On a hot summer day in 1994, Lt. Gov. John Wilder fondly memorialized his longtime friend, fellow Democrat, and Senate colleague, the late trial lawyer Avon Williams Jr.

Only a few years before, Williams had been one of just a few Democratic state senators who broke rank to support Wilder in his bid to retain the speakership of the Legislature’s upper chamber. Wilder was being challenged because his fellow Democratic senators were convinced that he was getting too chummy with the Republicans across the aisle. They wanted Wilder, an eccentric figure, to cut out the bipartisan tactics.

Ultimately, Williams, a Nashvillian, voted for Wilder, who hails from West Tennessee. Williams’ vote turned out to be crucial, and Wilder still serves as Senate speaker today.

Wilder didn’t forget his friend’s loyalty. When Williams died after serving 22 years in the Senate, the speaker promised publicly that he would find an appropriate way to remember the noted civil rights attorney.

A man of sentimentality and high honor, Wilder has filed legislation to make good on his promise. He wants the Legislature to authorize the Tennessee Board of Regents—which runs a system of six state universities and even more community colleges—to negotiate the purchase of the beleaguered Nashville School of Law. Wilder also suggests the school be renamed the Avon N. Williams School of Law.

Williams didn’t attend the Nashville School of Law, which is unaccredited and which is Tennessee’s only part-time, night law school. Still, Wilder apparently thinks that saving the school would be a worthy way to pay tribute to Williams’ good name. The school, which has churned out dozens of lawyers who have gone on to become elected judges in Davidson County and elsewhere in Tennessee, is in danger of being closed because it can’t afford the upgrades that would permit it to become an accredited law school.

Officials at the school estimate that it would cost them something like $17 million to hire full-time faculty and make other changes the American Bar Association requires for accreditation. The issue is crucial for the school because the Board of Law Examiners—the agency that regulates who can and can’t practice law in Tennessee—may soon require that anyone taking the bar exam in Tennessee must have graduated from an accredited law school.

Why accreditation is necessary is a mystery to local lawyers. The percentage of Nashville School of Law graduates who pass the bar exam is not particularly low. School supporters say accreditation is costly and would, in turn, mean the cost would be passed on to the students. That, they say, would defeat the purpose of the school, which is to offer a solid legal education at a low cost.

But if the Board of Law Examiners is hell bent on requiring those who take the bar to come from accredited schools, the Nashville School of Law may have no other options than to raise the money, seek help from the state, or close up shop.

Institutional memory

Intentionally or not, the Nashville School of Law has become more than just a training ground for productive lawyers—it has also bred powerful political dynasties, in Nashville and across the state.

The school counts among its graduates former U.S. Sens. Al Gore Sr. and Harlan Mathews and businessmen like Tom Cone and the late John Tune, each of whom has left his mark on Tennessee business and politics.

Flamboyant Circuit Court Judge Barbara Haynes didn’t go to law school until after her children were older. But when Haynes did decide to become a lawyer, she found it much more practical to attend night classes, especially since they would cost her a fraction less than the tuition charged by private law schools such as the one at Vanderbilt University.

When Barbara Haynes attended the night school, it was known as the YMCA Night Law School. From its inception in 1911 until 1986, classes for the school were held at the downtown YMCA

In 1982, about five years after graduating from the Nashville School of Law, Haynes ran for a Davidson County judgeship, essentially on a whim. She has since become a fixture at the Metro Courthouse. Haynes and her husband, state Sen. Joe Haynes, who was first elected to the Legislature in 1984, are recognized as crucial go-to people for anyone who’s interested in seeking a county office. Candidates seek out their support, and enemies fear their abilities to raise money and run stealth campaigns.

Frank Clement Jr., son of the late Gov. Frank Clement, is also a Nashville School of Law alumnus. Clement now sits as a Davidson County Probate Judge. But he is hardly unique. More than half of the county’s general sessions judges graduated from the night law school.

Since 1986 former Circuit Court Judge Joe C. Loser Jr. has served as the school’s dean. He oversaw the school’s move from the cramped and noisy quarters at the downtown YMCA to a 15,000-square-foot building on Sidco Drive off Thompson Lane. The school keeps expenses down by employing only Loser and a small support staff full-time. All other employees are part-time, and none of the school’s trustees, including board member Aubrey Harwell, is compensated.

