Attorney Profiles

Administration

Executive Director

Gary Housepian is a graduate of Houghton College and a 1977 graduate of the University of Detroit Law School. He became Executive Director of LAS in July 2007. From 2002 to 2007 he was Managing Attorney of the Disability Law and Advocacy Center of Tennessee (the state’s protection and advocacy program). From 1997 to 2001 he was managing attorney with LAS’s Murfreesboro office. He has also worked as a trial attorney in private practice and as the General Counsel to the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and then as General Counsel to the Tennessee Department of Human Services. He has worked as a staff attorney with the Tennessee Justice Center, the Legal Aid Society in Knoxville and as a VISTA attorney with Legal Services to Migrant Farm Workers in El Mirage, Arizona. He has served as a Hearing Committee Member for the Board of Professional Responsibility and as Chair of the Board of the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services. He has received many awards and recognitions, including the Arc of Tennessee Outstanding Community Leadership Award in 2005. He is a Fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation. He is also a member of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission’s Resource Development Committee. His interests include playing basketball and softball and following the Detroit Red Wings and Tigers. 

General Counsel

Neil McBride is a 1970 graduate of the University of Virginia Law School. He worked as a staff attorney with Ralph Nader in Washington, D. C. In 1972 he formed a community-based public interest law firm in Tennessee’s Appalachian coal fields. In 1978 he founded and became director of Rural Legal Services of Tennessee, a position he held until consolidation with the Legal Aid Society in 2002. He was lead counsel in a case before the Tennessee Supreme Court that clarified the constitutional rights of natural parents in termination proceedings. He was formerly an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he taught a course on representing nonprofit corporations. He has conducted on-site evaluations of more than 100 legal aid programs throughout the country. He is a Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation, a member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services and a member of the Tennessee Bar Association’s House of Delegates. In 2006 he was appointed to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense, the ABA’s primary policy-setting body on issues related to legal assistance to the poor. He also serves on the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission’s Court System Advisory Committee. In September 2009 President Obama nominated him to the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a nonpartisan, part-time position.

Assistant General Counsel

David Kozlowski is a 1974 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School. He was a clinical instructor at the Vanderbilt Legal Clinic from 1975 to 1980, at which time he joined the Legal Aid Society. In 2001 he worked with the Tennessee Justice Center on several class action cases. In 2002 he became Assistant General Counsel to the Legal Aid Society. He has been lead counsel on many significant state and federal court decisions in Tennessee involving prisoner and juvenile rights. He is the author of leading reference works on Tennessee unemployment security law and chapters on juvenile and general sessions appeals in Tennessee Appellate Practice and Tennessee Law of Children. He is a frequent presenter at local, state and national training events. David received the Tennessee Bar Association’s award as the Public Service Attorney of the Year in 1998. In 2008 he was appointed to the Advisory Commission to the Supreme Court on Rules and Practice and Procedure. He was a hearing officer for the Board of Professional Responsibility from 2002 to 2008. He was for many years a certified high school soccer referee.

Clarksville Office

Managing Attorney

Kevin Fowler is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and a 1990 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law. Before joining the Legal Aid Society in 1993, he worked in private practice and with Memphis Area Legal Services. At MTSU he received the Norman L. Parks Award in Political Science and at UNC he received the American Jurisprudence Award for Torts.

Staff Attorney

Columbia Office

Managing Attorney

David Kozlowski (See Administration, above.)

Staff Attorneys

Joshua Decker attended undergraduate and law school at the University of Chicago. He graduated from law school and joined the Legal Aid Society in 2006. At law school, he worked with the Police Accountability Project of the Mandel Legal Aid clinic and was the recipient of two law school grants for summer public interest internships. He was a law clerk in Nashville with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and with the Federal Public Defender’s Office. He speaks Spanish.

Rae Anne Seay is a 2008 graduate of the Nashville School of Law, where she received the Founder’s Award for being first in her class. She has a Bachelor in Social Work degree from Harding University and a Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Tennessee. Before attending law school, she worked for ten years in the public child welfare system. She is a member of the Cooper’s Inn Honor Society and was a student member of the Harry Phillips American Inn of Court. At law school she was the recipient of the Angela Ash Camp and the Lance Bracey Scholarships. While in law school she also interned with the Tennessee Department of Human Services’ General Counsel’s Office; clerked with the Tennessee Office of the Attorney General, and worked full-time with the Legal Aid Society as a law clerk and grant writer. She joined the Columbia office in 2009. She is the Chair of the Juvenile and Children’s Law Section of the Tennessee Bar Association, an appointed member of the Tennessee Children’s Justice Task Force and Co-Chair of that organization’s Court Improvement Committee. She is also a member of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Court Improvement Law Committee, where she focuses on laws and rules affecting children. She is a member of the Maury County Community Advisory Board to the Department of Children’s Services.     

