As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, we highlight Darrius Dixon, a Lewis Thomason Healthcare and Data Privacy Associate in our Knoxville office. Darrius came to the practice of law by way of a distinguished career as a law enforcement officer. Darrius served the Middle Tennessee State University as a police officer ensuring campus and surrounding communities’ safety. Darrius chose law enforcement because of his passion for law and justice that started as a young child. Darrius grew up as a military kid with strong parental influences that fueled his passions. During his adolescent years, his mother was a social worker and daycare professional, and his father is a retired United States Army E7 sergeant first-class. His father’s career required that Darrius and the family move around the nation from the Midwest to the South. Through his diverse living experiences, Darrius saw, first-hand, the inequities that impact diverse communities, including inequities in the justice and healthcare spaces. On the other hand, Darrius’ parents exposed him to a love for music and the performing arts, which had a uniting ability across demographics and continues to be a bright spot in Darrius’ life. As a result of this exposure, Darrius became a renowned drummer, including a stint as a drummer for the Tennessee Titans enterprise, bringing joy and peace to diverse communities across Tennessee.
Later, Darrius experienced life through the spectrum of the Army’s values: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage, and held his mother’s commitment to helping others. With those values in his heart and on his mind, Darrius set out to make a difference in his community. As a law enforcement officer, Darrius experienced the plight of young Americans facing social ills ranging from sexual assault to drug addiction and trafficking. As a law enforcement crisis intervention certified professional, Darrius became well-trained in the role that healthcare plays in the pursuit of justice.
With these diverse experiences in tow, Darrius matriculated to the University of Tennessee (“UTK”) College of Law where he became one of four Black males in the Class of 2022. Darrius received the Lewis Thomason UTK College of Law diversity scholarship, which played an integral role in his completion of his law degree. At UTK with tremendous diverse life experiences that he leveraged as a leader, Darrius was vice president of the Student Bar Association; member of the Black Law Student Association (“BLSA”), Health Law Society, and the class gift committee; recipient of the 2022 Julian Blackshear scholarship; and, co-chair of the student wellness committee. Regarding the latter, Darrius played a vital role in the integration of wellness and health as a value and priority for the law school and its students where both mental and physical health are prioritized.
With that wellness prioritization and history of pursing justice, Darrius clerked for Lewis Thomason both his first and second-year law school summers with an eye toward honing healthcare litigation skills. His work varied across Lewis Thomason’s litigation practice groups and Darrius demonstrated exceptional skill in insurance and medical malpractice work. Darrius fell in love with the law firm and the firm’s commitment to healthcare.
In the Fall of 2022, Darrius joined Lewis Thomason as an associate. Darrius continues to work hard to distinguish himself as an important contributor to the law firm, and uses his prior experiences as a law enforcement officer and a UTK College of Law trailblazer to distinguish himself as a practitioner. Additionally, outside of the practice of the law, Darrius continues to pay it forward. Darrius spends time mentoring current UTK College of Law BLSA students in an effort to open doors for them to develop legal practices in Knoxville and, in turn, expand Knoxville’s diverse legal market. To do so, Darrius has noted that he “speaks peoples’ names in rooms where there are opportunities” to ensure that he connects diverse law students with Lewis Thomason shareholders and other prominent law firms and their decisionmakers.
It is a privilege to highlight Darrius Dixon as a Black History Month trailblazer and one of Lewis Thomason’s very own attorneys.