Professor Barton is the Helen and Charles Lockett Distinguished Professor of Law and is the author of five books: The Credentialed Court, Fixing Law Schools, Rebooting Justice, Glass Half Full: The Decline and Rebirth of the Legal Profession, and The Lawyer-Judge Bias. Professor Barton is an expert in Supreme Court Justice backgrounds and access to justice issues. His law review articles have been published in the International Journal of Law and Economics, The Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, and the law reviews of the Universities of Toronto, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and California. 

Professor Barton has won the student-selected Harold C. Warner Outstanding Teacher Award and has been named the outstanding faculty advisor for UT Pro Bono three times. He also won the 2010 LSAC Philip D. Shelton Award for outstanding research in legal education. In 2014-15, he received a Fulbright Award to teach Comparative Law at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. 

Laura Brown brings more than 17 years of legal experience to the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services where she serves as Executive Director. She most recently worked as the Senior Deputy Director of Client Services for the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. She was responsible for overall management and direction of client services, including the implementation of strategic planning and regionalization; administration of grant programs; investigation and resolution of client complaints and grievances; contract compliance; and program development, implementation and evaluation. 

Previously, Brown served as general counsel at the Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability, where she worked on advocacy issues for seniors and vulnerable adults and was also involved in the investigation and resolution of complaints, legislative support and strategic planning. She also previously was an insurance defense attorney for Robinson, Smith and Wells in Chattanooga, Tennessee, general counsel for Goodwill Industries – Knoxville, Inc. and an adjunct professor at Volunteer State Community College. 

Brown received her juris doctorate from the University of Tennessee Winston College of Law with a concentration in business and transactional law and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in learning and leadership (public policy) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She also holds a Master of Arts in civic leadership from Lipscomb University and a Bachelor of Science in English education from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. 

 Among her many professional accomplishments, Brown wrote and received the Model Approaches to Statewide Legal Assistance Systems grant from the Administration on Community Living, which funded the design and implementation of the first statewide, free senior legal helpline in Tennessee. She also oversaw and implemented the Title IIIB Legal Assistance Program, which provides free legal assistance to Tennesseans over 60 years old. 

Lonnie T. Brown, Jr. is the Dean, Elvin E. Overton Distinguished Professor of Law, and Haslam Family Professor. He joined the Winston College of Law in 2022, after spending 20 years at the University of Georgia School of Law where he was the A. Gus Cleveland Distinguished Chair of Legal Ethics and Professionalism and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, the university’s highest honor for teaching excellence. From 2013 to 2015, he served as Georgia Law’s associate dean for academic affairs. 

Dean Brown’s research concentrates primarily on legal ethics in the adversary system, and he speaks and writes frequently in this area. He also has written a biography of former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark titled Defending the Public’s Enemy: The Life and Legacy of Ramsey Clark (Stanford University Press, 2019) and is a co-author of Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach (West Academic, 5th ed. 2023). 

Earlier in his career, Dean Brown was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and served as a visiting assistant professor at Vanderbilt University. In addition, he taught at Emory University as an adjunct professor. He also served as a judicial clerk for Judge William C. O’Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. From 1991 to 1999, he practiced law as an associate and a partner at Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Dean Brown is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the American Inns of Court. He also served on the Drafting Committee for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam and has been a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, a body responsible for issuing formal opinions interpreting the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Model Code of Judicial Conduct. In addition, Dean Brown served on the State Bar of Georgia’s Formal Advisory Opinion Board and is a longstanding member of the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. 

A dedicated teacher, Dean Brown has received numerous teaching awards throughout his career. He was the inaugural recipient of Georgia Law’s C. Ronald Ellington Award for Excellence in Teaching and received the Student Bar Association’s Professionalism Award on 15 separate occasions. In addition, he was selected five times to serve as an honorary faculty marshal at commencement by graduating classes. At the university level, Dean Brown served as an Administrative Fellow in the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, a Senior Teaching Fellow, and a member of UGA’s Teaching Academy. 

