School of Law Alumni

Steven E. Farese, Sr.

Farese earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Ole Miss in 1971. As an undergraduate, he played point guard for the Rebels basketball team. He completed his law degree in 1977 and began practicing at the family's law firm in Ashland.

Specializing in criminal defense, personal injury and civil litigation, Farese has handled many high-profile cases. His success in his field has landed him in publications such as Vanity Fair and People magazine. He has also been featured on the "Oprah Winfrey Show," A&E's "City Confidential," "Larry King Live" and "Good Morning America."

Martha W. Gerald

Gerald was a Leland native and a 1944 graduate of the law school, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Mississippi Law Journal. Before her legal studies, she attended Millsaps College, earning a degree in 1941 in social studies and English.

Gerald is considered a trailblazer for female lawyers in Mississippi, eventually becoming a partner in the firm that hired her. She also was known as Mississippi's dean of oil and gas lawyers, writing "Title Problems in Mississippi," the treatise most referred to by oil and gas lawyers.

Betty W. Sanders

Before her legal career, Sanders was an educator. She received her bachelor's degree in business education from Alcorn State University in 1966 and master's in business education in 1971 from Bowling Green University. She taught business classes at Coahoma Junior College and business law and court systems at Mississippi Valley State University.

She earned her law degree in 1979 and worked with North Mississippi Rural Legal Services from the Greenwood office and practiced in her husband's law firm. In LeFlore County, she became the first African American to serve as co-counsel to the Greenwood Public School District.

She was the first African American to be elected to Subdistrict 3 of Mississippi's Fourth Circuit Court, where she helped establish a drug court and became the state's first African American circuit court magistrate judge. Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph presented her with the 2023 Chief Justice Award in recognition of her accomplishments and service.

D. Briggs Smith, Jr. 

Smith, a Meridian native, earned a pharmacy degree from Ole Miss in 1962. He served with the 186th United States Air Force Combat Support Squadron as a medic/pharmacist and worked in the family pharmacy in Meridian and at the University of Mississippi Medical Center before enrolling in law school. He earned his law degree in 1966 and moved the following year to Batesville, where he began practicing law.

In 1974, he became a founding partner of the Smith-Phillips law firm. He handled cases involving products liability and personal injury. Following the legalization of casinos in Mississippi, he became one of the first attorneys in the state to practice gaming law.

Smith is past president of the UM Law Alumni Chapter's board of directors, past chair of the Lamar Order and a past Ole Miss Alumni Association board member. The School of Law school named him its 2003 Alumnus of the Year.

William C. Trotter, III

A Greenville native, Trotter has practiced law at Garrard & Trotter PLLC in Belzoni for more than 50 years. He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Ole Miss in 1969 and his law degree in 1972.

From 1980 until his recent retirement, he served as circuit and youth court public defender for Humphreys County. In 1973, he became a municipal judge in Belzoni and Louise and served continuously until his retirement. He has volunteered in numerous capacities within the Mississippi Bar and was elected as its 2001-02 president.

He served as president of the Law Alumni Chapter's board of directors and as chair of the Lamar Order. Trotter was named the law school's 2015 Alumnus of the Year and earned the Mississippi Bar's 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Deborah Hodges Bell

A product of Indianola, Debbie Bell is a shining example of education and the legal profession within the state. She graduated as valedictorian of her class at Indianola Academy. She then went to Mississippi College where she was elected Student Body Association Chief Justice. In 1975, she graduated from Mississippi College with special distinction and then made her way to the University of Mississippi School of Law. There, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Mississippi Law Journal. In 1979, she received her J.D., magna cum laude.

Bell clerked for Elbert P. Tuttle, Sr., Senior Judge of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. From there she worked as a staff attorney for the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. At the age of 27, she was hired as a member of UM law school’s faculty where she served for more than 40 years. She founded and directed the school’s civil clinical programs, which began in 1992 with the Housing Law Clinic. Bell developed the school’s clinical education program into the multi-unit program that exists today. She obtained grants and gifts that fully funded the entire clinical program from 1992 through 2009. Bell was the first Associate Dean for Clinical Programs, a position she held through 2018. She founded the Pro Bono Initiative that developed numerous pro bono clinics covering a variety of legal issues. In 2015, she accepted a two-year appointment as the school’s interim dean. During this brief period, she guided the school through a strategic plan engaging the entire law school community. During difficult fiscal times, she developed a three-year financial plan for administration and scholarships. She founded the Bessie Young Council, which engages and supports non-traditional law students. She strengthened and better defined the relationship between the law school and the Mississippi Judicial College.

Following the 2005 devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, Bell organized and directed the Hurricane Katrina Mississippi Legal Manual Project, which earned her the 2006 Mississippi Bar President’s Award. In 2005, she was awarded the UM Law Faculty Public Service Award. She was named Outstanding Woman Lawyer of the Year in 2006 by the Bar. She received the Mississippi Center for Justice 2007 Champion of Justice, the 2009 Susie Blue Buchanan Award, the 2011 Mississippi Volunteer Lawyer’s Project Pro Bono Award, the 2017 Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Award and was named the 2017 University of Mississippi Law Alumna of the Year.

Most attorneys know her for her book, Bell on Mississippi Family Law, considered the definitive treatise on family law in Mississippi. Appellate courts have cited her work more than 200 times in their recorded decisions. 

Outside of the classroom, the clinics and her research, Bell could be considered an artist. For a time, she was the organist for her church. She is also a prolific poet, receiving a national award from the National Poetry Association for one of her poems. A faithful member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford, Bell resides in rural Lafayette County. She and her husband, Neil White III share three children and three grandchildren.

William M. Dalehite, Jr. 

Born in Clarksdale, Bill Dalehite grew up in Jackson. After high school, he went to Marion, Alabama where he began his relationship with the United States military by enrolling in Marion Military Institute, the nation’s oldest military junior college. His next stop was in Oxford as an undergraduate. During his time at Ole Miss, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Omicron Delta Kappa honor society and the Army ROTC. He earned his B.A. in English in 1965 and on the day of his graduation, accepted a Regular Army commission. He was commissioned as an infantry officer taking on a three-year commitment and attaining the rank of Captain. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam, which extended his commitment to four years. His gallantry in battle earned him a Silver Star for valor. In 1969, just 18 days removed from the end of his second tour of duty, Dalehite entered the classroom as a law student. In law school, he was a member of Delta Theta Phi professional law fraternity. His last year, he was chairman of the Moot Court Board.

He obtained his J.D. in 1972 and took a position with the Jackson law firm of Wise, Carter, Steen, and Caraway. There, he had the opportunity to study civil trial work under the tutelage of Jerome Steen, one of the most prominent trial lawyers in the state. They later would form the firm of Steen Reynolds Dalehite and Currie. During his 200 plus trials to verdict, he was known as being a highly prepared litigator who is genuine and authentic. His service to the legal profession includes a term as Secretary of the Young Lawyers Section of the Mississippi Bar. He was also a Fellow of the Young Lawyers Section. He is a Past President of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and from 1991-2007 served on the Mississippi Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules. He has been a member of the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association and the American College of Trial Lawyers. He has provided leadership as Past President of the Mississippi Bar Foundation, Director of Trial Academy for the International Association of Defense Counsel and President of the Mississippi chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).

Dalehite is well known as a champion of preparing law students for the courtroom. In 1982, he and his partners formed the Steen, Reynolds, Dalehite Trial Competition, which is still going strong after more than 40 years. In addition, he personally funded the Dewees/Walsh Moot Court Scholarship. He has worked with Mississippi’s chapter of ABOTA to teach trial practice to Ole Miss law students. He also spent several years traveling from Jackson to Oxford to speak to undergraduates in the Chancellor’s Leadership Class, an evening gathering. His talk on what it means to be a lawyer and the importance and need for good attorneys helped recruit many bright students to law school.

He is a past member of the UM Foundation board of directors. One of his financial gifts to the law school is through his membership in the Lamar Order, an organization he chaired in 1992. His hard work has been recognized with the UM Law Alumni Chapter’s Alumnus of the Year in 1993. In 2012 the Mississippi Business Journal named him Attorney of the Year. That same year, the Mississippi Bar awarded him its Distinguished Service Award. In 2014, the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association presented him with their Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Dalehite resides in Jackson and has two children, Robert and Kimberlin, and two grandchildren.

George R. Fair

George Fair is a product of Louisville High School. Despite its proximity to Mississippi State University, Fair chose to attend Ole Miss. There, he was an officer in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He also took on the responsibilities of editor of The Daily Mississippian, served as an Associated Student Body class representative, and was president of Omicron Delta Kappa honor society. He was selected to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities and was a member of the Ole Miss Student Hall of Fame. In 1971, Fair earned his B.A. in English and immediately enrolled in the Ole Miss law school. His work ethic transitioned from his undergraduate days as he was selected to the Mississippi Law Journal, serving as both note and comment editor. He was inducted into Phi Delta Phi, an international legal honor society. During his time at Ole Miss, he was involved with Army ROTC. In 1973, he earned his J.D. and became an officer in the United States Army, reaching the rank of Captain.

Since 1974, Fair has been a practicing member of the Mississippi Bar. At the law office of Watkins & Eager, his primary focus has been on corporate and commercial matters. His successes in his field have earned him recognition in multiple publications. This includes listings in The Best Lawyers in America; Chambers USA, the world’s leading legal data and analytics provider; and Mid-South Super Lawyers.

Fair has also taken time to give back to his profession. In 1980-81, he did double-duty by serving as president of the Jackson Young Lawyers Association and as director of the Hinds County Bar Association, now known as the Capital Area Bar Association. He began service in 2004 as a member of the Board of Bar Commissioners for the Mississippi Bar. During that time, he was also a member of the University of Mississippi Law Alumni Chapter’s board of directors. His professional memberships include the Mississippi Bar Foundation, the Mississippi Young Lawyers Foundation and the American Bar Foundation. In 2009, Fair was elected president of the Mississippi Bar. In his community, he is a long-time member of the Rotary Club of Jackson, where he has been a director and a Paul Harris Fellow. He has served on the board for the Mississippi Museum of Art, on the Secretary of State’s Business Law Advisory Group and as a member and chairman of the Bank Attorney’s Committee of the Mississippi Bankers Association. He is also an elder and past chairman of the board of deacons at First Presbyterian Church of Jackson as well as a chairman of the Board of Trustees for the First Presbyterian Day School. He was chairman of the Young Life Committee in Jackson and has been on the board and executive committee of Reformed Theological Seminary for the past thirty-nine years.

Fair’s service has earned him numerous awards, including the 2010 Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project’s Pro Bono Volunteer Award, The 2017 Capital Area Bar Association’s Professionalism Award and the 2023 Mississippi Bar Foundation Professionalism Award. 

George and his wife of fifty-one years, Bette, reside in Jackson and have three grown children. All five members of this Fair family are proud Ole Miss alumni!

Robert L. Gibbs

A native of Jackson, Gibbs received his B.S. degree in 1976 in Political Science from Tougaloo College. From there, he went to the University of Mississippi School of Law. He received his J.D. in 1979 and later went to Reno, Nevada, where he attended the National Judicial College. Gibbs is a senior partner with Gibbs Travis PLLC, emphasizing mass tort litigation, business litigation, product liability and alternative dispute resolution. Prior to starting his firm, he spent 12 years as a partner with a large, regional firm. He also served for seven years as a Circuit Judge for the Seventh Judicial District of Mississippi. His success in the legal field earned him recognition in some of the industry's top publications, including The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers. He is among the less than one percent of attorneys named to Chambers USA. The Mississippi Business Journal recognized him in their Leadership in Law awards category. 

His history of service to his community includes terms as board chair for the Capital Area United Way, a Fellow of the American Bar Association, a board member for Hope Enterprise Corporation, board member for First Commercial Bank of Jackson, past board president for Hope Federal Credit Union, chairman of the Court Liaison and Judicial Administration Committee of the Mississippi Bar, Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Past President of New Life for Women, Past President of Arts Alliance, past board member and 1998 festival chair for Jubiliee! Jam, trustee for Leadership Jackson and past president of the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau. Gibbs has volunteered with the William Winter Institute on Racial Reconciliation as well as Mission Mississippi. He is past president of the Bar Association for the Fifth Circuit and past president of the Charles Clark Chapter of the American Inns of Court. He served on the Commission on Bar Admission Review and has taught Trial Practice at Mississippi College Law School. He is past president of the Mississippi Bar Foundation, a Fellow of the Mississippi Young Lawyers and in 2021 became the 116^th president of the Mississippi Bar. At the University of Mississippi, he has served on the Black Alumni Advisory Council, the Ole Miss Alumni Association’s board of directors, the UM Foundation’s board, the Law Alumni Chapter board and was the first African American chair of the Lamar Order.

Gibbs has been honored with the NAACP’s Thurgood Marshall Judge Award and the Jack Young, Sr. Attorney Award. He is a recipient of Tougaloo’s Outstanding Leadership Award and the Black Women Political Action Forum’s Community Service Award. In 1998, he received the Magnolia Bar’s Outstanding Leadership, Service and Dedication Award. In 2004, the Mississippi Bar awarded him its Distinguished Service Award. That same year, Goodwill Industries named him Volunteer of the Year. He was the 2007 recipient of the R. Jess Brown Lawyer of the Year, the Magnolia Bar’s award for outstanding achievement. He won the Tourism Visionary Award for work with the Jackson Conventions and Visitors Bureau. New Horizons Church honored him with the Community Servant Award, and he is a recipient of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Image Award. In 2021, he was named the University of Mississippi Law Alumnus of the Year.

Gibbs and his wife, Circuit Court Judge Debra Gibbs, reside in Jackson. Their two children, Ariana Gibbs and Justice Gibbs are both Ole Miss Law alumni!

Alfred G. Nichols, Jr. 

Known in certain circles as “Nicky,” Alfred Nicols graduated from Morton High School in 1959. During his undergraduate years at Ole Miss, he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and Omicron Delta Kappa honor society. He was a University Scholar, the precursor to today’s Honors College program. In 1963 he earned his B.A. in history and started law school. As a law student, he was associate editor on the Mississippi Law Journal. During his final year of law school, his lifelong friend, Landy Teller, and he won the moot court competition which was judged by all nine justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court. At Ole Miss, Nicols participated in ROTC. After law school, he served two years active duty with the United States Army, reaching the rank of Captain. In 1967, following a year of military service in Korea, Nicols returned to Mississippi to practice law in Hinds and Rankin Counties. Many of his cases were high profile civil and criminal cases, several of which were in federal court. A milestone from this period of his career was when he represented a group that successfully incorporated the City of Richland, which was being vigorously opposed by Jackson and Pearl. In the early 1970s, he took another professional step by serving as president of the newly formed Rankin County Bar Association.

In 1980, he was appointed Circuit Judge for the 20^th Judicial District when the untimely death of Judge Rufus Broom left the seat vacated. Situated in two of the state’s fastest growing counties, he was the sole circuit judge. It wasn’t until 1983 when the state legislature added a second position. During the mid-1980s, he presided over six capital murder cases, two of which resulted in death penalty jury verdicts.  As a judge, he crafted a letter of appreciation to every juror who served before him thanking them for their service and reminding them of their importance. The National Center for State Courts in Reno, Nevada caught wind of this letter and included it in materials they used in their orientation course for new state judges. In 1991, Nicols accepted another appointment when the U. S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi seat opened. He finished his legal career here, retiring from the bench in 2006.

Over the course of six decades, he fed his artistic passion for painting, producing more than 1,000 original landscapes. One of his works won an award in an International Artist landscape painting competition, resulting in his invitation to do a 10-page feature on his painting technique. With an international circulation, his work became quickly known. His original landscapes can be found in public, corporate and private art collections throughout the nation. One can view his art in public spaces such as federal court buildings, the National Advocacy Center, the Mississippi Supreme Court, the Mississippi Bar Center, the Mississippi Library Commission, the University of Mississippi and its Medical School, The Inn at Ole Miss, Mississippi College School of Law, Mississippi Public Television, River Hills Club as well as numerous banks, hospitals, and companies throughout the state.

Nicols and his wife, Mary, met at Ole Miss when he was in law school and she in pharmacy school. Their time is divided between their place in Jackson and a farmhouse on their 450-acre farm in Copiah County. They have two sons, Lee and George. Lee is a graduate of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and George has an undergraduate and law degree from Ole Miss.

William H. Barbour, Jr.

 Judge William Barbour, a native of Yazoo City, attended Yazoo City High School and then The Lawrenceville School, a preparatory school for boarding and day students in New Jersey. Barbour followed in his father’s footsteps by enrolling at Princeton University. Known to his roommates and others around campus as “Yazoo,” he lettered in football his junior and senior years and was a member of the Cottage Club, a selective dining/social club. Judge Barbour majored in politics and received his degree from Princeton in 1963.

Following his time at Princeton, he returned to his home state to enroll in the University of Mississippi School of Law. During his time as an Ole Miss law student, he met Louisville native Stewart Fair. They married in 1965. He obtained his law degree in 1966 and made his way to New York University School of Law, where he attended the graduate tax program.

A third-generation attorney, Barbour returned to his home of Yazoo City to practice law with his father and cousins. He left private practice in 1983 when President Ronald Reagan nominated him, and the U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment, as an Article III judge to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. He served as Chief Judge from 1989 through 1996. He took senior status in 2006 and retired from the bench in 2019. During his tenure with the District Court, he oversaw the construction of the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse in Jackson.

William and Stewart had three children, Margaret Faire Barbour Hurst, William H. Barbour III and Charles Frank Fair Barbour. Following the 2006 death of Stewart, mutual friends introduced Barbour to Sherrie Kenworthy. They were faithfully married until Judge Barbour’s death in 2021. In his community, William served First Presbyterian Church of Yazoo City for many years as deacon and elder. Though he is professionally revered as a prominent attorney and judge, his friends and family remember his zeal. His passions included traveling, flying, hunting, hauling horses and woodworking. But nothing brought him more joy than his friends and family, especially his 15 grandchildren.

Minnie P. Howard

Minnie Howard was born in Yalobusha County in the town of Coffeeville. She later moved to Grenada to attend and graduate from Grenada High School during a time of desegregation. Despite the outside distractions of physical threats and police escorts to and from school, Howard graduated valedictorian of her class. She then made her way a few miles north to Oxford to attend the University of Mississippi. In 1976, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in English.

During this time in her life, a common expectation of females of color was to go into the profession of teaching. Guided by her passion to help people, she decided to stay in Oxford, push back on society’s expectations, and enroll in law school at the University of Mississippi. As a law student, she was a member of Phi Alpha Delta, an international legal fraternity. Upon earning her J.D. in 1980 she looked at career options that were presented to her. Again, she trusted her instincts that were telling her to do something to help people in need. She ultimately chose to go to work for North Mississippi Rural Legal Services. This provided her the opportunity to be of assistance to those who did not know where to turn for assistance. It was also considered a strong training ground for young black lawyers.

Now the Deputy Director of North Mississippi Rural Legal Services, Howard has built quite an impressive body of work establishing and preserving the basics of life for the poorest citizens of north Mississippi. She has seen and been part of many important cases in the area involving voting rights, school desegregation, and employment discrimination, to name a few. She has gone to battle for Mississippians, litigating cases of wrongful foreclosure, consumer issues including fair debt collection and rescission rights, and public benefits and disability. One accomplishment she holds in high regard is a case she appealed before the Mississippi Supreme Court that ultimately led the court to establishing guidelines and rules for how guardians ad litem are to represent their clients. Her efforts brought about concrete rules that are to be followed.

She has given back tremendously to her alma mater with the time she has put into the law school’s clinics. Howard led and expanded the law school’s former Street Law Clinic, a partnership between North Mississippi Rural Legal Services and the law school. Her work in this arena took the partnership from a limited counsel and legal advice service to involving students in courtroom work. The result provides students, who are sworn in for limited practice, valuable experience and basic skills of how to represent clients. For more than two decades, she taught in the school’s clinical programs and has mentored students outside of those clinics. Never has she turned away a student who has shown an interest in assisting low-income clients.

Additionally, Howard has served the Mississippi Bar as a member of its Board of Commissioners. Locally, she has put in time as president of the Panola County Bar Association.

More than 40 years after graduating from law school, Howard has maintained her mission of representing the poor, marginalized citizens of Mississippi with great compassion. Day in and day out, her work continues to set the standard for equal rights of all members of the community.

Myres S. McDougal

Born in 1906 in rural Prentiss County in north Mississippi, Myres McDougal would become a widely renown scholar in the field of legal education. After graduating from Booneville High School as valedictorian, McDougal moved to Oxford to resume his role as a leading student at the University of Mississippi. At Ole Miss, he excelled in classics. By his senior year, he was teaching Latin and Greek. Not only was he a scholar, but he was also an athlete, playing football during his undergraduate years. He also served as editor of The Mississippian, the school’s newspaper, and was president of the Associated Student Body. At the age of 20, he graduated with his bachelor’s degree. He would follow that with a master’s degree and an L.L.B. from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

One of the highlights of McDougal’s term as editor of The Mississippian was his fight to retain Albert Hume as the university’s chancellor. Chancellor Hume’s position was threatened by the Mississippi legislature because he allowed the university to teach Darwin’s theory of evolution. McDougal wrote an article defending the chancellor and traveled to Jackson to distribute copies at the state capitol. The chancellor would later reciprocate by supporting McDougal’s application for a Rhodes Scholarship.

He spent three years in England studying at St. John’s College, where legal historian Sir William Holdsworth was his tutor. It was Holdsworth who supported McDougal’s desire to be a legal scholar and directed him to Yale. McDougal wrapped up his time at Oxford University earning degrees in jurisprudence and civil law. He achieved double first class honors, which is rare for an Englishman, let alone an American. He then enrolled at Yale to pursue a doctoral degree.

Following his 1931 graduation from Yale, McDougal was guided by Dean Charles Clark to the University of Illinois Law School in Urbana to gain experience in teaching and research. In 1935, Dean Clark invited him back to Yale Law School to become a member of its faculty. At the same time, he accepted a visiting post at the University of Chicago Law School. During this brief period in Chicago, he met Harold Lasswell, with whom he would team up to develop a new body of thought on international law. Their work would later be called the New Haven School of Jurisprudence. Between 1943 and 1960, McDougal would write or co-author 33 articles developing his theory on international law. After 1960, he wrote six books devoted to the subject. He also wrote an additional 38 articles and chapters by himself.

In 1958, he served as president of the American Society of International Law. He later served the organization as honorary president for four years in the 1970s. The Society honored him in 1976 with their Hudson medal. In the mid-1950s, he was of counsel to the Saudi Arabian government during the Aramco arbitration. In 1966, he served as president of the American Association of Law Schools and was a member of the United States Permanent Court of Arbitration from 1963-1969. In 1975, he retired from his full-time post at Yale. President Gerald Ford was one of 350 attending the celebration. Eventually named the Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law, his career as a professor at Yale spanned five decades. He followed that portion of his career by teaching at New York Law School.

Though most of his years were spent in New Haven, Connecticut, his love for his home state never faded. He had the opportunity to return to Oxford in 1996, when the University of Mississippi law school honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. When he died in 1998 at the age of 91, he was survived by his wife of more than 60 years, the former Frances Lee. They met during his year as a graduate student at Yale Law School. Together they had a son, John Lee McDougal.

Michael C. Moore

A product of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Mike Moore graduated from Our Lady of Victories High School (now Resurrection Catholic School) in Pascagoula. He spent two years at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College before making his way to Oxford to attend the University of Mississippi. He studied political science and in 1974 obtained his bachelor’s degree. Two years later he would earn his J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Following his time in Oxford, Moore returned to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to practice law. In 1977, he became an assistant district attorney representing Jackson, Greene and George counties in Mississippi’s 19^th Judicial District. Two years later, at the age of 26, he would win an election to be that area’s district attorney, becoming the youngest elected official in the state. During his term as district attorney, he successfully convicted multiple Jackson County supervisors on corruption charges earning him statewide recognition.

In 1988, Moore was elected attorney general of the State of Mississippi, a position he held until 2004. Early in his first term, he lobbied the state legislature to pass a bill to allow the office of the attorney general to fight public corruption and established a white-collar crimes unit within his office. In 1994, he began receiving national recognition when he filed suit against 13 tobacco companies. This move made Mississippi the first state to seek action from cigarette manufacturers to reimburse the state for incurred costs related to treatment of smoking-related illnesses. The lawsuit resulted in a $4.1 billion settlement for the state. From there, Moore led a national tobacco litigation effort resulting in a $246 billion recovery for all states in the nation.

During his term as attorney general, Moore worked tirelessly to help Boys & Girls Clubs across the country. He helped secure more than $7 million from the Mississippi legislature to benefit Boys & Girls Clubs within the state. He worked with the Government Relations Office of Boys & Girls Clubs of America to secure another $7 million in federal funds to help double the number of clubs within Mississippi. Presently, Mike Moore still travels across the country speaking on behalf of Boys & Girls Clubs, asking state government officials to invest in Clubs within their own borders.

Moore became the first Mississippian, in 1992, to be selected one of the Ten Most Outstanding Young Americans by the National Jaycees. In 1994, his fellow attorneys general selected him to receive the prestigious Wyman Award, naming him the most outstanding attorney general in the nation. As Mississippi’s attorney general, he had the honor of serving as president of the National Association of Attorneys General. In 1998, he was named “Lawyer of the Year” by the National Law Journal, and Governing Magazine named him “Public Official of the Year.” In 2003, he was presented the “Champion Award” by Tobacco-Free Kids for a decade of service dedicated to protecting America’s youth from tobacco addiction. In 2004, he was awarded the Julius Richmond Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Though he is involved in many public health initiatives, he has stayed active in tobacco prevention work across the nation and has long served as chair of the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, the state’s signature tobacco prevention program. This program happens to be one he founded after the 1998 tobacco lawsuit settlement. He has remained active with the state’s Tobacco Advisory Board. He serves on the board of the National Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and was recently selected to serve on the State Attorneys General Legacy Board to reduce tobacco use in America. He also sits on the board of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation to benefit at-risk youth programs.

Following his service in public office, Moore returned to private practice. The Mike Moore Law Firm, LLC, based in Flowood, specializes primarily in corporate-government relations.

Colette A. Oldmixon

A native of Texas, Colette Oldmixon is a 1981 graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law. As a law student, she was a member of Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity and served on the Mississippi Law Journal as Supreme Court Review Editor. One of her case notes was published by the MLJ. She also worked as a researcher for the Mississippi Judicial College. Prior to her stint in Oxford, Oldmixon attended Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, where she received her bachelor’s degree in journalism. There, she was editor of Current Sauce, the university’s weekly newspaper.

Immediately following graduation, Oldmixon moved to Poplarville to work with her mentor, David Smith, and his partners. Predominantly a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer, she maintains what is now the law firm of Smith & Oldmixon. Smith, who was an original member of the Mississippi Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules, introduced Colette to the committee. In 1996, she was nominated by the Mississippi Bar to the committee and served on it continuously until the end of 2022. Within this committee, she has chaired the Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure subcommittee and served as secretary/treasurer of the committee, vice chair of the committee and ultimately chair of the committee.

In addition to judging mock trials for the Bar for 24 years, she has served on the CLE Committee, the Mississippi Lawyer Committee, the Nominating Committee, Professionalism Committee, Ethics Committee, Planning Committee, Professional Responsibility Committee, Resolutions Committee and the Task Force to Improve Public Confidence in the Judicial System. She served as Mississippi’s delegate to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, was a Commissioner with the 15^th Circuit Court District and chaired the ad hoc Committee on Rule 12. For more than two decades, she participated in the James O. Dukes professionalism programs for first year law students at both of Mississippi’s law schools.

She as been a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation for more than 20 years and has served on its board of trustees, was chair of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program and was elected President-elect and President.

Oldmixon is a lifetime member of the Mississippi Association of Justice, her membership spanning more than 40 years. She has served on and chaired its numerous committees. She has also been on its Board of Governors and is a past Secretary of the organization. In 2004, she was inducted into Mississippi’s ABOTA chapter and has served as its Secretary/Treasurer, Vice-President, and President. At her law school, Oldmixon is a past president of the Law Alumni Chapter’s board of directors and a past Chair of the Lamar Order.

In 2002, the Mississippi Bar awarded her the Distinguished Service Award for her work on Rule 12 of the Rules of Discipline. The Mississippi Association of Justice recognized her in 2004 as their Trial Lawyer of the Year. In 2009, she was given the Law Related Education Award by the Mississippi Bar. In 2011, the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of Mississippi’s 50 Leading Attorneys in its Leadership in Law program. The UM School of Law, in 2016, named her its Law Alumna of the Year. In 2022, the Mississippi Supreme Court presented a plaque to recognize her years of service to the Rules Committee.

She is a faithful member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Mission in Poplarville and has served on the Parish Council for several years. She is a past participant of the Poplarville School District’s strategic planning committee. She has past service to the Pearl River County Hospital and Nursing Home Board of Trustees and served as chair of that board for one year. In her 42 years as a member of the Mississippi Bar, Oldmixon has provided invaluable services to the town of Poplarville, Pearl River County, the state of Mississippi and to the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Wayne Drinkwater

A product of Meridian, Mississippi, Wayne Drinkwater (BA 71, JD 74) was a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, serving as president and was director of academic affairs during his term with the Associated Student Body. He earned Taylor Medals in 1970 for his excellence in political science and in 1971 for political science and English. As an undergraduate, he was also a Carrier Scholar and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society. Graduating as co-valedictorian of the Class of 1971, Drinkwater was also selected as a member of the Ole Miss Student Hall of Fame. As a law student, he was on the Mississippi Law Journal, and graduated summa cum laude.

Upon graduating law school, Drinkwater clerked for Chief Judge William C. Keady, in the Mississippi Northern District of United States District Court. In 1976, he made his way to Washington, D.C., where he clerked for United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger. Following his time in D.C., he made his way back to Mississippi and built a career that includes vast experience with major business, commercial and constitutional litigation.

Throughout the years, Drinkwater has been listed in multiple publications. These include listings in Chambers USA for General Commercial Litigation, 2003-2012 and 2018, a Star Individual in General Commercial Litigation 2004-2017 and Appellate Litigation 2005-2018. He was listed in The International Who’s Who Legal, Product Liability Defense Lawyers from 2016 to 2018. The Best Lawyers in America has listed him since 1997 in a vast array of categories. This includes listing him as Lawyer of the Year in Jackson in Bet-the-Company Litigation for 2012 and 2015 as well as the 2016 Lawyer of the Year in Jackson in Litigation/Class Actions-Defendants and in 2019 as Lawyer of the Year in Jackson in Appellate Practice. He was listed as a Mississippi Litigation Star 2008-2018 and as a Mississippi Appellate Star 2012-2013 by Benchmark. Mid-South Super Lawyers listed him in the category of Business Litigation 2006-2017 and “Top 50” in Mississippi 2012-2017.

Drinkwater’s career includes being named a fellow in American College of Trial Lawyers, American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, the American Bar Foundation and the American Law Institute. He has served as an advocate for ABOTA and as a trustee of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. He has been the state chair of the Supreme Court Historical Society and has served on the board of trustees of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He is also a sustaining member of the Product Liability Advisory Council.

Within his community, he has served as a vice chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. In support of his alma mater, Drinkwater serves as president-elect of the Friends of the Library, which is the University Libraries’ society that provides much-needed financial support. He is also a member of the Lamar Order and has served as its chairman. In addition, Drinkwater has served the Ole Miss Alumni Association with past service as a board member.

Upon retiring from Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP as a partner, Drinkwater made his way back to Oxford with his wife, Ouida Creekmore Drinkwater (MA 78).

Kathryn H. Hester

Katie Hester made the most of her experiences during her time as a student at the University of Mississippi. As an undergraduate, she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity, the University Singers and served on the Associated Student body as a class representative and as secretary. Her hard work as a student at Ole Miss earned her membership in Mortar Board, a national honor society for college seniors who are recognized for their scholarship, leadership and service, Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society, and Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest multidisciplinary collegiate honor society. In 1965, Hester graduated cum laude with a degree in history and was selected to the Ole Miss Student Hall of Fame.

In law school, she was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal where she served as student works editor and as articles editor. Her hard work in law school earned her membership in Phi Delta Phi, the oldest legal organization in continuous existence in the country, which recognizes academic excellence and professionalism.

Hester is special counsel in the Jackson offices of Jones Walker LLP, where she works in the fields of litigation, healthcare, administrative proceedings, estate challenges, zoning and gaming law. Her service to the Mississippi Bar includes membership in the sections of Gaming, Health and Estates and Trust Law. She serves the American Bar Association with her membership on their Litigation and Health Law sections. Locally, she is a past president of the Charles Clark American Inn of Court. Hester is a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and past member of the Board of Bar Commissioners. She is a past president of the Mississippi Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and holds Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating.

In 1989, Gov. Ray Mabus appointed her as Hinds County chancellor. She has ushered along future lawyers by teaching pre-trial practices as an adjunct professor at Mississippi College School of Law. She has also been active with the Mississippi Association of Gaming Attorneys and the Mississippi Oil and Gas Lawyers Association.

Throughout her career, she has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America in areas of land use and zoning and litigation. In 2007, the Mississippi Business Journal named Hester one of Mississippi’s 50 Leading Business Women. In 2008, the MBJ voted her as Business Woman of the Year. She has served as a member of the Leadership Mississippi board of directors and as honorary French Consul for Mississippi.

Within her community, she has served as a member of the Jackson City Planning and Zoning Board and was founding chair of the Greater Belhaven Neighborhood Foundation. She is a past president of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum’s board of directors, and she volunteers her time as a communicant of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Jackson.

Hester has remained loyal to her alma mater with her time, talents and treasure. She is a member of the Lamar Order, and has contributed greatly to the success of the Ole Miss Women’s Council for Philanthropy. The OMWC is a unique entity that provides endowed scholarships for its scholars and provides them the necessary tools to be successful with its leadership-mentorship program. Hester is a founding member and past chair of the Ole Miss Women’s Council.

William O. Luckett, Jr.

Though he was born in Fort Worth, Texas, Bill Luckett called Clarksdale home since he was six weeks old. After graduating from Clarksdale High School, he made his way to Charlottesville, Virginia. At the University of Virginia, Luckett was on the Dean’s List and was president of Kappa Alpha Fraternity. In 1970, he graduated with a degree in American Government and quickly made his way back to his beloved Mississippi. He graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1973.

He was a member of the Mississippi and Tennessee Bars and was partner at Luckett Tyner Law Firm, P.A. in Clarksdale. During his career, he was a frequent lecturer at attorney seminars. He served on the executive council of the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys, was a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation, and taught classes at the Ole Miss law school. Loyal to his law school, he provided support as a Lamar Order member. He earned Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating in legal ability and ethical standards. Since 2012, he remained listed as one of Mississippi’s top attorneys by Super Lawyers.

Though he had extensive experience in the legal field, he is remembered for much more. He produced and acted in dozens of films, many of which took place in the Mississippi Delta. He worked tirelessly on Clarksdale’s revitalization efforts, spending countless hours speaking to civic clubs and tourist groups promoting the Delta. He was an entrepreneur, establishing businesses to attract tourists. Most notably is Ground Zero Blues Club, which he owned with his dear friend, Morgan Freeman. He was on the board of directors of the Mississippi Hospitality & Restaurant Association, was president of Bayou Bend Golf & Country Club, was president of the Burke Hunting Club and was secretary of the Tallahatchie River Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting education in the Mississippi Delta. He served on the North Mississippi Advisory Board for Regions Bank and was on the professional advisory board for ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness association for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Additionally, he was Mississippi’s representative on the executive committee of the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative. He chaired Coahoma Community College’s annual scholarship golf tournament for several years and in 2002, was awarded an honorary degree from the institution.

