Our efforts are currently directed at admitted students. We send out an email from the current student President of the OutLaw organization to all admitted students.
Yes, all admitted students receive a congratulatory email from the presidents of all of our underrepresented student organizations.
Effective Fall 2022, the Admissions Office with the help of the Dean of Diversity and Inclusion will be establishing a post-admission, post-seat deposit, online survey where students can elect to self-disclose.
This post-admission survey is currently in development with rollout anticipated beginning with incoming 1Ls in the Fall of 2022.
We provide an option to list preferred names, but we also must include legal names for transmission to the TN Higher Education Commission.
Our faculty recruitment committee employs best practices to attract and recruit diverse faculty and advertises in non-traditional media, including through the National Bar Association.
This series of questions is difficult, as it puts a professional colleague in the position of identifying an individual’s “public” self-identity, when many individuals intentionally keep their public social identity separate from their public professional identity; it’s not a fair call to make, so I erred very conservatively against “guessing.”
This series of questions is difficult, as it puts a professional colleague in the position of identifying an individual’s “public” self-identity, when many individuals intentionally keep their public social identity separate from their public professional identity; it’s not a fair call to make, so I erred very conservatively against “guessing.”
We do offer parental leave to qualifying employees, and there are covered procedures through health insurance benefits that can be found on the providers plan documents. These are vetted through the State of TN Benefits Administration Office in Nashville: https://www.tn.gov/partnersforhealth.html
This would be a question for the insurance carriers who are contracted through the State of Tennessee Benefits Administration Office. All of the plans and their covered procedures can be found under the plan documents. https://www.tn.gov/partnersforhealth.html
The University of Memphis does not provide any health insurance options for students. Students needing health insurance can purchase insurance through the Tennessee Board of Regents Student Heath Insurance Exchange or from another provider, if preferred.
The University of Memphis does not provide any health insurance options for students. Students needing health insurance can purchase insurance through the Tennessee Board of Regents Student Heath Insurance Exchange or from another provider, if preferred.
Our University Counseling Center provides a range of counseling services to students. They conduct an intake interview with each student and work to assign each student a counselor who is knowledgeable about the issues and with whom they are likely to be comfortable working through sensitive concerns once they know the student’s specific concerns. They report that all counselors work with students who present with concerns including those related to LGBT+, transgender, and non-binary patients.
The law school offers two options for all-gender restrooms in our building. On the first floor of our building in the Student Lounge, there is a single-stall, non-accessible, all-gender restroom. On the fourth floor of our building, there is a multi-stall, accessible, all-gender restroom. Both restrooms are listed on the University of Memphis’s list of Gender-Neutral Restrooms. The signage on both restrooms has a picture of a man and a woman. The accessible restroom also has an accessible sign.
Discrimination & the Law
The group receives funding from the University of Memphis’s fund for student organizations.
For summer 2022, we have already awarded travel stipends to students attending the Lavender Law conference.
The law school’s policy is that of the University of Memphis generally, which can be found here. The University’s reporting process is set forth here.
The University of Memphis requires mandatory anti-discrimination and harassment training upon hire of all employees.
Memphis Law provides mandatory diversity and inclusion training to all incoming students with the option to attend additional sessions on culturally competent lawyering throughout the 3-year program. Faculty are currently offered optional training on teaching cultural competence in law school classes. Additionally, prior to COVID-19 restrictions/precautions and increased alternative working arrangements, faculty, and staff were mutually given quarterly opportunities to explore inner cultural competence that incorporates robust LGBTQ+ and anti-racism curriculum. We hope to resume these sessions soon. All faculty, staff, and students are offered the opportunity to receive Safe Zone training from the University of Memphis.
Recently, Memphis Law promoted its inaugural faculty Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion to ensure that Memphis Law takes measures that produce positive cultural shift and promote a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment in a sustainable way.
Additionally, Memphis Law provides generous funding opportunities to diverse student organizations including OUTLaw, Memphis Law’s LGBTQ+ student organization. This funding generously supports student events, speakers, promotion of the organization, and student travel to conferences and other events.