Nominations for the Rodney K. Smith Award

We are now taking nominations for the Rodney K. Smith award, which recognizes a student’s exemplary pro bono legal work throughout his or her entire law school career (with a focus on quality rather than quantity).  If you know of anyone deserving of this award, please send an email to tmrshbrn@memphis.edu by this Friday (April 10th) at noon.  Included in the email should be the nominee’s name, class, and a paragraph about their accomplishments and why you think they deserve this award.  Thanks!

The process, as laid out in the P.A.L.S.’s Constitution, is as follows:

The Rodney K. Smith Award requires legal service as opposed to general, non-law related work and is presented by P.A.L.S. and the Dean of the Law School to one or more students in recognition of their exemplary pro bono legal work. The nominee must not have received any type of financial reward, which includes grants from service organizations, for his or her service. Nominations for the Rodney K. Smith must include at least one letter of reference, the Career Services Pro Bono Form with signature and contact information of the supervisor of the work, and a brief statement from the nominee as to the nature and content of their legal work.

Nominations are accepted from faculty, from organizations sponsoring student pro bono work, from P.A.L.S. members, and from general members of the Law School student body. The Executive Officers of P.A.L.S. will evaluate each nominee based on the amount of hours contributed and the type and quality of the work performed, and then present a recommendation to the Dean of the Law School, who makes the final decision as to who shall receive the Award. In the event of a tie, the P.A.L.S. Faculty Advisor may vote on the recommendation. In the event of a conflict of interest or the appearance thereof, the affected board member(s) will recuse themselves from the decision-making.