Luckett’s passion for the state of Mississippi and the Mississippi Delta ran so deep, he briefly got into politics in an effort to use his skills and knowledge to make positive changes. In 2011, he made a run for governor. Two years later, he was elected mayor of Clarksdale by a landslide.

He was also an excellent pilot with more than 3,000 hours logged in a Cessna 414 and a Cessna Citation S II. In 2009, he was inducted into the Living Legends of Aviation. In 2007, Delta State University honored Luckett as their Delta Regional Heritage Champion. The Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, in 2008, named him their Man of the Year.

Luckett was a Lifetime Member of the NAACP. In 2005, he was named the May Fest Trailblazer of the Year for his countless contributions to diversity and racial reconciliation. He proudly served his country as a member of the Army Reserve and was a member of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Clarksdale. Bill’s greatest legacy, however, is his wife of 36 years, Francine, his children, Oliver Luckett, Whitney Luckett, Park Dodge and Douglas Dunavant, and his grandchildren.

Geraldine H. Page

Geraldine Page and her twin sister were born in Louisville, Mississippi, as the youngest children of a mother who was a school teacher and a hard-working father who, among other occupations, worked as a church janitor. After completing high school, she attended Jackson State University where she worked in the library to help pay tuition. Upon early graduation in 1967, she taught 11^th grade English for three months at Higgins High School in McComb.

Page, however, was not destined to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a teacher. She applied to and was accepted into the Peace Corps to serve as a volunteer in Tunisia. Her college professor discouraged her from accepting the assignment and arranged an interview with professor Michael Horowitz, who recruited her to attend law school at the University of Mississippi. She returned the plane ticket to the Peace Corps, ended her teaching job at Higgins High School, and made her way to the University of Mississippi School of Law as a student. Page became the first African-American to be awarded membership on the Moot Court Board.

In 1970, she graduated from law school and landed her first job as a staff attorney with the Lawyers’ Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC) in their New Orleans and Jackson offices. LCDC provided legal assistance to those fighting for civil rights in the 1960s and litigated cases involving claims of discrimination. When LCDC closed its Mississippi office, Page applied to and was hired as a staff attorney with Community Legal Services in Jackson, where she handled litigation and legal matters for those who could not afford to pay legal fees. She later became deputy director and acting executive director of that office before departing on maternity leave and starting a private practice. She later worked as a staff attorney in the Lexington office of North Mississippi Rural Legal Services. Weary of the commute and separation from her family, she accepted a job as a staff attorney with the Department of Public Welfare’s Child Support Division in Jackson, where she prosecuted child support cases against recalcitrant fathers.

Her career turned to the academic arena in 1981 when she was hired as special assistant to the chancellor at the University of New Orleans. She also served as an adjunct professor, teaching “Media and the Law” to UNO students.

After leaving UNO, she entered private practice in Louisiana and worked on a friend’s successful judicial campaign. In 1984, Page began her federal career as a trial attorney with the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she advanced to the position of senior trial attorney. She litigated cases involving claims of discrimination in the private sector. She then became an administrative judge with the EEOC where she adjudicated complaints of discrimination brought by postal and federal employees in Louisiana. She was later appointed as an administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration, where she conducted hearings and adjudicated appeals from denials of social security disability benefits by claimants in Louisiana, Virginia and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In 2007, she was appointed to a management position as the Roanoke Hearing Office Chief Administrative Law Judge (HOCALJ). She served in that capacity from 2007 to 2011.

Page retired from federal service in 2020. She now enjoys spending more time with her children and grandchildren. She looks forward to returning to her favorite hobby, singing in acapella choruses and quartets.

Lucius F. “Sandy” Sams, Jr.

Sandy Sams was born in Meridian and later moved to West Point. Following high school graduation, he made his way to Oxford to attend the University of Mississippi. As an undergraduate, he was a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, was a Carrier Scholar, a member of Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honor society as well as Phi Kappa Phi honor society. In 1961, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history. Sams then enrolled in the Ole Miss law school, where he was editor-in-chief of the Mississippi Law Journal, was a member of Phi Delta Phi legal honor society and Phi Alpha Delta, the nation’s largest law fraternity. In 1963, he graduated from law school with honors, earning the distinction of the 1963 Outstanding Law Graduate and was honored with the faculty award.

Sams proudly served his country as an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Upon completion of his military service in 1965, he returned to his hometown of West Point to practice law. In 1971, he moved to Tupelo to begin his career with the firm that was once called Mitchell McNutt law firm. Within this firm that would later become Mitchell McNutt & Sams, he practiced primarily as a litigator.

Sams put great effort into his legal career, and his acknowledgements are many. Since 1983, he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America, which named him Lawyer of the Year in 2014 in the area of Commercial Litigation in Tupelo. He has a preeminent listing with Martindale-Hubbell for ethical standards and legal ability. He has also been listed by Outstanding Lawyers of America and Mid-South Super Lawyers. Sams is a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and a fellow of American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a past president of the Young Lawyers Section, the Mississippi Bar, the Lee County Bar Association and the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association. He has been an advocate with the American Board of Trial Advocates and a trustee with the American Judicature Society. He has also provided service to the American Academy of Health Care Attorneys and the American Law Institute. From 2000 to 2003, he served as chairman of the Mississippi Judicial Advisory Study Committee.

He remained loyal to his alma mater as a life member of the Ole Miss Alumni Association and as a member of the Lamar Order. In 2008, Sams served as chairman of the Lamar Order. Locally, he was involved with the Community Development Foundation and is a past president of the Tupelo Kiwanis Club.

Sams was married to the late Mary Helen for 62 years. Their pride and joy is their sons, Lee and Carr, their daughters, Christie and Margaret, and a host of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Jesse Boyce Holleman

Born in Fruitland Park, Mississippi, Boyce Holleman grew up in Wiggins. Following high school, he attended Perkinston Junior College before making his way to Oxford. He earned his BA in 1947 and his law degree in 1950, both from the University of Mississippi. At the university, he put his writing skills to work as a staff member of The Daily Mississippian newspaper and as a member of the Mississippi Law Journal in law school. He was also an active member of the debate team.

A member of the Greatest Generation, Holleman served his country with great bravery during World War II as a Naval aviator. He graduated from Pensacola Naval Air Academy in 1943 and served aboard the U.S.S. Gambier Bay. He earned a Purple Heart when he was shot down on a bombing run of Saipan. He would be the sole survivor of that run and spend 14 months in a California hospital recovering from severe injuries. He retired from the Navy in 1946 after achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

As a 23-year-old student at Ole Miss, Holleman was elected in 1947 to the Mississippi House of Representatives. He left law school in 1950 and established his law practice in Wiggins. In 1953, his tenure as a member of the Mississippi legislature came to an end when he was appointed to the position of District Attorney for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As the District Attorney, he undertook some controversial court cases and even survived an assassination attempt by the Dixie Mafia. He was re-elected five times to the position of District Attorney. During this period, he moved his family from Wiggins to Gulfport. He retired as District Attorney in 1972 to return to the private practice of law.

Holleman served as attorney for the Harrison County Board of Supervisors for 18 years and for the local school district for 15 years. He provided further service to his industry when he was elected President of the Mississippi Bar in 1969 and in 1970. In 1995, the Mississippi Bar recognized his invaluable service when they awarded him the Outstanding Achievement in Law Award.

In 1975, Holleman took on another challenge and began another chapter of his life when he started an acting career. He starred in many stage productions and portrayed both Mark Twain and noted attorney Clarence Darrow in his one-man shows. His television credits include appearances on “In the Heat of the Night” and “I’ll Fly Away.” He also appeared on the big screen in the motion pictures “Stone Cold,” “A Simple Twist of Fate,” “The Secret Passion of Robert Clayton,” “Sister Island,” “The Beast Within,” and Eudora Welty’s “The Ponder Heart.” During his time as an actor, he earned a Screen Actors Guild card and helped establish the Center State Theater in Biloxi.

Boyce Holleman was a member of First Baptist Church in Biloxi. At the time of his death, he left behind his wife, Annie. He is also survived by daughters Diane Holleman Kiser and Beth Holleman as well as sons David Holleman, Mike Holleman, Tim Holleman and Dean Holleman. Other survivors include his stepdaughters Anne Presley, Dede Cage and Rebecca Anderson, stepson Neill McInnis and 16 grandchildren.

Sherman Muths, Jr.

Sherman Muths, Jr. grew up in Gulfport and graduated from Gulfport High School. He received his BBA from Ole Miss in 1954 and his LLB from the Ole Miss law school in 1960. As an undergraduate, he served as president of Sigma Nu fraternity the year the existing house was built.

In between his time as an undergraduate and a law student, Muths served three years of active duty in the U.S. Air Force as a navigator on international flights. His military services continued as a reserve Major in the office of the Staff Judge Advocate, Keesler AFB, from 1960 until 1970.

Muths was an active, prominent practicing attorney for forty years, working every type of civil case in all of the federal and state courts. In addition to participating in numerous Bar activities, he rendered tireless service to the legal profession as a lifetime Fellow of both the Mississippi and American Bar Foundations, as a member of the Mississippi Bar Judicial Nominating committee (chairman 1983) and the Mississippi Bar Complaints Tribunal. He also served as president of the Jr. Bar, the Harrison County Bar, the Ole Miss Law Alumni Chapter’s board of directors and the Lamar Order. Serving as chairman of the Mississippi Bar Foundation in 1988, he supervised the construction and furnishing of the current Bar Law Center in Jackson and presided at the dedication dinner at which the President of the ABA was a guest speaker.

Local civic activities for Muths in Gulfport include his selection as Young Man of the Year and serving as president of the Ole Miss Alumni Association’s Gulf Coast alumni club and of the Gulfport Chamber of Commerce. He was the founder of the Gulfport Business Club, the Coast Wine Society and Vision Gulf Coast, which studied race-related issues and sought solutions. He has been very loyal to his alma mater as an enthusiastic supporter of anything Ole Miss or its law school. In 1986-87, Muths served as president of the Ole Miss Alumni Association. In 2002, he was honored with induction in the Ole Miss Alumni Hall of Fame.

After service to the state of Mississippi as a member of the House of Representatives, he was appointed to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council on which he served nine years. He also became the first chairman of the newly formed Mississippi Commission on Marine Resources. He was also chairman for eight years of the Mississippi Home Corp., which issues bonds for low- and middle-income home buyers.

Other entrepreneurial activities include operating a rural Illinois cellular system, president of a commercial aircraft charter service, developer of downtown Gulfport property and co-founder of the Mississippi Seawolves, the first professional hockey team in Mississippi.

An active member of Trinity United Methodist Church, Muths also served for many years on the boards of the Methodist Foundation and the Methodist Children’s Home. He and his wife of 60 years, the former Celia Carter, have one son, Sherman Muths III, and two lovely granddaughters, Meg and Izzy, who affectionately refer to Sherman as “Papa.”

Joy Lambert Phillips

Joy Phillips earned her B.A. in Political Science from Ole Miss in 1976. She went on to law school at the University of Mississippi, where she was a member of Phi Delta Phi, a legal honor society and earned membership on the Mississippi Law Journal.

Phillips’ career has been spent in the banking industry for more than 30 years. In 1999, she joined Hancock Bank, working her way into the role of the bank’s chief attorney. In 2011, Phillips oversaw one of the largest bank mergers in Mississippi’s history when Hancock merged with Whitney Bank.

As General Counsel at Hancock Whitney, Phillips practices primarily in the field of commercial and banking law, but also serves as part of the Company’s executive management team. Phillips served as the Mississippi Bar President for 2005 to 2006. She currently serves on the Mississippi Bar’s Access to Justice Committee and is a former Co-Chair of the Access to Justice Commission, which was appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court. In 2010 she received the Chief Justice award for her work on the Access to Justice Commission. She is a former Board member of the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project and co-chaired its annual fundraiser. In 2013, she received the Mississippi Center for Justice’s award as a “Champion of Justice.”

Phillips was editor of “A Guide to Women’s Legal Rights in Mississippi”, published by the Mississippi Bar, Young Lawyers Division, Women in Law Committee. She is a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She received the 2011 Law Alumni of the Year award from the Law Alumni Chapter of the University of Mississippi Alumni Association.

Additionally, Phillips is a member and former Chair of the Bank Attorney Committee of the Mississippi Bankers Association. She is also a Past Chair of the American Bankers Association’s General Counsel Committee. She has co-authored a chapter in “Foreclosure Law in Mississippi”, published by the University of Mississippi. Phillips received her B.A. and J.D., with honors from the University of Mississippi. She also completed a three-year program at the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University, receiving a certificate of completion with highest honors.

Nausead Stewart

Born in Starkville, Nausead Stewart graduated from Oktibbeha County Training High School and went to Tougaloo College in Jackson. At Tougaloo, she was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and graduated in 1953, with honors, with a degree in history and home economics. She left Tougaloo and began a career in education, teaching history for 13 years in West Point. During her time as a teacher, she acquired her master’s degree from Atlanta University. In 1967, she took a courageous leap of faith and enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law. Before she obtained her J.D. in 1970, she would become the first African American to be selected to serve on the Mississippi Law Journal.

While she was still a law student, Stewart was hired to work with the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee. A year later, when that office closed, she was hired by the Anderson, Banks, Nichols and Leventhal law firm to work with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund civil rights litigation. Most of this work involved post desegregation discriminatory practices in teacher and administrator hiring and retention. In 1975, she was made partner, and the firm would become known as Anderson, Banks, Nichols and Stewart.

Stewart left the firm that made her a partner to become director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Jackson. This office closed in the 1980s, and Stewart joined the Walker and Walker law firm. Here, she handled appellate work and motion practice. In 1982, she again became a trailblazer when she became the first African American female to qualify and run for County Court Judge in Hinds County.

After her time with Walker and Walker, Steward took a position with MINACT, Inc. in Jackson, where she worked with grant writing and compliance. She held this position until her retirement. It was around this time that she was also appointed by Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson to serve as a Jackson Civil Service Commissioner. She held this position until 2006.

Throughout the years, she spent much of her spare time giving back to her community by participating on several boards of local community organizations. For her work with these organizations, she would receive numerous awards.

Surrounded by members of her family, Nausead Stewart died in 2015 in Jackson. She was survived by her sister, Doris Anderson, her brother, Thomas J. Stewart, Jr. and her nieces, nephews and cousins.

C. David Swenson

Born in Jackson and raised in Clarksdale, Tunica, and Jackson, David Swenson graduated from Murrah High School in 1970. He earned an A.A. from Hinds Junior College in Raymond in 1972; a B.A. from the University of Mississippi in 1974; a J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1977; and a LL.M. (Taxation) from Georgetown University Law School in 1981.

As an undergraduate, Swenson majored in Political Science, minored in Psychology, and graduated with Distinction honors. He was a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society and the Phi Kappa Phi National Academic Honor Society. At the University of Mississippi School of Law, he graduated with honors and was a member and articles editor of the Mississippi Law Journal. He was also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Space Law, and a member of the Phi Delta Phi International Legal Academic Honor Society. In his third year of law school, Swenson was elected president of the Law School Student Body and was the faculty selection to receive the Dean Parham H. Williams, Jr. Award presented to the outstanding student in the graduating class. At Georgetown, Swenson concentrated in the areas of domestic and international taxation, graduated with honors, and was associate editor of the Tax Lawyer Journal.

Immediately following graduation from Ole Miss Law, Swenson and his wife, Lynn, continued their lifelong journey together by moving to the nation’s capital when he accepted a position as an associate attorney at Baker & McKenzie (B&M), then the world’s largest law firm.  At B&M, Swenson specialized in international trade law, domestic and cross-border tax disputes, and international taxation. In 1984, Swenson was elected an international equity partner in B&M and became a member of B&M’s global leadership and management team, Chairman of the North American Tax Management Committee, Chairman of the Tax Practice in the Washington, D.C.  office, and led the firm’s U.S. Tax Controversy and Litigation practice and its Transfer Pricing practice.

In 2007, after 30 years of practice, Swenson retired from B&M and joined PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, one of the world’s “Big 4” international accounting, tax, and advisory firms, as an equity partner in its Washington D.C. office. At PwC, Swenson conceptually designed and then formed the firm’s Global Tax Controversy and Dispute Resolution (TCDR) Network, and currently serves as the Global Leader of the TCDR Network.

In 2019, Swenson was appointed Co-Deputy Global Leader of PwC’s Global Legal Services Network, a practice with more than 3,700 legal professionals worldwide. He serves as a member of the Legal Services Network’s global leadership team, with primary geographic responsibility for the Americas region, extending from Canada to Mexico to Argentina.

During his career, he has been recognized nationally and internationally as one of the world’s leading international tax lawyers. Swenson has received recognition as:  One of the Top 20 “Leading U.S. Attorneys in the area of National Tax Litigation” and the “Band 1 Level” by Chambers U.S.A.; one of the “World’s Top 25 Transfer Pricing Specialists” by Euromoney’s Legal Group; a “First Tier Leading Individual” in the Tax Controversy area and in the Cross-Border Structuring area by the International Tax Review (ITR); one of the “World’s Leading Corporate Tax Advisers” and “The Best of the Best” by the Legal Experts Guide; as a “Super Lawyer” by the Washington Post Super Lawyer Magazine; and, for the last 11 years, one of the “World’s Leading Tax Controversy Advisers” by the ITR Tax Controversy Leaders Guide (2011-2021).  Swenson has been described as “one of the top five tax controversy experts in the United States.”

Swenson has served the legal profession in numerous roles over the years, including as chairman of the Transfer Pricing Subcommittee of the ABA Tax Section Committee on Foreign Activities of U.S. Taxpayers; chairman of the International Tax and Finance Forum; co-chairman of the Advisory Board of the Annual Institute on Current Issues in International Taxation (sponsored by the IRS and the George Washington University Law School); and chairman of the International Tax Committee of the District of Columbia Bar Association. Swenson also received a meritorious service certificate from the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service for his contributions to the IRS-GWU Annual International Tax Institute.

