Appellate Practice

Thomas W. H. Buck Jr. Related Seminars and Products

Maynard Nexsen, PC

Justice Gregory Cook Related Seminars and Products

Alabama Supreme Court

Justice Gregory Carl Cook (“Greg”) was elected to the Supreme Court in 2022. Justice Cook is the son of Gene and Dottie Cook and is from Florence, Alabama. From an early age, his parents instilled in him faith, the value of hard work, and the importance of public service. He discovered early his passion for the conservative, optimistic principles of President Reagan’s shining city on a hill.  Justice Cook attended Duke University on an Air Force ROTC scholarship, graduated in 1984 magna cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He then served our country in the United States Air Force, reaching the rank of Captain. Justice Cook received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1991, magna cum laude, where he served as an Executive Editor of the Federalist Society’s Journal of Law and Public Policy.
 
After finishing law school, Justice Cook moved back to Alabama and practiced law at Balch & Bingham for over 31 years. He handled a wide variety of matters in over 40 of Alabama’s 67 counties and in over 15 different states, including jury trials, bench trials, and arbitrations. A large part of his practice involved complex commercial litigation including a number of class actions. He is the author of the two-volume treatise Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure Annotated (5th Edition) and is the co-author and editor of two books: Class Action Strategy & Practice Guide (2018) and The Class Action Fairness Act: Law and Strategy (2013 and 2022). Before taking the bench, Justice Cook also served for many years on the Alabama Supreme Court Standing Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure.  Justice Cook has been active in the American, Alabama, and Birmingham Bars, including: as a member of Council and a Life Fellow (Section of Litigation, American Bar); as a Past Chair of the Business Torts and Antitrust Section and a Bar Examiner (subject-matter expert) (Alabama Bar); and as a Life Fellow, a member of the Grievance Committee, and a Past Chair of the Civil Courts Procedure Committee (Birmingham Bar). In his private practice, he received numerous awards and rankings, including from: Chambers USA, Best Lawyers (multiple areas), BTI Client Service All-Star, Benchmark (multiple areas), Super Lawyers, and Martindale-Hubbell. He is a long time member of the Federalist Society and the American Inns of Court, among other legal groups.

Marc James Ayers Related Seminars and Products

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Marc James Ayers represents individual, corporate and governmental clients before state and federal appellate and trial courts throughout the country. Marc is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® and Mid-South Super Lawyers in the field of Appellate Law. He also has represented clients on petitions for certiorari and amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. Marc has presented oral argument in the Fourth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and D.C. circuits, and in various state appellate courts in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, New York, Maryland, Mississippi, Texas and Wyoming.

Marc’s accomplishments have been recognized by his election as a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Marc served as chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the Alabama State Bar from 2008-2010, and is board certified in appellate practice by the Florida Bar’s Board of Legal Specialization and Education. He is frequently invited to lecture on appellate practice and is the author of several articles on that subject, among others. He also was nominated by the Justices of the Alabama Supreme Court to serve on both the Alabama Pattern Jury Instructions Committee as well as the Standing Committee on the Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure.

Prior to joining Bradley, Marc clerked for Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice J. Gorman Houston, Jr. (1998-99), and later served as Justice Houston’s senior staff attorney (2001-2004). Between those positions, Marc was in private practice, specializing in appellate litigation and constitutional and administrative law. During that time, he also taught as an adjunct professor of law, teaching First Amendment Law, Administrative Law, Public Interest Law, and legal writing/appellate advocacy. His work on statutory interpretation was cited as one of the most pertinent sources that influenced Justice Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner in their treatise Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts.

