Professor Pamela Bucy Pierson and Alabama Law alumni received awards from the Alabama State Bar during its annual meeting in Point Clear.
President Donald Trump has nominated Annemarie Carney Axon (’99) and Liles C. Burke (’94) for positions as District Judges on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Chip Campbell, Jr. (’01) was tapped to serve as District Judge in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
All three nominees must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
For more, read:
“Donald Trump Nominates Two for Alabama Federal Court Positions”
“Trump Nominates Senate Leader Mark Norris, Three Others as Federal Judges in Tennessee”
The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal have announced that James Grippando, author of “Gone Again,” will receive the 2017 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.
Grippando is the seventh winner of the Prize. The award, 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 don’t know who’s happier, James Grippando the writer or James Grippando the lawyer,” Grippando said. “Winning the 2017 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction is easily the proudest moment of my dual career.”
Seven years ago, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and to honor former Alabama law student and author Harper Lee, The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal partnered to create The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.
“Gone Again” was chosen by a distinguished panel of writers. They are: Deborah Johnson, winner of the 2015 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and author of “The Secret of Magic”; Cassandra King, author of “The Same Sweet Girls’ Guide to Life”; Don Noble, host of Alabama Public Radio’s book review series as well as host of “Bookmark,” which airs on Alabama Public Television; and Han Nolan, author of “Dancing on the Edge.”
The Selection Committee honored Lee’s charge to grant the award to a published work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.
“Jack Swyteck is a lawyer’s lawyer,” Nolan said. “He works within the system, relentlessly searching for the truth as he races against time to defend a death row inmate.”
Noble agreed. “If I am ever in legal trouble, there is no lawyer I would rather have than Grippando’s Jack Swyteck,” he said. “The man is dedicated to social justice, resourceful and tireless.”
Grippando will be honored with a signed special edition of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and an article in the ABA Journal.
“Grippando’s book does a masterful, entertaining job exploring the important topic of the death penalty and actual innocence,” said Molly McDonough, editor and publisher of the ABA Journal. “In ‘Gone Again,’ attorney Jack Swyteck focuses on finding the truth while navigating the complexities of habeas petitions for a despicable client.”
The 2017 prize will be awarded at The University of Alabama School of Law on Sept. 14. After the award presentation, the Selection Committee will convene a panel discussion of Grippando’s “Gone Again” in relationship to Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
About James Grippando
James Grippando is a New York Times bestselling author of suspense. He was a trial lawyer for twelve years before the publication of his first novel in 1994 (The Pardon), and he now serves as Counsel at Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP. He lives in south Florida.
About the UA School of Law
One of America’s leading public law schools and a “#1 Best Value Law School” in the nation, according to the National Jurist in 2012 and 2013, The University of Alabama School of Law offers a challenging curriculum with over 150 electives, several dual enrollment opportunities, Master of Laws degrees, and a J.S.D. With a student-to-faculty ratio of 8.7:1, the Law School offers students a rigorous, hands-on learning experience, with strong student engagement in clinical programs, law review, moot court and trial advocacy.
Professor Julie Hill provides academic commentary for Jurist about the Financial Choice Act and duplicative enforcement of financial regulations.
For more, read “Financial Regulators and Dog Piles.”
Joyce Vance, UA Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Law, spoke at the Robert H. Jackson Center’s June 23 symposium on Immigration, National Security, and American Values. She joined distinguished speakers John Q. Barrett, Professor of Law, St. John’s University; Lucas Guttentag, Professor of the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School & Distinguished Senior Fellow and Lecturer, Yale Law School; Rick Su, Professor of Law, University at Buffalo School of Law; Theodore M. Shaw, Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law & Director of the Center for Civil Rights, University of North Carolina School of Law; and Margo Schlanger, Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law, University of Michigan. Her presentation was titled “The Role of the Prosecutor in Protecting Civil Rights and Keeping Communities Safe.”
For more, read How “Far Gone” Are We Now? Immigration, Security, & American Values, from Justice Jackson’s Time to Our Own.
Professor Joyce Vance comments on the FBI’s Trump Investigation on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Watch until the end for the shout out to the University of Alabama School of Law.
Professor Paul Horwitz is quoted in U.S. News & World Report about whether U.S. senators are free to vote against anyone nominated for a governmental agency for religious reasons.
For more, read “Experts: Bernie Sanders Can Vote Against Nominee Based on Christian Beliefs.”
Alabama Law student Gonzalo E. Rodriguez recently won the Ninth Annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition.
His essay, “Protecting Inland Waterways, from the Institutes of Gaius to Magna Carta,” was chosen as the winner of the contest sponsored by the Legal History & Rare Books Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries.
The essay examines how the civilizations of Ancient Rome, the Visigothic Kingdom and England managed water resources in very different ways. It surveyed the geographic, climatic and political realities of these civilizations as a means of understanding the factors that guide civilizations in their decision whether, and to what extent, to regulate and protect their waterways.
“Rodriguez’s essay built upon an interesting thesis, and he applied extensive research in creating a well-written, engaging analysis of the ways several societies through history have dealt with protecting their waterways and the logic behind those societies’ methods,” said Fred Dingledy, Senior Reference Librarian at the College of William & Mary’s Wolf Law Library.