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Emory University, where he was a Robert W. Woodruff Scholar, student body president, and recipient of the Marion Luther Brittain Award, Emory’s highest student honor. He then earned his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was a Patrick Wilson Scholar and editor-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. 

Matthew Burnett is the Co-Founder and Senior Advisor of Frontline Justice. He is also Director of Research and Programs for the Access to Justice Research Initiative at the American Bar Foundation (ABF), a visiting scholar for Justice Futures at Arizona State University, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to serving in these roles, Burnett was Senior Policy Officer at Open Society Justice Initiative, where he worked to advance access to justice and legal empowerment through research, advocacy, and grantmaking in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the United States. Earlier in his career, he co-founded and led the Immigration Advocates Network and served as law clerk to Justice Z.M. Yacoob of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Burnett’s writing on access to justice and legal empowerment has appeared in more than 30 publications, and he has given more than 100 presentations and workshops around the world. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, the World Bank, and the International Development Research Centre. He serves as an advisor to the National Center for Access to Justice. 

Professor Chomsky is a scholar of legal history and a leader in the fields of teaching development and attorney licensing. Before taking emerita status, she taught courses in Contracts, Sale of Goods, Legislation and Regulation, and American Legal History, and she ran the year-round judicial externship program for the Law School. Her scholarly work has focused on attorney licensing reform, the history of women lawyers, American Indian legal history, and late nineteenth century American legal history, and she is co-author of innovative contracts and sales casebooks. She helped establish and lead the Law School’s Structured Study Group Program, the academic support program for first-year students. She was a long-time board member of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) and served as its co-President and as SALT liaison to the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. She is a member of the Collaboratory on Legal Education and Licensing for Practice, a group of scholars who study and write about the bar exam, licensing, and legal education. In 2024, she was appointed to serve on the Minnesota Supreme Court Implementation Committee to develop alternative pathways for attorney licensing in Minnesota. 

Professor Chomsky received a B.S. degree from Brown University and a J.D. degree, summa cum laude, from Georgetown University. After completing her J.D., she clerked for Judge Spottswood W. Robinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and practiced law in Washington, D.C. before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota Law School. 

Michael Galligan has been a practicing attorney in McMinnville, Warren County, Tennessee for fifty-four years. In 1971, Mr. Galligan graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law. Although he considered practicing in an urban area after graduation, he chose to return to relatively rural Warren County, Tennessee to begin his career. Later, Mr. Galligan established the Law Offices of Galligan & Newman in 1982. Mr. Galligan developed a robust criminal practice and tried many murder cases which spread his reputation across the rural Upper Cumberland area, including several now-called legal deserts. Over the years, Mr. Galligan has expanded his practice areas to include civil rights cases including gender, racial and age discrimination in employment, personal injury, products liability, medical malpractice and probate litigations. He has tried these cases in rural and urban venues, in state and federal courts, and at both trial and appellate levels. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Galligan has participated in many legal organizations throughout his career including being a member of the Tennessee Bar Association House of Delegates, the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Board of Governors as well as serving on the Tennessee Judicial Council. He enjoyed teaching Trial Advocacy as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Tennessee Winston College of Law for thirteen years. Most recently he has been on the Tennessee Bar Association’s committee concerning the Tennessee Supreme Court’s order concerning access to justice. 

Civically, Mr. Galligan has continually served the Upper Cumberland area, including 40 years as a member of the Board of Directors at Riverpark Hospital in McMinnville, Tennessee and Board of Directors as member and Chair of The Upper Cumberland Broadcast Council (governing board of WCTE Public Television station) in Cookeville, Tennessee and many other organizations and appointments. Additionally, he has also spoken at seminars on the subjects of trial advocacy and other legal topics. He is also the author of Mountains and Rivers of Warren County, Viola Valley Press 2017, a book of his paintings. 

Professor Griggs is an impactful scholar whose publications address regulatory licensing and the legal profession. Her recent articles, Outsourcing Self-Regulation, (Washington & Lee Law Review) and Bar Examination: A Verb, Not a Noun (Washington University Journal of Law & Policy) examine the regulatory impact of outsourcing bar admission and new pathways to attorney licensure. Her body of work has brought national attention to delegation and state involvement in attorney licensure. Professor Griggs serves actively on the governing boards of the Society of American Law Teachers, the Association of Academic Support Educators (AASE), and the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility. 

