The people who keep The University of Alabama School of Law running took center stage this summer — and they deserved it. Across two celebrations, the school recognized long-serving staff, presented the Distinguished Staff Service Award, and marked the retirement of a colleague whose tenure spans more than half a century. At a staff social…
The University of Alabama School of Law’s Professor Grant Christensen, a nationally recognized expert in federal Indian law, has published a new essay in the Yale Law Journal Forum, the online publication of the Yale Law Journal. In “State Tax Exemptions for Tribal Cultural Property,” 136 Yale L.J.F. 1 (2026), Christensen and co-author Andrew Appleby…
This summer, six University of Alabama School of Law students spent their days in rural courtrooms in Scottsboro, Fayette, Union Springs, and Ozark, working alongside the judges and attorneys who serve rural Alabama, where one lawyer may cover the full sweep of a community’s legal work. That is the purpose of the Finch Fellowship Initiative.…
The University of Alabama School of Law welcomes Scott Donaldson as Executive Director for Graduate Law and CLE Programs and Assistant Professor of Law in Residence. Donaldson, who joined June 1, 2026, leads the school’s continuing legal education and graduate law programs. Donaldson served 18 years on the Alabama bench, as a circuit judge from…
In May, the Law School hosted a reception in Birmingham, to honor Paula W. Hinton (‘79) as the 2026 Sam W. Pipes Distinguished Alumna Award recipient. This award is the highest honor presented by the Law School Foundation to an outstanding alumnus/a of The University of Alabama School of Law who has distinguished themselves through…
Sign Up to Mentor a 1L! The Law School’s Comprehensive Advising Program (CAP) ensures that our incoming students feel connected and supported throughout their time in law school. Through CAP, our 1L students are assigned four mentors — a faculty advisor, a student mentor, an alumni mentor, and a Career Services counselor — each playing…
Professor Ben McMichael’s research on the impact of medical scope-of-practice laws on healthcare access was cited in the Wall Street Journal article, Nurse Practitioner Is Now the Hottest Job in Healthcare. In 2023, Professor McMichael published Supply-side health policy: The impact of scope-of-practice laws on mortality in the Journal of Public Economics. Based on an…
Professor Fred Vars, a leading expert on mental health law, has published his latest book, Through the Fire: How People with Mental Illness are Empowering Each Other. Through the Fire focuses on successful, impactful peer-led mental health response programs that have already been implemented, and proposes a shift in thinking about mental health as a…
Professor Grant Christensen, a nationally recognized expert in federal Indian Law, has published his newest essay, The Return to Autochthonous Law, in Vol. 93 of the University of Chicago Law Review. The piece is a review of Indigenous Governance by David Wilkins, but uses Wilkins’ text to make an original contribution to the field of federal Indian Law. A…
On Sunday, May 3, The University of Alabama School of Law awarded 129 Juris Doctor degrees, with an additional two students receiving their Master of Business Administration, during the Class of 2026 commencement ceremony at Coleman Coliseum. Sav Miles delivered the valedictory address, and outgoing Student Bar Association President Madeline Martin offered a reflection for…