Happy Thanksgiving from Alabama Law!
Dean Brewbaker and the rest of the Alabama Law team wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving! We are so grateful for the support we receive from our alumni community—thank you!
Alabama Law Wins Case Classic Mock Trial Tournament
Alabama Law won the Case Classic Mock Trial Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, for the first time, ending Harvard Law’s three-year winning streak. The team of 3Ls Anna Jay and Loren Reese and 2Ls Nick Thoma and Dawson Fischer defeated 25 teams from 14 law schools across the country, including Harvard, Vanderbilt, and Tulane. Additionally, Nick Thoma was awarded Best Advocate in the semifinal and final rounds.
Coming Soon: Capstone Lawyer
The Law School’s annual alumni magazine, Capstone Lawyer, will be hitting mailboxes soon! Click here for a sneak peek.
If you need to update your contact information (including the mailing address where we send your copy of the magazine), please fill out this survey.
Homecoming Tailgate
Thank you to all who came to the Law School for our annual homecoming tailgate! We had a great time catching up with folks (before being severely disappointed by the Crimson Tide). Photos are available here.
Gifts
Recognition of gifts of $5,000+ over the past month
Bradley Arant Boult & Cummings contributed $6,750 to the Alabama Law Alumni Society on behalf of their attorneys who are graduates of the Law School.
Mark A. Crosswhite (‘87) contributed $5,000 to the Alabama Law Alumni Society.
Laura L. Crum (‘82) contributed $10,000 to the Path Makers Legacy Plaza.
Steven (‘76) and Patsy Emens (‘86) contributed $5,000 to the Robert Franklin Prince Endowed Law Scholarship.
The Jinks Crow Law Firm contributed $25,000 to the Path Makers Legacy Plaza.
Stephen D. Kane (‘69) contributed $25,000 to the Stephen Douglas Kane Endowed Scholarship in Honor of Former Dean Kenneth C. Randall and an additional $25,000 to the Program for Law and Business Support Fund.
The Vulcan Materials Company Foundation contributed $20,000 to the Jerry and Suzanne Perkins Endowed Scholarship.
The following alumni and friends (not mentioned above) either made or renewed an annual giving contribution to the Alabama Law Alumni Society this month. Visit www.give.ua.edu to make or renew your contribution.
Braxton W. Ashe (‘68)
Bryan O. Babcock (‘14)
Henry C. Barnett III (‘01)
Carlotta B. Beck
Brandy Adkins Boone (‘98)
Jess S. Boone (‘98)
Keith Covington (‘87)
Austin L. Dickinson (‘18)
L. Susan Doss (‘89)
Matthew T. Dukes (‘05)
Hon. John H. England III (‘96)
Frederick L. Fohrell (‘81)
Harry W. Gamble Jr. (‘60)
John K. Garrett (‘03)
Hon. L. E. Gosa (‘68)
Linda C. Harris (‘88)
James R. Hinson Jr. (‘82)
Annie C. Hughes (‘24)
James F. Hughey III (‘24)
Francis M. James III (‘75)
Terri C. Justice (‘86)
Christopher R. Kelley (‘00)
Joseph R. Latham (‘19)
Matthew B. LeDuke (‘06)
Jon N. Loupe (‘05)
Jimmy McLemore (‘82)
Roger W. Mullins (‘71)
James B. Pittman Jr. (‘98)
Raymond E. Ward (‘74)
Harry V. Satterwhite Sr. (‘94)
William S. Shulman (‘75)
Amanda L. Stansberry (‘04)
Joseph D. Steadman Jr. (‘12)
Cecil M. Tipton Jr. (‘76)
Robert W. Williams (‘23)
Class Notes
Keep us in the loop! Please send any updates to media@law.ua.edu.
Raina Hooie Baugher (‘25) joined Martinson & Beason as an associate in Huntsville.
Jere Beasley (‘62) received the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s (ADC) Martin Luther King Jr. American Dream Award.
