Alabama Law Launches Strategic Planning Initiative
As you know, the Law School is engaged in a strategic planning process to define priorities and goals and guide decision making for the coming three to five years. We want to gather ideas, reflections, and suggestions from all members of our community to support that process. Accordingly, we are conducting surveys of students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
You may access the survey here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AlabamaLawStrategicPlanningSurvey
Completing this survey should take no more than ten minutes—but your responses will influence the law school’s direction for much longer.
Your answers to the questions asked in this survey will be strictly confidential. Keeling & Associates, LLC (K&A), our consultants, are administering the survey; K&A, rather than the law school, will receive your responses to the survey questions. No one else, including at the law school or in the University, will have access to your individual responses. The report of survey results will contain aggregated data without any identification of individual respondents.
Justice Harwood Receives the 2020 Sam W. Pipes Distinguished Alumnus Award
The Law School honored Justice R. Bernard Harwood, Jr. (’63) with the 2020 Sam W. Pipes Distinguished Alumnus Award at the Alabama Law Alumni Society Banquet in Mountain Brook on Friday.
The Law School Foundation gives the award to an outstanding alumnus who has distinguished himself or herself through service to the bar, The University of Alabama, and the School of Law. The award is named for the late Samuel Wesley Pipes (’38), who was a partner in the Mobile law firm of Lyons, Pipes & Cook until his death in 1982.
After Justice Harwood graduated in 1963, he had many occasions to encounter Mr. Pipes in Mobile.
“I really enjoyed those opportunities,” Justice Harwood said, “so it is doubly meaningful to me to think that I have some connection with his legacy by virtue of this honor you’re giving me tonight.”
Alabama Law Review to Host Symposium on Civil Asset Forfeiture
The Alabama Law Review has scheduled 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 will explore the consequences of this decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.
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. This symposium will feature three panel discussions with prominent law professors and practitioners and a keynote address from Wesley Hottot, the senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, who argued the Timbs case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Law School to Host Symposium on Ratification of 19th Amendment
The Law School has scheduled a one-day symposium to celebrate the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. The symposium, Centennial Celebration: An Exploration of the Impact of Women Through and Beyond the Law, is scheduled for Friday, April 3, in the Bedsole Moot Court Room. The event will bring together lawyers from across the state to discuss the impact women in the law have made, and will continue to make, in Alabama. With representation from private practice, government, public interest, and the judiciary, the symposium will address the importance of hearing women’s voices in the ballot box and beyond. Kindly RSVP at http://law.ua.edu/WomensCentennial.
Two Teams Compete in ABA Moot Court Competition; Students Win Best Advocate Award
Alabama Law’s two teams competed last week at the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition in Philadelphia. The teams did not advance to the national finals, despite outstanding advocacy by the teams: Aaron Blake, 3L, Ames Filippini, 3L, John Gillespie, 2L, Mollie Gillis, 2L, Stone Hendrickson, 3L, and Tyler Smoot, 2L. Cameron Tipton, 3L, was the manager of the teams.
Hendrickson won the award for second best advocate in the tournament, and Gillis won as fifth best advocate.
After 24 years of coaching Alabama’s national moot court teams, it was Professor Carol Andrews’s last time. Beginning next year, Professor Anita Kay Head will take over as coach of the ABA teams. She co-coached the teams this year and competed as a student advocate on Andrews’s 2005-06 moot court team.
Environmental Moot Court Team Competes in National Competition
The National Environmental Law Moot Court Team worked hard and performed in outstanding fashion at the National Competition, which was held last week at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Kayla Frederick, AnnaCarrol Arnold, and Akira Watson, all 3Ls, competed for Alabama Law. Tyler Thull, 2L, served as the student coach.
Fifty-four law schools traveled to New York to compete in the most prestigious environmental law moot and the largest interschool moot court competition of any kind to take place under one roof.
Oralists faced teams from Florida, Connecticut, Denver, Drake, and Widener as they progressed through three preliminary rounds to the quarterfinal round. Both Watson and Arnold received Best Oralist Awards during the preliminary rounds.
Professors Bill Andreen and Heather Elliott coached the team.
Intellectual Property Moot Court Team Wins Third Place in Regional Competition
Alex Bruening, 3L, Clayton Carter, 3L, Chris Leah, 3L, and Hugh Warren, 3L, competed in the Southern Regional of the Saul Lefkowitz Trademark Law Moot Court Competition. In spite of a first-round marred by some off-topic questions, the team hung in there and took third place in a field of 14 teams, including Emory, University of North Carolina, and William & Mary.
Vice Dean Alan Durham coached the team.
Moot Court Team Competes in Moot Court National Championship
Lindsey Barber, 3L, Cory Church, 3L, and Anne Miles Golson, 3L, turned in an outstanding performance at the Hunton Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship in Houston, Texas. The team advanced to the quarterfinals, only to be narrowly eliminated by the defending champions from the University of Georgia. While arguing two complicated issues of Supremacy Clause Immunity, the team received high praise from their judges and fellow competitors.
This invitation-only tournament matches teams from elite moot court programs across the country. Alabama Law earned its invitation based on the overall performance of all of our external-competition teams in the Moot Court Program during the previous academic year, which garnered two national championships, impressive victories at regional competitions, and multiple best brief and best speaker awards. Based on the collective success of these teams, the Alabama Law Moot Court Program ranked fourth in the nation for 2018-19. The team is grateful to Professor Kimberly Boone, Director of Legal Writing Program and Professor of Legal Writing, for her leadership of the Moot Court program.
