Equal Justice University

Equal Justice University - October 9th through October 11th at Millennium Maxwell House in Nashville, TN

Millennium Lobby

Equal Justice University (EJU) is the annual gathering of approximately 250 lawyers, advocates, social worker professionals, and pro bono attorneys involved in providing civil legal assistance across Tennessee. EJU provides a unique opportunity for this community to gain up to 15 hours of Continuing Legal Education credit(CLEs/CEUs) through workshops, task force meetings, and networking. The EJU experience not only renews the civil legal service community’s commitment to equal access to justice in Tennessee, it also introduces new pro bono lawyers, community advocates, and law students to this important mission.

EJU Offers Continuing Education for Social Workers

It is clear that social workers and attorneys benefit equally from certain types of advocacy training. Therefore, TALS offers both legal CLEs and social work CEUs for 6.0 hours on at least one day of EJU. As an example of sessions, in the past we offered TennCare Update, Poverty, Rights, and Public Policy, and Cultural Diversity. This opportunity is the result of the collaborative work between TALS and the NASW-TN Chapter.

EJU Sponsorship OpportunitiesEJU 12 Sponsors

By sponsoring EJU, organizations, corporations, and community members receive individualbenefits as well as the opportunity to support the providers of civil legal services for the poor, elderly, and victims of domestic violence across Tennessee. See the current list of Class of 2012 EJU Sponsors to the right. TALS is thankful for the commitment of these organizations in supporting excellent service across the state of Tennessee.

EJU Scholarships

TALS, the Tennessee Bar Association, and our sponsors have contributed to the EJU Scholarship Fund.   If you are an advocate for low-income Tennesseans OR a current law school student and you need financial assistance attending EJU, you can apply for a scholarship to attend the conference!

EJU Advocate Scholarship
In these tough economic times, legal aid programs cannot afford to send all their advocates to this amazing training opportunity, so in 2010 TALS created the EJU Advocate Scholarship Fund. Now, for a $250 donation to the EJU Scholarship Fund, a deserving advocate is offered the chance to attend EJU at no cost. This small donation has a broad reach, because it touches not only the individual advocate, but it enhances the quality of the civil legal services for the poor, elderly, and victims of domestic violence across Tennessee.

EJU Law Student Scholarship
Many law students are passionate about serving their communities and interested in public interest law, but cannot afford to attend EJU. Therefore, in collaboration with the TBA’s Access to Justice Committee’s Law School Sub-Committee and Tennessee's law schools, we developed the EJU Law Student Program and associated scholarship opportunities. The EJU Law Student Scholarship Fund offers students a chance to apply to have their $100 attendance fee, their two day lodging costs, or both covered  in full by an EJU Scholarship. These scholarships have a broad reach, because they touch not only the students’ lives, but enhances the future engagement in and quality of civil legal services across our state.

Access to Justice Awards2012 ATJ Awards

At EJU each year, the Access to Justice Awards are presented to deserving advocates from across the state of Tennessee. The B. Riney Green Award celebrates the advocate who has demonstrated strong inter-program cooperation and the New Advocate of the Year Award celebrates advocates who have excelled within their first five years of work. See the 2012 Access to Justice Award winners here.