McMillan Helps Students Develop Negotiation Skills
Adjunct faculty members are an integral part of the College of Law community. In addition to their professional service throughout the boardrooms, conference rooms and courtrooms of Tennessee, adjunct faculty also serve in the classrooms of the College of Law as instructors, mentors and guides to the next generation of the legal profession. Through the service of adjunct faculty, law students develop the skills necessary to become lawyers. One such vital member of the UT College of Law Community is Greg McMillan.
McMillan is special counsel with the law firm of Lewis, Thomason, King, Krieg & Waldrop. His practice at Lewis Thomason involves casualty defense and commercial and civil litigation, as well as domestic relations and mediation. He is licensed to practice in Tennessee, admitted to the Federal District Court of Tennessee and the sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and certified as a Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31 Mediator. McMillan also has served in a number of leadership positions within the Knoxville and Tennessee Bar Associations, and he is considered by his peers to be distinguished for ethical standards and legal ability. In addition, he has been honored for his service to the bench and the community, receiving the Tennessee Bar Association President’s Distinguished Service Award and the Knoxville Bar Association President’s Award.
In addition to his professional service, McMillan has served as an adjunct professor at the College of Law, teaching negotiation, for nearly a decade. In that time, he has received consistently excellent course reviews. His interest in helping students learn to be better negotiators by developing their understanding of the preparation, strategies, tactics and techniques necessary for success in negotiation is clearly evident to those taking his class. McMillan’s students are particularly complimentary of how relevant and useful his teaching is for developing the practical skills necessary in their future careers.
During the past two years, he has been instrumental in redeveloping and refining the curriculum for the negotiation course at the college of Law. Among the recent changes, students now spend more time taking part in video recorded simulations of negotiations with classmates that are later reviewed in a small group setting with their professor. Using video review in this way helps students improve at negotiation in the same way that football players and coaches improve player performance by reviewing video of past games. The close professional contact afforded by these review sessions, along with the time spent in lecture and class discussion, allows McMillan’s students to benefit greatly from the knowledge and experience that have enabled him to become a distinguished attorney.
McMillan is indeed an important member of the College of Law Community. His commitment to professional development along with the knowledge and experience he brings to the classroom result in our students entering the profession prepared to negotiate competently on behalf of their clients.
The Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution is grateful to McMillan, and to all of the adjunct faculty members, for their service to the College of Law and the next generation of the legal profession. We truly appreciate the integral role you play in our community.