Chief Judge Pryor Speaks at Alabama Law for Constitution Day
In honor of Constitution Day, Alabama Law welcomed Chief Circuit Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to speak on the importance of the rule of law and the foundational significance of the U.S. Constitution.
Click here to view his full presentation.
Public Interest Spotlight
As part of the 25th anniversary of the Public Interest Institute at Alabama Law, we caught up with some of our outstanding alumni working in the public interest space to learn about their careers and the importance of continually rendering service through the legal profession. We extend a special thanks to Philip Langford (‘96), Chief Operations Officer at the Dovetail Impact Foundation; Linda Lund (‘89), former director of the Volunteer Lawyers Program at the Alabama State Bar; Aubrey Coleman (‘14), Senior State Policy Advisor at Rivian Automotive; and Carla Crowder (‘09), Executive Director of Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice for sharing their insights.
Click here to watch the video on YouTube.
Tailgate on the Quad: Alabama vs. Vanderbilt
There’s still time to RSVP for the Law School tailgate before the Tide takes on the Commodores on October 4 (with hopefully a better outcome than last season…)! Join Dean Brewbaker and fellow Alabama Law alumni on the Quad from 12:00 p.m. until kickoff at 2:30 p.m. We’ll bring the food and drinks, you bring the Crimson Tide spirit!
Click here for more details and to RSVP.
Gifts
Recognition of gifts of $5,000+ over the past month
Sam (‘82) and Mary Virginia M. Adams contributed $10,000 to the Ralph Wyatt Adams Endowed Scholarship.
The Albert G. Rives Charitable Trust contributed $13,000 to the Albert G. and Hester Rives Fund.
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.
Hampton Baxley (‘01)
Eleanor I. Brooks (‘76)
Patrick B. Collins (‘89)
Kevin B. Cronin (‘12)
Richard T. Dorman (‘71)
John M. Graham (‘92)
James C. Gray III (‘83)
Hon. Eddie J. Hardaway Jr. (‘77)
William I. Hill II (‘62)
Ralph E. Holt (‘89)
Ernie H. Hornsby (‘73)
Rosland T. Hurley (‘77)
Christopher R. Kelley (‘00)
Charles B. Langham (‘76)
Joseph R. Latham (‘19)
Michael S. McNair Sr. (‘78)
Douglas C. Martinson III (‘23)
Robert C. Matthews (‘07)
Hon. Harris E. McFerrin (‘69)
James H. Miller III (‘77)
Hon. Charles W. Owen (‘72)
Jerry W. Powell (‘75)
Edward S. Reisinger (‘07)
Hon. F. Timothy Riley (‘83)
Hon. William A. Ryan (‘82)
Bruce B. Siegal (‘86)
Jade E. Sipes (‘12)
Kenneth C. Weil (‘80)
Class Notes
Butch Ellis Jr. (‘64) will be inducted into the Shelby County (Alabama) Hall of Fame.
Sharonda C. Fancher (‘13) and Christa M. Ketchum (‘05) were named to Momentum’s 23rd Executive Leadership Class in Birmingham.
Drew Hertel (‘20) joined the Supreme Court of Georgia as a term law clerk for Justice Shawn Ellen LaGrua in Atlanta.
Annie Hughes (‘24) and Mary Clark Logan (‘25) joined Lightfoot Franklin & White as associates in Birmingham.
Sebastian Jaramillo (‘12) joined Zumpano Patricios as an income partner in Miami.
Kristy Lee (‘06) joined The University of Alabama at Huntsville as Chief Administrative Officer.
J. Ford Mozingo (‘24) joined Christian & Small as an associate in Birmingham.
Steven Nichols (‘08) was named CEO of Vaytiv Payment Solutions in Birmingham.
