As you may know, The University of Alabama commenced limited operations on campus in March to mitigate the risk and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This decision benefits each member of our community and our loved ones, but continues operations in a way that promotes safety requires adaptability and creativity.
The Alabama Law Review hosted a one-day symposium, Timbs v. Indiana One Year Later: The Future of Civil Asset Forfeiture, on March 6 at the Law School. The symposium explored the consequences of this decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Each year, law enforcement officials seize millions of dollars in cash, cars, homes, and other property, regardless of guilt in relation to a crime. In the past year, civil asset forfeiture has undergone significant scrutiny as it resides at the intersection of civil, criminal, and constitutional law.
In its landmark 2019 opinion, Timbs v. Indiana, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause is an incorporated protection applicable to the states and may, as a result, regulate state civil asset forfeiture.
COVID-19 means everyone at Alabama Law is doing things a little differently. Without athletic events at UA, Eli Gold, the voice of the Crimson Tide, had to settle for announcing Professor Julie Hill’s banking law class on Zoom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn1ZJ088X_Y
Ian Ross, Robert L. Humphrey, III, Jennifer Sandlin, and Gillian Purser competed in the final round of the John A. Campbell Moot Court Competition on Wednesday, March 11.
A distinguished panel served as judges for the final round. They were: The Honorable William H. Pryor, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, The Honorable Herman N. Johnson, Jr., United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, and The Honorable Bess M. Parrish Creswell, United States Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Alabama.
Ross and Humphrey were the winning team, and Purser won the Reuben H. Wright Award for best advocate. Zach Starr and Ben Seiss won the Walter P. Gewin Award for best brief.
Emily Raines, Brad Prosch, Jeff Rogers, and Hirshel Hall, all 3Ls, competed at the 28th Annual Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition in New York. Alabama Law students arrived at the Duberstein competition following solid preliminary rounds in the regional CKP Cup competition at the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables.
The Duberstein competition is the premier bankruptcy moot court competition in the country. This year, 59 teams from more than 40 law schools competed in the preliminary rounds at St. Johns’ University School of Law in Queens, making the competition one of the largest single-site moot court competitions in the country.
Both teams performed well in preliminary rounds. Raines and Prosch competed against UNLV, Memphis, and the University of Miami, while Rogers and Hall faced Ole Miss, University of Texas and Baylor.
Both teams were designated top 16 teams and advanced to the octofinals, where the teams faced each other in the first round. During the second octofinal round, Raines and Prosch faced Notre Dame, and Rogers and Hall faced Emory. Both teams performed well.
Rogers and Hall advanced to the quarterfinals which were held in Brooklyn at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York. Falling to Texas by what the bench described as a razor-thin margin, Rogers and Hall turned in very solid performances.
Chisolm Allenlundy, Mary Parrish Cobb, Hamilton Millwee, Peyton Patterson, and Mary Katherine White, all 3Ls, turned in an outstanding performance at the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. The team competed in the Southeastern Regionals in New Orleans.
The team was a perfect 4-0 in the preliminary rounds and earned the number one seed going into elimination rounds. After a resounding victory against Lewis & Clark in the quarterfinals, the team faced Emory in the semifinals. Despite a flawless performance by UA, Emory advanced to the finals.
Casey Barberio, Alex Price, and Andrew Toler, all 3Ls, performed well in the Florida Tax Bar’s National Tax Competition at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville. The team won the award for Best Brief in the competition and advanced to the quarter-final rounds where they were eliminated by the eventual winner, the University of Wisconsin. The team appreciates the support and guidance of their coach, Clay Staggs (’96).
Are you looking for a law clerk or an associate? Do you need help with a short-term research assignment? The Career Services Office can place a job advertisement for you on our internal job board or connect you with a student through our STAR Program for help with research. Please contact Assistant Dean Megan Walsh for more information.
Karen Berhow (‘03) has joined Huie Fernambucq & Stewart as Counsel in the firm’s Birmingham office. She will practice in the firm’s Workers’ Compensation, Employment Litigation and Insurance Defense practice groups.
Gregory Cusimano (‘68) delivered the Honorable Gerald P. Federoff Lecture titled, “Winning Case Preparation: The Social Science of Decision Making and Bias,” at Loyola Law School in New Orleans.
Christopher T. Dawson (‘13) was promoted to Shareholder at GrayRobinson in the firm’s office in Orlando.
Kendall Dunson (‘96) has been inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers, a professional trial organization in North America comprising preeminent trial lawyers from the U.S. and Canada.
J. Alan Goodwin (‘98) was appointed as a Judge to the Pima County Superior Court in Phoenix, Arizona.
Paul Patterson (‘98) was sworn in as Municipal Court Judge in Northport.
Beth Pitman (’88) was named Partner at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis in the firm’s Nashville office.
Charles Prueter (’12) was named Partner at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis in the firm’s Nashville office.
PROFESSOR DEEPA DAS ACEVEDO has been selected to be the Chair of the AALS Section on Law & Anthropology, the Chair-Elect of the AALS Section on Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, and the Secretary of the AALS Section on Scholarship, all for 2020-21.
Additionally, the Law & Society Association has invited Professor Acevedo to sit on its Committee in charge of evaluating International Research Collaboratives. She also sits by invitation on the Law & Society Association’s International Activities Committee.
On March 9, Professor Acevedo was interviewed by Professor Richard Albert, the William Stamps Farish Professor of Law at the University of Texas-Austin, as part of the “Five Questions” series for ICONnect, the blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law. The series features comparative constitutional law scholars discussing their current projects and their research and writing practices; Professor Acevedo’s interview is available here.
PROFESSORS RICHARD DELGADO and JEAN STEFANCIC signed contracts to produce a new edition of a casebook on Latinos and the Law and another to co-edit a book series titled, Rule and Resistance.
A number of online newsletters discussed how Delgado and Stefancic’s Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (3d ed., NYU Press 2017) is influencing evangelical thought. See, e.g., https://shenviapologetics.com/critical-theory-within-evangelicalism/
SSRN reported that Professor Delgado ranks in the top ten percent of all authors (actually, about .2 percent) in downloads from the entire website, including over 300,000 authors from all disciplines.
The Claremont Review of Books published a comprehensive review of Delgado and Stefancic’s NYU Press book, Must We Defend Nazis? Why the First Amendment Should Not Protect Hate Speech and White Supremacy. The essay concludes: “This offers hope. … America’s formative institutions—the universities, press, and popular culture industry—are already preparing the ground so that, someday, judges will outlaw hate speech, and the public will acquiesce.”
The views, opinions, and conclusions expressed by faculty in their publications or research activities are those of the author and not necessarily those of The University of Alabama or its officers and trustees. The content of faculty publications has not been approved by The University of Alabama, and the author is solely responsible for that content.
