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”
Professor Pamela Pierson is quoted in Al.com on the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in the McDonnell v. United States case and how it affects former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman’s bribery conviction.
“The Supreme Court is now holding the government to a higher standard in the political corruption cases,” Pierson said. “The Supreme Court did set aside the conviction of a public official. I would think that on the strength of his arguments, that [Siegelman’s] case should be reconsidered.”
For more, read “Did SCOTUS Help ‘Free Don Siegelman’? Pardon Likelier than Conviction Being Overturned: Experts.”
The Alabama State Bar recently installed Montgomery attorney J. Cole Portis (’90) as its 141st president.
“I am blessed to have the opportunity to lead our state bar, which has been entrusted with the obligation to serve our profession, seek improvements in our judicial system and serve the public,” said Portis of the Beasley Allen Law Firm in Montgomery. “We are committed to a new era of engagement with lawyers to ensure that they have resources available to help them in their practice.”
Portis has served on multiple committees and task forces within the Alabama State Bar, including the Finance and Audit Committee, Client Security Fund Committee and various others. He has also served on the Alabama State Bar Board of Bar Commissioners for the 15th judicial circuit since 2007.
Portis joined the Beasley Allen Law Firm in 1991, where he is now a principal. He represents people and families who are injured or killed by defective products. In addition to handling litigation matters at Beasley Allen, he manages the firm’s product liability/personal injury section.
For more, read “Cole Portis Installed as 141st President of Alabama State Bar.”
Professor Julie A. Hill is quoted in U.S. News & World Report about a marijuana businessman who was denied life insurance.
“These and other laws make it very risky to accept any money that you know comes from a marijuana business, regardless of whether you are a bank,” she says. Among the prohibitions are “knowingly engag[ing] in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property of value greater than $10,000.”
For more, read “Marijuana Businessman Denied Life Insurance.”
Professor Susan Pace Hamill is quoted in Vanity Fair about whether Donald Trump has the qualities voters seek in a president.
“The president has a duty of loyalty and care to the United States,” said Susan Pace Hamill, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and Honors College and an expert in tax avoidance for small businesses. “He or she is a fiduciary to the public. Donald Trump is a deal-maker for himself. There is not a fiduciary bone in his body. This is generally acceptable in the rough-and-tumble world of business but is not remotely in the universe of what you want out of a public official.”
For more, read “The Great Trump Tax Mysteries: Is He Hiding Loopholes, Errors, or Something More Serious?”
