Faith Held, a rising second-year law student at Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law, made her decision to become a lawyer after working as the community organizer, and then as a paralegal at Held Law Firm. She was born and raised an eighth-generation Knoxvillian and a third-generation lawyer-to-be, whose mom is a lawyer and whose dad was a community organizer. As a paralegal, Faith assisted at trial with some of the firm’s most high-profile and complex cases. But she is best known for her work as a paralegal, and in particular for her work on juvenile literacy. Faith was primarily responsible for revitalizing the library at the Richard Bean Juvenile Service Center. What made this project unique was that the books were chosen by the juvenile detainees themselves, with each detainee given their own choice of a book to donate to the library and a copy of the book to take with them upon release. (What did the kids want to read? How-To books were at the top of the list, followed by history books!). Faith has fallen in love with family, immigration and public interest law. This summer, she will be clerking for the Honorable Robin Phillips Gunn at the Juvenile Court for Knox County, Tennessee.
