Laura Jane Rule graduated with honors from the UT College of Law in 1990, where she received a variety of academic awards and was a member of the nationally ranked Labor Law Moot Court Team. After completing a clerkship for the Honorable Samuel L. Lewis of the Tennessee Court of Appeals, she became an associate at Reid and Priest in Manhattan. In late 1993, she decided to raise her children in East Tennessee and began practicing in Knoxville, along with handling appellate work for the Blount County Public Defender. She joined Legal Aid of East Tennessee in 2001. Soon thereafter, she became managing attorney of LAET’s Blount County office. She was an active member of the Blount Count Bar Association and the Tennessee Bar Association, as well as various statewide task forces for the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services and the Tennessee Access to Justice Commission. She was an avid hiker, climbing Mr. LeConte on her 60th birthday. She had five children, one of whom predeceased her. Other than her children her great loves were Maryville High School and UT football, camping and the Democratic Party. Her death came several months after being diagnosed with inoperable melanoma. She turned 65 in July 2012.