Swenson served as an adjunct professor in the Graduate Law Program at Georgetown University Law School, where he taught courses in international tax law from 1987-2012.  Swenson has also served as a guest lecturer at the George Washington University Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, the University of Chicago Law School, and other universities in the U.S. and around the world.

Swenson and his wife of 46 years, the former Melinda (Lynn) McManus of Columbus and Oxford, currently live in the Mount Vernon area of Alexandria, Virginia. Swenson is the proud father of seven children:  David Swenson, Jr., Walter Swenson, Katie Swenson, Alex Swenson, Kendall Swenson Garifo, Zak Swenson, and Heather Swenson Whitworth, and eleven grandchildren.

Leonard A. Blackwell

Leonard A. Blackwell is a Stone County native and long time Gulf Coast attorney, currently with Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history and English from the University of Mississippi in 1963 and his J.D. in 1966. During his law school years, he was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal, the Moot Court Board and Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.

Blackwell began his service to the profession at an early age. In 1970, he became president of the Harrison County Junior Bar. In 1972, he became a board member of the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division, holding national office within the organization. From 1982 to 1984, he served as a member of the Mississippi Bar’s Board of Commissioners. In 1990, he was elected president of the Mississippi Bar and served on the commission that helped create the Mississippi Court of Appeals. He was a member of the first Lawyers and Judges Assistance Program Committee that adopted the first LJAP Rule, and the Mississippi Bar awarded him its Pioneer Award in 2009 for his work with that committee.

In 2000, Blackwell was appointed by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to serve on the Mississippi Gaming Commission, and he was chair of that group from 2001-2004. He has been nationally recognized as one of the best lawyers in the country in the field of gaming law and he is a member of the International Masters of Gaming Law and the International Association of Gaming Attorneys. Additionally, he has been a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates since 1987 and was president of the Mississippi Chapter in 1984.

Within his community, Blackwell was chair the Harrison County March of Dimes in 1972, named Outstanding Young Man by the Gulfport Jaycees in 1973, served as a board member for the Gulfport Area Chamber of Commerce in 1982, was awarded the Sun Herald South Mississippi’s Top 10 Outstanding Community Leaders in 2012 and has been a communicant at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Gulfport.

He and his wife, Mary, reside in Gulfport.

Mary Ann Connell

Mary Ann Connell, a native of Louisville, graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1959 with degrees in history and English. During her undergraduate career, she was secretary of the Associated Student Body, staff member for The Daily Mississippian and elected Miss Ole Miss. She was selected for the UM Student Hall of Fame in 1959. She also earned her M.A., M.L. Sci., and J.D. degrees from UM and her LL.M. from Harvard Law School.

Connell served as university attorney for the University of Mississippi from 1982 to 2003. She served as the school board attorney for the Oxford School District from 2003 to 2013. She is presently practicing law in Oxford with Mayo Mallette, PLLC. Connell is also an adjunct instructor for the law school and has taught courses in higher education law, school law, legal research and writing, business law and employment law. She frequently presents at regional, state and national conferences on subjects involving higher education and school law.

Connell is a past president of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, past president of the Mississippi Council of School Board Attorneys, and a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. She has received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of College and University Attorneys; the Distinguished Service Award from the Lafayette County Bar Association; the Thomas S. Biggs, Jr. Award for leadership, integrity and service in the legal profession and the higher education community from Stetson University Law School; the NAACP Freedom Award for life-long service in the area of education and civil rights; the Mississippi Women Lawyers Association’s Outstanding Woman Lawyer in Mississippi Award; the University of Mississippi Chancellor’s Award for outstanding contributions toward increasing diversity; and the Mortar Board Award for outstanding teacher of the year. In 2015, she was inducted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Association Hall of Fame.

Connell has served on the board of directors of the UM Foundation, the board of Trustees of the Mississippi Bar Foundation, the board of directors of the Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce and the advisory board of First National Bank of Oxford. She also served as a member of the vestry of St. Peters Episcopal Church in Oxford.

“I am humbled and grateful for the Hall of Fame award, for the tribute made to me at the awards ceremony by my oldest and dearest friend, Judge Grady Jolly, for the support of Cal Mayo and the great lawyers at Mayo Mallette, as well as the administration, faculty, staff and students at the law school,” she said.

Connell has four daughters: Elizabeth Sessums, Stella Connell, Mary Ann Percy and Jane Lee.

Joshua M. Morse

Joshua M. Morse, III graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1948 and served as dean of the law school from 1963 to 1969. In 2012, at age 89, Morse died at his home in Tallahassee, Florida.

The following is an excerpt from his obituary in The New York Times, written by Douglas Martin:

“Mr. Morse admitted Ole Miss’ first black law students in 1963, a year after James Meredith became the first black to enroll at the university, a watershed event in the civil rights struggle. By 1967 black enrollment at the law school had expanded to about 20 in a student body of 360.

Black graduates were soon admitted to the state bar, joining a legal fraternity defined by alumni of Ole Miss, which Time magazine called the ‘prep school for political power in Mississippi.’

Reuben Anderson, the first black graduate of the school, in 1968, went on to become the first black appointee to the state Supreme Court and the first black president of the Mississippi Bar. The school’s first black woman to graduate, Constance Slaughter-Harvey, in 1970, became the first black woman to be named a judge in Mississippi.

Mr. Morse’s achievements remain legend in legal education circles. John Edgerton, in his 1991 book, ‘Shades of Gray: Dispatches From the Modern South,’ wrote: ‘The Ole Miss Law School’s six-year orbit into activism was a spectacular aberration, a reversal of form that briefly turned a conservative institution into one of the most progressive and experimental in the nation.’

Joshua Marion Morse III was born on March 1, 1923, in Poplarville, Miss., a sawmill town. He was a graduate of Ole Miss and its law school and served in the Army during World War II.

After law school, he joined his father’s law practice in Poplarville, where he defended 23 people accused of murder and won not-guilty verdicts for 22. (The 23^rd was convicted of a lesser charge.) He successfully defended several black men who had violent altercations with the police.

Mr. Morse joined the Ole Miss faculty as an associate professor in 1962 and was named dean in 1963. Instead of starting immediately, however, he attended Yale on a one-year graduate fellowship. But before he left, he helped orchestrate admission offers to several black students.

When he returned, he brought two Yale graduates with him to teach. The next year he hired another and received a $437,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to recruit minorities. In 1965, he invited eight Yale professors to teach two-week courses on individual rights. The next semester, he brought a group of Harvard professors to lecture on federalism. Professors from Columbia and New York University came later.

He ended up hiring new graduates of Yale Law School to fill 8 of 21 positions. Besides teaching, they prepared federal lawsuits on voting rights and civil liberties and recruited students for a legal assistance program for the poor.”

At Ole Miss, Morse was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was also a member of the Cardinal Club and the Army ROTC. As a law student, he was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal. Upon his departure from the University of Mississippi, he made his way to Tallahassee, where he served as dean of the Florida State University College of Law from 1969-1980. He remained on faculty at Florida State as a professor of law until 1998.

Landman J. Teller, Jr

Landman J. Teller, Jr., a native of Vicksburg, graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1963 with a double major in history and English. He earned his J.D. from the UM School of Law in 1965. During his time in law school, he was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal. Upon graduation, he served as a captain in the Judge Advocate General Corp. with the U.S. Army in Fort Totten, New York and Fort Riley, Kansas.

He returned to Vicksburg in 1968 to practice law. He served as president of the Warren County Bar, chairman of the professionalism committee for the Mississippi Bar, president and fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation, fellow of the American Bar Foundation and fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He was also a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel.

Teller also served in roles for his alma mater. He was a member of the Ole Miss Alumni Association’s board of directors, president of the association’s Law Alumni Chapter and chairman of the Lamar Order.

He also loved his hometown and spent many years volunteering. He served as president of the Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce, past president of Vicksburg Jaycees, the Rotary Club of Vicksburg and the Vicksburg YMCA. He also volunteered with the United Way, Easter Seals, the Boy Scouts of America, the Heart Fund and Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park. Teller was also a founding member of the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation in Vicksburg.

AC Wharton

AC Wharton from Lebanon, Tennessee, earned a B.A. in political science from Tennessee State University in 1966. He earned a J.D. from the UM School of Law in 1971 and graduated with honors. During his time in law school, he was among the first African American students to serve on the Moot Court Board and the first to serve on the Judicial Council.

“It’s a real honor to be recognized in the company of my fellow inductees and other members of the hall of fame,” Wharton said. “The key thing is not how many jury verdicts you’ve won or how big your firm is, but in the DNA of all Ole Miss lawyers in addition to professional responsibility is courtesy, civility, civic responsibility and support of family, all of which are traits that I hold very dear.”

After graduation, Wharton worked in Washington, D.C., at the office of general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for two years, then for a year at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where he headed the Public Employment Project. In 1973, he was hired as executive director of Memphis Area Legal Services, which provided civil legal assistance to low-income residents. In 1974, he became the law school’s first African American professor of law. Wharton held that position for 25 years.

Wharton was appointed as Shelby County’s chief public defender in 1980. In addition to serving as public defender, he and his wife established the law firm of Wharton and Wharton in 1980.

In 2002, Wharton was elected the first African American mayor of Shelby County. He was re-elected in 2006. During his tenure as mayor, he established the crime-fighting plan Operation Safe Community, developed the community’s first smart growth and sustainability plan and introduced programs to tackle education and early childhood development issues. His successful reforms led him to testify before the House Committee on Education of the U.S. Congress.

Wharton was elected mayor of Memphis in 2009, with 61% of the vote. He was re-elected in 2011, and was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Gun Coalition.

In his continued service to the Memphis community, he serves as executive director of development with American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities, which is the fundraising arm of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Wharton is also a consultant to the Memphis and Shelby County ACE Awareness Foundation, where he assists in developing ways to identify and implement treatment to children who have suffered traumatic incidents and violence.

Wharton’s other recognitions include University of Memphis Humphrey School of Law Pillars of Excellence Award, Young Lawyers Award, NAACP President’s Award and the AutoZone 2018 Spirit of 1776 Award.

He and his wife, Ruby, still live in Memphis where they have raised six sons.

John Robin Bradley, Jr.

Raised in the Inverness area of the Mississippi Delta, John Robin Bradley, Jr. enjoyed a successful high school career. In addition to being editor of the school newspaper and yearbook, he was regularly elected president of his class. He was also a star athlete, earning 13 varsity letters in baseball, basketball, football, tennis and track.

After graduating high school in 1955, he left the Delta to enroll at Mississippi College in Clinton. There he continued his career as an athlete, playing varsity tennis for the Choctaws. On campus, he was also recognized with multiple honors including being elected president of his class, class favorite and as senior most likely to succeed. It was also at Mississippi College where he met his wife, the former Laura Lipsey. In 1959, Bradley graduated with special distinction from Mississippi College with a major in history and minors in English, German and sociology.

Following their graduation, the two went their separate ways. Bradley moved to New Orleans where he had accepted a scholarship to attend Tulane Law School, while Lipsey made her way to Ole Miss where she accepted a National Defense Education Act scholarship in history. After only one semester at Tulane, Bradley transferred to the University of Mississippi School of Law and promptly wed Lipsey. At the Ole Miss law school, Bradley became a member of the Mississippi Law Journal, the Moot Court Board and was elected president of Phi Kappa Phi, a national honor society. In his third year of law school, he was elected editor-in-chief of the Mississippi Law Journal. In 1962, he graduated from the Ole Miss law school with distinction and earned the faculty award as the outstanding law graduate.

Following graduation, he took a position with Wise, Smith and Carter law firm in Jackson where he focused on regulatory and business law. The following year, he accepted an in-house council position in Yazoo City with Mississippi Chemical Corporation. He would make his way back to Oxford as an instructor in the writing program at Ole Miss.

In 1966, he was persuaded to join the faculty of the law school and began his teaching career that summer, a career that spanned 46 years. From 1967 to 2013, he would teach a contracts class every year, but his expertise became worker’s compensation. He is an author of Mississippi Workers’ Compensation, a publication often cited by the courts. As a member of the faculty, he served as chair of the committee that hired faculty for at least 15 years. He also served as chair of the curriculum committee during a time when significant changes in legal education were taking place. He also served multiple terms on the Faculty Senate, where he was twice elected president.

Based on his expertise, he was elected as chairman of the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Advisory Council and as chairman of the Administrative Law & Workers’ Compensation Section of the Mississippi Bar. He is also a past president of the Lafayette County Bar.

In 2013, law students honored him by naming him teacher of the year. To commemorate his retirement, the School of Law established the John Robin Bradley Award for the Outstanding Graduate and the John Robin Bradley Lectureship for Excellence in First-Year Teaching. Because of his unwavering support for African American students, Bradley was honored as the inaugural Legend Award recipient presented by the Constance Slaughter-Harvey chapter of the Black Law Students Association.

Aleita Sullivan Fitch

The former Aleita Ann Magee was raised in Simpson County. Her grandfather was one of the original settlers of Magee. In 1959, Fitch graduated from Magee High School and enrolled at Mississippi State University where she had a busy undergraduate career. There she became the first female featured twirler for the Famous Maroon Band. She served as treasurer of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority and was voted a campus favorite. She was a member of the debate team and Phi Alpha Theta and Pi Kappa Delta honor societies. Fitch was also a member of Cardinal Key, an honor society that focuses on service. In 1962 she graduated from Mississippi State with a bachelor’s degree in political science and history. She completed her undergraduate education in only three years, and without taking summer school classes.

In a time when women were not common in the law school student body, Fitch enrolled as a student in the University of Mississippi School of Law. As a law student, she was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal and was secretary of her third year class. In addition to her studies, Fitch started her family as a law student. She became a mother when she gave birth to daughter Wesla just months before her first year. Almost two years later, daughter Sonya was born. In 1965, Fitch left Oxford with her J.D. degree, a 2-year-old and a 7-month-old in search of employment.

Fitch quickly learned that a female lawyer in 1965 had limited opportunities for employment. It was also difficult for a woman at that time to find a mentor who could assist with her career path. With so little options available to her, Fitch made a bold and courageous decision to return to Simpson County and open her own practice in Mendenhall. Over the next 50 years, she would provide outstanding legal service to the rural area of Simpson County and surrounding areas. She became a champion of civil rights when she took on the task of overseeing the integration of public schools in Simpson County. She also became one of Mississippi’s leading authorities on family law. In one of her more notable cases, Ferguson v. Ferguson, the standard for property division for married couples in the state was set. This standard, adopted in Mississippi in 1994, is equitable distribution.

Her service to the profession includes serving as Bar Commissioner for the 13^th Circuit Court District. She has been president of both the Simpson County Bar and the Four County Bar. Her service to the Mississippi Bar includes terms on various committees, including Ethics and Resolution of Fee Dispute. She has also chaired the Judicial Advisory Committee and served as a Trustee with the Mississippi Bar Foundation.

In the meantime, she became an expert in Angus cattle on her farm in Simpson County. She has been a member of the American Angus Association and served as president of the Middle Mississippi Angus Association. She was also a director of the Mississippi Angus Association. This and her achievements and reputation as a female practitioner of law in the state of Mississippi made her a trailblazer and role model for generations to follow.

Harold D. “Hal” Miller, Jr.

Born in New Orleans, Hal Miller grew up in Jackson. Following his graduation from Central High School, he enrolled in Millsaps College in 1953. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree from Millsaps in 1957, he made his way to Oxford as a student at the University of Mississippi School of Law. During his time at the Ole Miss law school, he was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal. In 1959, he left Oxford with his LL.B. degree to return to Jackson and begin his career in the legal industry.

Following his graduation from law school, Miller was hired by the law firm of Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens and Cannada, where he enjoyed a long, successful career. In 1986 he became the first elected chair of the firm. During his time at Butler Snow, his practice concentrated in the areas of alternative dispute resolution, business, family business organization, public utility, transportation law, administrative and regulatory law, and commercial litigation, including oil and gas litigation. Following his training with the American Arbitration Association, Miller became a master at mediation and arbitration. In fact, he wrote many articles that were published by numerous publications and he taught Alternative Dispute Resolution as an adjunct professor at Mississippi College School of Law. He was an AV-rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell and was listed in the Alternative Dispute Resolution section of The Best Lawyers in America.

Miller was extremely involved in professional organizations. He was president of the Jackson Young Lawyers and was past president of the Hinds County Bar Association. He was also a member of the Mississippi Bar and of the Bar’s Board of Commissioners. Hal served as President and Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and was a member of the American Bar Association. He was Past President of the Transportation Lawyers Association, former Chairman of the Mississippi Law Institute and a member of the Mississippi Oil and Gas Lawyers Association. He was also the first Chairman of the ADR Section of the Mississippi Bar and was Chair of the Court Annexed Mediation Committee. For his law school, he served as Chairman of the Lamar Order, the school’s fundraising organization.

Outside of the legal profession, Miller was a dedicated member of his community. He took on many duties at St. James’ Episcopal Church. Among them was service on the Vestry as Junior and Senior Wardens. His was also past president of the Country Club of Jackson.

His hard work did not go unnoticed. In 1988, the University of Mississippi School of Law named him its Alumnus of the Year. He was also awarded the Mississippi Bar’s Distinguished Service Award for his six years as chairman of the ADR Committee and for serving as chair of the Mississippi Bar Ethics Committee. In 2012, he was awarded the Mississippi Bar Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hal and his wife of 59 years, the former Dot Huddleston, have three children and a host of grandchildren and great grandchildren, who affectionately knew him as “H.”

Edwin Lloyd Pittman

Ed Pittman was born in Hattiesburg, where he attended the public schools. After high school he enrolled in the University of Southern Mississippi. In 1957, he graduated from Southern Miss with a degree in history and government. From there, he made his way to Oxford and the Ole Miss law school and became a part of the illustrious 1960 class, the only class to gather every spring for Law Weekend and with an endowed scholarship in its name.

