November 3, 2011
John Paul Stevens, retired associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, visited Alabama Law Nov. 16th to present the Fall
2011 Albritton Lecture.
Stevens’ visit coincides with a flurry of recent media coverage about the former justice, who recently released the book Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir. In the book, Stevens chronicles his history with the highest court in the land and focuses on his personal relationship with the five Chief Justices with whom he worked.Join us Nov. 16th for this rare opportunity to gain insight into the Supreme Court from one of its longest serving members.
November 1, 2011
Opportunities to earn CLE credit are plentiful in the
month of November, which includes four live seminars and seven teleconferences.
Live Seminars:
Teleconferences:
Sign up today!
October 25, 2011
Twenty seven recent Alabama Law graduates secured judicial clerkships commencing in 2011. This news is especially impressive given the intense competition for clerkships. According to the New York Times, last year’s clerkship applications exceeded 380,000 for fewer than 1,000 spots.
In addition, every student currently ranked in the top 5% of the Class of 2012 has already secured a federal clerkship following graduation.
October 13, 2011
“Matters of Faith: Religious Experience and Legal Response,” part of the Sarat Symposia on Law, Knowledge and Imagination, takes place this Friday, Oct. 14th, from 8:30 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. in the Bedsole Moot Court Room (140).
Symposium speakers are:
- Austin Sarat, Justice Hugo L. Black Visiting Senior Faculty Scholar, The University of
Alabama School of Law, and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence
and Political Science, Amherst College
- Corey Brettschneider, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brown University
- Caroline Mala Corbin, Associate Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law
- Richard W. Garnett, Associate Dean and Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor of
Political Science, University of Notre Dame Law School
- Amanda Porterfield, Robert A. Spivey Professor of Religion, Florida State University
- Steven D. Smith, Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego School
of Law.
“The relationship of American law and faith has long been a subject of controversy,” says Sarat. “Secularists insist on rigid separation. In their view, the state must remain neutral in all matters of faith. Others believe that some of the most important tenets of American law have religious roots and that law is enriched when it engages matters of faith. These arguments flourish in various academic disciplines: history, political theory, literary studies, sociology, and law, to say nothing of the political arena and conversations in various faith communities.”
Accordingly, “Matters of Faith: Religious Experience and Legal Response” will explore several key questions:
- Does modern law depend on faith or does faith threaten to undermine it?
- How does law invest expressions of faith and faith based practice with particular meanings?
- How does law respond to changes in those expressions and practices?
- What are the most important/persuasive critical perspectives on the relationship of law and
faith?
- When should law accommodate religious expression? When should law recognize faith as the
grounds for exempting someone from the reach of otherwise valid law?
This event is open to alumni, media and other guests. No registration required.
October 13, 2011
University of Alabama School of Law Professor Dan Joyner visited the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Sept. 30th, to participate in a panel discussion centered around his new book, Interpreting the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The panel also included Dr. James Acton of Carnegie and Dr. Christopher Ford, former United States Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation. Panelists examined legal interpretation issues raised in the book about the non-proliferation treaty.
Listen to the event.
September 19, 2011
Prof. Andrew Morriss and panel debate whether green jobs should be left to the green marketplace on MSNBC.
August 22, 2011
The University of Alabama School of Law has once again been named a “Best Value” Law School by National
Jurist magazine.
UA Law ranked among the top 20 Best Value Law Schools, based on criteria including bar passage rate and percentage of students employed within the first nine months after graduation.
July 28, 2011
© Bob Krasner
The Confession Named Inaugural Winner of New Legal Literary Award
For his work in The Confession, #1 best-selling author John Grisham is being awarded the 2011 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, a new literary award co-sponsored by The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal, the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association.
United States Attorney General Eric Holder helped initiate this award at a ceremony last September in Tuscaloosa, marking the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird. Ms. Harper Lee, who attended The University of Alabama School of Law, approved of this award.
The Harper Lee Prize will be given annually to a published work of fiction that best exemplifies the positive role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.
The Confession was declared the 2011 winner by a distinguished Selection Committee, including David Baldacci, Linda Fairstein, Morris Dees and Robert J. Grey, Jr. In the Committee’s view, The Confession, which explores an attorney’s tireless efforts to save his client from being executed for a crime he did not commit, most-deservedly embodies the spirit of the Harper Lee Prize.
Grisham will be presented with the award during a special ceremony September 22, at 2 p.m., at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Following the award presentation, David Baldacci will lead a discussion of The Confession, in relationship to Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, including guest panelists Morris Dees, Linda Fairstein, Robert Grey, Laura Miller, and Thane Rosenbaum.
July 25, 2011
Our Reunion Weekend will honor alumni from the Classes of 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2006. The Reunion is Friday, October 7. Room blocks are available now at NorthRiver Yacht Club, Country Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn and the Comfort Inn. Hotel space during home game weekends is limited.
This fall, Alabama will take on Vanderbilt, Saturday, October 8, for the Homecoming football game. Before the game, join us for a Tailgate Party at the Camille Wright Cook Plaza of the Law School. All alumni and family members are welcome. The tailgate starts three hours prior to kick-off.
For more information, contact Susan Newman in the Office of Advancement at (205) 348-6775.
July 18, 2011
The Judge Walter P. Gewin Award was created in 1982 to acknowledge outstanding contributions by lawyers in the development and presentation of CLE programs by CLE Alabama. The award is named for Judge Walter P. Gewin, who as President of the Alabama State Bar, helped to start the CLE department as a cooperative effort between The University of Alabama School of Law and the Alabama State Bar. Judge Gewin felt that education should continue throughout a lawyer’s professional life. The Gewin Award was presented at the Alabama State Bar meeting in July.
This year’s winner, Andrew J. Potts, practices in the areas of estate planning, trust and estate administration, and general business planning at Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, in Birmingham. He earned his B.A. and M.S. from The University of South Alabama, his J.D. from The University of Alabama School of Law and his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University. He served as law clerk to the Honorable G. B. Kahn, Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Alabama. He is past chair of the Tax and the Elder Law Sections of the Alabama State Bar and is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. He is a member of the Board of Advisors to the Alabama Family Trust. He is a frequent lecturer on trust and estate planning issues, and issues affecting the elderly and the disabled.
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