Law School News

The University of Alabama School of Law has a rich history, but many of the greatest stories have not yet been shared. We want to hear your stories. Please submit written remembrances, videos, or photos that could include stories about the Alabama Law experience, meaningful relationships with other students or faculty, and how Alabama Law contributed to career accomplishments. What’s your story?

The University of Alabama School of Law has named Professor Adam Steinman as the Robert W. Hodgkins Endowed Chairholder in Law. This endowed position offers distinction and meaningful support to aid Professor Steinman in his research, teaching, and service to the School of Law.

Professor Steinman joined the University of Alabama School of Law faculty in 2014. ­­He is an award-winning teacher and scholar, whose articles have been published in dozens of prominent law journals including the Stanford Law Review, N.Y.U. Law Review, and Virginia Law Review among many others.

Professor Steinman is a co-author of two leading casebooks — Civil Procedure: Cases and Materials (13th edition) (with Jack Friedenthal, Arthur Miller, John Sexton, Helen Hershkoff & Troy McKenzie) and Federal Courts: Cases, Comments and Questions (9th edition) (with Martin Redish, Suzanna Sherry, James Pfander & Steven Gensler). In addition, he is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an author on the Wright & Miller Federal Practice & Procedure treatise—one of the most respected legal treatises in the United States. Professor Steinman has taught a range of courses, including Civil Procedure, Complex Litigation, Federal Courts, and International Human Rights Law.

Professor Steinman earned his J.D. from Yale Law School and his B.A. from Yale University. After law school, he served as a clerk to federal judges at both the trial and appellate levels — Judge Emilio M. Garza of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Chief Judge Jerry Buchmeyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Following his clerkships, Professor Steinman spent two years as a teaching fellow and supervising attorney in the Appellate Litigation Program at Georgetown University Law Center, earning a Master of Laws degree (LL.M). Professor Steinman then practiced at the law firm of Perkins Coie LLP in Seattle, Washington, focusing on complex civil litigation (principally product liability, commercial, and international matters) and appellate litigation. Prior to joining the University of Alabama faculty, he was a Professor of Law at Seton Hall University and the University of Cincinnati. During the Fall 2022 semester, he taught at Yale Law School as the Sidley Austin–Robert D. McLean Visiting Professor of Law. He has now returned to Alabama Law where he plans to continue his research and teaching efforts.

About the Robert W. Hodgkins Endowed Chair in Law

The Robert W. Hodgkins Endowed Chair in Law was funded by the late Robert and Joanne Hodgkins who desired to attract and retain outstanding faculty members at Alabama Law. Mr. Hodgkins was a 1953 graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law, who had a distinguished career with the State Farm Insurance Company. Mr. Hodgkins and his wife Joanne S. Hodgkins established a professorship in Mr. Hodgkins’s name in 2001.

Alabama Law Civil Law Clinic students, Ben Clark (3L) and Marjorie Head (3L) successfully argued a case on behalf of their client, Gary Lee Johnson, before the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals. The case concerned the demolition of the client’s family residence and the appeal considered the steps required of indigent appellants to perfect their appeals. Notably, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals grants oral arguments in very few cases—often less than a dozen each year.

The case and oral arguments were supervised by Professor Yuri Linetsky, Director of Clinical Programs. The brief was written by Natalie Daniel (’22) & John Wilson Booth (’22), and Hunter Sims (3L) & Amani Moore (3L) aided in research and preparation for the oral argument.

The Civil Law Clinic, one of six law clinics at the University of Alabama School of Law, affords students the opportunity to provide free legal advice and representation, under the direction of a licensed attorney, in a wide variety of civil cases to members of the community and to University of Alabama students. Alabama Law Civil Clinic students handle over 200 cases annually—encompassing a wide variety of legal claims, including consumer law, debt collection defense, housing, insurance, torts, and other civil matters. Learn more about the Civil Law Clinic at Alabama Law online.

Emily Sims (3L) shared her thoughts in the American Bar Association (ABA) Journal about her experience serving as a Finch Fellow in Covington County with Circuit Judge Ben Bowden.

Named with permission of the estate of Nelle Harper Lee, the Finch Initiative was launched in 2017 in the town of Andalusia, Alabama, under the guidance of Judge Bowden. The program provides rising 2L or 3L students — designated as Finch Fellows — an opportunity to spend six to eight weeks during the summer as legal interns in communities in rural Alabama.

Read the full article in the ABA Journal.

Professor Fredrick Vars’s article Murder and Money: The Dark Side of Taylor Swift has been accepted for publication in the Duke Law Journal online. The piece examines some of the complex questions connected to the seemingly straightforward “Slayer Rule” (murderers cannot inherit from their victims) through the lens of music written by Taylor Swift. Read the forthcoming piece on SSRN.

Professor Vars also recently published an opinion piece in the New York Daily News titled Social platforms can do more to prevent suicide. The article was drafted in response to an article titled Elon Musk denies Twitter removed suicide prevention and safety measures.

Professor Anil A. Mujumdar was quoted in a Business Insider article titled Sam Bankman-Fried is in jail, but legal watchers are wondering: Where’s ex girlfriend Caroline Ellison? You can read the full article here.

Professor Amy F. Kimpel was quoted in a Mississippi Free Press article titled Advocates Push For Automated Criminal-Record Expungement in Mississippi. You can read the full article here. 

Professor Heather Elliot’s article, Original Discrimination: How the Supreme Court Disadvantages Plaintiff States has been published in Iowa Law Review. You can read the full piece here.