This year’s speakers are dynamic and inspiring with backgrounds ranging from national politics to sports journalism. You’ll be informed and entertained while earning Free CLE Credits. Please note that this conference is for Alabama attorneys in private practice.
Speakers this year will include:
Jere L. Beasley – In January 1979, Jere Locke Beasley considered his options for making a future in Alabama’s Capital City, Montgomery. With a lifelong love of politics and a spirit for public service, he had served as Lieutenant Governor under Governor George Wallace, and had filled the Governor’s shoes briefly while Wallace recovered from an assassination attempt.
In 1978, Beasley made a bid for the Governor’s spot on a permanent basis, but was defeated in the race. He decided to hang out his shingle as a private practice lawyer. He believed working as a plaintiff’s lawyer would allow him to continue his mission of service. Today, the firm operates as Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C., and is the largest plaintiff’s law firm in the country whose offices are located in one city, and a leader in civil litigation on behalf of claimants, having successfully represented hundreds of thousands of people.
Albert Brewer – Albert Preston Brewer served as the Governor of Alabama from May 1968 until January 1971.
Brewer was born in Bethel Springs, Tennessee. Prior to his election as lieutenant governor, he served three terms in the Alabama House of Representatives from Morgan County from 1954-1966. During the last of these terms 1962-1966 Brewer, at age 34 became the Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, the youngest person in state history to hold this post.
While lieutenant governor, he was acting governor for a portion of one day while Governor Lurleen Wallace was out of the state for over twenty days for medical treatment. When she died in office in May 1968, Brewer became governor, taking over direct management of the state.
After years of private law practice, Brewer served as Distinguished Professor of Law and Government at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. He currently teaches a course on Professional Responsibility at the Cumberland School of Law. He has also been an active leader with the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform since 2000.
Greg Cusimano – Cusimano is contributing editor of Alabama Tort Law Handbook and Alabama Tort Law, 1st-4th edition. His partner Mike Roberts is the author. Greg is Co-Editor in Chief of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America’s (now AAJ) 6-volume treatise, Litigating Tort Cases. Mr. Cusimano, along with Jim Lees, released AAJ’s Education video series, “Commanding the Courtroom,” used by lawyers and law schools all over the country.
Cusimano served as President of Alabama Association for Justice, serves on the Board of Governors of AAJ and has served on its executive committee. He was appointed by the Alabama Supreme Court to re-write the Rules of Evidence and to update Pattern Jury Instructions and Rules of Procedure. He is a sought-after trial consultant, in the firm of Winning Works LLC, and he developed the Overcoming Jury Bias Model along with David Wenner of Arizona.
Morris Dees – Founder and Chief Trial Counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Author, publisher and attorney, Dee has been a life-long advocate for education, tolerance and civil rights. Dees frequently speaks to colleges and universities, legal associations and other groups throughout the country.
Dees has received numerous awards in conjunction with his work at the Center. Trial Lawyers for Public Justice named him Trial Lawyer of the Year in 1987, and he received the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award from the National Education Association in 1990.
Paul Finebaum – Whether football season finds you donning the crimson and white or orange and blue, or rooting for another team (in the Southeastern Conference, of course) you have more than likely read or listened to Paul Finebaum. An award winning journalist, Finebaum’s name is now synonymous with sports commentary.
He is the author Finebaum Said and writes a popular column that appears twice weekly in the Mobile Press-Register, and syndicated to other papers. He also heads The Paul Finebaum Radio Network, which has been named one of the top 12 sports radio shows in the nation by Sports Illustrated magazine.
Sen. Richard Shelby – Richard Shelby, Alabama’s senior United States Senator, was first elected to the Senate in 1986 with an undeniable commitment to Alabama and the simple philosophy that a smaller government can also be a more effective government.
Senator Shelby is ranking member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and ranking member of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee.
Prior to Senator Shelby’s election to the United States Senate, he served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and eight years in the Alabama legislature. He also served as a City Prosecutor in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Alabama, and Special Assistant to the Attorney General in Alabama.
A fifth generation Alabamian, Senator Shelby is a graduate of the University of Alabama’s undergraduate and law programs.
