Professor Fredrick Vars published an op-ed in Jurist proposing a compromise federal approach to the problem of guns and terrorism.
“No one wants terrorists to have guns, but the two parties moved on before building on this common ground,” he wrote. “While nothing passed Congress, the seeds of a compromise are buried in the failed Senate bills.”
For more, read “What Next on Terror and Guns?”
Professor Stephen Rushin is quoted in City Lab about how the Voting Rights Act could be used for police reform.
“We think that model of waiting until something so terrible that it results in mass protests, and then responding after the fact, is basically the wrong way to go about this,” Rushin said.
Rushin and Jason Mazzone, Co-Director of the Program in Constitutional Theory, History & Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, published their research, “From Selma to Ferguson: The Voting Rights Act as a Blueprint for Police Reform,” which argues that the civil rights law passed in 1965 to mitigate voter discrimination also offers guidance on how to address policing.
For more, read “How the Voting Rights Act Could Be a Path to Police Reform.”
Heather Fann (’06) has served clients who might not otherwise find legal representation.
In 2013, Fann filed a lawsuit on behalf of V. L., a woman who sought visitation rights after separating from her lesbian partner, E. L., who had given birth to their three children through donor insemination. V. L. adopted the children in Georgia so that both of them would have parental rights. After the couple’s relationship ended, the birth mother argued Alabama did not have to recognize the adoption.
The Alabama Supreme Court issued an order in September 2015 refusing to recognize the Georgia adoption, and the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously overturned the Alabama Supreme Court in March, saying it overstepped its authority.
“The case affirmed in some way the fact that it’s not just about the marriage,” Fann said. “It’s about the families, and these children are due the respect of the law regardless of whether their parents are of the same gender.”
V.L.’s parental rights have been restored, and the case has been remanded to the trial court. It is Fann’s hope the ruling saves other parents from the heartache of trying to remain a part of their children’s lives.
Because of her work on V. L.’s case, Fann was asked to join the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the ACLU of Alabama, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Americans United for Separation of Church and State to represent James Strawser and John Humphrey. They applied for a marriage license in Mobile County, but were denied. Strawser faces significant health issues. Despite having a medical power of attorney, a hospital would not recognize it because Humphrey was not a family member or spouse.
Fann’s interest in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights began in law school. She and Nic Carlisle, who is gay, founded the Law School’s Gay-Straight Alliance, or Outlaw, in 2005, and she served as vice president of the group.
The newly formed Gay-Straight Alliance staged a protest in front of Gorgas Library, after state Rep. Gerald Allen proposed legislation to ban public school libraries from buying new copies of plays or books by gay authors or those that featured gay characters. The event happened the same day Alice Walker was on campus giving a reading. Walker, whose book, The Color Purple, would have been banned under the proposed law, heard about the protest and went to the library to support the group.
Carlisle said he would not have had the courage to the start a gay-straight alliance at UA Law without Fann. He knew then she would be a success after law school.
“It was never about being a traditional lawyer; it was never about money or salary,” he said. “She had an intent drive to help people. I think that took vision.”
While in law school, Fann wrote “Desperately Clinging to the Cleavers: What Family Law Courts Are Doing about Homosexual Parents, and What Some Are Refusing to See” for the Law and Psychology Review. In the article, Fann examined family law governing homosexual parents in the United States and how the legal system denies them their parental rights.
She has heard the reasons why some attorneys won’t take LGBT rights cases. For starters, the cases are difficult to win, and some judges are prejudiced against them. None of that matters to Fann.
“I think that lawyers in the state of Alabama have a responsibility to equality and justice even where our law doesn’t expressly provide it,” Fann said. “I hope more lawyers will take up these cases when they see wrong.”
Retired Judge Hub Harrington said Fann appeared regularly before him in Shelby County Circuit Court and became an advocate of LGBT rights before the movement gained traction.
“In spite of the daunting legal hurdles the cases presented at the time, she was willing to do it when most people weren’t,” he said.
Some lawyers are afraid they will be spurned by other people if they take on LGBT cases. The opposite has happened with Fann, as more clients seek out her expertise. Fann has taken on hundreds of family law cases, but the V. L. and Strawser cases have a much broader effect on the state and society.
“V. L. was the kind of case that I really thought could make a difference,” Fann said. “It was a compelling case in terms of the facts, because we had people who had agreed to be parents together and who had sought the court’s formal recognition of that arrangement.”
Carly Calhoun won the Alabama State Bar’s Pro Bono Law Student Award.
She has been an active volunteer since her very first day of law school, working with the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, Veterans’ Legal Assistance Clinic, Prison Reentry Clinic, Habitat for Humanity Wills Clinic, Project Homeless Connect and Wills for Heroes.
“Calhoun has contributed more than 75 hours of community service and pro bono work during her first two years of law school,” said Glory McLaughlin, Assistant Dean For Public Interest Law. “Not only is she a consistent and reliable presence at the Public Interest Institute’s events and pro bono programs, she always shows up with a smile on her face and a willingness to do whatever is needed.”
