Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law (LMU Law) Vice President and Dean Matt Lyon has announced the promotion of Anna Rickels to director of bar success and assistant professor of law.
In this position, Rickels will coordinate LMU Law’s extensive supplemental bar success programming for its graduates. She will also teach the law school’s required bar success courses, which focus on both the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) and Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) portions of the Uniform Bar Examination. This will require her to work with the law school’s faculty and staff to develop new bar success courses in line with the NextGen Bar Exam currently being developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and scheduled to be administered for the first time in 2026. At the same time, she will provide tailored advising and mentoring to LMU Law’s students and graduates to help them develop essential skills for law school, bar exam, and practice success.
“Helping our students prepare for and pass the bar exam in the jurisdiction of their choice is a central component of our mission at LMU Law,” Lyon said. “Professor Rickels’ experience in our academic and bar success program and her passion for helping our students succeed academically and professionally make her the ideal candidate to lead our bar success program during this time of change. We are fortunate that Anna has agreed to serve our students and graduates in this essential role.”
Rickels joined the faculty of LMU Law in 2020. Since that time, she has served as an assistant professor of law working closely with students as part of LMU Law’s robust academic and bar success program, which is designed to enable students to develop and apply legal knowledge and essential lawyering skills. She has worked with both first-year students adjusting to law school and with upper-level students and recent graduates who are preparing to sit for the bar exam.
“I am thrilled for this opportunity to step up and collaborate with all my amazing colleagues to further our mission of preparing students to help meet underserved legal needs. Our students are exceptional, and I consider myself lucky to be in a position where I can teach and work with and for them to bolster their success and support them as they achieve their goals,” said Rickels. “With the upcoming NextGen Bar Exam, I’m excited to innovate and adapt so that our program and our students are on the leading edge of skills-based, realistic preparation to practice law in our community and beyond.”
A 2014 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, Rickels spent most of her legal career with Oberman and Rice in Downtown Knoxville. She worked as a criminal defense associate attorney from 2016 to 2018, and she also clerked there for two years during law school. She started her career as an attorney at Tennessee Elder Law, LLC. In 2019, Rickels served as the UT College of Law’s reentry fellow working with the ExpungeTN Project, which provides legal services to those who struggle to overcome their criminal records.
The Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law is in Knoxville’s Historic Old City Hall Building. LMU Law is an integral part of LMU’s values-based learning community and is dedicated to preparing the next generation of lawyers to provide sound legal service in the often underserved region of Appalachia and beyond.