Following graduation, Pittman made his way back to Hattiesburg where he began practicing law. Throughout his career, he practiced in Hattiesburg and in Jackson. It did not take him long to get into the arena of public service, a career that would span almost four decades. During that period, he served with distinction in Mississippi’s legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. In 1964 he joined the Mississippi Legislature when he was elected to serve as a senator. He held that post until 1972. He then served as state treasurer from 1976 to 1980. In 1980, he was elected to serve a term as Mississippi’s secretary of state. In 1984, he won an election to serve as the state’s attorney general. In 1989, his career with the state’s Supreme Court began when he was elected to serve as a justice. In 1998, he moved up the ladder serving as presiding justice. Ultimately, in 2001, Pittman would become chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Pittman not only gave service to his state but also to his country, serving 30 years in the military. By the end of his military career, he retired from the Mississippi National Guard as a brigadier general. He was also active in professional associations. From 1985 to 1987, he was a member of the National Association of Attorneys General Executive Committee. In 1987, he was chairman of the Southern Conference of Attorneys General. He held memberships in the Mississippi Bar, the American Bar Association and the Mississippi Bar Foundation.

Pittman has a great record of support for education. In addition to faithfulness to his law school class, Pittman has remained dedicated to his undergraduate alma mater. At the University of Southern Mississippi, the Edwin Lloyd and Virginia Lund Pittman Scholarship is annually awarded to a native Mississippian. The Mississippi Association of Educators presented him the Humanized Education Award for 1982-83. In 1989, the university presented him the HUB Award for outstanding contributions to the community and dedication to public service. Southern Miss has honored Pittman by inducting him into the University of Southern Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame.

S. “Soggy” Sweat, Jr.

A native or Corinth, Noah Spurgeon Sweat, Jr., affectionately known as “Soggy,” attended public schools in Corinth. Following high school, he enrolled at Ole Miss where he became extremely involved in student life. During his time as an undergraduate, he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity, the Ole Miss Band and was a cheerleader. He got an early taste of politics as he was elected to serve as a class representative on the Associated Student Body. In 1946 he graduated from Ole Miss with a degree in business administration and promptly enrolled in law school. During his time in law school, he became a member of Phi Alpha Delta, the largest coed law fraternity in the United States. In 1949 he earned his LL.B. degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law. He would go on to obtain an LL.M. degree from George Washington University. From there, he studied at the Academy of International Law at The Hague and at the University of Paris Law School. In addition to his studies, he was a World War II veteran.

As a law student in 1947, Sweat was elected to serve as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. He would serve one term in the House. At the end of that term, in 1952, Sweat would deliver what is now his internationally famous “Whiskey Speech.” Following his term in the House, he returned to Corinth to become a prosecuting attorney for Alcorn County from 1953-55. In 1955, he served as district attorney for the First Judicial District. In 1962, he became circuit judge for the First Judicial District, a post he would hold until 1970. During his tenure as Circuit Judge, he trained at the University of Colorado National College of State Judiciary.

In 1970, Sweat made a career change when he resigned from his third term as circuit judge to become a professor of law at his alma mater. His impact on the University of Mississippi School of Law was immediate as he founded and directed the Mississippi Judicial College in 1970. This program was the first full-time state judicial education program in the nation. Sweat would also found and direct the Mississippi Prosecutor’s College and found the nation’s first baccalaureate degree for court reporting. He also served as the director of the Mississippi Criminal Justice Institute. Sweat’s legacy lives on as today the Mississippi Judicial College provides continuing legal judicial education and training for supreme court justices; court of appeal judges; chancery, circuit, county, justice and municipal court judges; youth court judges and referees; and court administrators, court clerks and court reporters.

Sweat also provided service to his community. In Corinth, he was president of the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club. Within two years of his faculty appointment, he served as president of the University of Mississippi’s Law Alumni Chapter’s board of directors. He served in leadership positions with the American Bar Association and the Mississippi Bar. He was an active member of the American Judicature Society and was faculty advisor to the National College of State Trial Judges. He also provided leadership to the Conference of Mississippi Judges, the First National Conference on Administration of Justice in Rural Courts, the national State Court Visitation Study Project and served as a consultant for the Institute for Court Management and the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.

For his impact on legal and judicial education, Sweat earned recognition. In 1984, the Mississippi Legislature adopted a concurrent resolution commending Sweat on his accomplishments and contributions to the state of Mississippi. In 1986, the Mississippi Bar honored him as the second recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Raymond L. Brown

Born in Clarksdale, Raymond Brown spent his early years in Greenville. At Greenville High School, Brown was a student leader serving as president of the student council. He was also a four-sport athlete, playing as quarterback and captain of a state championship football team, being named most valuable player in what was high school’s Big 8 Conference and first team high school All-American.

Following his high school career, Brown enrolled at the University of Mississippi on a football scholarship. During his time as a student athlete, he played both football and baseball. In football, he earned All-Southeastern Conference honors, having led the SEC in passing in 1956 and in total offense in 1957. In 1958, he was named the Sugar Bowl Most Valuable Player, the only MVP in the bowl’s history to be chosen unanimously. His 92-yard run in that game remains a Sugar Bowl record. He finished his college football career by playing in the Senior Bowl and the College All-Star Game. Off the field, he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity, president of the business school, and was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society. He was also selected as a member of the Ole Miss Student Hall of Fame.

In 1958, Brown walked away from Ole Miss with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration. He left Oxford to play for the Baltimore Colts in the National Football League. During his three years as a professional football player, he was a starting defensive back, the team’s punter and the backup quarterback. The Colts also won two overall championships with Brown on their roster. While he was playing professional football, he also found the time to attend both the University of Maryland Law School and the University of Mississippi School of Law. As a law student, Brown was inducted into Phi Delta Phi honor fraternity and was selected to serve as business manager of the Mississippi Law Journal. He earned his law degree in 1962 and went to Washington, DC to clerk for Justice Tom Clark in the United States Supreme Court.

Brown is also active within his community. He is a member of First United Methodist Church in Pascagoula, where he has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He is also a past Chairman of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, where he has served many years as a board member. Brown has also served as President of the Pascagoula Rotary Club and as President of the Jaycees. In 1964, he was named Pascagoula’s Young Man of the year. For 30 years, he served as attorney for the Pascagoula Municipal School District and has also been a board member of Hancock Bank in Pascagoula. Presently, he serves on the Gautier Historic Preservation Commission.

In the legal industry, his leadership includes a term as President of the Young Lawyers of Mississippi (then known as the Junior Bar). He was also state Chair and Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Regent (representing Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas). Brown was also elected President of the Mississippi Bar just before his 42nd birthday, making him the youngest person to serve as the Bar’s president. Both the Mississippi Bar and the Mississippi Defense Lawyers have honored Brown with their Lifetime Achievement awards.

Loyal to his alma mater, Brown served as President of the Ole Miss Alumni Association and was later honored with induction into the Ole Miss Alumni Hall of Fame and the Ole Miss Athletic Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the MS Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

Raymond and his late wife Lyn Shoemaker Brown have three children, Allison Brown Buchanan, Raymond L. Brown, Jr. and Beverly Brown Dees, as well as eight grandchildren.

David W. Houston III

David Houston arrived at the University of Mississippi as an undergraduate student and obtained his degree in accountancy in 1966. As a student, he was a member of Sigma Chi social fraternity and was chair of the Associated Student Body’s Student Judicial Council. He was inducted into Phi Eta Sigma, an honor society for first-year students in all disciplines, as well as Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest, largest, and most selective honor society for all academic disciplines. He was a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, a business administration honor society, where he served as president. Within the accountancy program, he was a member of Beta Alpha Psi, and he was treasurer in Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society. Houston was also named Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities. Upon graduating from Ole Miss, he enrolled in law school. As a law student, he was on the Law School Honor Council, the Moot Court Board and was a member of Phi Alpha Delta, the largest professional legal fraternity. In 1969, he obtained his J.D. from the School of Law.

Following law school, Houston went to Washington, DC to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Special Agent. During his time with the F.B.I., he received seven letters of commendation, including one incentive award from Directors J. Edgar Hoover and L. Patrick Gray. In 1972, he returned to Mississippi to work at the Aberdeen law firm of Houston, Chamberlin and Houston. During this span, he also served as Municipal Judge for the City of Aberdeen, and he served a stint as Aberdeen’s City Attorney. He would also become Assistant District Attorney for the First Circuit Court District in Mississippi. In 1983, he was selected to serve as the United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi. In addition, he presided over cases in the Southern District of Mississippi, the Middle District of Louisiana, and the Northern, Southern and Western Districts of Texas. He conducted trials in numerous consumer and complex commercial cases, authoring hundreds of published opinions. From 1997-2013 he was appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court to serve as a member of the Committee on the Budget for the Judicial Conference of the United States. During this time he also chaired the Subcommittee on Congressional Outreach. He also served for nine years on the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. In 2013, he retired from the bench after 30 years of service. Following retirement, he joined the Tupelo law firm of Mitchell, McNutt & Sams, P.A. and has also served as an adjunct professor at the Ole Miss law school teaching bankruptcy skills. He is a past chairman of the Lamar Order.

Houston received the Bierce Distinguished Service Award in 2003, the highest honor conveyed by the National Conference for Bankruptcy judges. In 2011, Houston was the recipient of the Mississippi Bar’s Judicial Excellence Award. He was inducted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame in 2013. He has been a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation, where he currently serves on its Board of Trustees. Houston and his wife, Debi, have four children; Laura Houston Collins, David Houston IV, Beth Houston Smith, and Morgan Locke Houston, three of whom are Ole Miss law alumni.

Joseph R. Meadows

A product of Quitman High School, Joe Meadows made his way to Ole Miss where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Banking and Finance in 1961. As an undergraduate, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He then enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law, graduating with his law degree in 1963. During his time as an Ole Miss student, Meadows served Clarke County in the Mississippi House of Representatives with a term in 1960 followed by a 1964 term. He is also a veteran in the United States Army, serving 16 months in Korea.

Meadows has been appointed to service numerous times in his career. He was appointed in 1978 as attorney for the City of Gulfport. In 1989, Gov. Ray Mabus appointed him to serve an unexpired term as District Attorney for Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties. In 1990 he was appointed attorney for the Harrison County Board of Supervisors and served until he retired from that position in 2009. In 2015, he would be appointed to serve another unexpired term on the Harrison County Board of Supervisors.

His professional involvement has been immense. Locally he would serve as President of the Gulfport Young Lawyers in 1970. In 1972, Meadows served as President of the Mississippi Young Lawyers. He was Chair of the Mississippi Bar Law Day committee in 1972 and 1973, receiving a national award from the American Bar Association (ABA) for his service. He was also national Chair of the Disaster Emergency Relief Committee within the Young Lawyers Section of the ABA. Meadows has been generous with his time in service to the Mississippi Bar as well. From 1973 to 1978, he served as Chair of the Bar’s Ethics Committee. He was Chair of the Bar’s State Convention from 1976 to 1978. In 1978, he served for three years as Chair of the Bar’s Lawyer Referral Committee and was elected in 1982 to the Board of the Mississippi Bar Commissioners. In 1984 he was a member of the Bar’s Legal Education Committee and became a member of the Board of Governors of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association. He was then elected in 1987 as President of the Mississippi Bar. He later would serve as President of the Fellows of the Young Lawyers of the Mississippi Bar in 1999. His loyalty to his alma mater would not fade as he also returned to his law school to serve as Lamar Order Chairman from 1997 to 1998. In 2011 he was appointed Chair of the Eighth Chancery Court District Liaison Committee by Senior Chancellor Sanford R. Steckler.

Meadows has been a mediator since 1996, serving as mediator in numerous cases, including wrongful death, contract dispute, government/citizen dispute, domestic relations and personal injury. From 2009 to 2010 he served as Chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Mississippi Bar.

Meadows’ devotion to his community and profession has not gone unnoticed. In 1971, he was chosen Outstanding Young Man of Gulfport by the Gulfport Junior Chamber of Commerce. The Boy Scouts of America awarded him the Pine Bur Award in 1978, the Good Shepherd Award in 1979 and the Silver Beaver Award in 1981. In 1983, the Gamma Iota Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha selected him as a member of their Hall of Fame. Since 1989, he has been named to “Outstanding Lawyers of America.” In 1999 the NAACP presented him their Legal Services Award, and in 2004 he was the recipient of Boss of the Year from Gulfport Coast Association of Legal Support Professionals.

Meadows and his wife, Carole Lynn, reside in Gulfport where he has practiced law since 1965 and is presently member and founder of Meadows Law Firm. They are proud parents of Kathryn Lynn Meadows and Joseph R. Meadows, Jr. and doting grandparents of Victoria Meadows and Meredith Meadows Kajdan.

William A. Pepper, Jr.

Allen Pepper took the oath of Office as a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi on July 21, 1999, having received the nomination on March 8, 1999. Before his appointment to the bench, he maintained a solo law practice for 30 years in Cleveland. A native of Belzoni, he graduated from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology in 1963. As an undergraduate, he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity, and he participated in the Concert Singers and Army ROTC. Following two years active duty as an officer with the 101st Airborne Division of the U. S. Army, he returned to Mississippi and received his Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1968.

Allen maintained an AV rating in Martindale-Hubbell for 15 years and was listed in Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers in the field of Civil Trial Practice.

He was a nominee for the office of President of the Mississippi Bar in 1991, and served two terms as a Director of the Young Lawyers Section; was on the Lawyer Referral Committee, the Admission Study Committee, the Complaints Committee, the Nominations Committee, the Legislative Committee, the Disciplinary Review Committee, the Law Office Management Committee, the Fee Dispute Resolution Committee and the Complaints Tribunal. He was also President of the Mississippi Bar Foundation.

Pepper was elected President of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association in 1985 following service as Continuing Legal Education Chairman, Secretary, Vice President, and member of the Board of Governors and Executive Committee.

He was chairman of the Lamar Order and a director of the University of Mississippi Law Alumni Chapter. Pepper was a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation, where he was also a Trustee and a member of the Grants Committee. He held membership in the American Board of Trial Advocates and American Inns of Court, was a member of the American Bar Association, was a State Committeeman for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, a Fellow of Young Lawyers Association of the MS Bar, and has been a frequent speaker at legal education seminars.

Pepper was a Public Defender for 26 years, was a member of the Mississippi Public Defenders Association, and was a participant in the Mississippi Pro Bono Project. He held membership in both the National and the Mississippi School Board Attorney’s Association and was an Adjunct Professor at Delta State University. Active in civic affairs, he was Chairman and was a 12- year member of the Bolivar County Elections Commission, was President of the Lions Club, the Crosstie Arts Council and the Bolivar County Ole Miss Alumni Club. He was Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and the Industrial Development Foundation and a director of the Delta State University Booster Club and Sunburst Bank of Cleveland, now Regions Bank.

He was vice president of the Fifth Circuit District Judges Association, on the board of directors of the Federal Judges Association, a former member of the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council, and a member of the American Inns of Court. Pepper also served as Chairman of the Administrative Board, Finance Committee, and Pastor Parish Relations Committee of the First United Methodist Church, where he was a Sunday School teacher, choir member, Habitat for Humanity Volunteer, and served as Scout Master of the Cub Scout Pack. In 1996, he was recognized for his contributions to the community by being chosen King of the Junior Auxiliary Charity Ball.

He and the former Virginia (Ginger) Brown of Jackson married in 1967, and they have one son, William (Will) Allen Pepper III, who is married to Samantha Minga Pepper.

Robert A. Weems

Born in Morton, Miss., Bob Weems grew up in Jackson. Following his graduation from Central High School, he enrolled at Millsaps College. In 1959, Weems earned his degree in Mathmatics. Upon graduating from Millsaps, he served in the United States Army Security Agency, stationed in Turkey and in Germany. In 1962, he returned to Jackson and began his career as an educator, teaching math at Chastain Junior High School. It was during his time as a math teacher that he married the former Janis Mitchell of Corinth.

In 1964, Weems enrolled at the University of Mississippi School of Law. As a student, he was an assistant editor of the Mississippi Law Journal. He was also inducted into membership in Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society. In August of 1966, Weems’ time as a law school student came to an end when he graduated at the top of his class.

After graduating from the Ole Miss law school, Weems moved to Vicksburg to start his career as a practicing attorney. He joined the firm of Brunini, Everett, Grantham and Quin where he was an associate for five years. In 1971, he became partner at Brunini, Everett, Beanland and Wheeless. During his time in Vicksburg, Weems’ two children, Margaret and Robert, were born.

In 1977, the University of Mississippi School of Law called him back to Oxford to serve as a member of the faculty. For more than a decade, he was an associate professor teaching Torts, Wills and Estates, Evidence and Trial Practice. In 1989, he was promoted to Professor and Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens and Cannada Lecturer in Law, a post he held until he retired from teaching full time in 2013. Weems may be best remembered by alumni for the continuing legal education seminar he presented with his friend and colleague, Guff Abbott, titled “Recent Developments in Mississippi Civil Law.” The two of them presented this CLE from 1984 until 2011. One of his proudest accomplishments as a scholar was in 1992 when he had the opportunity to co-author with his son Mississippi Wills and Estates, Cases, Statutes and Materials; Mississippi Law of Interstate Succession, Wills and Administration of Estates; Proposed Mississippi Uniform Probate Code. After 40 years of teaching at the Ole Miss law school, Weems announced that after the 2017 fall semester, he would fully retire.

His success as a classroom teacher did not go unnoticed. He was awarded the law school’s Outstanding Law Professor Award in 1980, 1989, 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003. In 1994, he was awarded the most prestigious honor an instructor can receive at the University of Mississippi when he was presented the Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teacher Award. In addition to his teaching duties, he served for a decade on the university’s Athletics Committee; as faculty athletics representative and as chairman.

Guthrie T. Abbott, Sr.

Guff Abbott is professor emeritus at the University of Mississippi School of Law. His relationship with Ole Miss began in 1960 when he arrived in Oxford as a freshman. During his time as an undergraduate he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. His academic and leadership abilities were recognized with memberships in Phi Eta Sigma, Omicron Delta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi. After receiving a B.A. in mathematics, Abbott enrolled in law school at Ole Miss. There he was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal, a publication in which he would remain involved for almost three decades. In 1967, Abbott obtained his J.D. degree and moved to Gulfport where he would practice law over the next few years.

