KNOXVILLE — The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees Monday named Catherine S. Mizell vice president, general counsel and secretary of the university.
UT President J. Wade Gilley’s recommendation of Mizell was approved unanimously by the board’s executive committee.
She succeeds Beauchamp E. Brogan, UT’s general counsel since 1975, who is retiring Dec. 31. Mizell has been UT’s deputy general counsel since 1993 and a member of the university’s legal staff for 19 years.
Gilley said Mizell is the best qualified of the five final candidates interviewed by Roger Dickson, Chattanooga attorney and UT trustee who conducted the search for Brogan’s successor.
“Her record demonstrates high achievement and excellence at every turn, and I have chosen her to serve in this important position of trust,” Gilley said.
Mizell earned the doctor of jurisprudence from UT in 1975 and the bachelor of arts in 1971. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi as an undergraduate and was editor-in-chief of the Tennessee Law Review while in law school.
She was a judicial clerk for the chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court and served as general counsel and secretary of the State Board of Regents.
As UT’s deputy general counsel, Mizell was chief assistant to the general counsel. She handled a variety of legal matters, including the transfer of UT Hospital to a non-profit corporation.