Ms. Penland is a native East Tennessean and graduated from Central High School in Fountain City before attending undergraduate school at Ohio State University and the University of Tennessee. While at Ohio State, Ms. Penland was a member of the Women’s Varsity Rowing Team which went on the win the Big Ten Championship during her tenure. She was also an active member of Residence Hall Student Council and received the Scholar Athlete Award. After Ms. Penland returned to Knoxville to complete her undergraduate degree at the University of Tennessee, she spent a semester abroad in New Zealand studying parliamentary democracies. She was a member of the Chancellor’s Honors Program and authored a thesis about the United States presidency. She was also inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Honors Political Science and a Minor in Women’s Studies.
After graduating from the University of Tennessee, Ms. Penland donned black and gold and attended the Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, NC to obtain her law degree. While at Wake Forest, Ms. Penland’s coursework focused on the areas of family law and litigation. After her first year of law school, Ms. Penland worked as a judicial clerk for Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge D. Michael Swiney. Ms. Penland also interned with the Forsyth County District Attorney’s Office in Winston-Salem, NC and in a local private practice firm specializing in family law.
Ms. Penland began her legal career with Ogle, Gass and Richardson, as a law clerk while still at Wake Forest, and then joined the firm on a full time basis following her graduation in 2012. Ms. Penland has quickly proven herself to be an outstanding attorney, who is committed to her clients. She has obtained a breadth of experience rare for her short tenure in the practice, which includes the areas of divorce, child custody, juvenile court litigation, wills and estates, probate, social security disability and personal injury. Ms. Penland has also been certified by the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals to practice collaborative law, and is one of a very small group of local attorneys who can offer collaborative divorce as an option for her clients. To learn more about the collaborative divorce process, you may visit http://www.knoxvillecollaborativedivorce.com.
Ms. Penland is a member of Church Street United Methodist Church in Knoxville, TN and is an active member of the church’s United Methodist Women’s group, focusing on fundraising and service. She was also a member of the North Carolina Bar Association student division at Wake Law and worked with Red Cross to host blood drives throughout the school year and served as the fundraising chair of Wake Law’s domestic violence advocacy group. As the fundraising chair, her duties included the planning of their annual fundraising raffle which raised thousands of dollars to be donated to the local domestic violence shelter in Winston-Salem, NC. Ms. Penland also volunteers to draft wills and other legal documents for local law enforcement, government employees, firefighters and their families at local Wills for Heroes events sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyers Division.
Past Employment Positions
• Eastern District-Tennessee Court of Appeals , Judicial Clerk , 2010 – Present
Pro Bono Activities
• Church Street United Methodist Church in Knoxville, Member
• Church’s United Methodist Women’s group, Active Member
Professional Associations And Memberships
• Knoxville Bar Association
• Tennessee Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division Executive Board Member, 2013 – 2014
• Sevier County Bar Association
• International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Member
• East Tennessee Collaborative Alliance, Member
• Smoky Mountain Planned Giving Council, Member
