Meet TIP Advisory Council Member Amy Mohan

Advisory Council Member Amy Mohan

Profile by Hailey Riven

From a young age, Amy Rao Mohan had always been interested in writing and storytelling, interests that eventually led her to become the successful litigator that she is today. Her interest sparked from watching CNN reports covering the First Gulf War, in the fourth grade. She became captivated by how the stories were told. After graduating from Northwestern University with a degree from the University's Medill School of Journalism, Mohan worked as a television reporter for eight years.

Although she enjoyed her job as a reporter and took it very seriously, she longed for the ability to express her opinion and advocate for the causes on which she reported. She became interested in law through her time as a journalist and decided she wanted a change. “Reporters and lawyers use similar skills, so my interest was kind of natural,” said Mohan.

In 2009, she started law school at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where she met fellow classmate Jessica Van Dyke, now the Tennessee Innocence Project’s Executive Director & Lead Counsel. The two stayed in touch.

Mohan had heard about some of the work the Innocence Project did nationally, so when Van Dyke asked her to be a part of the newly formed non-profit’s Advisory Council, she readily accepted.

As part of the organization's 2021 Continuing the Fight fundraiser, Mohan used her journalism skills to interview special guest and international exoneree, Amanda Knox.

“Our work starts to feel routine and distant and something that lawyers do,” Mohan shared. “To see how Amanda has truly been affected tells me that our work matters. I think just talking to one exoneree helped me understand why the Tennessee Innocence Project is so important.”

When talking about the Tennessee Innocence Project, Mohan believes there are many misconceptions. Some might assume that when someone claims they are innocent, the Tennessee Innocence Project will take up the case, and then the individual will be exonerated. However, there is an incredible amount of work and skill from the Tennessee Innocence Project’s team that goes into every case and the community needs to continue to support this work to make it all possible.

“The fact that the Tennessee Innocence Project has had four exonerations in such a short time shows that there is so much work to be done in this state and the Tennessee Innocence Project needs the staff, attorneys, and funding to be able to do even more of their good work.”

Mohan balances her life as a litigator but also as a mom of two boys, 7 and 9. She says that one of her biggest accomplishments is “to feel like at the end of the day that I’ve been a good lawyer but also, more importantly, a good mother. Balancing that is a challenge each day.”

Mohan explains to her kids that in her pro bono work in particular, her job is to speak up for those who have had terrible things happen to them and she hopes that she is instilling those values within her kids as well. While sometimes the changes made in this line of work may be minuscule, she says that “it’s important to focus on each case and each small victory until we see major changes.”

“Every time someone is exonerated, that’s a victory for criminal justice. I do think that if more people really understood the depth of the injustice in Tennessee, and elsewhere, we would see more swift criminal justice reform.”