The Law School welcomes Daiquiri Steele.
She will serve as the new Director of Diversity & Inclusion and Assistant Professor of Law in Residence.
Professor Steele formerly practiced in Atlanta as a Civil Rights Attorney with the U.S. Department of Education, where she provided legal counsel relating to federal investigations of discrimination involving the nation’s school districts, colleges, universities, and state education agencies. She also mediated civil rights claims. She previously worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, where she assessed federal contractors’ compliance with employment discrimination laws.
She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law, Masters in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University, and Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Spelman College.
Dean Mark E. Brandon welcomed the Class of 2019 during First-Year Orientation.
The class has 133 students and was drawn from a pool of more than 1,600 applicants. Members of the class come from 20 states and two countries outside of the U.S., and they have studied at 64 colleges and universities. Forty-one percent of the class members are women, and 17 percent identify as members of a racial or ethnic minority. The members of the Class of 2019 have lived, worked or studied in 43 countries, and they read or speak 13 languages from around the world.
“Individually and collectively, you are impressive, and we are excited you are here,” Brandon said.
Brandon encouraged law students to educate themselves broadly and deeply, and he reminded them the law and lawyers are crucial in creating and maintaining a good society.
Finally, he advised the Class of 2019 to make a mark on their law school, society and the law.
“In your studies here and in your professional lives, leave a trace. Make it a trace you’ll be proud that you left,” he said.
The University of Alabama School of Law is ranked 12th among the nation’s law schools for the percentage of graduates who land coveted federal clerkships, according to Business Insider.
The Law School sent 8 percent of its graduates into federal clerkships. The position requires excellent legal research and writing skills, and it can provide the foundation for career success.
The magazine used data from the American Bar Association to compile its rankings. For more, read “The 24 Best Law Schools for Securing Federal Clerkships.”
The University of Alabama School of Law is ranked 13th among the nation’s top law schools and third among public schools, according to Business Insider‘s The 50 Best Law Schools in America for 2016.
Alabama Law has been consistently ranked as one of the best law schools in the country by several law and business news publications.
Using data from the American Bar Association, the Business Insider ranking focused on the percentage of graduates who land full-time, long-term, highly coveted jobs, which includes positions at big law firms that pay well — those with more than 251 employees — and federal clerkships.
The ranking also considered the percentage of graduates with full-time, long-term jobs that require passing the bar, the percentage that are unemployed but seeking employment, bar-passage rate, tuition, and median LSAT scores.
For more, read “The 50 Best Law Schools in America 2016.”
The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal are pleased to announce Attica Locke, author of “Pleasantville,” will receive the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.
Locke is the sixth winner of the prize. The prize, authorized by Lee, is given annually to a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.
“I clearly recall the summer I read “To Kill a Mockingbird” and wrote my first stories on the back of my dad’s legal stationery,” Locke said. “There could be no higher praise for me than winning this prize. I am deeply moved.”
“Pleasantville” was chosen by a distinguished panel of writers. They are: Dr. Philip Beidler, author and professor of English, University of Alabama; Helen Ellis, author, “American Housewife”; Homer Hickam, author, “Rocket Boys”; Rheta Grimsley Johnson, author, journalist and syndicated columnist; and Angela Johnson, author, “Wind Flyers” and “Heaven.”
The Selection Committee said “Pleasantville” has beautiful prose and strong characters, much like “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
“In “Pleasantville,” Attica Locke takes us out of a courtroom and into a lawyer’s home and heart,” Ellis said.
Locke will be honored with a signed special edition of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a $3,000 cash award and a feature article in the ABA Journal.
“I think the finalists this year were, collectively, the best in the history of the Harper Lee Prize,” said Allen Pusey, editor and publisher of the ABA Journal, a co-sponsor of the prize. “Pleasantville” is a richly constructed narrative truly worthy of this recognition.”
Locke’s novel will be honored during a ceremony on Sept. 22, at 5:30 p.m., at the Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the National Book Festival. Following the award presentation, the Selection Committee will convene a panel discussion of “Pleasantville,” in relationship to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
About Attica Locke
Attica Locke’s first novel, “Black Water Rising,” was nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was short-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize in the UK (now the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction). Her second book, “The Cutting Season,” published by Dennis Lehane books, is a national bestseller, and is a winner of the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. A graduate of Northwestern University, Locke was a fellow at the Sundance Institute’s Feature Filmmakers Lab. She’s written scripts for Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, and HBO, and is a writer and producer of the Fox drama, “Empire.” A native of Houston, Texas, Attica lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
Professor Stephen Rushin is quoted on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and 89.3 KPCC’s “AirTalk” about local police departments handing over investigations of police shootings to federal authorities.
“Handing this over to the federal government allows them to essentially hand the baton entirely to a separate group of people to be more directly responsible for the investigation and the outcome of that investigation.”
For more, read or listen to:
“Justice Department Investigates Baton Rouge Police Shooting”
“Alton Sterling, Philando Castile Police Shootings Reignite Criticism of Law Enforcement”
