HARRIS GILBERT PRO BONO ATTORNEY OF THE YEAR

This year’s Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award is presented to Memphis attorney John Golwen, an attorney in the Memphis office of Bass, Berry & Sims. The award recognizes private attorneys who have contributed a significant amount of pro bono work and have demonstrated dedication to the development and delivery of legal services to the poor. The award is named after Gilbert, a Nashville attorney and past Tennessee Bar Association president, who exemplified this type of commitment. Gilbert passed away in February 2023 at age 91.

John Golwen started working as a clerk for Memphis law firm Harris Shelton when he was 16. “My first task was clearing out a basement full of old litigation files.” A messy job, but being immersed in the environment got him interested in the possibility of law school. A Memphis native, Golwen went to Virginia after high school — first to William & Mary in Williamsburg for his Bachelor of Arts degree in government and then to Washington & Lee in Lexington for law school. He spent time in Washington, D.C. at the “Big Law” firm of Vincent & Elkins before returning to Memphis to clerk for a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals judge. Eventually, Golwen was tapped to be one of the first litigation partners at Bass Berry & Sims’ Memphis office.

“As a native Memphian, I knew there was a lot of generational poverty in Memphis. It’s not confined to ‘the other side of the tracks.’ You’ve got neighborhoods that are middle to upper middle class and then two blocks over is a housing project.” Golwen got involved in the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Memphis (BGC), an organization that seeks to enable all young people, “especially those who need us most,” to grow into their potential to be responsible citizens and assets to their communities. Golwen served on the BGC Board of Directors and places a high value on organizations that prioritize youth-oriented community involvement. “I want to work with organizations that are trying to help kids who didn’t have the chances that I did.”

Nine years ago, Golwen met Melvin Cole, a former gang member from South Memphis who had been in prison on felony charges. “Melvin went to Bowling Green State on a football scholarship, got injured and couldn’t play, so he came back to Memphis and fell back into gang activity — it was what he knew.” While incarcerated, Cole had a “prison cell conversion.” He told Golwen that he thought he had seen the worst things possible growing up, but “he saw even worse things in prison. He made a pact with God that if he got out, he would make sure that kids who look like him didn’t end up like him,” says Golwen.

Cole was true to his word. He created PURE Academy — Progressing Under Restraints and Extremes. PURE trains “young boys to excel in academics and athletics, while exposing them to many opportunities that will prepare them to become productive men. They are taught the importance of avoiding criminal activity and are encouraged to pursue positive social activities,” states Cole in his Headmaster’s Message on the website. “I saw an urgent need to assist underserved youth, mostly from single parent homes in high crime areas. Many of them have already experienced a run-in with our justice system. Most were academically deficient and others had either an association or membership in local gangs.”

Where, as a lawyer, does Golwen enter the picture? With the support of Bass Berry & Sims, which has a strong commitment to pro bono work, Golwen went to work to support Cole and PURE Academy. In 2022, he handled a private development (PD) application through the Division of Planning & Development, Land Use Control Board and Memphis City Council to obtain basic approval for PURE’s 3.5-acre campus in South Memphis. In 2023, he led a team working on the acquisition of a new 7-acre campus in North Memphis where PURE will be able to serve 300 young men, greatly expanding the number of youth served. Golwen’s nominator David Esquival, the pro bono member at Bass Berry & Sims, says, “This transactional legal work secured space for PURE to develop facilities to help break the cycle of generational poverty in Memphis by sending its graduates to college — almost always the first in their family to attend — and providing mentors who make sure the students have the support needed to succeed in college. By applying his skills and experience, John is helping to ensure that the organization and the young men that it serves have facilities to match its mission. This is pro bono work at its very best.”

“This is what Memphis needs,” Golwen says. “Melvin is changing lives. These are kids who are, quite frankly, on a trajectory to prison or death.” Over the last two years, Golwen has, individually and as a leader of a team of pro bono attorneys at Bass Berry & Sims, supported more than 300 pro bono hours representing PURE Academy in support of its mission. His leadership includes not only transactional legal work but also stepping outside his comfort zone to develop resources to meet the legal needs of PURE students in juvenile court. “We’ve developed a partnership with Memphis Juvenile Court and Judge Tarik Sugarmon and have proven the program’s success when juvenile offenders go through PURE rather than the typical path of juvenile detention,” says Golwen.