Other school alumni include Vice Mayor Jay West, who, like many others who graduate from the Nashville School of Law, has never begun a legal practice, and current state Rep. Bill Boner, who, after being accused of cheating, was allowed to graduate from the school but never took the bar exam.

Graduates of the private, not-for-profit school include 55 judges, four district attorneys, 41 assistant district attorneys, 25 city attorneys, a public defender, 21 assistant public defenders, and four state legislators.

Patrons and alumni of the school, as well as members of the Nashville Bar Association, fear that losing the school would create a void in Middle Tennessee. Both East and West Tennessee have affordable public law schools, located at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and at the University of Memphis, respectively.

Even if the Nashville School of Law has to change its name or even its location, it seems logical that it might be taken over by the state university system and relocated somewhere in Middle Tennessee. At any rate, that is Wilder’s plan.

Pride of place

There’s no reason to think Wilder’s legislation won’t pass both houses of the General Assembly. Already, the historically black Tennessee State University and the historically white Middle Tennessee State University are jockeying for position, should the Board of Regents buy the school. Also ready for the fight are Sen. Thelma Harper, who represents the district that encompasses TSU, and state Sen. Andy Womack, who represents MTSU’s hometown of Murfreesboro and who also chairs the Senate Education Committee.

Harper and Womack would like to claim the school for their respective districts. Meanwhile, Wilder may feel the need to extend a peace offering to Harper, whom he recently assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was not an assignment that Harper wanted, and after a public spat, she turned it down.

“What [Wilder] wants is for the school to be located on the Avon Williams downtown campus of TSU and for the state of Tennessee to control the school,” Harper says. She says her recent disagreement with Wilder over the committee assignment was blown out of proportion and that Wilder has been briefing her on the School of Law situation.

“He called me in the other day to discuss this, and I think if he were upset with me, he wouldn’t have taken me into his confidence,” Harper says.

The presidents of both universities also have a lot to gain—or to lose, as the case may be. Like Sens. Harper and Womack, each university would consider it an honor to have the Nashville School of Law relocated on its campus. After all, bringing a professional school to a university is hardly a small accomplishment.

Legal fees

Meanwhile, one factor has been overlooked in the discussion of Wilder’s legislation: Nobody has asked the Tennessee Board of Regents what it thinks.

For the upcoming year, the Board of Regents is faced with a $24 million budget cut for its system of universities. Judging from the reaction of Board of Regents Chancellor Charles Smith, it’s likely the board will say thanks-but-no-thanks to Wilder’s idea. If that happens, Wilder and others will have to find another way to save the school.

“The basic position we’ve taken is obviously that we’ve got a lot of respect for Gov. Wilder,” says Smith, himself a former education commissioner for the state. “And we also respect the value of the law school. But in all honesty, it would be very difficult for us to be planning or taking on additional things at this time.”

Smith says he’s had only one conversation with Wilder about the proposal. “It was very brief. Just as a courtesy, he was letting me know he was planning to move in that direction.”

Womack agrees that it’s unlikely that the timing is right for the Board of Regents to take over the school. That’s why he has arranged for the Middle Tennessee State University Foundation, to begin negotiations with the Nashville School of Law. Womack serves as president of the foundation.

“Our foundation has already been empowered to pursue conversations with the Nashville School of Law over the possibility of purchasing it,” says Womack. “I do not see this as a good year for the board of regents to negotiate with the Nashville School of Law.” If the foundation bought the school, Womack explains, the state would not have to spend any money.

Loser, dean of the Nashville School of Law, says he likes the idea of the foundation purchasing the school, because it would require him to jump through fewer hoops. Still, Loser says it doesn’t matter to him where the school goes, just so long as it can continue to offer its students inexpensive and convenient classes.

“The location of the Avon Williams campus, being close to the Tennessee Supreme Court building and the center of state government, is very desirable,” he says. “On the other hand, MTSU is just 30 miles away and is in a better financial position.”

It appears relatively likely that MTSU will get the school. If that happens, an era will come to an end. It would be a coup for the entire Middle Tennessee community to have an accredited law school, one that would offer both day and night classes. But it would mean a farewell to a Nashville institution whose graduates have taken pride in its status as an underdog.