Student becomes the teacher.
By Christopher Roberts
Art by Paddy Mills
Every law student dreams of the impact they’ll make someday. Brianna Terrell ’25 doesn’t have to wait.
The Aurora, Colorado, native is already an expert on legal protections for Deaf people in the U.S. court system, and now she’s making her mark internationally, addressing a conference in Taiwan this past spring on the ways protections for the Deaf in America can serve as a model for other countries.
“Our system is meant to ensure that sign language interpreters are available in state and federal courts,” says Terrell. “That right is protected by laws such as the Court Interpreters Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.”
Terrell was invited to present her expertise to an audience of close to 200 Taiwanese Sign Language interpreters, students, and Taiwan Deaf community members at the Taiwanese Sign Language Interpreters Conference, hosted by National Taiwan Normal University. She’s optimistic other countries can follow America’s lead. “They just need to see that it can be done,” she says.
To help her audience put her presentation in perspective, Terrell also had to play the role of law professor.
“I began by explaining the federalist system of the United States and how different levels of courts interact” she says. “I also address shortcomings in the interpreting profession in the U.S. and where there are areas of growth for Taiwan to learn from.”
Terrell first began working on legal issues for the Deaf as an undergraduate at the University of Rochester. “I was doing nonprofit work focused on Deaf individuals in the U.S. criminal legal system and the role interpreters play in that process,” says Terrell. “And my senior capstone project was a policy analysis of the provision of American Sign Language interpreters in the 7th Judicial District of New York.”
She’d chosen Rochester because it was one of the few places where she could double major in Political Science and Deaf Studies and American Sign Language, a distinction that owes to the fact that the city has one of the largest per-capita Deaf populations in America. Just like Austin.
Her work is informed, insightful, and strategic.
Professor Lucy Wood
“The two things that brought me to Texas Law were the Texas School for the Deaf being nearby, and Professor Wood,” Terrell says.
That’s Lucy Wood, the director of Texas Law’s Disability Rights Clinic and one of the law school’s most popular and admired faculty members. Students have voted her a “Professor of the Year” a whopping five times. “Her mentorship has been invaluable,” says Terrell.
It was Wood who nominated Terrell to present at the Taiwan conference. “Brianna’s a rock star,” says Wood, “and she knows her stuff. Her work is informed, insightful, and strategic.”
Terrell considers advocacy for the system to be essential. “Language access in the courts is an imperative that is under-protected and under-studied,” she says. “These laws generally exist at a fascinating intersection of disability rights laws and anti-discrimination and national origin laws.”
That aspect of her work is the subject of Terrell’s first published scholarship. Her article, “Stop the Plea for the LEP: The Necessity of Language Access Under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure,” appears in the June issue of the Texas Hispanic Journal of Law & Policy. “The article provides, to my understanding, the first complete survey of all federal jurisprudence on language determinations under Rule 11,” says Terrell.
The busy Terrell is now in Seattle, where she is clerking for Judge Janet Chung on the Washington State Court of Appeals. And after that? “Public defense! With a focus on criminal appeals, I hope.”
Editor’s note: This version differs from the print edition of Texas Law Magazine and corrects several inadvertent misrepresentations of Ms. Terrell’s work and background. We regret the errors and welcome the chance to address them here.