Cookeville Office

Managing Attorney

Marla K. Williams is a l988 graduate of the University of Louisville School of Law. She joined the Legal Aid Society in 1988. She served as a District representative on the Board of the Tennessee Bar Association's Young Lawyer Division from 1995 to 2000. She coordinated the YLD’s high school mock trial competitions in her district. She has served on the advisory boards of the Tennessee Vocational Training Center and Consumer Credit Counseling. She serves on the boards of Putnam County Court Appointed Special Advocates and the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services. She is a graduate of Leadership Putnam and has been a member of its Board of Trustees since that time. Marla has taught law and paralegal studies at Volunteer State Community College. From 1997 to 2003 she served as a member of the Hearing Committee of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. She is from Clay County.

Staff Attorneys

William Bush is a graduate of Princeton University and a 1978 graduate of Case Western Reserve University Law School, where he was an editor of the Law and Housing Journal and of the Law Review. He was a national board member of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council and a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow with Southeast Tennessee Legal Services.  He joined the Legal Aid Society in 1982. He spends one day a week in private practice, formerly as a consulting attorney with the Tennessee Justice Center and now in private practice. He is a 2008 recipient of the B. Riney Green Award for promoting inter-program cooperation and otherwise strengthening the provision of legal aid in Tennessee. He successfully litigated one of the nation’s first private enforcement actions under the Family and Medical Leave Act. He holds an American Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section Development Fund Fellowship and is Associate Editor of the Section’s publication, The Family and Medical Leave Act.  He has been appointed chair of the ABA’s FMLA Subcommittee of the Federal Labor Standards Legislative Committee of the Labor and Employment Law Section. He is past president of the Upper Cumberland Trial Lawyers Association and was the founder and co-chair of the board of Dismas House of the Upper Cumberlands in Cookeville.

Rachel Moses is a 1999 graduate of Centre College and a 2002 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law. In law school she was the founder and coordinator of the Family Justice Project and the Pet Project (which assisted victims of domestic violence by establishing a network of veterinarians and others who could keep pets) and was coordinator of the VITA taxpayer assistance program. She was a student attorney at the UT Legal Clinic and clerked for two summers and one semester with the Legal Aid Society’s Oak Ridge office. She is Vice-President of the Putnam County Bar Association and a graduate of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law Program for outstanding young lawyers. She is a District Representative for the Tennessee Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division and coordinates the YLD’s local high school mock trial competition. She also serves on the Pro Bono Advisory Committee of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission. She is past President of the Cookeville Breakfast Rotary Club and serves as an Assistant Governor for Rotary International District 6780. She is also the 2009-2010 President of the Cookeville Evening Lions Club. She serves on the board of Girls Incorporated in Oak Ridge, coaches youth basketball and serves on the Board of Directors for the Putnam County Youth Basketball League. 

Gallatin Office

Managing Attorney

Steven Christopher is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and a 2002 graduate of Harvard Law School. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Vanderbilt University. While in law school he was an editor of the Human Rights Journal, worked as a mediator in small claims court and interned with the Appleseed Center for Electoral Reform and the Labor Law Project. He also participated in the school’s civil legal clinic at the Hale and Dorr Center. Upon graduation he was an associate with the Labor and Employment Practice Group of the firm of Pepper Hamilton in Philadelphia. He formerly clerked for West Tennessee Legal Services. While attending Divinity School, he volunteered with the Legal Aid Society’s Domestic Violence Unit. Before attending law school he was an associate minister for four years in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he was active in programs serving families in need.   He initially joined LAS in 2002. In 2006 he left for about a year to work in private practice in Clarksville, and rejoined Legal Aid in 2007.

Murfreesboro Office

Managing Attorney

Barbara Futter is a 1989 graduate of American University Washington School of Law. She joined the Legal Aid Society as a staff attorney in 2000. From 1990 to 1995 she was an Assistant Public Defender in Nashville. In 1994 she took a leave of absence to volunteer with the Legal Aid Society. From 1996 to 2000 she worked at Dismas House, a program for released inmates with nine sites in five states. In 1997 she helped organize the Living Room, a program under which homeless people help other homeless people become more stable, which still operates in Nashville. From 2001 to 2003 she taught a class at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, designed to help inmates learn to live more healthy lives in prison and to prepare them for life in the free world. In 2005, the Tennessee Bar Association awarded her its Public Service Attorney of the Year Award for 2004-2005.  She is the founding board member of the Brain Injury Relief and Education Fund and serves on the Board of Directors of the Brain Injury Association of Tennessee.  

