Professor Rivkin brought to the classroom hands-on experience in a variety of legal areas. During his years as a member of the UT faculty, he was an advocate for the rights of children and families, a protector of the environment, and a supporter of public interest law. Professor Rivkin has been counsel in public interest litigation concerning such issues as air pollution and TVA, a challenge to the Tennessee Barratry Statute, the defense of the Tennessee Surface Owner Protection Act, the rights of children in special education, and the right to education for students who are expelled from school. He was a member of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative, a comprehensive effort to combat the adverse effects of air pollution on the national parks and wilderness areas in the Southeast.

Professor Rivkin is a frequent presenter of programs on clinical legal education and the rights of disabled school children, and he has delivered papers to ABA and AALS conferences on clinical education and public interest law. During 2004 he also has lectured on environmental law at four universities in China. Since 2000, he has served as Director of the AALS Equal Justice Project. He served as a member of the AALS Membership Review Committee from 2009-2012. Professor Rivkin served as a visiting professor at the UCLA Law School, the University of Maryland Law School, American University Washington College of Law, and, in 2002 and 2004, at Harvard Law School.

AD, 1968, Hamilton College

JD, 1971, Vanderbilt Law School