Member Appreciation CLE & Holiday Mixer: Second Chances: Women, Sentencing Reform, and the Path to Parole in Tennessee with Special Guest, Cyntoia Brown Long. Holiday Mixer at 5:30pm

This 2-hour CLE's goals are to educate attendees on the evolution of Tennessee's life with parole sentencing framework and key appellate decisions. Our panel will humanize the impact of these rulings through lived experiences and advocacy perspectives. We will introduce LAW's new Parole Assistance Project, pairing lawyers and law students to assist women preparing for parole hearings. We hope to inspire member engagement and collaboration through stories of transformation and reform and show that through pro bono opportunities like this one, attorneys develop increased capacity to strive for and to achieve the highest, aspirational levels of professionalism, and have better well-being, optimism, resilience, relationship skills, and energy and engagement in their practices.

One 60-minute panel moderated by Jenny Charles will include Cyntoia Brown Long, Kathy Sinback, and Sparkle Johnson to share personal stories of incarceration and working through the clemency and parole processes with the attorneys sharing the impact this work has had on their professionalism, well-being and resilience through their careers.

Then, Angie Bergman will provide 30 minutes of background on the legal evolution of life with parole sentencing in Tennessee, focusing on landmark cases. She will explain how these decisions have shifted the legal and moral understanding of long-term incarceration, especially for women and youth offenders.

The final 30 minutes of programming will include a discussion with Angie Bergman and Dawn Herrington of Free Hearts, an advocacy organization supporting women pre and post incarceration, regarding partners in the movement to help vulnerable incarcerated people. They will also discuss support available from Choosing Justice Initiative, which coordinates volunteers to assist inmates with post-Booker parole hearings.

NOTE: This course is approved for 2 hours of General CLE Credit, which will be provide to LAW Members at no charge.

LAW’s annual Holiday Mixer will immediately follow the CLE programming, at 5:30pm. Please join us for all or any portion of this exciting event!