Madison Bentley (‘23) joined Kudulis Reisinger Price as an associate in Birmingham.
Barrett Bowdre (‘16) was appointed Solicitor General of Alabama by Attorney General Steve Marshall (‘90).
Senator Katie Britt (‘13) received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Tuskegee University.
Katy Beth Crowe (‘25) joined Hall Booth Smith as an associate in Birmingham.
Benjamin J. DeGweck (‘03) was named CEO and Chancellor of South University in Savannah, Georgia.
Frank C. “Butch” Ellis Jr. (‘64) was inducted into the Shelby County, Alabama, Hall of Fame.
Claire Elman (‘25) joined Barze Taylor Noles Lowther as an associate in Birmingham.
Valerie L. Foy (‘12) was named deputy chief of staff, chief counsel, and director of foreign policy in the office of Nebraska congressman Don Bacon.
Alan T. Hargrove Jr. (‘99) was named to the board of directors of Children’s Harbor in Birmingham.
Audrianna Harris (‘22) joined Richter, Head, Sinall, White & Slotkin as an associate in Atlanta.
Alex Jones (‘25) and Conner White (‘24) will serve as law clerks to Judge Harold D. Mooty III (‘08) of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
William M. Logan IV (’17) was named partner at Winston & Strawn in Houston.
Rayner Mangum (‘14) was promoted to senior counsel at Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete in Denver, Colorado.
Rob McGinley (‘00) joined Jones Walker as a member of their real estate team and special counsel in the corporate practice group in Mobile.
Camdyn Neal (‘25) joined Troutman Pepper Locke as a business litigation associate in Atlanta.
William G. Parker Jr. (‘06) was appointed to the Supreme Court of Alabama by Governor Kay Ivey.
Wilmer “Buddy” Parker (‘75) received the American Bankers Association Distinguished Service Award for Financial Crimes.
Nathan Pohlman (‘25) joined Armbrecht Jackson as an associate in Mobile.
Samantha Renshaw (‘22) received the Volunteer Lawyers Birmingham Rising Star Award.
Sam Rickert (‘25) joined Burr & Forman’s general commercial litigation practice as an associate in Nashville.
Aubrey Sales (‘25) joined the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office as an assistant district attorney.
Andrew Schomburg (‘24) joined Huie, Farnambucq & Stewart’s malpractice and insurance defense groups as an associate in Birmingham.
Marc Shook (‘01) was named a 2026 Pillar of the Profession by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Foundation.
Richard Silfen (‘87) was appointed to Innovative Aerosystems’ Board of Directors.
Kenneth O. Simon (‘79) joined Christian & Small as Of Counsel in their Birmingham and Mobile offices.
Dakota Slaughter (‘22) was inducted into the Litigation Counsel of America as an Associate Fellow at its national conference in Dana Point, California.
Luke Tittle (‘25) joined Fidelity National Financial as a claims administrator in Omaha, Nebraska.
Sanderson Wall (‘25) joined Howell & Fisher as an associate in Nashville.
Many Alabama Law alumni were listed in 2025 Mid-South Super Lawyers—congratulations to all! The following alumni were listed in the designated categories:
2025 Mid-South Super Lawyers Top 50 Women:
Lauren C. DeMoss (‘06)
Jessica Kirk Drennan (‘95)
Heather E. Leonard (‘98)
Kimberly Bessiere Martin (‘94)
Carole G. Miller (‘95)
2025 Mid-South Super Lawyers Top 50 Alabama:
D. Leon Ashford (‘73)
R. Bruce Barze Jr. (‘92)
Robert R. Baugh (‘82)
Brett M. Bloomston (‘96)
Brannon J. Buck (‘97)
Lauren C. DeMoss (‘06)
Samuel H. Franklin (‘72)
Christopher T. Hellums (‘93)
David J. Hodge (‘00)
Sam David Knight (‘97)
Heather E. Leonard (‘98)
Brian P. McCarthy (‘86)
David J. Middlebrooks (‘83)
Alfred F. “Buddy” Smith (‘86)
2025 Mid-South Super Lawyers Top 100 Tennessee:
Cathy Speers Johnson (‘94)
Faculty Notes
Professor Mirit Eyal presented her article, Racing to Safety: Tax Policy for AI Safety-by-Design (with Yonathan Arbel), at the 118th Annual Conference of the National Tax Association in Boston. At the conference, Professor Eyal also served as chair of the panel Contemporary Legal Issues in Taxation and commentator for the article Rethinking Taxpayer Purpose by Ari Glogower (Northwestern) and Joshua Blank (UC Irvine).