The team also wishes to thank everyone who helped them prepare, especially student coach and manager, Josh Kravec, 3L. Professor Mary Ksobiech coached the team.
BLSA Moot Court Team to Compete in Cincinnati
Karmen Gaines, 3L, and Stephanie Avant, 3L, recently competed at BLSA’s Southern Regional Thurgood Marshall Moot Court Competition. Gaines and Avant wrote and won an award for the Best Petitioner Brief, and they advanced to the knockout rounds of the competition, ultimately coming in Second Place and advancing to the National Competition rounds.
Anil Mujumdar, Visiting Lecturer in Law, and Anita Kay Head, Associate Professor of Legal Writing, coached the team. The team is grateful to Professors Boone, Fair, Ksobiech, Ray, and Rosen, along with Tempe Smith (’10) and Devan Byrd (’17), for judging practice rounds. The team also thanks Cameron Tipton, 3L, who assisted with scheduling rounds and compiling the bench brief.
Gaines and Avant will compete in the national rounds in Cincinnati in March.
BLSA Mock Trial Team Advances to National Tournament
Maya Hoyt, 3L, Alex Williams, 3L, Chenelle Jones, 2L, and Gavin Baum-Blake, 2L, recently competed against eight other teams from across the southern region in the Constance Baker Motley Mock Trial Southern Regional Competition during the Southern Regional Black Law Students’ Association’s Convention held in Charleston, South Carolina. The students finished second in the region after a hard-fought championship round. The team defeated the top-ranked team in a decisive victory. Veteran team members, Hoyt and Williams, performed as co-captains on this year’s team, and thanks to their dedication and hard work, they will be taking a second consecutive trip to the national competition. Jones and Baum-Blake prepared tirelessly and were major contributors to the team’s success.
The team now will compete in the National Tournament from March 3 – March 8 in Cincinnati, Ohio. All four advocates showed tremendous skill at the tournament and will begin preparing to compete upon the release of the amended problem.
Justin Jones (’12) coached the team.
Laura Crum (’82) donated $31,000 to the Crum Family Endowed Lecture in Law and Business.
Dean Nathaniel Hansford and Mrs. Frances Hansford contributed $40,856.00 to the Nathaniel Hansford and Frances Fincher Hansford Endowed Scholarship.
James (’78) and Nancy Richardson donated $5,278 to the Patrick W. Richardson Memorial Endowed Scholarship.
Irving Silver (’65) contributed $10,000 to the Silver Annual Faculty Scholar Gift Fund.
Kimberly R. West (’83) pledged $10,000 to the Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Memorial Lecture on Constitutional Rights and Liberties.
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 Of Counsel in the firm’s Birmingham office.
Tyler Connor (‘16) has joined Swift Currie as an Attorney in the firm’s Atlanta office.
Tommy James (‘97) has joined the State Board of Directors for VOCAL, Victim of Crime and Leniency.
William Richardson (‘04) has joined Swift Currie as an Attorney in the firm’s Atlanta office.
Laterrica Shelton (‘14) has been named Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Several Alabama Law alumni were named Alabama Law Foundation Fellows. The Fellows program was established in 1995 to honor Alabama Bar members for outstanding service and commitment. They are:
PROFESSOR DEEPA DAS ACEVEDO accepted a Luce/ACLS Religion & Journalism Fellowship administered by the American Council of Learned Societies and a residential fellowship from the Merian-Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies in Delhi. She has been named a guest editor of a special virtual issue of Law & Society Review titled, “Innovation in Legal Anthropology: an LSR Retrospective,” and a symposium issue of Law & Social Inquiry provisionally titled, “What’s Law Got to Do With It? New Directions in Legal Anthropology.” Professor Acevedo published an essay, “The Unique Goals and Challenges of Indian Secularism,” in The Hindustan Times on January 29, 2020, as part of a special series marking the 70th anniversary of the Indian Constitution.
PROFESSOR SHAHAR DILLBARY presented his new tort scholarship at the European Law and Economics Conference in September. At that conference he also chaired one of the two tort panels. In January 2020, at the invitation of the University of Hamburg’s Economics Department, Professor Dillbary presented his most recent tort scholarship. The presentation focused on collective sanctions and their impact on activity and care level with a special focus on medical malpractice cases.
In April 2020 Professor Dillbary will attend the ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting. Most recently, Professor Dillbary received an invitation to present a new article at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Israel. This unique workshop, titled “Private Law Theory in a Globalized World” brings “leading researchers from around the world” to present cutting-edge scholarship “using a range of methodologies.” The workshop will take place in the summer.
PROFESSOR RICHARD DELGADO and PROFESSOR JEAN STEFANCIC signed a contract with West Publishing Co. to produce a new edition of Latinos & the Law, along with Marc-Tizoc Gonzalez (New Mexico) and Leticia Saucedo (UC-Davis).
Professors Delgado and Stefancic have articles coming out this month in Pittsburgh Law Review (“Lessons from Mexican Folklore”), Case-Western Law Review (“Do Judges Cry?”), and UC-Davis Journal of Social Justice (“Radical Method”).
Professor Delgado had an article accepted in the Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy and another in Arizona State Law Journal. SSRN informed him that he is in the top ten percent of authors in the number of downloads.
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.