The following alumni were selected to serve on mayor-elect Nick Derzis’ transition team in Hoover, Alabama:
Lanier Brown (‘92)
Kermit L. Kendrick (‘00)
Frank H. Long Jr. (‘64)
The following alumni were named to Leadership Birmingham’s Class of 2025-26:
Josh Bennett (‘11)
Andrew Buck (‘00)
Lauren DeMoss (‘06)
The following alumni were named to Birmingham Business Journal’s NextGen 50 list:
Devan L. Byrd (‘17)
Seth A. Cohen (‘14)
Jim C. Crosswhite (‘22)
McKinley Dunn (‘16)
Jonathan R. Kolodziej (‘12)
Katelyn H. Wilson (‘12)
Faculty Notes
Assistant Dean Cassandra Adams co-hosted a delegation of journalists from the European Union through the State Department’s Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists for a discussion about free speech, a free press, civil rights, and the rule of law in democracies. Associate Dean Jeff Baker and Assistant Dean Anil Mujumdar joined the conversation—highlighting the history of New York Times v. Sullivan, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that arose during the civil rights movement in Montgomery and fundamentally changed American libel law.
Professors Yonathan Arbel and Alberto Lopez’s article, Governing Generative AI Beyond the Grave, was published in Florida State University Law Review.
Associate Dean Jeff Baker was a guest lecturer, via video, on pro bono and law school responses to natural disasters at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City as part of his ongoing consultation with Mexico Appleseed and DLA Piper on building community resilience and capacity in natural disasters.
He also published an opinion essay in the Mississippi Free Press, Going West and Heading South: Combining Public Policy and Community Care Could Be Key, reflecting on his move back to the Deep South after 12 years in Southern California.
Professor Emerita Susan Pace Hamill was interviewed for a WBEZ Chicago (Chicago’s NPR station) article about the prevalence of LLCs in the rental real estate market.
Professor Russell Gold led a seminar for the University of Alabama Teaching Academy on Driving Student Engagement in Lecture Classes. He also participated in a conversation at Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa with Professor Corinna Barrett Lain (Richmond Law School) about her newly published book, Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection.
Professor Luke Herrine received Marguerite Casey Foundation’s Freedom Scholar Award for his work on student debt cancellation. The Foundation awarded “four trailblazing scholars whose work provides a blueprint for taking action for racial and economic justice.”
Professor Herrine was also interviewed for a ProPublica article about the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and how that could negatively impact the administration’s efforts to stop banks from discriminating against customers.
Professor JD Hsin commented on the legality of bringing a service dog to court in an ABA Journal article.
Professor Amber Polk presented Theorizing Environmental Rights Amendments at the New Scholars Workshop at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Conference and Living the Good Life in a Paradox: Consumption and Sorties Problems in the Anthropocene at the 16th Annual Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship at Vermont Law School.
Professor Clare Ryan’s forthcoming article, The Public/Private Home (110 Cornell Law Review, 2025), was reviewed by Anibal Rosario-Lebrón (Rutgers Law School) on Jotwell.
Professor Sean Tu published two new articles: Estimating Costs of Market Exclusivity Extensions for Four Top-Selling Prescription Drugs in the US in JAMA Health Forum (with Dongzhe Hong, Reed F. Beall, Massimiliano Russo, Benjamin N. Rome, Aaron S. Kesselheim & Ameet Sarpatwari) and Overlapping Method of Use Patents to Prevent Generic Entry in Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (with Aaron S. Kesselheim & Jin Park).
He also presented Number and Types of Patents on Drugs Approved by the FDA, 1990-2019 at the New England Intellectual Property Works-in-Progress Conference at Northeastern University School of Law and at Mid-Atlantic Patent Works-in-Progress (MAPWIP) at Georgetown University Law Center. Additionally, he presented Skinny Labeling and Method of Use Patents as part of the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics & Law (PORTAL) at Harvard Medical School. Professor Tu is an affiliate scholar with PORTAL and was previously a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School.
Professor Joyce Vance was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition about the independence of the U.S. Department of Justice.