In 1970, Abbott returned to Oxford to become a member of the law school faculty. During his time as a faculty member, he attended Harvard University and was a Fellow in Law and Humanities in 1975. In 1991, he was selected at the first recipient of the Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada Endowed Lectureship in Law. In 1984, Abbott and fellow faculty member, Bob Weems, crafted one of the most popular CLE programs titled, “Summary of Recent Mississippi Law.” For more than 25 years, he also served as faculty advisor to the Mississippi Law Journal. From 1985 to 1987, Abbott answered the call when his leadership was needed by agreeing to serve as interim dean of the School of Law. In 2001, Abbott was recognized as the University of Mississippi School of Law Alumnus of the Year. His true talents and passion were most evident in the classroom. He was elected by the Law School Student Body as Outstanding Professor of Law at the Ole Miss law school in 1974, 1976, 1984, 1992 and 2000. In 1986 he was awarded the Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teacher award, presented annually to only one instructor at the University of Mississippi.

Abbott has also been an asset to the profession outside of the classroom. He has played an active role in helping craft the rules that govern the Mississippi Supreme Court. For 32 years, he served on the Mississippi Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Practice and Procedure. For four years, he served as chair of the Civil Instructions Subcommittee of the Model Jury Instructions Committee. The Rules Advisory Committee went on to name Abbott’s former spot on the committee the “Guff Abbott Chair.” He is a charter member and original secretary/treasurer of the American Inns of Court III. Abbott is a Life Fellow of the Young Lawyers of the Mississippi Bar, serving as Fellow President in 1994-1995. He is also a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. In 1998-99 he held the rare distinction of being a professor of law who was elected president of the Mississippi Bar. At his alma mater, he also found time in 2005-2006 to give back by taking on the role of chairman of the Lamar Order.

In his community he has been a faithful servant at First Presbyterian Church in Oxford, serving as Ruling Elder and as Clerk of Session. He is also active with and serves on the executive board of the Oxford-Lafayette County Pantry. Following Hurricane Katrina, Abbott did not hesitate to volunteer are FEMA sites. He has also been part of multiple mission trips to Central America to help install life-saving water filtration systems.

Guff and his wife, Patsy, reside in Oxford.

Frank O. Crosthwait, Jr.

Though he was born in Houston, Miss., the Mississippi Delta has long been home for Frank Crosthwait. He is a senior partner at the Indianola law firm of Crosthwait, Terney & Noble, PLLC. After graduating from Drew High School, Crosthwait made his way to Ole Miss where in 1958 he received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. As an undergraduate student, he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and was an Associated Student Body class representative. He went immediately to law school at the University of Mississippi and received his LL.B. degree in 1959.

Crosthwait has set a tremendous example of citizenship as evidenced by his service to his state, his local community, his profession and to his alma mater. He is a member of the Mississippi Bar, the District of Columbia Bar and the American Bar Association. His dedication to the Mississippi Bar began at an early age. In 1970 he was elected president of what was then known as the Junior Bar Section. During his term, the section’s name changed to Young Lawyers Section. He is a Life Fellow of the Young Lawyers of the Mississippi Bar, serving as Fellow President in 1986-1987. In 1989, he was elected president of the Mississippi Bar. Crosthwait is a past trustee of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and is a past recipient of the Mississippi Bar Foundation Professionalism Award. He is also a member of Mississippi Defense Lawyers and a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society. Outside the borders of Mississippi, Crosthwait has served as a past member of the ABA House of Delegates. He is a Fellow of both the American Bar Foundation and the American Bar Young Lawyers division. Crosthwait has worked to improve the American justice system by serving as a past director of the American Judicature Society. He has also served as a past state chairman of the International Association of Defense Council.

Crosthwait has long been an advocate for education in the state of Mississippi. He was a charter founder of Mississippi School for Math & Science. He is also a past director of the Mississippi Public Education Forum. Crosthwait was appointed by Gov. Bill Allain to serve on the Board of the Trustees of the State Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL). He would serve as president of the IHL board and also chair in 1995 the search committee that ultimately hired Robert Khayat as chancellor of the University of Mississippi.

Crosthwait is a member of the Delta Council and the Mississippi Economic Council. He has also served as past chairman of the Mississippi Judicial Nominating Committee and is a past member of the Mississippi Constitution Study Committee. He is a past member of the Interstate Oil & Gas Commission and the Mississippi Research & Development Council.

At Ole Miss he has served on numerous committees and held various leadership roles. He is past president of the Alumni Association and of the University of Mississippi Foundation. In 1996 he was inducted into the Ole Miss Alumni Hall of Fame and was presented the university’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003 he was named LawAlumnus of the Year.

Frank and his wife, Sandra, reside in Indianola.

Clare Sekul Hornsby

Clare Hornsby is a native of Biloxi, where she has practiced law for 71 years. Since 1945, she has gone to the office every morning and has become a true legend on the Coast, where she has been included in the Biloxi tour train route. Born to Croatian parents, Hornsby credits her philosophy of life of working hard and playing hard to her parents who also taught her to love God and family above all else. She attended and graduated from Biloxi High School in 1938. She attended Perkinston Junior College and continued her college education at the University of Mississippi where she received her Juris Doctor of Law in 1945.

She began private practice with her brother, John M. Sekul, in 1945 and was one of the first females in the state to own her own law firm. In 1956, she and her brother were admitted to practice in all state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Hornsby served as a Master in the Chancery Court of the Second Judicial District of Harrison County, Mississippi; on Mississippi Women’s Cabinet on Public Affairs; as president of the Advisory Committee; and the Harrison County Family Court and Referee in Family Court.

Professionally, her memberships include the American Bar Association and the Mississippi Bar Association. Ever the trailblazer, she was the first female president of the Harrison County Bar Association. She was also president of the Biloxi Bar Association for 16 years.

Hornsby, an active member of the Biloxi Lions Club, served as their first female president and is presently the program director. She is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Foundation board and is a past president. Other civic organizations include: Biloxi Chamber of Commerce, Altrusa Club, American Cancer Society, United Fund, March of Dimes, and Biloxi Business and Professional Women’s Club to name a few.

Some of Mrs. Hornsby’s numerous awards include being named Biloxi’s Outstanding Citizen, 1990; Lion’s Club Mother of the Year, 1960; John C. Stennis Chapter of the Air Force Association (first woman to serve as president); Air War College National Forum, 1971; Susie Blue Buchanan Award, 1999; Biloxi First Honoree for 2011 and recipient of the Iron Magnolia Award sponsored by WLOX Television.

Hornsby also credits her success to her late husband, Warren, to whom she was married for 50 years. Clare and Warren had four children, W. Fred Hornsby II, Susie Hornsby Bass, Warren H. “Bo” Hornsby, Jr., and Yasna Hornsby Yenewine (adopted from Dalmatia,Yugoslavia). She also has nine grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.

Robert C. Khayat

Moss Point native Robert Khayat served the University of Mississippi from 1995-2009 as its 15^th chancellor. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1961 and a J.D. in 1966, both from the University of Mississippi. During his undergraduate years, he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and the Army ROTC program. He was an Academic All-American on Coach John Vaught’s football teams and was an All-SEC catcher, playing on Coach Tom Swayze’s SEC Champion baseball teams. In law school he was articles editor of the Mississippi Law Journal and finished third in his class. From 1960-1964, he played professional football for the Washington Redskins. In 1961 he earned a trip to the Pro Bowl.

Following law school, Khayat enjoyed a successful venture as an attorney in Pascagoula. In 1969 he became a member of the Ole Miss law school faculty where he served as professor and associate dean, teaching local government law, family law, agency and partnership, federal trial practice, torts, civil procedure and wills and estates. During the 1980-81 academic year, Khayat earned a Sterling Fellowship and took a leave of absence to obtain his LL.M. from Yale Law School. In 1984, he was promoted to serve as vice chancellor for University Affairs. He then left Oxford to become the first president of the NCAA Foundation, where he served for three years. After his service to the NCAA Foundation he returned to teach at his beloved law school before being chosen as Ole Miss’ next chancellor.

Under his leadership, the university experienced unprecedented growth and success. Enrollment increased 43.6%, research and development grants topped $100 million for each of the last eight years of his tenure, Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most prestigious liberal arts honor society, awarded Ole Miss a chapter and the university’s endowment grew from $114.3 million to $472.4 million. He played a major role in the establishment of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, the Croft Institute for International Studies, the Lott Leadership Institute and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. The university’s operating budget grew from less than $500 million to nearly $1.5 billion. During his tenure as chancellor, the number of National Merit Scholars more than doubled, the university produced five Truman scholars, eight Goldwater scholars, six Fulbright scholars, a Marshall and a Udall scholar, and the university produced its 24^th and 25^th Rhodes scholars. Ole Miss also hosted the first of three Presidential Debates in 2008.

Khayat is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the NFL and the Distinguished American Award from the National Football Foundation. He is a member of the Ole Miss Football Team of the Century, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, the Ole Miss Student Hall of Fame, the Ole Miss Alumni Hall of Fame, the Ole Miss M-Club Hall of Fame and is an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa. Law students chose him in 1993-94 as Outstanding Law Professor of the Year, and he was named Law Alumnus of the Year in 2014.

Khayat became a best-selling author after writing his autobiography The Education of a Lifetime. In 2013, his book won a Silver IPPY award presented to the nation’s best memoir. Robert and his wife, Margaret, reside in Oxford.

James B. Tucker

James Tucker graduated from Jackson, Mississippi public schools in 1957 and entered military service. Afterward he attended Millsap’s College, graduating in 1961 with a degree in English Literature. He attended Ole Miss Law School, earning a J.D. degree in 1966.

Tucker moved back to Jackson to practice law, focusing on litigation, especially plaintiff personal injury, bankruptcy receiver matters, and criminal, both defense and prosecution, serving at some point as president of the Hinds County Trial Lawyers Association. During this period he also was selected to be an Assistant City Prosecutor for the City of Jackson, beginning a 30-year prosecution career. In 1971, Tucker left his practice in Jackson, moved to Washington D.C., and became a traveling trial attorney for the Department of Justice. From there he accepted a position as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi and returned to Jackson in 1972. For the next 30 years he was a federal litigator, primarily criminal. He served as Chief of the Criminal Division for approximately 20 years, until his retirement.

During this time, Tucker performed both management and litigation responsibilities. He assigned case responsibilities, designated case priorities, monitored courtroom activities, and participated in development of district criminal division practices and procedures. He also handled a significant litigation caseload, a function that included the investigation, then trial counsel in district court, and thereafter at the appellate level in the Court of Appeals, primarily the 5th Circuit. His case credentials include trials and appellate presentations involving high profile public corruption involving every level of state, county, and municipal government. During his career with the Department of Justice, Tucker often worked with Main Justice Criminal Division lawyers in matters involving corrupt public officials. He became a presenter/instructor at national seminars and course presentations involving specialized criminal prosecutions and trial techniques. He has received numerous performance awards from his client agencies and several national awards by Main Justice Washington.

At one point during this service, the Mississippi College School of Law dean observed Tucker and co-counsel Kent McDaniel, now a state court trial judge, serve as federal trial counsel. He invited the two to become adjunct professors of trial practice, launching a second career that lasted 20-plus years. The McDaniel/Tucker WOWs (words of wisdom) became trial guides for hundreds of students across the State. In addition, during this 20-year span, he has been a regular at judging moot court competitions at law schools.

Also during this time, Tucker was recruited by the command of the Mississippi unit of the Naval Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Thereafter, in a third career as a JAG officer, he served in a number of assignments as commander, advocate, instructor and advisor, at various duty stations around the country. He is particularly proud of his service as Staff Judge Advocate to the Commander of the reserve Seabees (construction battalions) during Desert Storm and Desert Shield. In 2000, he was appointed to serve as the United States Attorney, the high mark for his DOJ career. He retired from the Department of Justice in 2001 and accepted his current position with law firm Butler Snow.

Tucker is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is an active participant in the Mississippi Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Post retirement, he keeps in touch with his fellow members of the National Association of Former United States Attorneys.

A longtime member of the Charles Clark Inn of Court, he recently served as a cast member in the award-winning presentation “Oh Shake-scene,” receiving a national American Inn of Courts Outstanding Program Award.

John H. Fox, Jr.

John Fox grew up in Clinton and graduated high school at the age of 14. Following high school, he enrolled at Mississippi College where he earned his undergraduate degree at the age of 17. From there he moved to Oxford to go to law school and earned his LL.B. in 1920 from the University of Mississippi.

Following law school, he went to New Haven, Connecticut to further his studies at Yale University. He then returned to Jackson where he practiced law. While in Jackson, Fox played a major role in starting a night school for professionals who wanted to study law. The Jackson School of Law began operating in 1930 and became Mississippi College School of Law in 1975.

In 1932 Fox made his way back to Oxford to teach at the Ole Miss law school at the age of 30. In 1937 he returned to Yale University on a Sterling Fellowship. He then returned to Oxford to pick back up with his career in legal education, only interrupted by his service in the Navy during World War II.

By all accounts, John Fox was a distinguished professor with an intense loyalty to Ole Miss in every aspect. His reputation was quickly established in Mississippi, gradually becoming known across the South and the Association of American Law Schools as someone who would stand up for the profession as both a lawyer and teacher.

A member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Fox enjoyed hunting and fishing in his spare time. He was also an avid fan of Ole Miss Athletics. Fox died in 1965, and his friends established the John H. Fox, Jr. Memorial Scholarship for upper-class law students as a tribute to him.

Fox and his wife, Marjorie Gibbons, had three sons and a daughter.

Mary Libby Payne

Born in Gulfport, Mary Libby Bickerstaff Payne has long been entrenched in Mississippi’s legal society. In 1950 she enrolled at Mississippi University for Women to study ballet. She later transferred to the University of Mississippi where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954, studying political science and speech. The following year she was one of only four women enrolled at Ole Miss’ law school. In 1955 she received her law degree, graduating at the top of her class. During her time at Ole Miss she was a member of the Baptist Student Union and the Christian Legal Society. She was Case Notes Editor for the Mississippi Law Journal and chair of the Moot Court Board.

Upon graduation, Payne had stints of employment at her father’s law firm, at a title insurance company and at a public law firm before opening her own practice. Her public service career began in 1965 when Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives Walter Sillers hired her to be a House legislative draftsman. Five years later she became the House Drafting Office’s first Chief of Drafting and Research. After the creation of the Mississippi Judiciary Commission, Payne found herself Executive Director of that organization. She also served as an assistant state attorney general before she made her great commitment to legal education.

In 1975, Mississippi College School of Law named Payne its founding dean. With her leading the way, the school transitioned from a proprietary night school to a dual division academic program and gained accreditation from the American Bar Association. Payne fully supported and embraced the college’s Christian environment and was instrumental in the establishment of the school’s Christian Legal Society. She later stepped down as dean but stayed on to foster legal education as a professor of law until 1994.

In 1994 the Mississippi Court of Appeals was created, and Payne was elected one of its original judges and was the only woman to serve in this capacity until she retired in 2001.

Recognitions for her accomplishments are many. Some of them include the MUW Alumnae Achievement Award, Life Membership in the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, the 1989 Woman of the Year by the Mississippi Association for Women in Higher Education, the MUW Medallion of Excellence, the Power of One award by the Mississippi Governor’s Conference, the 1998 Mississippi College School of Law Alumni Association Lawyer of the Year, the 1999 Mississippi Women Lawyers Association Distinguished Woman Lawyer of the Year, the Christian Legal Society’s Skeeter Ellis Service to Law Students Award, the Susie Blue Buchanan Award, the national Christian Legal Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Mississippi State University’s Pre-Law Society Distinguished Jurist Award, Lifetime Achievement Award by The Mississippi Bar, the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Mississippi Women Lawyers Association, the Mississippi Governor’s Medal of Service, and the Mississippi Bar’s Women in the Profession Trailblazer Award.

Payne and her husband Bob reside in Pearl where they are active at McLaurin Heights Baptist Church. They have two sons, Reece Allen and Glenn Russell.

Parham H. Williams, Jr.

Parham Williams has enjoyed a lengthy career as a legal educator. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1953 and a LL.B. in 1954, both from the University of Mississippi. He later received the Sterling Fellowship that allowed him to obtain his LL.M. degree from Yale University in 1965. During his undergraduate years, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honor society and the Air Force ROTC program. He was also a member of the Classics fraternity Eta Sigma Phi and rose to become the organization’s national president, giving his inauguration speech in Latin. In law school he was a member of Phi Delta Phi and Phi Alpha Delta.

Following graduation, Williams served his country as a JAG officer for the U. S. Air Force. In 1956 he returned to his hometown of Lexington to practice law. In 1957 he was elected District Attorney and served two terms. In 1963 he was recruited by Prof. John Fox and Dean Robert Farley to return to Oxford as a member of the law school faculty. For the next eight years, Williams served the law school as an associate professor, assistant dean, full professor, and associate dean. In 1971 he was named 16^th dean of the University of Mississippi School of Law. One of Williams’ many accomplishments as dean of the Ole Miss law school was overseeing the creation of the Lamar Order, a donor society that provides programming and scholarship support. He played a vital role in securing appropriations needed for the construction of a new law school facility, now known as Lamar Hall. Due to his efforts, the school also endowed the Jamie L. Whitten Chair in Law and Government as well as the James O. Eastland scholarships. After serving 14 years as dean, Williams made the decision to retire.

In 1985 he was hired to become vice president and dean of the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, a position he held for 11 years. At Cumberland he helped raise more than $10 million toward a law library and more than $3 million toward scholarships and academic enrichment programs. He returned to Oxford in 1996 to serve as Jamie Whitten Chair of Law and Government and visiting professor of law. In 1997 he moved to California to become vice president, founding dean and Donald P. Kennedy chair in law at Chapman University School of Law, where he served for 10 years. During his tenure at Chapman, he guided the school through its ABA accreditation process and raised tens of millions of dollars toward a permanent law school building, scholarships and professorships.