The court releases children in grades 9 through 12 who come into court with delinquency charges to board at PURE. These students continue to have obligations to the juvenile court and require continued representation. To ensure that these children continue to have the opportunities provided by PURE, Golwen takes on the representation of these students and works with firm attorneys to develop the skillsets they need to continue that representation.

Golwen says that right now, 23 PURE Academy graduates are in college on full scholarships, 21 of whom are first generation college students. “There is an 83% matriculation rate into college, compared to 37.5% of Black males in Tennessee. We recognize that it’s a full circle. New graduates want to come back to be mentors. When something is really working, people will support it. This is really working.”

ASHLEY T. WILTSHIRE PUBLIC SERVICE ATTORNEY OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Ashley T. Wiltshire Public Service Attorney of the Year Award is given to an attorney who has provided dedicated and outstanding service while employed by an organization that is primarily engaged in providing legal representation to the poor. This year’s award is given to Tyrone Paylor, first assistant federal public defender, Western District of Tennessee.

Tyrone Paylor majored in accounting at Austin Peay State University (APSU), became a certified public accountant and worked for the Tennessee Department of Revenue for years. How did he land in the federal public defender’s office in Memphis? “The weekend I graduated from APSU, my younger brother was involved in an incident that resulted in murder. He was in the car with the perpetrators, so he was caught up. And there I was, trying to be this young accounting professional while my family is going through this terrible thing back home in Memphis.” Paylor says his parents did not have a solid understanding of how the criminal legal system works and his brother’s case lingered for years. He met with his brother’s public defender on multiple occasions so that he could explain to his parents what was happening. “Through that experience,” he says, “I decided to go to law school. I wanted to help people.”

Paylor graduated from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 2000 with both his law degree and his masters in business administration. He went into private practice, but soon discovered that his family’s experience made it difficult for him to be a good businessperson. “I wanted to be a good lawyer and focus everything on my clients and help them understand what was happening with their cases. I didn’t pay as much attention to them paying the fees that I needed to keep the practice running. ” Soon, he sought a job where he could be an advocate for his clients and in 2008 took a position in the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee where he is now the first assistant federal defender.

Former Federal Public Defender Brian Mounce and Paylor’s nominator says, “Tyrone’s insights have helped many attorneys in their approach to client recidivism, rehabilitation and pursuing justice.” In his current role, Paylor supervises new attorneys who join the federal defender’s office. “I like to help younger attorneys and those without federal experience get comfortable in their roles. I can be a sounding board and help them learn how to be client-oriented and also responsive to the courts, and how to nurture relationships with opposing counsel.”

Mounce says that Paylor “has continually dedicated his career to the representation of folks who are amongst the lowest socio-economic class in Tennessee.” Federal defenders represent indigent clients who are charged with federal crimes, and they also assist the court in reviewing past cases when laws have changed to determine, for instance, if a defendant is eligible for a reduction in sentence. Additionally, they work with court-appointed panels of attorneys in private practice who have experience with federal law. “If there’s a conflict in a case, for instance if there are multiple defendants, our office can only represent one person, so someone from the panel would step in and represent the others. Or if communication with our office and a client deteriorates to the point that the client has filed a complaint against us, we will ‘conflict out’ to a panel attorney so that the client still has representation.”

In the wake of Tyre Nichols’ murder and the subsequent investigation of the Memphis Police Department’s (MPD) SCORPION Unit, Paylor discussed Fourth Amendment violations and legal challenges with The Marshall Project, a nonproft criminal justice journalism outlet. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizure. According to the news story, the MPD had “waged an intensive campaign to get guns and drugs off the streets, relying on extensive traffic and pedestrian stops that used unmarked police cars in largely minority neighborhoods. Most of the successful challenges identified . . . involved traffic stops and searches of pedestrians.” Many police stops and searches are never even challenged, Paylor said, and some officers simply don’t care if their actions violate people’s rights. “Some officers, from our experience, they’re just not trained enough to know where the boundary is from between ‘any means necessary’ and what is constitutionally allowed in interacting with the citizens.”