Rodriguez, a rising third-year law student, said he was honored to win the contest.
“After spending so many beautiful Alabama spring weekends in the mustiest parts of the library, being recognized for my work is truly vindicating,” he said. “I am not sure if I will get a chance to cite the Visigothic Code in a legal brief anytime soon, but it sure makes for a great ice-breaker.”
The idea was roughly conceived during Professor Heather Elliott’s Water Law course. Rodriguez later enrolled in Librarian Paul Pruitt’s English Legal History course with the hopes of bringing the idea to fruition.
“It was as a result of his instruction and guidance that I developed the historical inquisitiveness I needed to transform a very rudimentary idea into this final work,” Rodriguez said.
He will present his paper at the American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting on Sunday, July 16, in Austin, Texas. He will receive a $500 cash prize from Gale Cengage Learning and up to $1,000 for expenses associated with attending the meeting.
The essay will be published later this year in Unbound: A Review of Legal History and Rare Books. To read the essay, visit SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2968145
Professor Fredrick Vars writes an op-ed for Al.com about an argument that could save lives in capital cases.
For more, read “The Overlooked Argument That Could Save a Death Row Inmate’s Life.”
The University of Alabama School of Law announces the retirement of three longtime faculty members: Professor James Bryce, Vice Dean Jamie Leonard and Professor Pamela Bucy Pierson.
Bryce retires after 39 years of service, having joined the faculty in 1978. He has taught hundreds of students a variety of tax courses, dealing with federal, state and local taxes. Leonard has been on faculty for 19 years at the Law School and spent another 11 years at Claude W. Pettit College of Law at Ohio Northern University. During his tenure, he trained lawyers in courses on disability law, employment discrimination and family law. Pierson retires after 30 years of service, having joined the law faculty in 1987. She has taught generations of lawyers in criminal law and procedure as well as her popular The Business of Being a Lawyer course.
“The retirement of any one of them would be significant,” said Dean Mark E. Brandon. “The retirement of all three measures 8+ on the institutional Richter Scale.”
Brandon said they have had an “incalculable impact” on students and left an “indelible mark” on the Law School.
“There’s neither praise nor prose that can adequately express what they have meant to us as teachers, mentors and colleagues,” he said.
As they embark on new journeys, each of the professors reflected on their teaching careers.
Bryce founded and served as editor of the American Journal of Tax Policy for 16 years. He served as reporter to the Alabama Commission on Tax and Fiscal Policy Reform in 1989-1991 and staff member of the Tax Reform Task Force in 1991-92.
“I was the guy in the back room, cranking out drafts,” he said.
He taught courses for the LL.M. in tax, initially driving to venues across the state to meet students for classes. He said he will miss “trying and sometimes succeeding in getting the fascination of tax and business law across to new, young students.”
Bryce’s wife convinced him to retire while he is healthy. He is looking forward to taking care of his gardens, orchards and timber at Shotgun Hollow Plantation in Eoline. In addition to visiting children, he looks forward to visiting grandchildren.
Leonard was appointed director of the Bounds Law Library at Alabama Law in 1998 and became the James M. Kidd Sr. Professor of Law in 2010. He spent about 10 years studying and teaching about disability law, and he founded the Disability Law Institute. Later, he shifted his interests to employment discrimination and family law. Three years later, he was appointed Interim Vice Dean for the Law School, becoming Vice Dean in 2014, where he was largely in the business of solving problems.
“Because I’ve taught employment law, it actually made a lot of my administrative work easy,” he said. “I know where the land mines are. Usually.”
While he won’t miss the preparation required for delivering lectures, he will miss teaching students on a daily basis.
“Because I’m here and we have such good students, in every class there’s going to be somebody who has either seen something in a case that I didn’t see and gives me a new perspective or just somebody who is smarter than I am.”
Leonard plans to sit on his front porch at his Ohio home and read books for a month or two. After that, he doesn’t have any specific plans.
Pierson fell into teaching. She had been a federal prosecutor in St. Louis, when she moved to Alabama. She wanted to continue with the U.S. Attorneys’ Office in Birmingham, but there was a hiring freeze at the time. Undeterred, she took a teaching position at the Law School, thinking she would do it for a year.
She never looked back. As a professor, Pierson has received the Burnum Award, UA’s top award given to one faculty member each year for research and scholarship, and the university’s Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award.
During her tenure, Pierson founded a number of programs, including the Summer Externship Program in 1992, the Public Interest Institute in 2000, the Shadow Program in 2000, and The Business of Being a Lawyer course in 2014.
All three were geared toward students. Active in the bar throughout her tenure at the law school and always keeping up with former students, Pierson noticed that while many of her former students were happy in their practices of law, some were not.
“I remembered how excited and happy and thrilled about being lawyers when they were in law school and it made me sad to see how unhappy they were now. It had a profound impact on me. I wondered if there was some kind of course I could put together that would help my students choose practices of law that would be personally fulfilling for them.”
Along with dozens of students and hundreds of lawyers, Pierson developed BBL to help students and lawyers develop satisfying careers and love the practice of law.
She will dearly miss watching students come in a first-year law students and progress through law school.
“I have people that I taught 30 years ago that I’ve become good friends with. My relationships with my students are my treasures.” she said.
