Link Loegler (’96) is helping the Poarch Band of Creek Indians diversify its investment portfolio and launch OWA, a new entertainment and amusement park in Foley, Alabama.
The first phase of the project is scheduled to open in May, and the tribe, which has more than 3,000 members, expects it to attract families in Alabama and throughout the Southeast to the South Alabama amusement park.
OWA, pronounced oh-wah, means “big water” in the Muskogee Creek language. Loegler said the project presents an opportunity to partner with the City of Foley, and to provide family-oriented entertainment services to an underserved market. While the decision is business-driven, it does help the community by creating jobs, providing another attraction for those who travel to the beaches in the area, and generating tax revenue for Foley.
If OWA works as planned, there will be more tax revenue, which will help build better schools and increase home values, Loegler said.
The tribe “saw an opportunity to do something unique, and that would really benefit the Gulf Coast: Orange Beach, Gulf Shores and Foley,” Loegler said. “There’s nothing like that there.”
Loegler has been an invaluable asset for the tribe, said Chad Klinck, Chief Financial Officer of the Creek Indian Enterprises Development Authority.
“We’re lucky to have someone with Link’s depth and breadth of knowledge,” Klinck said. “He’s worth his weight in gold.”
Loegler has been a business attorney for more than 20 years. Before joining the Poarch Band of Creek Indians as an Assistant Attorney General in 2014, he practiced in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, real estate and tax law for Leitman, Siegal & Payne, P.C. in Birmingham. While there, he closed several billions of dollars in deals for Colonial Properties Trust, a publicly traded real estate investment trust.
“I learned so much because I was always dealing with large multi-national law firms on the other side,” he said. “Sometimes you’re learning what to do, and sometimes you’re learning what not to do.”
Loegler, like many lawyers, is often questioning whether he has gotten the result he should have or wondering if he could have done a better job for his client. Loegler said he knows he has done well when, at the end of a transaction, his client voices appreciation.
“As corny and as cliché as it sounds, that’s the best part of practicing law,’’ he said.
Loegler always dreamed of being a lawyer. He was first introduced to the profession as a Cub Scout. He and the other members of Troop 321 visited a courtroom and observed a moot court case about a broken window. Later, while attending Spring Hill College in Mobile, and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in accounting, Loegler took a few tax classes as well as a business law course. With both an interest in business and in law, he thought he could marry the two and become a business lawyer.
Loegler acknowledges that the University of Alabama School of Law has had a profound effect on his career path. He arrived at the same time as Professor William Brewbaker, and Loegler was put at ease when Professor Brewbaker announced it was also his very first year at the Law School. Meanwhile, Loegler found Professor Timothy Hoff’s Civil Procedure classes both informative and entertaining. Professor Hoff was the type of professor who asked a student wearing boots to stand on a desk, and then tug at his own bootstraps. It was an example, Loegler said, of just how hard it is to pull up oneself by using bootstraps.
“Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps many times works as well in real life as if you literally try to do it,” Loegler said. “It’s sometimes an impossible task.”
It’s also impossible to complete law school without the help of classmates, professors, family and friends. Loegler said law school pushed him to become the lawyer he is today. He was placed in an environment with an incredibly smart, talented and diverse student body that challenged him every step of the way. In the classroom, he and his classmates would critique lawyers and decide whether they had served their clients.
“I still look at what other lawyers do,” he said, “but I am really critiquing myself. That was instilled in law school.”
Professor Jenny Carroll appeared on WBHM and discussed what to expect from Gov. Robert Bentley’s impeachment hearings.
For more, listen to “What to Expect from Bentley Impeaching Hearings.”
Earlier, Professor Carroll appeared on Bloomberg Radio and discussed concerns about ethics violations and possible criminal charges.
For more, listen to “Alabama Governor at Risk of Criminal Charges.”
Legal scholars visited The University of Alabama School of Law April 7, 2017, to discuss how the law responds to difference and identity concerns.
The symposium on Law and the Imagining of Difference explored how law responds to the claims of difference, how and when it recognizes difference and accommodates it, as well as when and why such recognition and accommodation is resisted.
The symposium marked the 21st and final symposium organized by Austin Sarat, the Justice Hugo L. Black Visiting Senior Faculty Scholar at The University of Alabama School of Law.
The symposium featured:
Mark E. Brandon, dean, The University of Alabama School of Law
Megan A. Conway, Center for Disability Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Zanita Fenton, University of Miami School of Law
Douglas NeJaime, UCLA School of Law
Austin Sarat, The University of Alabama School of Law and Amherst College
Julie Suk, Cardozo Law School
UA Law students Kimberly Jones (‘17) and Francisco Canales (‘17) represented the Law School at the Hispanic National Bar Association Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition March 30-April 1 in Miami.
This year’s problem was based upon Beckles v. United States, a recently decided Supreme Court case. The problem raised complicated issues concerning the constitutionality of a United States Sentencing Guidelines provision and whether a ruling striking down that provision as unconstitutional would apply retroactively.
Jones and Canales competed in a field of 32 teams from around the country. They advanced to the quarterfinals where they lost a very close decision to the eventual competition champion from Washington and Lee. In the quarterfinal round, the team received high praise from all of the judges, including the United States district court judge who originally sentenced the defendant in the Beckles case.
In addition to the team’s success, Canales was individually recognized as the second best oralist in a field of almost 90 competitors.