In 2007 he retired and moved back to Oxford and took on the role of adjunct professor at Ole Miss’ law school. In 2012 the call came from the Duncan School of Law at Lincoln Memorial University in Knoxville, Tenn. to become interim vice president and dean. He spent the next two years leading the school through its ABA accreditation process and recently received provisional approval.

Williams and his wife, Polly, reside in Oxford. Their four children and grandchildren are an integral part of their lives.

Douglas Knox White

Knox White graduated from Gulfport High School in 1941. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1947 and a LL.B. in 1948, both from the University of Mississippi. He also pursued advanced legal studies at Columbia University in New York City.

White had a distinguished military record in World War II, having been awarded decorations for action with the 7^th Armored Division in Germany at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. His role was recounted in the book, Undiscovered Heroes of World War II. He later served as an officer in the Judge Advocate General Corps, U.S. Army Reserve.

White began his law practice with White & White, a prestigious Mississippi law firm founded in the nineteenth century by his great uncle, Judge Walter H. White of Biloxi. He was recognized for his knowledge and expertise in banking and real estate law. He was of counsel to the Gulfport law firm Allen, Cobb, Hood and Atkinson, PA. White also served as legal counsel to both Hancock Bank and Peoples Bank. Widely traveled, he was an avid reader and a recognized authority on European history.

White was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Gulfport Yacht Club and a charter member of the Great Southern Club. He served as past president of numerous organizations including the Great Southern Country Club, Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association, Harrison County Bar Association, Century Club and Gridiron Club. He was a member of the Mississippi Bar, the Boston Club in New Orleans, the Young Men’s Business Club, Sunkist Country Club and active participant in various legal associations and societies.

Though White died in 2008, the Mississippi Gulf Coast has been enriched by the lives of he and his widow, Patti, and their five children.

W. Scott Welch III

Scotty Welch serves as senior counsel at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC in their Jackson office. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1961 from the University of the South, also known as Sewanee. In 1964 he earned his LL.B. from the University of Mississippi School of Law. As a law student, he was a member of the Moot Court Board and Phi Delta Phi. He also served as President of the Law School Student Body.

Welch holds Fellowships in The Mississippi Bar Foundation, American College of Trial Lawyers, and Litigation Counsel of America. He is a Senior Life Fellow of the Foundation of ABOTA and a Sustaining Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Industry publications have also taken notice of his outstanding work as an attorney. Both Who’s Who in American Law and Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers have listed him since their First Editions. He has annually been listed among the top 50 attorneys in Mississippi by Mid-South Super Lawyers and has been named a Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyer since 2006. Best Lawyers in America has listed him in Personal Injury Litigation since 1995, in Commercial Litigation since 2007, in Product Liability Litigation since 2008 and in Transportation Litigation since 2011. In 2010 the Mississippi Business Journal listed him as a “Leader in Law,” and in 2011 Best Lawyers listed him as Jackson, Mississippi’s Personal Injury Litigator of the Year.

Welch has served the legal profession as President of the Mississippi Bar. He is a past president of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). He served as a member and as Mississippi’s State Delegate to the American Bar Association House of Delegates and as a member of the ABA Board of Governors. Welch is Mississippi Chair of The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.

For his service to the profession, Welch has received numerous recognitions. He has been the recipient of the Mississippi Bar’s Distinguished Service Award. In 2012 the University of Mississippi School of Law named him its Law Alumnus of the Year. He has been presented the Mississippi Bar’s Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Scotty and his wife, Mary Anne, reside in Jackson.

Herb Dewees

posthumously

A native of Meridian, the late Herb Dewees received a B.A. degree in 1965 and a J.D. degree in 1968 from the University of Mississippi.  As a law student he was a member of the Delta Theta Phi honor society.  His career with the University of Mississippi began in 1976 when he joined the Alumni Affairs staff at the Medical Center in Jackson .  A little more than a year later, he moved to the Oxford campus to work with various alumni chapters; chief among them, the Law Alumni Chapter.  It was his idea to create an “order” for each alumni chapter that promotes and recognizes an increased level of financial commitment.  Dewees is responsible for creating and naming the Lamar Order, which remains an incredibly valuable resource for the law school.

He was appointed executive director of the Alumni Association in 1990 and served in that capacity for 14 years until his retirement.  Under his direction, the alumni center underwent a major renovation, the association celebrated its 150^th anniversary and nationally broadcast its first alumni meeting live via satellite from the Oxford campus.

Dewees received the Law Alumnus of the Year Award in 1990 and the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award in 2004 for exhibiting the character, humanitarian and spiritual qualities evident in the life of Sullivan, a Southerner who became a prominent 19^th century lawyer, businessman and philanthropist.  In recognition of his commitment to providing scholarships to Ole Miss students, the Alumni Association’s board of directors voted in 2007 to name its scholarship fund the Herbert E. Dewees, Jr. Alumni Association Lineal Descendant Scholarship Endowment.  A year later he was inducted posthumously into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame.

Trent Lott

Born in Grenada and raised in Pascagoula, Trent Lott received his B.P.A. in Political Science in 1963 and J.D. in 1967, both from the University of Mississippi.  As an undergraduate, Lott was president of Sigma Nu fraternity, an Ole Miss cheerleader, a member of the Daily Mississippian staff, a concert singer and a member of the national leadership honor society Omicron Delta Kappa.  In law school, Sen. Lott was a member of the Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity.  In 1963 he was selected as a member of the university’s Student Hall of Fame.  The Alumni Association honored him in 2010 by inducting him as a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame.

He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972 where he served for 16 years.  From 1981 to 1989, Lott became the second-ranking Republican in the House when he was chosen to serve as House Minority Whip.  In 1988 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and remained in office until his retirement in 2007.  In 1995, Sen. Lott became the Senate Majority Whip and then the Senate’s 16^th Majority Leader in 1996.  In 2006 he was elected Senate Minority Whip and is the only person to serve in this position in both the House and the Senate.  Following his 35-year service to the people of Mississippi, he and former Louisiana Sen. John Breaux founded the Breaux Lott Leadership Group and now serve as special senior counsel following the firm’s acquisition by Patton Boggs LLP.

Pat Scanlon

Pat H. Scanlon grew up in Jackson, Miss. where he graduated from Central High School.  Following high school he attended Louisiana State University, where he played varsity tennis and served as president of the College of Arts & Sciences and also in the student senate.  After receiving his B.S. degree in 1957, Scanlon moved to Oxford to study law.  As a law school student, he was a member of the editorial board of the Mississippi Law Journal, the Moot Court Board, Phi Kappa Phi honor society, Omicron Delta Kappa leadership society and Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.  In 1960 he received his law degree “With Distinction.”

Scanlon served his country by performing active duty with the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps, reaching the rank of Captain.  Most of his legal career (33 years) was spent practicing with the firm of Young, Scanlon & Sessums.  He also practiced seven years with the firm of Scanlon, Sessums, Parker & Dallas.  Scanlon practiced with Watkins & Eager for two years before retiring in 2004.  Throughout his career he spoke at law seminars on the topics of construction law, Chapter 11 bankruptcy law and civil procedure.  He has been published in the Mississippi College Law Review and worked with his son, John, to author a chapter in Mississippi Civil Procedure.

Scanlon has provided tireless service to the legal profession.  He has served as president of MS Young Lawyers Association, chairman of the 24^th Annual MS Law Institute, president of the Fellows of the MS Young Lawyers Division, president of the Jackson Junior Bar Association, president of the Hinds County Bar Association, president of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and president of the MS Bankruptcy Conference.  He has also served as president of the MS Bar and was a member of the ABA House of Delegates for five years.  Scanlon also served his university as president of the Law Alumni Chapter, chairman of the Lamar Order and as a member of the Ole Miss Alumni Association’s executive committee.

His service and professional accomplishments have not gone unnoticed.  Scanlon was listed in Best Lawyers in America from its original publication in 1983 until his 2004 retirement.  He has been named a Fellow of American College of Trial Lawyers and Fellow of the International Society of Barristers.  He is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and was the law school’s 1986 Law Alumnus of the Year.

Constance Slaughter-Harvey

Constance Iona Slaughter-Harvey, a native of Forest, Miss., graduated from Hawkins High School and Tougaloo College.  She is truly a trailblazer in this state.  At Tougaloo, she was elected as the school’s first female President of the Student Government Association.  In 1970 she became the first African American female to receive a law degree from the University of Mississippi. In 1976 she became the state’s first African American female to be appointed to serve as judge.

Slaughter-Harvey began her career with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law working there until 1972.  She returned to Forest and established her private law practice and has served as Executive Director of Southern Legal Rights, later becoming Director of East Mississippi Legal Services.  In 1980, she joined Gov. William Winter’s staff as Director of Human Development.  In 1984, she became Assistant Secretary of State for Elections and Public Lands with Secretary of State, Dick Molpus.  Together they reformed Sixteenth Section School and Public Trust Lands, lobbied for Mail-In Voter Registration (signed into law on April 1, 1991) and fought for Moter Voter Registration.  In 1991, she was promoted to General Counsel and continued service as Assistant Secretary of Elections.  In 1996, she returned to her law practice and became President of Elections, Inc., a position she currently holds.  She is also President of the Slaughter Memorial Foundation where she supervises programs in after-school tutorial and enhancement, abstinence, and several other youth initiatives.

Slaughter-Harvey was the only female of the eight founders of the National Black Law Student Association when it formed in 1969 at Rutgers University.  In 1998, the University of Mississippi’s Black Law Student Association was named in her honor.  She is a past President of the Magnolia Bar Association and recipient of the prestigious R. Jesse Brown Award.  She is a past recipient of Mississippi State University’s Distinguished Service Award and the University of Mississippi’s Distinguished Black Mississippian Award.  She is a two-time recipient of the National Council of Negro Women’s Outstanding Service Award.  She has also twice earned the NAACP Legal Awards for dedication and commitment to the continuing struggle for legal justice.  Tougaloo College inducted her into its alumni Hall of Fame in 2000 and named her its Alumnae of the Year two years later.  In 1999, Thomas and Ann Colbert honored her with the establishment of the Constance Slaughter-Harvey Endowed Chair in Political Science/Pre-Law at Tougaloo College.  In 2000 she was inducted as a MS Bar Foundation Fellow, and the Bar awarded her the Susie Blue Buchanan Award in 2004.  Among these and many other awards she has been presented, the most recent include selection as a 2011 Champion of Justice by the MS Center for Justice and being named a Woman Trailblazer in 2012 by the MS Bar.

Slaughter-Harvey is the mother of Constance Olivia Slaughter-Harvey Burwell.  She and her husband, James, reside in Jackson, MS with their two year old son, James Arthur Emmanuel Burwell, III, a/k/a Tre’.

William M. Watkins

posthumously

Raised on a farm in Jefferson County, Miss., the late William Hamilton Watkins received his L.L.B. degree in 1895 from the University of Mississippi. At 17 he accepted a job with the Cohn Brothers Mercantile Company at Lorman, Miss., near his home. When he had earned sufficient funds, he entered Southern University at Greensboro, Ala., in 1890.

In 1893, he entered Millsaps College, and in 1894 he enrolled in the law school at the University of Mississippi. While a student, he earned the highest grade ever made in the law school and one that has never been equaled – that of 99.5%. He was First Honor Man and Class Orator of the class of 1895.

Upon graduation, Watkins became the 20^th lawyer in the Jackson bar. Specializing in civil and corporate law, he went on to become a founder of one of the most successful Jackson law firms, Watkins & Eager.

One mark of his ability was that early on he attained a well-deserved reputation, throughout Mississippi and in surrounding states, for excellence and expertise in appearances before, and submissions to, the Supreme Court of the United States.

On multiple occasions, various governors asked him to act as a special justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi. He was an invited member of the American Law Institute and authored the annual Martindale-Hubbell summary of Mississippi law.

He was elected to a term as President of the Mississippi Bar and to terms in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association.

Watkins served as President of the Board of Trustees of the State Department of Archives and History from 1936-55.

A charter member of the Jackson Rotary Club, Watkins served a term as president. He was a founding member of the Jackson Little Theatre and served as director of Jackson-State National Bank and of The Gammill Company. From 1938-52, Watkins’ leadership extended to service on the Board of Trustees of Tougaloo College.

Watkins taught the men’s bible class at Galloway Memorial Methodist Church from 1911-46. On the Sunday after his death the group changed its name to the “William Hamilton Watkins Memorial Bible Class.

William M. Champion 

posthumously

The late Bill Champion was born in Edwards, Miss. Champion attended Hinds Community College for two years before transferring to Mississippi State University, where he received a B.S. degree in 1953.

After graduating, Champion served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy until 1957. He returned to Oxford and received his LL.B. degree from Ole Miss in 1961. As a law student, he was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal, the Moot Court Board and Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity. In 1962, he was a Teaching Fellow and earned his LL.M. degree from George Washington University.

Champion began his legal career when he joined the Jackson law firm Watkins & Eager where he was an associate for two years. He made his way back to Oxford to join the faculty at the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1965, where he served until his retirement in 1998. During his tenure at Ole Miss, Champion taught thousands of students and was named Outstanding Law Faculty Member by the student body in 1981, 1987, 1990, 1993 and 1996. In 1982, he was selected Outstanding Teacher of the Year. His time at the law school was not limited to classroom instruction. Champion also served as chairman of the Admissions Committee for a number of years, as associate dean and as acting dean.

Champion wrote numerous legal publications and was active in The Mississippi Bar. He served on and chaired many committees, namely the Mississippi State Bar Ethics Committee, the Bar Complaints Committee, chaired the Committee on Unauthorized Practice of Law, was a member of Estates and Trusts Section and served as reporter for the Subcommittee on Rules of Civil Procedure of the Mississippi Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules.

Champion posthumously received the Mississippi Bar Foundation’s 2011 Professionalism Award, an award presented to a lawyer whose life, practice and service display outstanding character and integrity.

Thomas R. Ethridge

posthumously 

The late Tommy Ethridge was born on May 2, 1918 in West Point, Miss. He received his B.A. in 1940 and M.A. in 1946, both Liberal Arts degrees, from the University of Mississippi. In 1951 he obtained his LL.B. from the Ole Miss law school. He is the son and grandson of former Mississippi lawyers and the brother of William Ethridge, former Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Ethridge served in the United States Marine Corps in WWII, seeing serious combat in the Marshall Islands, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. After the war, Ethridge returned to Oxford, to make it his home after graduating from law school and enjoy a long and prolific legal career. He was a senator in the Mississippi legislature from 1948-1954. He served as the attorney for the city of Oxford, and was the first full-time U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Mississippi from 1954-1961. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oxford is named for Ethridge.

He is a former commissioner of the Mississippi Bar Association, a former chairman of the Criminal Law Section of the Mississippi Bar, and he served as faculty advisor to the Mississippi Law Journal. He was a member of the board of the Mississippi Judicial College and the Mississippi Institute of Continuing Legal Education, as well as president of the Lafayette County and Third Circuit District Bar Associations. He was a partner in the Ethridge and Grisham Law Firm for many years, and was of Council with Hickman, Goza and Spraggins.

In addition, Ethridge served as the university attorney for the University of Mississippi from 1971 to 1982, where he was responsible for securing the intellectual property protection for the university’s symbols and name. He was a law professor for 24 years at the University of Mississippi, and was the recipient of the 2007 Lafayette County Bar Association Lifetime Achievement Award. Also a longtime supporter of the University Jazz Band, Ethridge served as president of the Ole Miss Jazz Alumni Club. In 1985 he was placed in the Jazz Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2006 he was inducted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame.

Ethridge was also committed to his community. He was a member, former Elder, Deacon, and chairman of the board of deacons at the First Presbyterian Church of Oxford. He also served as a board member for the Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce, as a trustee of the Mary-Buie Museum and as a board member of the Oxford-Lafayette County Hospital.

Lawrence J. Franck, Jr.

Larry Franck is a native of Vicksburg and received his B.B.A. in 1953 and his LL.B. in 1958, both from the University of Mississippi. While at Ole Miss, he served as editor of The Mississippian, was a member of Scabbard and Blade, an honorary military society, and was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa honorary leadership fraternity. Franck was elected to the university’s student Hall of Fame his senior year.

After receiving his undergraduate degree, Franck became a U.S. Army officer in the 11th Airborne Division from 1953 to 1956. Afterwards, he attended law school, where he was Associate Editor of the Mississippi Law Journal and a member of the Moot Court Board. He was also named Outstanding Law Graduate for the class of 1958.

The majority of Franck’s legal career was with the Jackson law firm of Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens, & Cannada, PLLC, where he served as chairman from 1996 to 1998, and was a member of the Mississippi Bar from 1958 to 2000, when he retired.

Franck’s professional involvement includes being named a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, serving as president of the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association, and as president of the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit. He served as chairman of the Mississippi Supreme Court Advisory Committee and was on the board of directors of the American Judiciary Society. In addition, he was president of the Charles Clark American Inns of Court and was chairman of the Mississippi Supreme Court Commission of Bar Admissions and Review. One of his more significant accomplishments is his part in the creation and adoption of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Frank’s distinguished career has earned him numerous awards, including the Mississippi Bar Award of Merit, the American Board of Trial Advocates Civil Justice Award, the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Fifth Circuit, the Mississippi Bar Foundation’s Professionalism Award, and the Mississippi Bar Lifetime Achievement Award.

Frank D. Montague, Jr. 

Frank Montague grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, graduating as an honor student from Hattiesburg High School. He went on to obtain his LL.B. in 1950 and then a B.S. degree in civil engineering in 1951, both from The University of Mississippi.

While at Ole Miss, Montague served as president of both the student body and Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. His academic career included memberships in Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity, Chi Epsilon Honorary Engineering Scholastic Fraternity, and ODK honor society. He was a recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers Award of Merit as Outstanding Senior Engineering Student and was placed in The University of Mississippi Student Hall of Fame.

Montague is a partner at Montague, Pittman, & Varnado in Hattiesburg, where he was president until 2001. His primary area of practice is in civil litigation and general civil practice. Montague has authored numerous legal publications and taught Journalism Law at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has also spoken at various professional seminars and judicial conferences as a lecturer at the University of Mississippi School of Law and Mississippi College School of Law.

