Robin Wolfe Law

We're honored to have Allison Floyd as our Executive Director for ACDLA. She's made so many positive changes to our Organization. Check out our new website at acdla.org when you have a minute or two.

Wishing our Executive Director, Allison Floyd, a happy one year anniversary! Allison joined the ACDLA team in June 2023. Over the last year, our organization has experienced incredible growth, and we look forward to what is to come.

Happy Law Day! Today, Governor Ivey signed HB275 and it was delivered to the Secretary of State for a bill number assignment. (We typically refer to it as the Indigent Fee Bill.) Thank you to all of our friends and colleagues who supported this effort. Many folks before us spent their time and energy paving the way for this to happen. I appreciate our mentors and the folks who used their voices and volunteered their time see this through to the end.

HB275 passed the Senate today! To everyone who worked on the Indigent Fee Bill and supported the effort...thank you!🙂

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2024/01/roy-moore-regretted-sending-her-to-prison-for-life-now-alabama-wont-let-her-out-on-parole.html

Roy Moore regretted sending her to prison for life. Now Alabama won’t let her out on parole. Stacy Shadwrick is serving a life sentence for a 1991 Rainbow City robbery. She's been out on parole before, but can't seem to find her way out again under this parole board.

Posted a few about the Parole Board lately but in case you missed this one, please read it:

Who killed Daniel Williams? A tale of terror in Alabama prisons Williams’ death “could have been prevented. Instead, choices were made over and over again to take no investigative or corrective action.”

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2024/01/he-missed-a-meeting-with-a-parole-officer-alabama-sent-him-back-to-prison-for-life.html

He missed a meeting with a parole officer. Alabama sent him back to prison for life. Kenneth McCroskey was paroled and had a good job for several years, but got sent back on a technical violation. Now he can't find his way back out.

Hoping everyone stops for a few minutes to read this article today:

Alabama has stopped nearly all paroles: Explaining the Leigh Gwathney effect The chair of Alabama parole board, Leigh Gwathney, voted against releasing a quadriplegic last year. During one 10-week span in the summer, she voted "no" 245 times and "yes" just 6 times. The parole rate has now dropped to just 8%. “It’s really arrogance,” said a former board member.

“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

(This particular quote paraphrases a passage from a sermon given in 1853 by the abolitionist minister Theodore Parker, who said,
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”)

Please take just a minute to look at our numbers in this study: Per capita spending on indigent defense in Alabama is $13.47. Our ratio of DA budget to public defense budget: 2:1 and our ratio of state-level police/corrections spending to state-level indigent defense spending: 35:1.

The states of indigent defense: part one A review of the public defense systems in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, and California

Please join the Madison County Bar Lawyers in supporting Justice Sarah Stewart for Chief Justice this evening. Details follow.

https://www.al.com/news/2023/09/federal-judges-side-with-mechanic-suing-huntsville-the-public-is-free-to-ignore-police-questions.html

Judges side with Huntsville mechanic, Alabamians don't have to show ID to police Bodycam video shows Huntsville police arrest man for initially declining to show his ID.

The Alabama State Bar is now accepting applications for Class 18 of the Leadership Forum. The criteria for applicants are attorneys who have been admitted at least 5 years and no more than 15 years as of January 1, 2024. The deadline for applications is Monday, October 16, 2023.

The application process is competitive. If an attorney has applied before and was not selected, he/she may re-apply. The application link is below.

Alabama State Bar Leadership Forum Class 18 - 2024 “The most common and overwhelming problem facing us as attorneys is the de-humanizing of our profession. It is my strong belief that if we do not turn back the tide facing us in this regard, we as professionals are doomed to a fate that minimizes the value we can bring to society. The Forum contin...

Colleagues,

Come out and help tonight if you can, please! No special training needed, we'll partner up. We are really shorthanded...

"Expungement and Voter Rights Restoration Clinic"
09/18/2023, (Mon.) 5:00pm - 7:00pm CDT
Madison County Commission District 6 Offices

Financial Wellness in the Workplace: Women + Wealth Creation

This four-part series is intended to educate female professionals on wealth management and empower them with their money in any stage of their career.

This series is co-sponsored by the Alabama State Bar and the Alabama Society of CPAs and has been approved for 1.0 hour of MCLE credit per session.
Session 1: Overcoming Financial Challenges Women Face in the Workplace
Wednesday, June 21 from noon to 1 p.m.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Overcoming Financial Challenges Women Face in the Workplace. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. This four-part series on Female Financial Wellness in the Workplace is intended to educate female professionals on wealth management and empower them with their money in any stage of their career. This session will include common financial planning challenges affecting women, economic realities and....