Additionally, Professor Eyal presented her article, Toward AI Tax Personhood (with David Elkins, Netanya College School of Law), at the University of Missouri School of Law’s Tax Policy Colloquium.
Professor Grant Christensen presented his article, Tribal Court Judgments (S. Cal. L. Rev., forthcoming 2026), at the Central States Law Schools Association annual conference at the University of Kansas School of Law, at the 16th Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and as part of the SEC Law Professor Exchange at the University of Tennessee College of Law. He also spoke at “The Third Sovereign: Indian Tribes, States, and the United States,” an event hosted by the Student Bar Association in honor of Native American Heritage Month.
Professor Beth Crutchfield presented on Trauma-Informed Lawyering for an Alabama Anti-Trafficking Legal Advocacy Society (ATLAS) event at the Law School.
Professor Russell Gold presented his work-in-progress, Fiscally Restraining Criminal Lawmaking, at the Vanderbilt Criminal Justice Roundtable.
Professor Paul Horwitz spoke on the panel Competing Conceptions of the University at Boston University Law Review’s Fall 2025 symposium, The University and Democracy.
Professor Dan Joyner published two articles in National Interest: Why a US-Saudi 123 Agreement Now Makes Legal and Political Sense and Regulating Nuclear-Powered Ships on the High Seas.
Dean Jennifer Mart-Rice presented on the importance of documentation, onboarding, and succession planning in law libraries for the Library Systems & Resource Discovery Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries.
Professor Tomer Stein’s article, Leaving Delaware? The Essential Role of Specialized Corporate Courts (with Zohar Goshen, Columbia Law School), was published in Columbia Law Review.
Professor Sean Tu published Mapping Intellectual Property Abuses in the Pharmaceutical Field in JAMA Health Forum (with Ana Santos Rutschman) and Recent Changes in Discretionary Denials of Drug Patent Challenges (with Arti Rai & Aaron S. Kesselheim) in Health Affairs Scholar, an emerging and global health policy journal from Oxford University Press. The Health Affairs Scholar article analyzes recent policy shifts at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and how those policies will cause high drug prices to persist, especially in biologics and was cited in articles from STAT News, KFF Health News, and in GoozNews, a Substack by Merrill Goozner, a Chicago Tribune journalist. Goozner also interviewed Professor Tu on an episode of his podcast titled How Big Drug Companies Game the Patent System.
Professor Tu presented Curbing Patent Gamesmanship at the Institute for Humane Studies’ Innovation in Health Workshop; Current Patent Headwinds Impacting Generics and Biosimilars at Texas A&M University; and Pharmaceutical Patents at the University of Utah. He was also interviewed for a Birmingham Business Journal article about Regions Bank countersuing USAA over mobile deposit patents.
Professor Joyce Vance’s debut book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy, made the New York Times Best Sellers list and reached #1 on Amazon.
Professor Vance was also interviewed on NPR about the U.S. Supreme Court deciding to hear a case involving the grace period for mail-in ballots brought by the Republican National Convention in Mississippi and the release of DOJ files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Professor Fred Vars published an op-ed in The Hill (with Ian Ayres, Yale Law School) about a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that will decide whether it violates the Second Amendment to prohibit unlawful drug users from possessing firearms.