Professor Griggs is a graduate of Northwestern University and Notre Dame Law School. She is admitted to practice in Colorado and Texas. Upon graduation from law school, she was selected for the U.S. Department of Justice Attorney General’s Honors Program and later entered private practice in complex commercial litigation. In 2014, she was inducted into the Texas Jury Verdicts Hall of Fame. Professor Griggs is recognized nationally for her contributions to legal education and attorney regulation. In 2021, she received the Trailblazer Award from the AALS Section on Academic Support and in 2023, she received the AASE Impact Award. 

Hannah Haksgaard was born in Kentucky, but grew up outside of Yankton, South Dakota, where she received her K-12 education. Following law school, Professor Haksgaard clerked for the Honorable Roberto Lange of the District of South Dakota and the Honorable Kermit Bye of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Professor Haksgaard joined the University of South Dakota faculty in 2016. At the Knudson School of Law, Professor Haksgaard teaches and writes about Family Law, Property Law, and rural legal issues. She received the Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2023.

Mark McCall is the Legal Service Innovations Manager for the Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC).  Mark has nearly thirty years of public service experience as a middle school educator, HR administrator, and management professional in all three branches of government! A native of Phoenix, he is a Certified Court Manager (CCM) through the Institute for Court Management and holds credentials in Education, Political Science, and Public Management from Grand Canyon University, Northern Arizona University, and Arizona State University.  Mark served on the Arizona Board of Fingerprinting and as the chair of the Arizona Bar Foundation’s Law-related Education Committee.  He received the Gabe Zimmerman Public Service Award for Community Building in 2023 from the Center for the Future of Arizona.  His volunteer service includes work with Odyssey of the Mind, American Legion Boys State, Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure, and Disney VoluntEARS. 

John D. Murphy serves as the Executive Director of the Tennessee Bar Foundation, where he leads the organization’s mission to honor distinguished members of the Tennessee legal community, support public interest projects, and administer the state’s IOLTA program. A seasoned nonprofit leader and public servant, John has dedicated his career to fostering collaboration and building responsive systems that serve the public good. 

Previously, John was a Principal at the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, providing technical assistance and grantmaking support to municipal governments across the country. He also served as the Senior Advisor for Economic Inclusion for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, spearheading initiatives designed to enhance economic security and prosperity for all residents. His background also includes serving as an Assistant General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, where he provided critical legal counsel on state regulatory matters. 

John is deeply committed to improving the administration of justice in Tennessee. He is passionate about working collaboratively to bridge the justice gap and ensuring that the state’s most vulnerable populations have meaningful access to civil legal services that promote economic security

Eric Osborne is the Chair of the Tennessee Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission. An accomplished attorney and Professor of Contracts, Osborne sees litigation as an opportunity to protect his clients’ business and personal interests, to advance critical principles of justice and fairness, and to help people in times of crisis and need. Osborne focuses his practice on contract disputes, white-collar criminal defense, antitrust, and civil rights cases. He has briefed multiple matters before the United States Supreme Court and has tried over a dozen jury trials. 

In the last few years, Osborne has handled some of the highest-profile civil rights cases in Tennessee and, in doing so, has developed a reputation for taking on controversial cases across the political spectrum. Osborne’s recent work includes Hall v. Trump, which resulted in the end of solitary confinement in Tennessee, Ashe / Lawson v. Hargett, which challenges the constitutionality of a statute that criminalizes voting in political primary elections, and Newsom v. Golden, which was heard by the Tennessee Supreme Court and clarified the parameters of the Tennessee Open Meetings Act. For the past year, he has been the lead lawyer on behalf of the Covenant School Parents in Brewer v. Metro, a case that has drawn national attention for the parents’ effort to protect children from harm by preventing the release of a school shooter’s writings.  

