The Alabama State Bar on Friday inducted two alumni of The University of Alabama School of Law into the Alabama Lawyers Hall of Fame.
“The attorneys inducted into the Alabama Lawyers Hall of Fame today spent their lives dedicated to improving the lives of others and the legal profession,” said Alabama State Bar President J. Cole Portis of the Beasley Allen Law Firm in Montgomery. “It’s a privilege to participate in the Hall of Fame program and to honor these outstanding lawyers for their commitment and service to our state, local communities and our nation. This program and its purpose are at the heart of the bar’s motto: Lawyers Render Service.”
The alumni inducted into the 2016 Alabama Lawyers Hall of Fame are:
The Alabama Lawyers Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 2004, and has since inducted 55 Alabama lawyers including this year’s five inductees. Inductees must have a distinguished career in law and each inductee must be deceased at least two years at the time of their selection. In addition, at least one of the inductees must be deceased a minimum of 100 years.
Plaques honoring each inductee are on display in the Alabama Lawyers Hall of Fame located on the lower level of the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building.
Attorney James U. Blacksher (‘71) spoke to students, staff and faculty about his career as a civil rights attorney during the Public Interest Awards Ceremony, held on April 13, 2017, in the Bedsole Moot Court Room. He encouraged students to seek innovative ways to advocate for social justice.
Blacksher was presented with an honorary Order of the Samaritan medal in recognition of his great service to his community.
This year, 43 students received the Dean’s Community Service Award in recognition of 40 hours of community service work during law school; 24 students received the Student Pro Bono Award for completing 50 hours of pro bono work during law school; and 29 students received the Order of the Samaritan in recognition of contributing 90 hours of volunteer work during law school. The Public Interest Institute also awarded the Excellence in Service Award and Pro Bono Excellence Awards to the three graduating 3Ls with the highest reported number of community service and pro bono hours.
In addition, 22 3Ls earned the Certificate in Public Interest Law, which requires 20 hours of specialized coursework and 50 hours of volunteer work.
The Public Interest Institute Advisory Board and the Public Interest Student Board raised nearly $7,400 for summer grants for students working at unpaid internships.
The fundraiser, held April 6, 2017, at Trim Tab Brewing Company in Birmingham, featured brew by Trim Tab, food from Little Donkey and silent auction items donated by local businesses. About 60 people attended the event, which was sponsored by Nolan Byers; Marsh, Rickard & Bryan; Redden, Mills, Clark & Shaw; and Baker Donelson.
The University of Alabama School of Law has announced that former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance will join the Law School as a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Law in August.
She will teach in the areas of criminal justice reform, criminal procedure and civil rights.
“I am delighted that Joyce Vance will be joining the School of Law,” said Dean Mark E. Brandon. “Her knowledge and experience – both as U.S. attorney and in private practice – will make her a valuable presence in the classroom and a tremendous resource for our students. She will also be a splendid colleague.”
As U.S. attorney, Vance led an ongoing investigation into Alabama’s prisons and successfully challenged Alabama’s HB 56 immigration law. She entered into a settlement agreement with Jefferson County, Alabama, rectifying violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act at polling places, prosecuted a string of police “color of law” cases, developed a program to reduce recidivism by reducing barriers to successful community reentry among people being released from prison and partnered with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to bring Alabama into compliance with the Motor Voter Act.
Vance’s office prosecuted Alabama’s first “material support of terrorism” case and focused on fraud and corruption in cases such as the $16 million fraud prosecution of a healthcare non-profit CEO and the $7.3 million prosecution of the head of the Alabama Small Business Consortium.
“I’m honored to be able to work with students who will shape the future of the legal profession and our communities and to share my experience, which underlines the critical importance of the rule of law, with them,” Vance said. “I look forward to the opportunity to continue to make a contribution to important issues of social justice, criminal justice reform, civil rights and good government.”
Vance was nominated to be U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama by President Barack Obama in 2009 and was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. She was one of the first five U.S. attorneys, and the first woman appointed as a U.S. attorney by the administration.
