News

May 1, 2012 – In recognition of its efforts through the Tornado Relief Assistance Project, The University of Alabama School of Law Clinical Program will receive the 2012 Award for Excellence in a Public Interest Project, sponsored by the Clinical Legal Education Association.

Highlights from the Tornado Relief Assistance Project include:

• training law students in the intake process, placing clients in shelters and disaster assistance centers, and then pairing students with either clinic lawyers or local volunteer lawyers to handle client legal matters to conclusion;
• hosting a training workshop calling for students and other law faculty to join the volunteer program (this resulted in 75 volunteers signing up);
• performing intakes at the law school clinics each morning, then going out to three remote areas in the afternoon, each time staffed with at least two student volunteers, a clinic attorney, and a volunteer lawyer;
• in less than one month, opening 200 tornado relief files –  approximately the number of files the school’s Civil Law Clinic typically handles in an entire year;
• teaching a first-time summer clinic session to continue the relief efforts until the fall semester;
• enlisting a new group of law student volunteers to do door-to-door canvassing for unmet legal needs (this resulted in more than 50 volunteers participating).

To date, the clinical program’s tornado relief effort has directly assisted more than 250 individual clients, reflecting well over 1,000 hours of student lawyer time, as well as hundreds of hours of clinic faculty and staff time.

“Their quick response to the disaster and creative efforts to find and remedy legal needs reflects the highest standards and aspirations of the legal profession,” says Bob Kuehn, professor of law at Washington University School of Law. “Beyond the hundreds of needy residents of Tuscaloosa served by this project, it has instilled in law students a professional ethic to help those in need, created important bonds between the school and the local bar, brought together faculty and staff from all parts of the law school, and displayed to the Tuscaloosa community the good work that lawyers are capable of doing in times of crisis.”

Alabama Law shares the award with Quinnipac University School of Law’s Civil Justice Clinic, which won for its work to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut.

April 30, 2012 – The Alabama State Bar Committee on Volunteer Lawyer Programs selected the law students, staff and faculty affiliated with Alabama Law’s Tornado Relief Clinic as the recipients of the 2012 Alabama State Bar Pro Bono Award.

The award is given in recognition of the Clinic’s outstanding pro bono work in the wake of the April 2011 tornadoes.

Associate Dean for Clinical Programs Anne Hornsby will accept the award on the Clinic’s behalf, at the upcoming Alabama State Bar Annual Meeting, to be held at the Baytowne Conference Center in Sandestin, FL, this July.

On Tuesday, April 10, 2012, the Alabama Senate unanimously approved Lightfoot, Franklin & White, LLC attorney Liz Huntley as one of the five new members of Auburn University’s Board of Trustees.

 Read more about the new trustees here.

Established in 1994 to honor former Alabama Law Dean and Professor Daniel J. Meador, the Meador Lecture Series invites scholars to address a legal theme from an interdisciplinary perspective.

On April 17^th, Jules Coleman, the Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School. In this installment of the Meador Lecture Series on Morality, Professor Coleman will present on the topic of Liability and Assignability.

Susan Saladoff visits Alabama Law on April 19th

Susan Saladoff, director of the film “Hot Coffee,” visited Alabama Law on Thursday, April 19th for a screening of the film, followed by a panel discussion with special guests including the Honorable Ralph Cook, former Alabama Supreme Court Justice, Dr. Bill Stewart, Professor Emeritus, UA Department of Political Studies, and Dr. Karla Gower, Director, Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations.

The event was sponsored by the American Constitutional Society, the Federalist Society and the Law In Film Society at the Law School, as well as the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations and The University of Alabama’s PRSSA Chapter.

Ambria Lankford (’12) and India Williams (’12) recently earned an impressive second place finish in the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition for the Southern Region. This year, twenty-two teams participated, making this strong overall team performance all the more impressive.

“Indeed, I have never seen better oral advocacy,” said Carodine. “Working with a challenging moot court problem, our team delivered superb oral arguments, round after round. It was an absolute pleasure to witness their command of the law, poised courtroom demeanor, and sheer intellectual stamina. I was extremely proud of their performance, and the entire law school community should be as well.”

Alabama Law’s Frederick Douglass Moot Court Team is sponsored by the Alabama Defense Lawyer’s Association.

Congratulations to the following individuals, named to the Birmingham Business Journal’s “Top 40 Under 40”:

• Jonathan Geisen (’00), shareholder with Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC.
• Kimberly Geisler (’00), shareholder with Scott Dukes & Geisler, P.C.
• Ben Goldman (‘01), partner with Hand Arendall LLC
• V.J. Graffeo (’03), partner with Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker LLC
• Brent Irby (’95), managing partner with McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby LLP
• Andrew Nix (’03), shareholder with Maynard Cooper & Gale PC
• Jeff Windham (’03), general counsel with Forensic/Strategic Solutions PC.

Read the full story here.

• December 20^th – Asset Protection Strategies for Real Estate
• December 21^st – Tax Efficient Methods of Getting Money out of a Business
• December 22^nd – Generation Skipping Transfer Tax

Visit www.clealabama.com to sign up.

Visit the Law School’s Merchandise website and choose from an assortment of Alabama Law t-shirts (ranging from baby to adult sizes), golf shirts, fleece pullovers, travel mugs, windbreakers and more. Farrah members receive a 10% discount on Law School merchandise purchases. Law School watercolor prints are also available and make a great holiday gift! Painted in 1992 by Don Barnes, the prints are numbered and signed (unsigned also available). Order yours today!

Now available for download in mp3/podcast format: the November 16th Albritton Lecture by Justice John Paul Stevens.