Osborne is committed to the community. He serves as the outside general counsel to multiple non-profit clients. Osborne is also involved with legal aid and contributes substantial pro bono time every year. For example, in 2016, he helped draft an open letter to Secretary of State John Kerry that contributed to the State Department declaring that ISIS was committing genocide against the Christians in Iraq and Syria. Since 2019, Osborne has served as an inaugural member of the Legal Services Corporation’s Emerging Leaders Council, a national group of young leaders working to increase public awareness of and support for equal access to justice for low-income Americans. 

Joy Radice is an Associate Professor and the Director of Clinical Programs at the University of Tennessee Winston College of Law. She teaches in the Advocacy Clinic and launched the Expungement Mini-Clinic to train students to use a range of statutory tools to help their clients reintegrate after a criminal conviction. 

Professor Radice’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of criminal law and the administrative state, post-adjudication consequences for youth with delinquency records, and the gap in access to civil counsel. Her scholarship has appeared in a number of journals, including the Georgetown Law Journal, the Emory Law Journal, and the University of Colorado Law Review.   

Prior to joining Winston Law, Professor Radice was the 2008-09 NYU Derrick Bell Fellow and an Acting Assistant Professor at NYU School of Law. She has dedicated her legal career to serving those who cannot afford legal representation. After graduating from law school, she received a Skadden Public Interest Fellowship to launch the Harlem Reentry Advocacy Project to represent people facing collateral consequences of criminal convictions at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. This work inspired her research on expungement laws and the enduring impact that criminal convictions have on people’s lives. It also led to her community work in Tennessee to help people remove obstacles created by criminal convictions and to offer them a second chance to rebuild their lives. 

Paula Schaefer joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2008 and served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2019 to 2023. She teaches Professional Responsibility, Civil Procedure, Contracts, and Lawyering & Professionalism. She also coordinates and teaches in the Semester in Residence program. 

Schaefer’s scholarship considers issues of attorney ethics, fiduciary duty, professional identity, and leadership in the legal profession. Her articles have been published in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Maryland Law Review, Florida State University Law Review, and other journals. She is the co-author of Professional Responsibility in the Life of the Lawyer, the author of Developing Professional Skills: Civil Procedure, and the co-author of Developing Professional Skills: Professional Responsibility.  She also writes in the area of legal education reform, with a focus on professionalism issues. She was one of many authors of the book Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal Education in a Changing World. 

Schaefer serves as a subject matter expert for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam. She has received the Harold Warner Outstanding Teacher Award, the Bass, Berry & Sims Award for Outstanding Service to the Bench and Bar, and the Carden Award for Outstanding Service to the Institution. She regularly speaks on attorney ethics topics to various groups and is a contributing author to the Knoxville Bar Association’s “Schooled in Ethics” column. 

As a lawyer, Schaefer practiced in the area of business litigation at Shook, Hardy & Bacon and Bryan Cave in Kansas City, Missouri. After law school, she clerked for Ann K. Covington, the first woman to serve on the Missouri Supreme Court. A native Missourian, Schaefer’s claim to fame is that Harry S. Truman once called her “a cute little red-headed baby.” 

Crystal Schrof is a graduate of the University of Tennessee Winston College of Law. Upon graduation, she joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest Basic Energy Science laboratory. Her practice area at ORNL included environment, worker safety and health, radiological protection, nuclear safety and security, export control, national security, international agreements, and government contracting. In addition to working with the Laboratory’s Office of General Counsel, she served as Operations Manager for the Neutron Sciences Directorate, which operates the Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor. Upon retiring from ORNL, Schrof joined Strata-G, and provides consulting support to Stanford Linear Accelerator Complex, ORNL, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the National Nuclear Security Administration.  

Schrof served as attorney engagement director with Administer Justice, a national non-profit that works with the local church to establish legal ministries, from October 2022 to November 2023. In 2021, she was asked by Cokesbury Church to explore setting up a legal ministry. The Knoxville Legal Ministry at Cokesbury (KLMC) launched in April 2022 and has now served more than 775 clients. The KLMC was the first Administer Justice legal ministry in Tennessee.  