Charles Prueter Related Seminars and Products

Fortif Law Partners, LLC

Mr. Prueter received his B.A. in 2009 from The Ohio State University and his J.D. in 2012 from The University of Alabama School of Law, where he was the Editor in Chief of the Alabama Law Review. After law school, he served as a law clerk first to Judge Sim Lake of the Southern District of Texas, and then to Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod of the Fifth Circuit. A member of Waller’s Trial and Appellate Practice Section since 2014, he represents individuals and businesses in a variety of complex litigation matters. Mr. Prueter writes a monthly column for the Alabama Bankers Association entitled “Supreme Court Update for Banking and Financial Services Professionals” and is listed in the Birmingham Business Journal’s Rising Stars of Law for 2018.

Judge Roman Shaul Related Seminars and Products

Alabama State Bar

Roman was born and raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He attended undergraduate, graduate and law school at the University of Alabama. He practiced law in Tuscaloosa for a couple of years then practiced with the Montgomery, Alabama firm of Beasley Allen for 17 years. As a lawyer, Roman had a multi-jurisdictional practice and was licensed to practice law in 8 states and over 35 federal jurisdictions. He has represented individuals, businesses, insurance companies and state governments. In January of 2017, Roman was appointed as a trial judge in Montgomery County. In June of 2018 he became the General Counsel of the Alabama State Bar. He is married to Caroline Thames Shaul and has three daughters, Anne Kingsley (14), Isabel (13) and Thompson (6).

Justin Owen Related Seminars and Products

Bodewell, LLP

Aaron McLeod Related Seminars and Products

Adams and Reese LLP

Aaron focuses his practice on appellate litigation and dispositive-motion briefing.  He has represented multiple clients in appeals before the Alabama Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeal, the Texas trial and appellate courts, and the United States Supreme Court, and has served as appellate counsel for clients in major trials in Alabama and Texas.  Aaron is also experienced in defending personal-injury, business-litigation, construction-defect and professional-malpractice cases and has published on Alabama legal-malpractice law for the American Bar Association’s Professional Liability Litigation Committee.  Aaron also represents clients in lawsuits concerning charter schools, oil-and-gas contracts, and property damage.

Justice Brady Mendheim Jr. Related Seminars and Products

Supreme Court of Alabama

Brady E. (Brad) Mendheim, Jr., was appointed to the Alabama Supreme  Court on January 22, 2018, by Governor Kay Ivey to fill a vacancy  created by the retirement of Associate Justice Glenn Murdock. Before his  appointment, Justice Mendheim served as a circuit judge for the 20th  Judicial Circuit (Henry and Houston Counties), a position he had held  since 2009. From 2001 until 2009, Justice Mendheim served as a district  judge in Houston County. From 2001 until his appointment as an Associate  Justice, he was appointed specially by various Chief Justices to  preside over more than 250 cases in more than 40 Alabama counties.  He graduated from Auburn University with high honors and from Samford University's Cumberland School of Law in 1993.

Judge Bernard Harwood Related Seminars and Products

Rosen Harwood PA

Bernard Harwood attended the University of the South and The University of Alabama to earn his B.S. He earned his LL.B., Order of the Coif, from The University of Alabama School of Law. He served as a justice on the Alabama Supreme Court from January 2001 to January 2007. For ten years prior to that he served a Circuit Judge for the 6th Judicial Circuit. He was engaged in the private practice of law for 28 years preceding his judicial service, with a concentration in trial work. He has now returned to the private practice of law in Tuscaloosa with the firm of Rosen Harwood. For over 20 years Mr. Harwood taught courses in Trial Advocacy at The University of Alabama School of Law and now teaches an evidence course there. He is a member of the Tuscaloosa County, Alabama State, and American Bar Associations, and the Alabama Law Institute. Justice Harwood is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and has been certified an "Advocate" by The American Board of Trial Advocacy. He is past-president of the Tuscaloosa County Bar Association, the Tuscaloosa Inn of Court, and the Farrah Law Society/Order of the Coif. He is a Fellow of both the Alabama and the American Bar Foundations. Judge Harwood is active as an civil litigator, an appellate counsel, and as an arbitrator and a mediator. He is a certified American Arbitration Association arbitrator and mediator and is a member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals.