About Professor Hillman
Professor Hillman joined the faculty at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in the fall of 2017. She currently teaches Legal Methods I & II, which focuses on legal research, writing, and analysis; Professional Responsibility, which addresses the goals, rules, and responsibilities of the American legal profession and its members; and Gender & the Law, which explores the progression of LGBTQ+ rights and includes an advanced legal writing component.
Prior to joining the Memphis Law faculty Professor Hillman taught Legal Process I & II as an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law from 2010-2017 and undergraduate and graduate level classes on Business Law & Ethics and Employment/Labor Law at Tusculum College from 2003-2017. In 2013, Professor Hillman was an organizing member of the Tennessee Marriage Equality Legal Team that challenged Tennessee’s constitutional and statutory bans on recognition of valid out-of-state same-sex marriages in the case Tanco v. Haslam. In 2015, the Tennessee Tanco case was consolidated with Sixth Circuit cases from Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky to become Obergefell v. Hodges. The Obergefell case was argued before the United States Supreme Court in April 2015, and on June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court held those laws unconstitutional, resulting in nationwide marriage equality.
Professor Hillman regularly presents at conferences and continuing legal education seminars on LGBTQ+ related issues. Recent appearances include speaking engagements with the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section addressing state bans and criminalization of life-saving, gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and local and state bar CLE presentations addressing LGBTQ+ protections in employment and beyond following the Supreme Court’s 2020 Title VII decision in Bostock v. Clayton Co., Ga..
Professor Hillman received her J.D. summa cum laude from The University of Tennessee College of Law and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. During law school, she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Tennessee Law Review and received the highest section grade in thirteen classes. She received her B.A summa cum laude from the University of Memphis. During law school, Professor Hillman externed with Judge James H. Jarvis II in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee and served as a Research Assistant for Dean Richard Wirtz. Following law school, Professor Hillman worked as a litigation associate at Bass, Berry & Sims and at Hunton & Williams, focusing on commercial business and healthcare litigation, commercial contract disputes, environmental claims, and labor/employment issues.
Professor Hillman's scholarship focuses on the progression of LGBTQ+ rights; the expansion of federal nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ+ American workers; the ongoing battle for Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students; the reach of Title VII’s workplace protections and Bostock’s impact on other federal nondiscrimination statutes; the need for permanent, consistent LGBTQ+ protections; and the recent dangerous trend of state legislatures banning potentially life-saving, medically-necessary, gender-affirming care for transgender youth despite all major American medical associations identifying the treatment as the recommended standard of care.
Education
J.D., The University of Tennessee, summa cum laude; B.A., The University of Memphis, summa cum laude.
Professional Admissions
Tennessee; U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee; U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; United States Supreme Court
Experience
Adjunct Professor of Law, Legal Process, The University of Tennessee College of Law (2010-2017); Adjunct Professor of Law, Business Law & Ethics/Labor & Employment Law, Tusculum College (2003-2017); Tennessee Marriage Equality Team Member (2013-2015); Associate, Hunton & Williams (2003-2004); Associate, Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC (2001-2003); Research Assistant, Dean Richard Wirtz, The University of Tennessee College of Law (2000); Judicial Intern, Hon. James Jarvis, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (1999).
Publications
A Rainbow of Reasons Why State Bans on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth Cause – Rather than Prevent – Harm (tentative title) (in progress 2023) (analyzes
the growing trend in Republican-majority led state legislatures to pass laws banning potentially life-saving gender-affirming care for transgender youth, despite all major American medical associations supporting such treatment as the recommended standard of care and raising objections to such harmful laws, and the constitutional violations alleged in current legal challenges to the bans.
Beyond Title VII: LGBT Protections and the Ongoing Battle Over Bostock’s Impact on Other Federal Non-Discrimination Statutes, (in progress 2023) (addresses the current court battles over Bostock’s application to non-Title VII federal sex discrimination statutes, including those that provide protections based on sex in education, healthcare, housing, and credit).
The Battle Over Bostock: Dueling Presidential Administrations & the Need for Consistent & Reliable LGBTQ+ Rights, 32 Am. U.J. Gender Soc. Pol’y & L. ___ (forthcoming 2023).
Title VII Discrimination Protections & LGBT Employees: The Need for Consistency, Certainty & Equality Post-Obergefell, 6:2 Belm. L. Rev. 1 (2019).
Deviant to Dignified: From Campbell v. Sundquist to Tanco v. Haslam: The History & Progression of LGBT Rights & Marital Equality in Tennessee, 83:2 Tenn. L. Rev. 371 (2016).
Modern Legal History 2015: The Road to Obergefell, 3 Belm. L. Rev. 165 (2016).
Teaching Interest
Legal Writing, Research & Analysis, Legal Methods I & II; Professional Responsibility & Legal Ethics; Gender & the Law/LGBTQ+ Rights; Advanced Legal Writing; Civil Rights, and Constitutional issues.