Schrof is a member of the Knoxville Bar Association’s Access to Justice Committee and serves as its co-chair. In 2025, she received the Community Award from Centro Hispano of East Tennessee for her legal service. She also served on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission Pro Bono and Community Engagement Advisory Committee. She is licensed to practice in Illinois and Tennessee. 

Memphis attorney Jennifer Sneed-Perry serves as the Tennessee Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division (YLD) president and is a member of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission. She has served as West Tennessee Governor for the YLD for the past two years. Sneed-Perry earned her law degree from The University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and serves as the director—legal/estates for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital—ALSAC. She has been recognized at the local, regional and national levels, and currently serves as a board member of the Ben F. Jones Chapter of the National Bar Association, the Community Legal Center, and REACH Memphis college preparatory organization. 

On February 1, 2024, Governor Bill Lee appointed Justice Mary L. Wagner to the Tennessee Supreme Court. The Tennessee General Assembly confirmed Judge Wagner’s appointment on March 11, 2024, and she has been serving on the Tennessee Supreme Court since September 1, 2024. Prior to serving on the Tennessee Supreme Court, Justice Wagner served as Circuit Court Judge, Division VII, for the 30th Judicial District.  

Prior to her appointment to the bench, Justice Wagner practiced at the Memphis law firm of Rice, Amundsen & Caperton PLLC. While at the firm, she taught at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis from 2012-2014 as an adjunct professor, teaching second-year law students advanced skills in legal writing and oral advocacy, and first-year students legal writing, research, and analysis.

Justice Wagner received her law degree from the University of Memphis in 2009, graduating magna cum laude.  While in law school, Justice Wagner served as a Notes Editor for the University of Memphis Law Review. She received a bachelor’s degree in 2006 from the University of Colorado, majoring in political science.

Judge Walden has been recognized for his commitment to integrity, service and justice in Tennessee’s Eighth Judicial District. Judge Walden, a 2013 graduate of ETSU, is currently the youngest trial judge in the state and has served on the Criminal and Recovery Courts since 2022. In 2024, he launched the 8th Judicial District Veterans Treatment Court, expanding support for veterans in Campbell, Claiborne, Fentress, Scott, and Union counties. Throughout his career, Judge Walden has held numerous leadership positions, including membership on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Technology Oversight Committee and as chair of the Tennessee Criminal Pattern Jury Instruction Committee. He also teaches criminal practice skills at Lincoln Memorial University’s Duncan School of Law and serves as secretary for the Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. Previously, he practiced law in Knoxville at Eldridge and Blakney, with appearances on “Killer Cases” and “Court Cam Presents: Under Oath.” He received his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2016, earning multiple academic honors. Judge Walden has been recognized by the American Bar Association’s On the Rise Award, Knoxville News Sentinel’s 40 Under 40, and the University of Alabama School of Law’s Rising Young Lawyer Award. He lives in Jacksboro, Tennessee, and remains active in his community and church. 

DarKenya W. Waller is the Executive Director of Tennessee’s largest nonprofit law firm, Legal Aid Society of Middle TN and the Cumberlands. She is an outspoken advocate for domestic violence victims and a champion for all underserved communities on the local, state, and national level. She was appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court to its Indigent Representation Taskforce in support of legal services for those who cannot afford it and appointed to the Criminal Justice Reform Investment Taskforce on the Probation and Parole Subcommittee by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. She serves on the Civil Council of the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association and on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services, Leadership Middle TN, and the African-American Project Directors Association, where she is President. She is a fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation, a member of Leadership Nashville, and a Nashville Business Journal recognized C-suite Executive. She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Nashville Alumnae Chapter, and has been an adjunct professor at both Vanderbilt and Belmont Law Schools on the subject of poverty law. She is the author of multiple articles on the subject of poverty law and has worked more than 25 years to ensure a more equitable and justice society for all. DarKenya is a graduate of Jackson State University, University of Mississippi – School of Law and Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi, where she earned her Master of Business Administration. She is married with five children.