Paylor believes fiercely in the justice system working like it’s supposed to, though he does see room for improvement in terms of mental health care and severe substance abuse issues. He stresses that it’s important for people to understand that the criminal justice system needs to work for all of us. “If you start to chip away at the rights of a few people, eventually it could be everyone’s rights. Most people don’t think about what we do until they need us.” He states that victims’ rights are important, but that until there is a conviction, all rights need to be protected, Paylor also notes that wrongful convictions do happen and when those cases become apparent, the public defender's office works to make it right. “When I know that someone has been wrongfully accused and I can successfully get that case dismissed, it’s the best feeling for everyone involved.”

THE LAW STUDENT VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

The Law Student Volunteer of the Year recognizes a Tennessee law student who provides outstanding volunteer services while working with an organization that provides legal representation to the indigent. This year’s honoree is Kim Riddett, a student at the University of Tennessee College of Law.

“I’m lucky to be in the position I’m in, and I want to help people.” That is Kim Riddett’s guiding principle in her work as a third-year law student at the University of Tennessee College of Law. UT Law’s Director of Clinical Programs Joy Radice says, “Kim is a committed public interest law student who cares tremendously about helping those in need. She is a leader who is deeply committed to helping others and fighting injustice.”

Riddett’s journey to law school and LAET began at Lipscomb University in Nashville where she was a student in the Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society. The program focuses on learning about the legal system from a multidisciplinary perspective, including social work, justice and advocacy. Her experience in the program led her away from social work — which she says about a third of graduates go into — toward the legal system, which accounts for approximately another third of the program’s participants. “They really focus on teaching you how to think about issues from different angles and to not look at a problem just through your own lens and lived experiences.”

The Second Chance Expungement Clinic, a Knoxville Urban League initiative, works to find avenues “to help participants where we can, to help them wade through a somewhat ambiguous process and learn what is and is not eligible for expungement,” Riddett says. “Things that seem easy when you’re in a position of privilege, like filling out paperwork and paying fees, are often exponentially more difficult for people who need the help of an expungement clinic. Access to resources, like transportation or even something as simple as internet or a printer, might look different depending on what position you’re in.” Expungement clinics help people remove a lot of barriers that impede them from moving on with their lives.

According to Caitlin Torney of Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET), Riddett is first to volunteer for any opportunity to work closely with clients, supporting the Eviction Prevention Program’s efforts at detainer court, serving as a witness for will signings across the community and providing support at summer legal clinics. Torney states, “Kim went above and beyond in her support for the Second Chance Expungement Clinic, spending an entire Sunday ahead of the inaugural clinic organizing client criminal histories, analyzing cases and setting up case files. The next day, Kim came to the clinic and stayed for the entire five hours to support attorney volunteers as they learned how to work with expungement clients. Her outstanding performance and unwavering commitment as a law clerk and law student volunteer led to her being awarded the prestigious 2023 LAET Pro Bono Law Student of the Year.

In addition to her work with LAET, Riddett volunteers for as many pro bono opportunities, like the Veterans Clinic, that arise through UT Pro Bono, and she and three other students took on an important leadership role last year to coach a mock trial team at Knoxville’s Fulton High School. Riddett helped develop a curriculum to train the students and brought them to the law school to practice. The Fulton students earned high scores at the district-level high school mock trial competition. The law students hard work created a strong foundation upon which the team could build. “It’s such a great way to connect to the community,” Riddett says. She serves as the current co-chair of OUTLaw at UT Law School, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and fostering a supportive and inclusive community within the law school. She has worked to partner with LAET to support their Pro Se Name Change Clinic and get the group more actively involved in the community outside of the law school. Riddett thrives in making space for people who can help make the community better and will continue making a difference filling a gap in legal services for those in need.