Staff Attorney

Andrae Crismon is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and a 2003 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was Associate Editor of the Journal of Transnational Law. In 2006 he was the In-house Counsel/Director of Operations for Victory 2006, the coordinated campaign for the Democratic Party in Tennessee. He also worked with the Office of General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Health and clerked with the Honorable Inez Smith Reid, District of Columbia Court of Appeals.  His personal interests include golf, fishing and reading John Grisham novels. He serves as pastor of a church in Murfreesboro.  

Nashville Office

Managing Attorney and Director of the Nashville Pro Bono Program

Lucinda Smith is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and a 1976 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School. After clerking for the Davidson County Chancery Court, and practicing with the State of Tennessee and in private practice, she served as Managing Attorney of the Legal Aid Society’s Family Law Section from 1987 to 1990. From 1991 to 2003 she was with the firm of Dodson, Parker Dinkins & Behm. She returned to the Legal Aid Society to direct The Nashville Pro Bono Program, a joint venture of the Legal Aid Society and Nashville Bar Association. She has served as First Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Board of the Nashville Bar Association. She was Nashville’s Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year in 1995. She is an adjunct professor at the Vanderbilt University Law School, where she teaches a course in family law. She is former Chair of the Metro Human Relations Commission and is active in the Lawyers’ Association for Women and the Tennessee Bar Association’s Access to Justice Committee.

Lead and Staff Attorneys

Jean Crowe, Lead Attorney for Family Law, is a 1981 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School. She has a Diploma from the Institute on International and Comparative Law, Paris, and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Northwestern University, Evanston. She joined the Legal Aid Society in 1985, after several years of private practice in Madison, Wisconsin. She is a frequent presenter at local, state and national events on the topic of Domestic Violence. Nationally, she has been elected to the ABA Section of Family Law governing council and serves on the governing council of the ABA Government and Public Sector Lawyers. She is the Family Law Section’s liaison to the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence and to the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services as well as chair of the Pro Bono Awards Committee. She is a monthly columnist for the Family Law Newsletter and a member of the Board of Editors of the Family Law Quarterly. In Tennessee, she is a member of the Executive Council and Code Commission of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Domestic Relations Committee. She served on the original Tennessee Child Support Commission, which formulated the state child support guidelines and the subsequent Child Support Advisory Task Force. In Nashville, she was instrumental in founding the Domestic Violence Death Review Team and is its current chair. She is Chair of the Board of Directors for the Nashville Coalition Against Domestic Violence and a member of the Harry Phillips American Inn of Court.

Katie Evans is a 2007 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, where she was the recipient of the Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz Student Leadership Award and a Tennessee Judicial Conference Foundation Scholarship. While in law school she served on the Executive Board of the Student Pro Bono Project, was Project Coordinator for Saturday Bar and was a founding member of the Child Law Society. She volunteered at Legal Aid of East Tennessee before law school and clerked there during her last two years of law school. Before joining the Legal Aid Society in 2008, she was in private practice in Knoxville, where she specialized in child welfare and family law. She works on health, benefits and children’s issues.

Linda Narrow McLemore is a 1990 graduate of the National Law Center of George Washington University, where she participated in the civil legal clinic and interned with the Food Research and Action Center and the Migrant Legal Action Program. She joined the Legal Aid Society in 1990 and works with the Health and Benefits Unit. In 2001-2002 she took a leave of absence to assist the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services on issues related to its compliance with recent federal class action orders. She works on health, benefits and children’s issues.  

Robert Nadler, Tennessee Taxpayer Project, is a1972 graduate of the University of Illinois School of Law. Mr. Nadler, who is a certified public accountant, worked for 30 years as an attorney/manager in the District Counsel Office of the Internal Revenue Service in Nashville. In 2002, he joined the Legal Aid Society’s Tennessee Taxpayer Project, which represents low-wage workers who have controversies with the IRS. Mr. Nadler has taught tax procedures at the Nashville School of Law and the Vanderbilt University School of Law. He has published several articles on taxpayer rights.  In 2008, he wrote “The Innocent Spouse Manual,” which is used by low income tax clinics throughout the country.