Vance served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, a committee of U.S. attorneys that advises the U.S. attorney general on policy and management issues affecting the U.S. attorney’s offices around the country. Vance also co-chaired the committee’s Criminal Practice Subcommittee and was a member of its Civil Rights Subcommittee.
Vance is a graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and the University of Virginia School of Law. A frequent visitor to Alabama Law, she delivered the commencement address in 2011.
By now, many of you know that the Law Clinics at Alabama lost our colleagues, Liz Whipple and Shelly Darling, in a tragic electricity-related accident at Lake Tuscaloosa. We are stunned and heartbroken, as are their families. The two were great friends, and shared a love for their work, rescue dogs, stylish boots, and a quirky and totally irreverent sense of humor that regularly gave way to big laughter. They were our self-appointed social directors, and could find an excuse for a party on any given occasion. For those of you who did not know them, I’ll share a little about their time here.
Liz had been a student in our first Domestic Violence Law Clinic, and was coaxed back to Alabama from her DV work in Atlanta to serve as director of that clinic in 2015. She was a natural teacher, and her legal skills and compassion in dealing with survivors of violence inspired others. Active in the Tuscaloosa community and the larger DV services community, she chaired the Tuscaloosa Domestic Violence Task Force, was on the board of the local women’s shelter, and reached out to train law enforcement on the issues about which she was passionate. She continued to be active in Georgia, as well. Her impact on her students, the law school, and the community will be lasting.
Shelly came to UA Law in 2014 as a staff attorney in the Elder Law Clinic. Due in large part to her bright intellect and high energy, she instantly fit into the work and into the organization. She had a special rapport with clients, some of whom would call her at all hours for advice on all manner of things. Her patience with them was remarkable. Students found her to be an excellent role model as an attorney, a formidable advocate with a practical nature. Aside from her work, she could not resist picking up stray dogs, and, likely as not, keeping them. She will be greatly missed.
On April 21, our law school community gathered for an informal remembrance of Liz and Shelly. The stories shared brought home the importance of the work that we do. We will strive to honor their lives by following the examples of service they set for us.
Sincere thanks to each of you who have reached out with support and a shared sense of loss.
With sadness,
Anne Hornsby, on behalf of the Law Clinics at Alabama
EARLIER:
Dear Law School Community,
I reach out to you to share some unhappy news about two of our colleagues. Liz Whipple and Shelly Darling died Friday, the result of a water-related accident at Lake Tuscaloosa. This is wrenching news for all who knew them. Liz was concluding her second year as Interim Director of the Law School’s Domestic Violence Clinic. Shelly was a Staff Attorney in the Elder Law Clinic since 2014. Both were committed to values of equal justice, and each was a beloved member of the community.
Please keep Liz’s and Shelly’s families and friends in your thoughts and hearts during this heartbreaking time. I do not yet have information about funeral or memorial for Liz or Shelly, but I will share that and other information as I receive it. Counseling services are available for all students, faculty and staff of the Law School. Those details were contained within the email version of this message.
In sadness,
-Mark
Vice Dean James Leonard is quoted in The Living Church about a lawsuit filed against the Episcopal Church.
For more, read “Church Challenges Venue.”
After winning the regional competition, Alabama Law again performed at the highest levels in the finals of the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition in Chicago.
Allison Garnett, Sarah Jackson and Park Wynn, all third-year law students, went undefeated into the quarterfinals. They were in the “elite eight” of almost 200 teams who entered this prestigious national competition. Alabama Law lost a close round (2-1) to an Oklahoma team, which advanced to compete in the final championship.
About 75 oralists competed in the finals. Wynn won fifth best oralist overall, and Jackson won eighth best oralist. The team won the third best brief in the competition.
Mary Caroline Wynn, a 2L Moot Court Fellow, supported the team as bailiff and student-coach.
Professor Ken Rosen made a special contribution as faculty coach. When Professor Andrews became ill, Professor Rosen volunteered to coach the team, which meant he had to fly to Chicago within a few hours (with looming severe weather).
Professor Andrews congratulated the team, and she thanked Professor Rosen and the rest of the Law School community, including dedicated alumni, for helping the team.
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
