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Ed Haden Related Seminars and Products

Balch & Bingham LLP

Mr. Haden is a Partner in the firm's Birmingham office, chairs the firm’s Appellate Practice Group, and is the author of the Alabama Appellate Practice Guide. His practice focuses on appellate litigation, including litigation in the healthcare, business, and energy fields. Before joining the firm, Ed served as the Nominations and Constitutional Law Counsel on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Chairman Orrin Hatch and as Chief Counsel of the Courts Subcommittee for Senator Jeff Sessions. He also clerked for the Honorable E. Grady Jolly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and served as a staff attorney for the Honorable Harold See of the Supreme Court of Alabama. Ed serves on the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Best Lawyers in America ranked Balch & Bingham LLP number one in Appellate Law in Alabama and annually recognizes Ed. Martindale Hubbell ranked Ed as AV Preeminent. Benchmark Appellate recognizes Ed as a star in Eleventh Circuit-Alabama appeals. Ed regularly litigates appeals in the Supreme Court of Alabama and the Eleventh Circuit.

Justice Gregory Carl Cook Related Seminars and Products

Supreme Court of Alabama

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.

Justice J. Christopher McCool Related Seminars and Products

Alabama Supreme Court

Justice Chris McCool, a lifelong resident of Pickens County, Alabama, grew up on his family's farm in the Zion Community near Gordo, Alabama. He is the oldest son of Diane McCool and the late Harold McCool, also of the Zion Community. Judge McCool grew up on the farm that has been in his family for five generations, and which he now manages for his mother.

In 1985, Justice McCool graduated from Pickens Academy as valedictorian. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from the University of Alabama in 1990, with a double major in History and Classics (With a Concentration in Greek). In 1990, he received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for outstanding senior man at the University of Alabama. He also served in the Student Government Association as a member of the Student Senate and as Chief Justice of the Student Court during his undergraduate tenure.

Justice McCool graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1993, where he served as an Associate Justice and ultimately as Chief Justice of the Honor Court. He was a member of the Alabama Law Review and the Farrah Law Society. Immediately after graduation, Justice McCool returned to his hometown of Gordo to practice law with local attorney C.O. Burkhalter. In 1995, he was appointed to serve as a full-time Assistant District Attorney for Pickens County, and in 2001 he became District Attorney for the 24th Judicial Circuit, comprising Fayette, Lamar, and Pickens Counties. In 2018, he ran successfully for a full term on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, taking office on November 9, 2018.  He served on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals from 2018 to 2025 and was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 2025.

Marc James Ayers Related Seminars and Products

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Marc James Ayers is a partner in the Birmingham, Alabama office of the Bradley firm, and is a member of Bradley’s Appellate Litigation Group.  Marc represents individual, corporate and governmental clients before state and federal appellate and trial courts throughout the country. Marc is listed in Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America® and Mid-South Super Lawyers in the field of Appellate Law, and has represented clients on petitions for certiorari and amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. Marc has also 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.  Marc has also taught as an adjunct professor of law, teaching constitutional and public interest law, administrative 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.