Russ Overby, Lead Attorney for Health and Benefits, is a graduate of Wheaton College and a 1974 graduate Vanderbilt Law School. He worked at the Legal Aid Society in Nashville from 1974 until 1993 and was lead counsel in several significant federal and state cases involving public benefits and the rights of children in state institutions. He was a Clinical Instructor at Vanderbilt from 1974 to 1977. In 1993 he became managing attorney of the Legal Aid Society’s Murfreesboro office. From 1997 to 2005 he worked as the Welfare Reform Lawyer at the Tennessee Justice Center. He rejoined the Legal Aid Society in 2006, where he now works on housing and public benefits cases. He has written and conducted trainings for national audiences on public benefits issues. He received the State Advocate of the Year Award from the Tennessee Conference on Social Welfare in 1998 and the Harry Chapin Advocacy Award from MANNA in 1997. In 2008 the Tennessee Bar Association awarded him its public service attorney of the year award, which this year was renamed The Ashley T. Wiltshire Public Service Attorney of the Year Award, in honor of the Legal Aid Society’s recently retired, long-time Executive Director..

Chay Sengkhounmany is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and a 2003 graduate of Georgia State University College of Law.  She previously worked for the Immigrant Legal Clinic of the Tennessee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence where she represented immigrant victims of domestic or sexual violence, trafficking or stalking.  She has conducted local and national trainings on immigration relief for abused victims.  Her VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) Motion to Reopen and VAWA Board of Immigration Appeal brief are being used as national training models by Advanced Special Immigrant Survivors Technical Assistance. She has also worked extensively with the GSU College of Law’s Low Income Tax Clinic and with the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel in Atlanta.  Shortly after law school, she wrote a book on the history of the Lawyers Club of Atlanta.  She is a 2009 graduate of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law Program for outstanding young lawyers. She staffs the Medical Legal Partnership between the Legal Aid Society and the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. 

David Tarpley, Lead Attorney for Housing and Consumer Law, is a 1971 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School. He joined the Legal Aid Society in 1971 and became managing attorney of the Consumer Section in 1974. He holds the Herman O. Loewenstein, Chair, named for the donor of a generous endowment to support consumer advocacy in Nashville. He has practiced extensively in the field of consumer law and is a frequent presenter at local, state and regional training. He served for 26 years on the Board of Directors of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Middle Tennessee. He has been on the adjunct faculty of the Vanderbilt University Law School since 1986 and teaches a course on consumer credit protection. He is on the faculty of the Nashville School of Law, where he teaches a course in Consumer Protection. In 1997 he received the Tennessee Bar Association’s award for the Public Service Attorney of the Year.  In 2003 the Nashville Business Journal identified him as one of the outstanding 100 lawyers in the Nashville bar. David is an avid amateur musician and plays French horn with the Trevecca Symphony Orchestra.

DarKenya Waller.  Mrs. Waller is a 1999 graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law.  She earned a Masters of Business Administration from Belhaven College in 2005.  Mrs. Waller was a solo practioner in Jackson, Mississippi, where she specialized in domestic law and real estate.  She also worked with Chinn & Associates, PLLC, one of the premier domestic relations firms in the state.  From 1999 to 2001 she worked with the Mississippi Attorney General’s office, Division of Medicaid.  She also established and ran a Technology and Communications company that represented clients such as the City of Atlanta and the National Conference of Black Mayors.  Mrs. Waller is licensed and admitted to the Mississippi and Tennessee Bars.  She serves as Chair of the Family Law Task Force for the Tennessee Alliance of Legal Services.  She now works on family and housing issues.

Oak Ridge Office

Managing Attorney

Neil McBride (See Administration, above.)

Staff Attorneys

Lenny Croce is a 1973 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School.  He joined the Legal Aid Society in 1978. He was formerly in private practice in Colorado and managed a branch office of the Denver Legal Aid Society. He was lead counsel before the U.S. Supreme Court in Block v. Neal, which held the Farmers Home Administration liable for the negligent inspection of defective home construction. He has been lead counsel in major litigation involving housing, public benefits and health care. In 1996 Mr. Croce received the Tennessee Bar Association's Public Service Attorney of the Year award. He works part time with the Tennessee Justice Center, with whom he conducts state-wide class action litigation. He has taught pre-trial litigation at the University of Tennessee College of Law and served on the board of East Tennessee Technology Access Center. He is counsel to Habitat for Humanity for Anderson County and regularly works on Habitat construction projects.  