His professional service includes membership in the American Bar Association, the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline, chairman of the Complaints Committee of the Mississippi Bar, chairman of the Mississippi Institute for Continuing Legal Education, founding president of the South Central Mississippi Bar Association and chairman of the Lamar Order. He served as president of the Mississippi Bar in 1975-76 and as president of the Mississippi Bar Foundation in 1977-78. In 1986-87 he was president of the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association. Montague also chaired the Mississippi Tort Claims Board during its first two years of existence. In addition to his responsibilities to his firm, Montague was also the city judge of Hattiesburg from 1956-60 and the city attorney from 1965-74.

Montague has garnered numerous honors. In 1977 he was selected as the Ole Miss Law Alumnus of the Year. He was also the first recipient of the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, was presented the Mississippi Bar Foundation’s Professionalism Award and is a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation. For 25 consecutive years, he was included in “The Best Lawyers in America.”

Montague is also a dedicated member of his community. His involvement includes serving as president of the Hattiesburg Kiwanis Club, executive board member of the Area Development Partnership, trustee of Belhaven College and trustee of the Presbytery of South Mississippi. In addition he has been extremely involved at all levels with Boy Scouts of America, March of Dimes and American Red Cross.

A U.S. Navy veteran of WWII, Montague was married to Mary Dixon Montague.  Their children are F. Douglas Montague III, H. Dixon Montague and Brian A. Montague, all of whom are practicing attorneys.

Honorable Lenore L. Prather

Former Chief Justice Lenore Prather is a West Point, Mississippi native. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Mississippi University for Women and afterwards attended the University of Mississippi School of Law, where she received her LL.B. degree in 1955. From 1963 to 1971, she worked at Mississippi State University in the Communications Department as a part-time instructor.

After a time in private practice, Prather was appointed as the Municipal Judge in West Point. In 1971, Governor John Bell appointed her as the Chancery Judge for the 14th Chancery District in Mississippi, which consists of Lowndes, Clay, Oktibbeha, Noxubee, Webster, and Chickasaw counties. This appointment made her the first woman to hold the Chancellorship in the state, a position she held for 10 years. Prather also attended the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada following her appointment as Chancellor.

In 1982, Governor William Winter appointed Prather to the Mississippi Supreme Court, making her the first female Justice for the state of Mississippi. In 1993, Prather served as Presiding Justice and in 1998 as Chief Justice for the Supreme Court. After her role in the Mississippi Supreme Court, Justice Prather served as interim president at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus. In 2003 MUW presented her with an honorary Doctorate degree.

Notably, Justice Prather is a 1986 inductee of the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame and was selected in 1995 as the Ole Miss Law Alumna of the Year. She was included in Who’s Who in America from 1984 through 2002. Prather is a two-time recipient of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women Award for Outstanding Mississippi Women and the Distinguished Jurist Award by Mississippi State University. She is a former member of the Mississippi Humanities Council, and was active in Southern Women in Public Service, an initiative of the John C. Stennis Institute.

Justice Prather is a Rotarian and is a Paul Harris Fellow within the organization. In 2009, in recognition of her outstanding lifetime contributions to the state of Mississippi, Governor Haley Barbour presented her with the Mississippi Medal of Service.

Honorable Reuben V. Anderson

Reuben Vincent Anderson is a senior partner at the law firm of Phelps Dunbar LLP.  Born Jackson, Mississippi, he attended Jackson Public Schools and graduated from Jim Hill High School in 1960.  He received his B.A. degree with a major in History in 1964 from Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi, and his J.D. degree in 1967, becoming the first African-American to graduate from the University of  Mississippi School of Law.

Anderson was admitted to the Mississippi State Bar in 1967.  His professional experience includes Mississippi Associate Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., 1967-75; a partner with Anderson, Banks, Nichols & Stewart, 1968-77; Municipal Judge for the City of Jackson, 1975-77; County Court Judge for Hinds County, Mississippi, 1977-82; Circuit Court Judge for the 7^th Circuit Court District of Mississippi, 1982-85; Mississippi Supreme Court Justice, 1985-90; and Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government at the University of Mississippi, Fall of 1995.

Anderson has received a wealth of recognitions throughout his legal career.  Among others, he is the first African-American to serve on the Mississippi Supreme Court, the first African-American President of the Mississippi Bar, and listed in The Best Lawyers in America.  He was inducted into the National Bar Association Hall of Fame in 2009, was presented the Mississippi Bar’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, the University of Mississippi Distinguished Alumni Award in 1995, and is the namesake for the Reuben V. Anderson Pre-Law Society at Tougaloo College.  He also served as president of the state Chamber of Commerce (MEC), 2001.

Anderson is a current Director of AT&T, Dallas, Texas; The Kroger Company, Cincinnati, Ohio; and MINACT, Inc., Jackson, Mississippi, among others.  He is a former director of a number of boards, including Trustmark National Bank, Jackson, Mississippi; Mississippi Chemical, Yazoo City, Mississippi; Burlington Resources, Houston, Texas; and BellSouth, Atlanta, Georgia.

Anderson is a member of the 100 Black Men of Jackson, the American Bar Association, Mississippi Bar Association, Hinds County Bar Association, Magnolia Bar Association, National Bar Association, U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Bar Association, and U.S. Supreme Court Bar Association.

Anderson is married to the former Phyllis Wright and has three children, Vincent, Raina (Reginald Lee) and Rosalyn.  He is the proud grandfather of two grandchildren, James and Anderson.

Thomas D. Bourdeaux

posthumously

Thomas D. Bourdeaux was born on July 10, 1925 in Meridian. He attended Meridian public schools, graduating from Meridian High School in 1943. He later served in the United States Navy as an aviation cadet.

Upon leaving the Navy in 1945, Mr. Bourdeaux entered the University of Mississippi, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. He was Editor of The Daily Mississippian from 1946 – ’47. Mr. Bourdeaux obtained his LLB from Ole Miss Law School in 1949. He taught classes in history while in law school.

Upon graduating law school, Mr. Bourdeaux began his law practice in Meridian as a sole practitioner. He later formed a partnership with Gipson Witherspoon and in 1956 was a founding member of what became Bourdeaux & Jones, LLP. Mr. Bourdeaux was the senior partner of the firm and was still actively engaged in his law practice until the time of his death on October 30, 1995.

Mr. Bordeaux enjoyed a very distinguished career. He was admitted to all state and federal courts in Mississippi, as well as the court of appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He was listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” (1991-1994) in three practice areas: business litigation, corporate law and personal injury litigation. Mr. Bordeaux tried cases throughout the Southeast.

He served as president of the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association and as chairman of the American Bar Foundation of the State of Mississippi. He had the privilege of serving on the Board of Trustees for the Institutions of Higher Learning for the State of Mississippi from 1980 –’89, serving as president of the board in 1988-’89. He was a member of the Southern Regional Education Board.

Locally, Mr. Bourdeaux was a member of the board of directors of Great Southern National Bank, in addition to serving as its general counsel. He was a creator of the Meridian Community College Foundation, and he taught a business law class at what is now Meridian Community College. He was active in the Meridian Chamber of Commerce and Meridian Industrial Foundation. He was a member of The Church of the Mediator and served as a senior warden.

Mr. Bourdeaux was married to Norma Sanders Bourdeaux and had four children: Lisa B. Percy, Marian B. Barksdale, Ellen Bourdeaux and Thomas Bourdeaux, Jr.

Jack F. Dunbar

Jack Dunbar grew up around Indianola, then made his way to Millsaps College where he graduated with honors. He was then accepted to and enrolled at Georgetown Law School, but later transferred to the University of Mississippi School of Law where he received his J.D. degree.

As a law student in Oxford, he was a member of the Mississippi Law Journal and served as president of the student body. He graduated at the top of his class.

His legal career blossomed in the Delta, but he eventually transitioned back to north Mississippi. Over the course of his career, he earned a reputation as one of the most respected trial lawyers in the state. He has been included in every issue of The Best Lawyers in America since the publication’s inception.

Dunbar has served as president of both the Mississippi Bar and the Southern Conference of Bar Presidents. He has also served as Mississippi’s delegate to the ABA House of Delegates. During this time, he was a member of the ABA Board of Governors. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Bar Foundation and the Mississippi Bar Foundation.

Within his community, he has volunteered his services to make it a better place for all. He put countless hours into a contract negotiation between Baptist Hospital and his community hospital, which led to a deal that immediately improved local health care. Because of the major role he played, he was awarded the Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year award in 1990.

His professional achievements have also garnered numerous awards. Most recently, he was presented the Mississippi Bar Foundation’s 2010 Professionalism Award.

Honorable Evelyn Gandy

posthumously

The late Evelyn Gandy was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the daughter of Kearney C. and Abbie (Whigham) Gandy.

She graduated with honors from Hattiesburg High School where she was active in debating and oratory. She attended the University of Southern Mississippi where she continued to be active in debating. She received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi School of Law. As a law student, she won the state oratorical contest in 1944, was the first woman editor of the Mississippi Law Journal, and was the first woman to be elected President of the Law School student body.

Having an interest in politics from childhood, she began making political speeches for candidates when in high school.

In 1947, she began the practice of law in Hattiesburg, and after her career in public service, she returned to private law practice in Hattiesburg in January 1984 with the firm of Ingram and Associates.

In 1948, Ms. Gandy was elected to serve as representative in the State Legislature from Forrest County. Later she served in the following state-wide elective positions: State Treasurer (1960-1964, 1968-1972), Commissioner of Insurance (1972-1976) and Lieutenant Governor (1976-1980). She was the first woman to hold each of these offices.

Ms. Gandy served on a number of policy-making state boards and commissions. She served as a member of the National Advisory Council of the Salvation Army and the Board of Visitors of the United States Naval Academy.

She was active in numerous professional and civic organizations and is a past state president of the Mississippi Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, the South Central Mississippi Women Lawyers Association, and the Mississippi Official Women’s Club.

Ms. Gandy was a member of the University Baptist Church in Hattiesburg where she served as a Deacon.

Crymes G. Pittman

Crymes G. Pittman attended Georgia Tech and received his undergraduate degree in 1964 from the University of Mississippi. He practiced law in Raleigh from 1966 to 1974 with L. D. Pittman. He moved and began practicing law in Jackson and, in 1978, along with James P. Cothren, formed the firm of Cothren & Pittman. Today, Crymes continues his practice of law as a partner of Pittman, Germany, Roberts & Welsh, LLP, which was formed in 1993.

Pittman is a member of the Mississippi Bar Association and the Hinds County Bar Association where he has served on numerous committees. He served two terms as a bar commissioner from the 7^th and 13^th circuits. He is a lifetime member of the Mississippi Association for Justice (MAJ) where he was president and a winner of the Stalwarts Award. He served on the board of the American Association for Justice and American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). He served as president of the Mississippi Chapter of ABOTA and is a Fellow of the ABOTA Foundation. He is a member of American Inns of Court, Charles Clark Chapter, and is a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. He has served on the U.S. District Court Magistrate Selection Committee as well as the Mississippi Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee. He has tried numerous civil cases in state and federal courts.

He has spoken at multiple seminars for the Mississippi Judicial College and MAJ and has taught classes on trial advocacy sponsored by the Mississippi ABOTA chapter at the University of Mississippi and Mississippi College Schools of Law. He has served on various committees for the Mississippi Bar and MAJ dealing with improvements of the administration of law, judicial liaison work and dealing with the legislative branches.

He has served on the Board of the University of Mississippi Alumni Association. He is a sustaining member of the Lamar Order and has served as its Chairman. In 1999 he was awarded the law school’s Alumnus of the Year Award. He served as co-chair of the School of Law Campaign for the Robert C. Khayat Law Center, which was dedicated on April 15, 2011.

Honorable Charles Clark

Charles Clark (LLB 48) was born in Memphis, Tenn., and raised in Cleveland, Miss. After graduating from the public school system in Cleveland, Clark attended Millsaps College and then transferred to Tulane University, where he received his bachelor’s degree.

In 1945, Clark was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve and served aboard a destroyer in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, Clark returned to Mississippi and attended The University of Mississippi School of Law. He began practicing law soon after graduation at the firm of Wells, Wells, Newman & Thomas in Jackson. In 1951, the Korean War began to heat up, and Clark re-enlisted with the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant.

In 1961, Clark teamed with Vardaman S. Dunn and William Harold Cox Jr. to form the law firm of Cox, Dunn & Clark in Jackson. That year he also took on the part-time work of special assistant to the attorney general of the state of Mississippi, a responsibility he fulfilled until 1966. In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Clark to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He held this post until 1992, writing more than 2,800 opinions during this 22-year period. He served as chief judge of the Fifth Circuit from 1981-92. Upon resigning his position on the bench of the Fifth Circuit in January 1992, Clark joined his former law partners Dunn and Cox at the Watkins & Eager law firm in Jackson as an appellate advocate and mediator.

Clark died in 2011, leaving behind Emily, his wife of more than 60 years, their six children and 13 grandchildren.

Robert J. Farley

posthumously

Robert J. Farley, who was first employed by The University of Mississippi School of Law in 1926 as an assistant professor, built a career that is still honored on campus today.

In fact, the former law school building, now housing the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, was named Farley Hall in honor of his service and the service of his ancestor Leonard J. Farley, who was UM law dean from 1913-1921.

Farley served as law dean from 1946 to 1963.

In a history of the UM School of Law, former UM law dean Parham Williams said, “With the advent of World War II, most of the faculty and students entered military service … When Bob Farley was appointed dean in February 1946, he faced many of the problems which confronted (L.Q.C.) Lamar in 1866; the academic program had been disrupted, the faculty was scattered, and there were few students.”

Despite the challenges, Farley was able to encourage rapid enrollment growth at the law school and recruited a highly-respected faculty. Under Farley, the admissions standards were strengthened so as to require a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution, the minimum requirement for the Bachelor of Laws degree was increased from 78 to 82 hours, faculty salaries were improved, and, in 1959, an annex to the Law Building was completed and occupied. In 1954, Farley was honored with election to the presidency of the Mississippi Bar.

“Upon his retirement in 1963, Farley could reflect with justifiable satisfaction upon the growth and progress of the School of Law under his leadership,” Williams wrote. “In statistical terms, the enrollment had quintupled, the faculty had grown two-fold, the library holdings had doubled and the building had been substantially enlarged. More important, the reputation of the school as an institution of academic strength and integrity had been firmly established.”

William F. Goodman, Jr.

William F. Goodman Jr. (LLB 51) graduated from Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tenn. In 1949, he received his undergraduate degree, with honors, from Millsaps College and moved to Oxford to attend law school. After graduation, Goodman served in the United States Army, reaching the rank of first lieutenant.

After serving his country, Goodman joined the law firm of Watkins & Eager in 1953, where he continues to practice today. Goodman has been honored with invitation-only memberships in the Mississippi Bar Foundation, the American Bar Foundation, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers. For 25 consecutive years, he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America. He has served as president of the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association and of the Hinds County Bar Association.

Goodman served as director of the executive committee of Trustmark Corporation and Trustmark National Bank. Millsaps College named Goodman its Alumnus of the Year in 1997. In 2001, he received the Professionalism Award presented by the Hinds County Bar. In 2004, he was honored with the Professionalism Award of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. The Law Alumni Chapter named Goodman, in 2008, The University of Mississippi School of Law’s Alumnus of the Year.

Bill and his wife, the former Edwina McDuffie of Aberdeen, have three children— Will Goodman III, Patricia Goodman Ammons and Meg Goodman Richards—and six grandchildren.

James McClure, Jr.

James McClure, Jr. (LLB 53) currently serves as a senior partner of McClure & Shuler law firm in Sardis, Miss. McClure attended The University of Mississippi as a freshman and was a member of Kappa Alpha Order. He went on to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1946. He also served on the USMA Leadership Council.

McClure served three years in Germany as a U.S. combat engineer, then returned home in 1950 and entered the UM School of Law.

McClure served in the state Legislature as senator from 1952-56 and was a member of several special legislative study committees that led to the creation of the state retirement system and a major reorganization of the public school system.

Throughout the years, McClure has served as chair of the Lamar Order and as a member of the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee, the chancellor search committee and the UM Foundation board. He is a member of the Ole Miss Circle Society, Pacesetters, 1848 Society, UMAA Foundation and Chancellor’s Trust. In 1980, McClure was honored as the school’s Law Alumnus of the Year, and he was inducted into The University of Mississippi Hall of Fame in 2007. McClure and his late wife, Angele, have four children—Jimmy McClure III, Justin McClure, Angele McClure Thompson and Susan McClure Mays—and six grandchildren.

Honorable William F. Winter

William F. Winter (LLB 49) was born in Grenada, Miss., and was Mississippi’s 58th governor, serving 1980-84. In 1943, Winter received his undergraduate degree from The University of Mississippi. He then served as an infantry officer in the Philippines during World War II.

Winter returned to Oxford to attend law school and served as editor in chief of the Mississippi Law Journal. While he was still a student in law school, he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1947 and re-elected in 1951 and 1955. From 1950-51, he served as the legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. John Stennis. He was recalled to active military duty to serve in the infantry during the Korean War.

In 1956, Winter conducted his first statewide campaign and was elected state tax collector. He held this position until, upon his recommendation, the office was abolished in 1964. He was then elected Mississippi state treasurer in 1964 and then lieutenant governor in 1972.

As governor, he is best remembered for the Education Reform Act of 1982. Among other things, this act is most famous for establishing kindergarten classes for all Mississippians. In 1989, he held the Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government at UM Law School and was the Eudora Welty Professor of Southern Studies at Millsaps College.

Winter was also instrumental in the conception and creation of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, which was established at UM in 1999. Though he has received numerous awards, the most recent was the 2008 Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library for his work advancing education and racial reconciliation.

He resides in Jackson with his wife, the former Elise Varner. They have three daughters—Anne V. Winter, Elise Winter Gillespie and Eleanor E. Winter—and five grandchildren.