In the Spring 2024 semester, Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law (LMU Law) is once again offering the Police Law, Policy, and Practices seminar for upper-level law students. Developed and taught by Associate Dean Melanie Reid, this two-credit course brings together students, experienced attorneys, and law enforcement officers to discuss a variety of issues related to policing and the law in an interactive manner that emphasizes respectful dialogue and bilateral information sharing.
The seminar is offered through a synchronous distance education platform. This allows for the deployment of breakout rooms for students and law enforcement to meet and discuss complex issues police officers are currently facing, and it ensures more direct engagement between the two. Initially offered in Spring 2022, the seminar has returned this year following rave reviews from the students and law enforcement involved.
This semester, the Police Law, Policy, and Practices seminar is being offered in collaboration with four other ABA Consortium member law schools: Memphis, Penn State Dickinson, Quinnipiac, and Roger Williams. Fifty students from all five law schools are enrolled in the course. Approximately forty law enforcement officers are scheduled to participate, including several officers from the Knoxville Police Department.
Several LMU Law students also have participated in the Consortium’s fellowship program. Third-year student Shannon Gill completed her fellowship in the Fall 2023 semester, and former fellow and current fourth-year student Kimberly Trotter co-authored an article in the most recent ABA Criminal Justice Section magazine. The article, entitled “Lawyers (in Training) in a Criminologists Court: The Consortium Explores a Multidisciplinary Approach.” focuses on information gathered by the fellows at the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in May 2023.
LMU Law Vice President and Dean Matt Lyon has served on the Dean’s Advisory Committee for the Consortium since August 2023. The group of deans, along with Acting Director of the Consortium Jessalyn Brogan Walker, met last month at the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. to discuss the Consortium’s progress and opportunities for further collaboration between law schools.
The Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law is located 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.
