Lauren Sudeall

Thankful for the opportunity and excited to be featured in the latest episode of "Quantum Potential" with @VanderbiltU Provost @ccybeleraver, talking about how and why it is so important to work toward a more people-centered justice system. open.spotify.com/episode/1H5QJ7…

@mjburnett Thank you!

This semester in Con Law I, I played a song clip at the beginning of each class (starting wk 2) and asked the students to guess the relevance. Bonus points for anyone who wants to try - here’s the playlist for Fall 2024 😉 open.spotify.com/playlist/64DVW…

“In the first six weeks of the school year, 18 kids were arrested for making threats of mass violence. A third of them have disabilities, more than double the proportion of students with disabilities across the district.” propublica.org/article/tennes…

What an incredible gift to be able to facilitate these moments of connection and to play a small role in amplifying our shared humanity. #accesstojustice #VanderbiltLaw law.vanderbilt.edu/access-to-just…

They hoped to continue these conversations - and we'll talk in our last law school class session next week about ideas for doing so.

Several of the inside students said they were leaving the class more hopeful than they had entered -- hopeful that there are law students wanting to make a difference and people working to change the law.

In our last class this past Tuesday, one woman emphasized the importance of creating spaces for dialogue "between the people who make laws and the people living those laws."

Part of what I loved most about the class was that it intentionally placed all of the students on a level plane, rather than having students interact through a lawyer-client relationship.

I was less sure what the inside students would gain from it, but was relieved to hear that they found it valuable as well.

At times, the outside students found it sobering and other times shocking; but across the board, they found it impactful.

They learned a great deal about how the criminal legal system works in practice, and how it feels to experience that system from a very different perspective than we often hear in law school.

The outside students developed and facilitated meaningful conversations about justice, access to justice, the role of lawyers, alternative models of legal services provision, and reform.

As with many new endeavors, I wasn't sure how it would go. We had some bumps along the way -- including having to reschedule our first class due to a COVID-lockdown at the prison -- but overall, it proved to be a truly phenomenal experience.

This fall, I piloted a new access to justice class at @vanderbiltlaw. It was intended to create a collaborative and two-way learning environment for law students (+ one divinity school student) and students incarcerated at the women's prison in Nashville - a 🧵

Just looked up my GA sample ballot ... if you (like me) would like to know more about the constitutional amendments on there, here's some info. from @wabenews wabe.org/the-three-meas…

Hallowe’en ready 🎃

So glad to see efforts (here by @MarshallProj and others) to make more information available on local elections (including judicial elections), which are so important. We need more of this. themarshallproject.org/cleveland/judg…

Vanderbilt - Alabama. Unbelievable. #AnchorDown

Belated gratitude for a lovely chair installation event @vanderbiltlaw. It was wonderful to share how I view my professional trajectory with colleagues, students, friends & family. And so thankful to Justin Driver and @JSteinbergProf for such kind & generous remarks.