Samford University Cumberland School of Law

Selected Cumberland School of Law students qualified as Scholars of Merit and received the CALI Award for the fall 2024 term. The courses in which the students received this recognition are listed as well as the professors who taught the courses. Congratulations to these students: https://lnkd.in/g78PkEmt

Tomorrow! Join us and Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice for a special evening with Matthew Martens, author of "Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal" on January 23. Martens is a trial lawyer, a former federal prosecutor, a seminary graduate, a legal ethics professor and an award-winning author. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eGTW9H7M

Looking for your first CLE credits of 2025? On January 31, join our Continuing Legal Education department and the Land Use & Natural Resources Law Center for a half day institute focusing on regulatory alternatives to direct federal environmental regulation in view of a federal administrative state. The symposium will highlight the development of private governance, environmental markets, and taxation policies to fill environmental regulatory gaps. Learn more and register here: https://lnkd.in/g-4tMYUS

We look forward to hosting our Spring Open House on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. Our open house events allow prospective law students the opportunity to tour the law school, hear from faculty and students, learn about scholarships and fellowships, discover our programs and centers and gain an understanding of the admission process. Registration is now open here: https://lnkd.in/eXpBrepd

Brannon P. Denning, the Starnes Professor of Law, has been announced as a recipient of the 2025 Thomas M. Cooley Book Prize by Georgetown University Law Center for the Constitution. The annual award recognizes exceptional books, and their authors, that advance our understanding of, and commitment to, the Constitution. Denning will be recognized alongside his co-author, Robert J. Cottrol, for their collaborative work, "To Trust the People with Arms: The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment." The book examines the historical, legal and cultural underpinnings of the Second Amendment, offering an in-depth exploration of the Supreme Court’s evolving jurisprudence surrounding the right to keep and bear arms. Their work provides a balanced and scholarly treatment of a deeply contested constitutional issue, situating the Second Amendment within broader questions of liberty, government power and historical interpretation. https://lnkd.in/eEZVieN7

Cumberland School of Law recognizes excellence in academic achievement each semester by publishing a Dean’s List. Included on the list are students whose end-of-semester GPA is 3.3 or higher. Congratulations to the following students who qualified for the fall 2024 Dean's List: https://lnkd.in/em9Sy_Xu.

We look forward to hosting our annual Cordell Hull Speakers Forum on Jan. 30. Our 2025 event will feature Tracy Walder, former CIA and FBI special agent and author of "The Unexpected Spy." Walder worked as staff operations officer at the Central Intelligence Agency's Counterterrorism Center Weapons of Mass Destruction Group. During her time at the CIA, she traveled to Afghanistan, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Algeria, Morocco, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and England. During this time she received many awards for her service from both the CIA and from foreign intelligence offices as well. Among her awards were four Exceptional Performance Awards from the director of the CIA, two Special Activity Awards, a Meritorious Unit Citation Award, a DCI Counterterrorism Center Medal, and two Operation Enduring Freedom Targeting Awards. After the CIA, she became a special agent at the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office specializing in Chinese counterintelligence operations. She is a sought after public speaker through the World Affairs Council.

Birmingham area attorneys: join us for our Market Mixer event this Thursday, Jan. 16, hosted by the Cumberland Law Review, the American Journal of Trial Advocacy and the Career Development Office. Learn more and register: samford.edu/go/lawmixer

We look forward to hosting our Spring Open House on Friday, Feb. 21. Our open house events allow prospective law students the opportunity to tour the law school, hear from faculty and students, learn about scholarships and fellowships, discover our programs and centers and gain an understanding of the admission process. Registration is required and will open here on Jan. 15: https://lnkd.in/eXpBrepd

Professor Tracey Roberts has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Tax Section for the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). She will be presenting Energy Community Credit Impediments in Alabama and Kentucky in the Clean Energy and Community Economic Development session, co-sponsored by the Community Economic Development and the Environmental Law Sections on January 11 at the AALS annual meeting in San Francisco.