Dawna E. Snipes is the Community Legal Center’s Elder Law Staff Attorney.
Before joining the Community Legal Center, she practiced in the areas of Elder Law, Estate Planning, Tax Law, and as a Guardian ad Litem for Juvenile and Circuit Court matters. Ms. Snipes also volunteered at the Community Legal Center’s Estate Planning Clinics and Memphis Area Legal Services Saturday Clinics. For nearly 13 years, she has held adjunct faculty roles teaching legal ethics, business law, HIPPA law, and critical thinking courses at the university level.
Ms. Snipes received her Juris Doctor (JD) from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School (2011) in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Legum Magister (LL.M) from Thomas Jefferson School of Law (2014) in San Diego, CA; Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degrees from the University of Memphis (2003, 1995); and Associate of Applied Sciences (AAS) from Southwest
Tennessee Community College (2002).
While in graduate school, Ms. Snipes interned with the Memphis City Council as a Legislative Analyst Intern. During law school, she interned with the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office-Juvenile Division, which included representing Kent County in mental incompetency hearings, and the Kent County Office of Corporate Counsel.
Ms. Snipes’ public service career includes working for the Tennessee Department of Human Services and the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services serving as a Facilitator and CPS Investigator assigned to the Child Protective Investigative Team
(CPIT) for several years.
For several years, Ms. Snipes volunteered at the Memphis and Shelby County Humane Society as a dog walker and was also a Vita Tax Coalition volunteer in Grand Rapids, MI.