to low-income veterans, screening indigent medical clinic patients for civil legal needs, and engaging in other unpaid legal work.
A robust upper-level and clinical curriculum n Opportunities to do pro bono legal work n Career advising support specifically tailored to public interest law n Post-graduate support, including short-term stipends for graduates who accept unpaid public interest positions and a Loan Repayment Assistance Program
Serve through Student Organizations Commitment to public service animates many of the student groups that make Vanderbilt a dynamic place. The Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society funds summer stipends through its popular Public Interest Stipend Fund auction. Student organizations such as Law Students for Social Justice, Law Students for Reproductive Justice, La Alianza, the Black Law Students Association, the Women Law Students Association and OUTLaw sponsor lectures on timely issues ranging from mass incarceration to reproductive rights and support law-related community initiatives.
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Learn to Advocate Effectively for Social Justice Students have access to a broad array of upper-level courses and clinics addressing such topics as the legal history of race, employment discrimination, non-litigation strategies for social change, renewable energy, poverty law, juvenile justice, criminal justice, immigration law and family law. Clinics allow students to gain practical legal skills advocating on behalf of indigent clients under the close supervision of faculty members who are experienced attorneys.
Read about Vanderbilt Law Public Service Initiative.
A Targeted Public Service Career Program Vanderbilt offers students seeking public interest careers — whether in government service, criminal defense, nonprofit advocacy organizations, legal aid offices or their own brand of social justice entrepreneurship — expert support. The Assistant Dean for Public Interest works closely with individual students who aspire to postgraduate work with nonprofit or government agencies. All students benefit from talks by practitioners representing many paths toward using a law degree for the greater good. Students may attend the annual Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair, the largest national public interest career fair, with support from Vanderbilt. The Public Interest Office hosts an annual Government and Public Interest Day where students meet representatives from public-sector employers, learn about the work they perform, and make connections that lead to internships.
Take the Pro Bono Pledge Students who take the Pro Bono Pledge commit to perform at least 75 service hours before graduation. To fulfill the pledge, students must perform at least 50 hours of pro bono legal work. The remaining 25 hours may be devoted to community service activities, such as book drives for local schools and Hike for the Homeless. Vanderbilt students donate hundreds of hours each year performing client intake at the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, providing civil
Assistant Dean and Martha Craig Daughtrey Director for Public Interest Spring Miller creates public interest law opportunities for students during law school and facilitates their entry to public interest careers. A former Skadden fellow and graduate of Harvard Law School, Dean Miller represented farmworkers and human trafficking victims in employment, civil rights and immigration cases for seven years as an attorney with Southern Migrant Legal Services, a project of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Dean Miller also teaches the Public Lawyer course and supervises in-Nashville externships.
Kate Uyeda and Tasia Harris are the Garrison Social Justice Scholars for the Classes of 2022 and 2023. Garrison Scholars receive supplementary tuition support and a summer stipend to enable them to launch careers at legal nonprofits by working pro bono as summer interns during law school. Kate plans to do voting rights work and spent summer 2021 working at the Fair Elections Center in Washington, D.C. Tasia worked for the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia in summer 2021 and plans to focus on education advocacy. “I came to law school with the intention of doing voting rights work, and the summer stipend support from the Garrison Scholarship is an enormous weight off my back,” Kate said.
“I’m extremely passionate about social justice, and I wanted to be directly involved on the ground. Vanderbilt’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program made that possible for me.”
Summer Stipend Support for Work in Unpaid Positions Each summer, 70 to 100 students receive schoolfunded summer stipends to support their work in unpaid legal positions at nonprofits, advocacy organizations, NGOs, federal and state agencies, public defenders’ and prosecutors’ offices, and in judicial chambers. VLS Public Service Pathways Designed for new lawyers pursuing public interest employment, Public Service Pathways enables new VLS graduates to gain valuable public-sector work experience as they continue to pursue permanent employment in a location of their choice. Graduating students secure volunteer legal internships with government agencies, in judicial chambers, with public defenders’ or prosecutors’ offices, or with nonprofit advocacy organizations, which are funded by VLS stipends after graduation. The PSP also provides financial assistance for bar preparation and stipend support for up to six months. Fellowship Support The Public Interest Office helps students identify and apply for legal fellowships that support their career interests, and Vanderbilt also funds postgraduate public interest fellowships through its academic programs and through Gideon’s Promise, which enables graduates to secure permanent work as public defenders. Recent VLS graduates have secured prestigious Skadden, Equal Justice Works and Reproductive Justice fellowships and have been selected for the Federal Government Honors Program. Gain Real-World Legal Experience Students in the Shade Tree Medical Legal Partnership provide ongoing legal needs assessment and referral services to indigent patients at a clinic where Vanderbilt Medical School students provide free care. Retired trial lawyer Kent Halkett ’81 supervises students as they interview patients and facilitate client referrals to available legal services.
BETH CRUZ |
SHADE TREE CLINIC TEAM members Jin Yoshikawa ’20, Kent Halkett ’81 and Emily Sachs ’20
“I wanted real-world experience, and at the Shade Tree Clinic you hear the stories of people who are really different from yourself and help them in a safe environment.” JIN YOSHIKAWA |
2010
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Metro Nashville Public Defender’s Office
Loan Repayment Assistance & Loan Forgiveness Public service law is challenging, rewarding and, all too often, low-paying. Most law graduates need to repay student loans, which can create an additional challenge to taking public interest jobs after graduation. To help overcome this hurdle, Vanderbilt Law offers a Loan Repayment Assistance Program that pays 20 to 50 percent of eligible graduates’ annual loan repayment obligation for up to 10 years. Graduates who work in government and nonprofit settings may be eligible for forgiveness of federal direct loans after 10 years of service.
2020
Read about Vanderbilt Law Public Service Pathways.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law Cara Suvall; Beth Cruz ’10, team leader of the Education Rights Project at Nashville Defenders; and Sarah Grey McCroskey ’14, assistant general counsel for Tennessee Department of Children’s Services discussed the challenges of advocating for children’s rights— educational, justice and “best interests” advocacy—at VLS. The Public Interest Office hosts frequent talks by attorneys working in the public interest throughout the year.
Gain Substantive Legal Experience during Pro Bono Spring Break Darrius Woods ’17 started Vanderbilt’s Pro Bono Spring Break Program in 2016 and hosted a team of students in 2019 who advocated for low-income homeowners victimized by predatory lenders and house-insecure seniors. Other Spring Break teams have worked with the Southeastern Immigrant Freedom Initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center representing immigrants detained by ICE; the Appalachian Community Federal Credit Union, where students created a financial services nonprofit to serve low-income people; with Equal Justice Works Fellow Wesley Dozier ’19 at Just City in Memphis, where students helped clients apply for waivers of court costs and expungements; and at the Mississippi Center for Justice on education and expungement cases and worker advocacy. Darrius launched his career as a housing advocate in Atlanta’s Westside neighborhoods as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. He is now a staff attorney with the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation and teaches on Vanderbilt’s adjunct law faculty.
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