Mary Michelle Gillum, Coordinator, Tennessee Taxpayer Project, has an accounting degree from the University of Tennessee and is a 2000 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law. She began working with the Legal Aid Society in 2000 with a full fellowship from Equal Justice Works. While in law school, she was active in Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law. She interned in LAS’s Oak Ridge office for two summers and one semester. In 1998 she received an award from EJW as one of the nation’s outstanding public interest interns. She received the law school’s William Leech Jr. Public Service award. Before attending law school she worked as an accountant and as a teacher in welfare-to-work programs for low-income women. She is co-chair of the ABA Section on Taxation’s Low Income Taxpayer ESL Taxpayer Subcommittee. Ms. Gillum is former Chair of the Campbell County School Board. In 2004 she received the B. Riney Green Award from the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services, for outstanding efforts to promote collaboration among legal aid programs. She was twice invited to present training to IRS examiners on working with low-wage and limited-English proficient taxpayers. She has also been invited to advise the Commissioner of the IRS on systemic issues related to low-income taxpayers. She was a participant in the Tennessee Bar Association’s 2006 Leadership Law program for outstanding young lawyers. She is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Continuing Legal Education Committee. She is from LaFollette.

Mary Lyn Goodman is a 1997 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law. At law school, she was a member of a national trial team and a volunteer at a women’s shelter. She joined the Legal Aid Society in 1997. She directs the Oak Ridge office’s Pro Bono program. She is a member of the Anderson County Elder Abuse Review Board and is a policy advocate on behalf of the East Tennessee Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. She  currently serves as President of the Board of the East Tennessee Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and Chair of the Board of the East Tennessee Regional Health Councils.  She is past President of the Anderson County Bar Association and is from Knoxville.  She is a 2008 graduate of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law Program for outstanding young lawyers.     

Janet Mynatt is a 1993 graduate of the University of Virginia Law School. She joined the Legal Aid Society in 2001 as an AmeriCorps attorney working with victims of domestic violence. She previously worked with a private law firm representing Social Security disability claimants. She primarily handles housing, consumer and Social Security cases, and edits and updates the Legal Aid Society’s Sixth Circuit Social Security Manual. She first began working with the Legal Aid Society as an in-house pro bono attorney in 1998. In 2005-2006 she was a National Consumer Law Center Fellow. She is a 2009 graduate of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law Program for outstanding young lawyers. She is Treasurer of the Anderson County Bar Association and is from Oak Ridge.

Theresa-Vay Smith is a 1996 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law and the Tennessee College of Business MBA program.  She joined the Legal Aid Society in 1997.  While at law school, she was a member of a National Trial Team and Moot Court Board and active in the legal clinic.  Upon graduation, she was a volunteer attorney with the Knoxville Legal Aid Society.  She is President of the board of directors of CASA of the Tennessee Heartland and past president of Community Mediation Services of Anderson County.  She is chair of the Foster Care Review Board for Anderson County.  She is a 2005 graduate of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law program for outstanding young lawyers. She was appointed as a member of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law Steering Committee for 2009 and 2010.  She is on the editorial board of the Clearinghouse Review, a national publication of the Shriver Center on Law and Poverty.  She serves on the board of directors of Chalet Ice Rinks, Inc., in Knoxville, where she coaches and teaches competitive ice skating.  She is from Knoxville. 

Tullahoma Office

Managing Attorney

Norm Feaster is a 1980 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he was a leader of several student public interest groups. He holds an MA in International Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University.  He joined the Legal Aid Society in 1980 and became managing attorney in 1991. He is an avid runner and triathlete, and competes throughout the region.  He is currently president of the board of Friends of the South Cumberland Recreation Area, which includes Savage Gulf, Foster Falls, Fiery Gizzard, Stone Door and Buggy Top Cave. He regularly hikes and backpacks in the desert southwest, where he leads archeological surveys and trail maintenance hikes.    

Staff Attorneys

Amelia Miller Luna is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and a 2003 graduate of the University of Memphis, Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.  She joined the Legal Aid Society upon graduation.  While at law school, she worked with the Elder Law Clinic.  She was also an editorial board member of the Tennessee Journal of Practice and Procedure and a member of the Moot Court Board, Phi Delta Phi and the Christian Legal Society.  She is the District Seven Representative to the Young Lawyers Division of the Tennessee Bar Association and is a participant in the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law Program for outstanding young lawyers. She is also the secretary for her high school alumni association.

Nikylan Knapper is a 2005 graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Law. She held a judicial externship with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Arkansas. She worked for two years as an Assistant Public Defender with the Office of Metropolitan Public Defender in Nashville and then entered private practice, where she focused on litigation, family law, criminal law and bankruptcy. She is a board member for Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee. Her personal interests include archery and baking cupcakes.