Tess Harmon joined Relman Colfax in 2025 for a two-year term as a civil rights paralegal. Her work focuses on supporting the firm's civil rights litigation and counseling practices.
In 2025, Tess graduated cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a double major in History and Spanish. While there, she centered her academic and professional work at the intersection of civil rights, history, spatial justice, and racial equity. As an Undergraduate Research Assistant with the Retelling Central Texas History Project, she conducted research on Black land ownership, land dispossession, and cultural preservation in Texan freedom colonies. She also worked on community-based social justice research through the Smithsonian Leadership for Change Program, in which she spearheaded the creation of a digital exhibit on Austin-based Tejano community organizations with a focus on civil rights. She deepened her passion for creating equity in the justice system when she joined the Black Women and Mass Incarceration Internship Program at the Texas Center for Justice and Equity (TCJE), where she researched family separation in the Texas carceral system, family reunification policy, and mental healthcare in Texas prisons.
In her free time, Tess enjoys playing tennis, running, reading, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.
