University of Alabama School of Law
The University of Alabama School of Law is the law school at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and the state's only public law school. The school was founded in 1872 and has trained many important figures in American jurisprudence, including United States Supreme Court chief justice Hugo Black.
The University's Law Center, including the Bounds Law Library, is located on Paul Bryant Drive in the southern part of the University of Alabama campus. The building was designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone and completed in 1978. Its current enrollment is 383, taught by a faculty of 50 full-time and 40 adjunct professors.
The school offers the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree, as well as an International LL.M., an LL.M. in Taxation, and an LL.M. in Business Transactions. It operates a four-year J.D./M.B.A. program in conjunction with the Manderson Graduate School of Business along with a range of dual enrollment programs in political science, economics and taxation. Other certificates in public interest law, governmental affairs, and international and comparative law are also offered. The school offers all interested students the opportunity to participate in a practical law clinic, with a number of practices involved in children's rights, civil law, criminal defense, domestic violence, elder law, non-profit services and mediation law.
The University of Alabama School of Law publishes the Alabama Law Review, the Alabama Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Law Review, the Journal of the Legal Profession, and the Law & Psychology Review.
In 2018 Miami, Florida attorney Hugh Culverhouse Jr pledged a $26.5 million gift to the law school, for which the University agreed to change the school's name to the Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr School of Law. Within months the school and Culverhouse were engaged in several disputes over his involvement in hiring, admissions and scholarship decisions. In May 2019 he privately threatened to withdraw his pledge and future planned gifts. Chancellor Finis St John IV recommended that the University return his donations and reverse the name change. Soon later Culverhouse authored an editorial published in the Washington Post in which he claimed that the dispute was about his call for a boycott of the University as a protest against the "Alabama Human Life Protection Act", a highly controversial abortion ban. The school has disputed his account and provided emails to the press to substantiate that the decision had been made before Culverhouse made any public statements about the abortion law.
Deans
- Henderson Somerville, 1872–1897
- William Thorington, 1897–1910
- William Oliver, 1910–1913
- Albert Farrah, 1913–1944
- William Hepburn, 1944–1950
- M. Leigh Harrison, 1950–1966
- Daniel Meador, 1966–1970
- Thomas Jones (acting), 1970–1971
- Thomas Christopher, 1971–1981
- Charles Gamble, 1982–1987
- Nathaniel Hansford, 1987–1993
- Kenneth Randall, 1993–2013
- William Brewbaker III (interim), 2013–2014
- Mark E. Brandon, –2023
- William Brewbaker III, 2023–
Notable alumni
- Edward Almon, U.S. Representative
- James B. Allen, U.S. Senator
- Mel Allen, sportscaster
- John Abercrombie, U.S. Representative and University of Alabama President
- Spencer Bachus, U.S. Representative
- Samuel A. Beatty, Alabama State Supreme Court Justice
- Hugo Black, U.S. Senator and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice
- Albert Boutwell, Mayor of Birmingham
- Charles J. Cooper (class of 1978), attorney
- Emmett Cox, U.S. Appeals Court Judge
- Catherine Crosby, Miss Alabama 2003
- Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center
- Paul DeMarco, Alabama House of Representatives
- Carl Elliott, U.S. Representative
- Ben Erdreich, U.S. Representative
- Mark Everett Fuller, U.S. District Court Judge
- Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity
- Victor Gold, journalist
- Howell Heflin, U.S. Senator
- Perry Hooper Sr, Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice
- Frank M. Johnson, U.S. Appeals Court Judge
- Maud McLure Kelly, attorney
- Claude Kirk Jr, Governor of Florida
- Harper Lee, journalist and novelist
- Bert Nettles (class of 1960), Alabama House of Representatives
- Shorty Price, perennial candidate for Governor of Alabama
- Bill Baxley, Attorney General of Alabama and Lieutenant Governor of Alabama
- Jeff Sessions, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator
- Steadman Shealy, attorney
- Richard Shelby, U.S. Senator
- Robert Vance, U.S. Appeals Court Judge
- David Vann (class of 1951), Mayor of Birmingham
- George Wallace, Governor of Alabama
- Roy Moore, Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice
- Junius Guin Jr, U.S. District Court Judge
- Donald Watkins, attorney and banker
- Nick Wilson reality show contestant
References
- "University of Alabama School of Law" (June 7, 2019) Wikipedia - accessed June 10, 2019
- Whitmire, Kyle (June 9, 2019) "Culverhouse, UA feud was about ego, power and money, not Alabama’s abortion law." The Birmingham News
External links
- University of Alabama School of Law at ua.edu