Debbie Long (‘80), Executive Vice President, Secretary and Chief Legal Officer for Protective Life Corporation, will deliver the University of Alabama School of Law commencement address at 2 p.m., Sunday, May 7, at Coleman Coliseum.
Long joined Protective Life as General Counsel in 1992. Prior to joining the company, she was a member of the Maynard, Cooper & Gale law firm in Birmingham, Ala., where she practiced in the areas of insurance, banking and finance, business acquisitions and mergers, and general corporate law.
Long is a Director for the Law School Foundation, and she serves on the boards of various Alabama charitable organizations, including Big Brothers / Big Sisters of Greater Birmingham, A+ Education Partnership, Alabama Women’s Commission and the Protective Life Foundation.
Professor Bryan Fair and Civil Rights Attorney Fred Gray had “A Conversation about Jim Crow Policy” on March 31 at the symposium on Bending the Arc of History: African-Americans and The University of Alabama School of Law.
Gray said his mother gave him three goals as a child: Keep Christ first in his life, stay in school and stay out of trouble. After he was accepted at Case Western Reserve School of Law, Gray said he decided he was going “to destroy everything segregated I could find.”
“If I have been able to do anything, it was those motivating factors,” he said.
Gray’s talk was part of a symposium that commemorated the 45th Anniversary of the Law School’s first African-American graduates. Almost a decade after the infamous “stand in the schoolhouse door,” Michael Figures, Booker Forte, Jr., and Ronald E. Jackson made history in 1972 by becoming the first African-American students to graduate from The University of Alabama School of Law.
Dean Mark E. Brandon welcomed alumni, judges and professors to the conference that explored complex questions about diversity at the Law School and highlighted advancements that have been made.
“We honor today a group of persons who entered an indifferent and sometimes hostile place, who stayed, succeeded and made a mark on the university, state and nation,” he said.
Lawyers who had been denied admission recounted what it was like to attend other law schools, and the Law School’s first African-American law students shared their experiences at noon as part of the Trailblazers Luncheon. Alumni who followed in their footsteps provided potential solutions to the challenges and obstacles that remain.
UA Law students Kristen Campbell (’17) and Bridget Harris (’17) advanced to the final four in the National Trial Competition.
As the Southeast regional champion, the University of Alabama School of Law team advanced to the national finals in Fort Worth, Texas, with the top 28 teams.
After four elimination rounds, the final four teams were Alabama, Georgetown, Northwestern, and Berkeley. UA Law lost to Georgetown by one vote.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Two members of The University of Alabama School of Law faculty will be honored for their research contributions at the upcoming Faculty Research Day.
Sixteen faculty members from across the University were chosen as finalists for President’s Faculty Research Award, and six winners will be announced at a ceremony at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 12, in the Bryant Conference Center on the UA campus. Sponsored by the offices of the President and Vice President for Research and Economic Development, the award goes to outstanding faculty researchers from across UA’s Colleges and Schools.
Dean Mark E. Brandon said he was pleased to offer two nominees from the School of Law, both of whom are finalists.
Professor Stephen Rushin was nominated in the junior investigator category. “In a very short time Professor Rushin has become one of the most perceptive, interesting, and visible scholars in the nation on the subject of policing,” Brandon said. “He has three major articles forthcoming from three excellent legal journals, and a book under contract with Cambridge University Press.”
Professor Paul Horwitz was nominated in the senior investigator category. “Paul Horwitz is among the nation’s pre-eminent scholars of constitutional law,” Brandon said. “His work on the freedom of religion is subtle, balanced, and enormously influential.”
The winners will be a senior and junior investigator from each of three groupings: physical and biological sciences, mathematics and engineering; social and behavioral sciences; and arts and humanities.
“We are thrilled with the opportunity to recognize our diverse and talented faculty,” said Dr. Carl A. Pinkert, UA vice president for research and economic development. “With feedback from faculty and the faculty-led Research Advisory Committee, for the first time this year, award criteria were revised to highlight outstanding contributions from both junior and senior faculty members.”
The purpose of Faculty Research Day is to showcase and celebrate excellence in research and scholarship by bringing together faculty from across the campus. The event is also intended to increase awareness and generate enthusiasm for scholarship among faculty at UA as the University moves to advance its research enterprise.
In addition to remarks by UA President Stuart R. Bell and Pinkert, a keynote address will be given by Dr Kim Bissell, professor and associate dean for research in the College of Communication and Information Sciences.
A networking opportunity begins at 4 p.m., and there will be a reception after the ceremony concludes.The 2017 Faculty Research Award Finalists are:
Physical and Biological Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering
Senior Investigator:
Junior Investigator:
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Senior Investigator:
Junior Investigator:
Arts and Humanities
Senior Investigator:
Junior Investigator:
Professor Paul Horwitz is quoted in the Houston Chronicle about a federal lawsuit against a sitting justice of the peace.
For more, read “Courtroom Prayers Draw Federal Lawsuit Against Montgomery Co. JP.“
UA Law students Amber Hall (’18), Tori McCarthy ‘(18), Sloane M. Bell (’18) and Jessica M. Pagano (’18) competed in the final round of the John A. Campbell Moot Court Competition on March 22.
The distinguished panel for the round included the Honorable M. Casey Rodgers, United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida; the Honorable Amit P. Mehta, United States District Court for the District of Columbia; and the Honorable Jennifer Henderson, United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Alabama, Western Division.
Hall and McCarthy were the winning team, and Bell won the Reuben H. Wright Award for best advocate. Bell and Pagano won the Walter P. Gewin Award for best brief.