Health and Wellness CLE: Changing Neural Pathways - How Behaviors and Environment Affect Your Genes

Wednesday, June 21 | 1:30 - 2:30 pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Eyw0p5ZbQAumEo5wtB3bwQ #/registration

Ali Seidenstein, a resident in orthopaedic surgery at Johns Hopkins University, will discuss her research on epigenetics, the differences between distress and eustress, setting new neural pathways, and how yoga and meditation can help. This Wellness CLE is hosted by the Alabama State Bar's Quality of Life, Health, and Wellness Committee and sponsored by Carney Law LLC. It has been approved for 1.0 hour of MCLE credit.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Changing Neural Pathways through Yoga and Meditation - How Behaviors and Environment Affect Your Genes. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Ali Seidenstein, a resident in Orthopaedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins University, will discuss her research on epigenetics, the differences between distress and eustress, setting new neural pathways, and how yoga and meditation can help. This Wellness CLE is hosted by the Alabama State Bar's Quality o...

Please sign up to help at the next Expungement Clinic on June 19, 2023: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0d48a4a62aa5f94-expungement1 #/.

Thanks to everyone who helped us reach our goal for the Legal Food Frenzy! Members of the Alabama State Bar raised over $71,000. The money donated within our jurisdiction went directly to the North Alabama Food Bank. And we learned today at the Warren & Simpson Speaker Series how well our local food bank works with Manna House (2110 Memorial Pkwy SW). Fran Fluhler spoke about Manna House's nightly food distribution (M, W, Th: 3pm-6pm), their backpack program developed to support elementary school children and their hydroponics garden that produces over 6,500 quality heads of lettuce per month which is distributed to our local community. As she said, "we are like a community, within a community, helping our community". Check out mymannahouse.com, if you're looking for a place to volunteer. Thank you, Warren & Simpson, for hosting such an awesome luncheon.

Did you know that over 50% of Alabama’s public-school children are eligible for free and reduced lunch? What happens during summer break? That is where your donation to Legal Food Frenzy can help minimize food insecurity for children and their families. All monies donated go directly to the North Alabama Food Bank which in turn provides much needed food to hungry families in North Alabama. Each dollar donated can provide five meals for a family in need. Any donation is greatly appreciated. https://www.classy.org/give/t499236/ #!/donation/checkout

Free Zoom CLE: Practicing Law Should Not Kill You

Wednesday, Apr. 19 from 12 - 1 p.m.

Join the Quality of Life, Health and Wellness Committee for a CLE entitled "Practicing Law Should Not Kill You." Lawyers are near the top of some bad categories when it comes to all professions, including substance abuse, su***de depression, anxiety, divorce, and burnout. Eric C. Davis, our speaker, shares his personal story of getting help as an attorney and making it to the other side.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Practicing Law Should Not Kill You. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Join the Quality of Life, Health and Wellness Committee for a CLE entitled "Practicing Law Should Not Kill You." Eric C. Davis, our speaker, explains what his presentation will cover through the example of his own personal story: "Lawyers are near the top of some bad categories when it comes to all....

Thanks to everyone who participated in the service project on Saturday. Judge Pate represented our judiciary, Shauna Barnett represented the Madison County DAs, we had our Women's Section Co-chairs working - Tanya Hendrix and Maia Niemann, Bar Commissioners present and past were represented by Clay Martin (and Kim), Tom Ryan plus Rabekah McKinney (with her mom and sons), several criminal defense attorneys - George Flowers and Justin Nance, and Elena Moats with the Young Lawyers Section, Duchess Charette, Emily Baggett Hollingsworth and many more...

Colleagues, Please join us this Saturday for a service project that will benefit local young people in need of beds. We will be working with the Sleep in Heavenly Peace core volunteers in assembly lines to put together the components for twin beds that will be delivered to children in Huntsville and Madison County. Volunteers should report to 6000 Technology Drive, #7, in the back, at 9:15 to check in. Please complete the indemnification forms by pasting http://bit.ly/shpevent into your browser and using AL-Huntsville as the chapter name and April 15 as the build date. Thanks!

https://www.al.com/news/2023/04/whitmire-alabama-lawmakers-trial-tax-bill-will-cost-us.html

Whitmire: Alabama lawmaker’s ‘trial tax’ bill will cost us Or: Why Alabama prisons are at 160 percent capacity

https://www.al.com/politics/2023/02/alabama-would-require-unanimous-jury-for-death-sentences-under-prefiled-bill.html

Alabama would require unanimous jury for death sentences under prefiled bill Under Alabama law, a jury can vote 10-2 and still impose a death sentence. This bill seeks to change that.

Hoping we all do better in 2023...

Archibald: Time to call BS on the ‘Bible Belt’ Pretty much any reputable religion abhors the kind of stuff Alabama does on a routine basis.

Wow.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown Commutes All Death Sentences Gov. Brown has commuted the death sentences of 17 people.