Attorney Profile

ATTORNEY PROFILE By: Carol Anne Long

Associate Director UT College of Law Career Center

PATHWAY TO TENNESSEE: MEET DEAN LONNIE BROWN

Teachers can have a profound impact on our lives, and you would be hard-pressed to find a better example of this truism than in the life of the University of Tennessee College of Law’s newest Dean.

The son of educators, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr. was born in Orlando, Florida (serendipitously, in the same hospital where Dean Emeritus Doug Blaze was born) and was raised in Daytona Beach. While in high school, Lonnie represented his school at American Legion Boys State, serving as Secretary of State, and he was then selected to represent the state of Florida at Boys Nation, where he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. When it came time to consider colleges, it was Lonnie’s school guidance counselor who, recognizing his extreme talent and potential, insisted that he apply for the elite, newly-established Robert W. Woodruff Scholarship at Emory University. Lonnie was awarded the prestigious, full-ride scholarship, and went on to serve as student body president of Emory. In that role, he had the distinct honor of serving as an aide to Emory Distinguished Professor and former President Jimmy Carter, introducing President Carter at the annual Carter Town Hall meeting and observing the great negotiator during his work against apartheid.

Although he initially intended to pursue a career in medicine, a summer spent working as a phlebotomist at a hospital changed his mind. His heavy involvement in student government and his past experiences with Boys State and Boys Nation caused him to switch his focus to law school and a future in politics. Once again, his outstanding credentials led to a full scholarship, this time at Vanderbilt Law School. On the day of graduation, Lonnie was approached by two of his favorite professors who strongly encouraged him to consider becoming a law professor, something he had never considered. Lonnie already had postgraduation employment lined up: a two-year clerkship with U.S. District Judge William O’Kelley of the Northern District of Georgia, followed by an associate position at Alston & Bird in Atlanta. However, the professorial seed planted by his Vanderbilt professors began to germinate.

During Lonnie’s eight years at Alston & Bird, he became a partner, and he spent several years serving as an adjunct faculty member at Emory School of Law. Lonnie was then offered the opportunity to serve as a visiting professor at Vanderbilt, so he negotiated a leave of absence from Alston & Bird and taught Professional Responsibility for one semester. That experience caused the seed to take root and sprout, and he decided it was time to pursue a career as a law professor.

After teaching at the University of Illinois College of Law for three years, he was offered a position with the University of Georgia School of Law. He and his family happily escaped the cold and returned to the South. While at Georgia, Professor Brown taught Civil Procedure, Ethics, Conflicts of Laws, and Georgia Practice and Procedure. He also spent a year as an Administrative Fellow as part of a newly-formed program to expose professors to the operations of central administration, working closely with the university’s Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. This introduction to administrative work led to his being named Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the law school in 2013. When, several years later, he made the decision that he wanted to serve as the Dean of a law school, he knew that it couldn’t be just any law school: it had to be the right law school. Fortunately, Lonnie’s wife, Kim, is a Knoxville native, and Lonnie had spent a great deal of time in Knoxville over the years. He also already knew several UT College of Law faculty members, so when the position of Dean became available, he knew that this was the right law school. He was particularly impressed with the College’s values of professionalism and leadership and the emphasis placed on practical training and public service. Praising the work of Dean Blaze and Dean Melanie Wilson, Lonnie reports that he wants to continue the growth and positive momentum cultivated by his predecessors.

Lonnie and Kim are the devoted parents of two grown children (Sophie and Olivia) and two dogs (Winston and Huggy Bear). When he’s not running the College of Law or teaching, he enjoys running, reading, and following his favorite sports teams – which, of course, include the Vols and the 2022 NBA Champions, the Golden State Warriors (he has actually been a fan since the late 1970s). During his tenure at Georgia, he also found the time to author “Defending the Public’s Enemy,” the seminal biography on former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The 10-year odyssey from inception to publication of the book permitted Lonnie to spend a significant amount of time with the subject of his work, as he examined the life of the man who oversaw the drafting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and later became the defender of a vast array of controversial and perplexing clients.

From his parents to his high school guidance counselor to his law school professors, teachers have profoundly impacted the trajectory of Lonnie Brown’s life, and it is now the UT College of Law’s great fortune that the path to the role of law school Dean has led him here. He will teach and lead us well.