Eager legal beagles from across nation head to Lipscomb's first Law Camp

Janel Shoun | 

Fifty high school students from Tennessee and states as far away as Maryland will present their ideas for dealing with immigration reform before a panel of Nashville’s leading thinkers at the conclusion of Law Camp 2008 on Friday, June 13. The 10 a.m. presentation will round out a week of total immersion in social justice issues and firsthand experience in a variety of legal issues facing today’s professionals.

Students will research, write and present on Friday their vision of an immigration reform policy, addressing the path toward citizenship, family reunification, undocumented workers and protecting civil and due process rights of everyone.

Lipscomb’s Law Camp 2008, held June 8-13, will allow students to learn from local high-powered attorneys, lobbyists, elected officials, law enforcement officers and corporate executives including:
  • Mayor Karl Dean
  • Chief of Police Ronal Serpas
  • Dick Cowart of Baker Donelson
  • Stephen Fotopulos, policy director, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition
  • Doug Howard, senior vice president, Lyric Street Records
  • Sandy Bledsoe, director of risk management, Vanderbilt Hospitals
  • David Esquivel of Bass Berry & Sims
  • Lynn Morrow of Adams and Reese
  • Bob Wood of Boult Cummings
  • Laura Narion, senior director of executive and community relations, CMA
  • Larry and Lance Bridgesmith of Waller Lansden

The week-long, residency camp for 9th- through 12th-graders is the second such residency camp in the nation and will allow participants to explore sports and entertainment law, health care law, social justice issues, the court system and the legislative process. Participants will see, hear, experience and practice all the aspects of the legal profession.

For example, students will spend 10 hours during the week working with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, to prepare for their final presentations. On Thursday, from 1 to 4 p.m., students will practice their lawyering and presentation skills by video-taping each other’s impromptu presentations, participating in active exercises to learn persuasion techniques and other hands-on activities.

During the camp, students will also experience Music City USA by enjoying the annual CMA Festival through the lens of a lawyer. Local lawyers will lead students through the festival while discussing intellectual property rights, liability issues and contractual rights.

A third of the registered participants are receiving minority scholarships thanks to sponsorships from three Nashville law firms: Boult Cummings, Bone McAllister Norton and Frost Brown Todd.

Many of these students will arrive at camp with compelling stories to share with the group to deepen the level of discussion on each topic. Most of the students have known they wanted to be lawyers all of their lives, though some came to that conclusion due to negative interactions within the legal system they witnessed through family experiences.

“We hope to encourage the next generation of professionals by providing a deeper exposure to contemporary social and legal issues. This camp puts participants in touch with today’s leaders and will hopefully inspire them to pursue this noble profession and to set high standards for themselves. We are going to give them a behind-the-scenes look at what happens in the legal arena outside of just what they see on Law and Order,” said Charla Long, director of the Institute for Law, Justice & Society at Lipscomb University.