: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER – Bankruptcy Sales (and Non-Bankruptcy Alternatives) for Buying and Selling Distressed Assets
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
Rising interest rates, inflation, and a global economic slowdown create the perfect storm, pushing some companies into financial distress. These conditions can also create opportunities for investors to make strategic acquisitions of distressed assets.
Read More
FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER – Rebuttal: Alabama’s Gubernatorial and Legislative Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Were Valid, Constitutional, and Appropriate
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
As a lawyer who defends healthcare providers that continued to care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, I take a different view from my opposing counsel who published an article in the September edition of The Alabama Lawyer.[i] See David Wirtes, Jr., Joseph D. Steadman, Aaron N. Maples, & Joseph D. Wirtes, Are There Constitutional Issues with Alabama’s Gubernatorial and Legislative Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic?, 83 Ala. Law. 311 (Sept. 2022) (the “September Article”).
Read More
FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER – Too Broke to File Bankruptcy: Why We Need the Alabama Bankruptcy Assistance Project
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
ABAP is a statewide project created to help debtors who need a chapter 7 bankruptcy but can’t afford the attorney’s fees to file. All five volunteer lawyer programs in the state participate, enabling ABAP to serve each of Alabama’s 67 counties.
Read MoreFROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER – Consumer Bankruptcy for the Non-Bankruptcy Lawyer: The Nuts and Bolts of Chapter 13 and Chapter 7
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
That dreaded word – “bankruptcy!” No other area of practice quite strikes fear into the minds of state court practitioners and newbie attorneys than bankruptcy.
Read More
FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER – The Automatic Stay: What Every Lawyer Should Know
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
Because bankruptcy can intervene into many other areas of the law, every lawyer, even ones who never practice in the bankruptcy courts, should be aware of the general provisions outlined in this article so that they and their clients can avoid violating the automatic stay.
Read More
FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER- Are There Constitutional Issues With Alabama’s Gubernatorial and Legislative Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
The coronavirus known as COVID-19 reportedly infected the first American on January 21, 2020.[1] According to the Alabama Department of Health, Alabama has to date suffered 19,890 deaths[2] and 45,976[3] hospitalizations from the virus. In this same time period, 1,053,969 Americans have died,[4] while 92,761,865 Americans have been confirmed as infected.[5]
Read More
FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER- Alabama Qualified Dispositions in Trust Act
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
Historically, grantors of trusts have had little asset protection afforded them where they name themselves as a beneficiary of a trust, even an irrevocable trust. Section 505(a)(2) of the Uniform Trust Code and its Alabama counterpart, § 19-3B-505(a)(2), Code of Alabama (1975), provide that “[w]ith respect to an irrevocable trust, a creditor or assignee of the grantor may reach the maximum amount that can be distributed to or for the grantor’s benefit.”
Read More
FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER- Who Do We Think We Are?
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
In the final scenes of the movie “A Few Good Men” – one of the great classics of legal cinema – under dramatic, but extremely risky cross-examination by Lt. Daniel Kaffee (played by Tom Cruise), Col. Nathan Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson) admitted to directing the kind of “Code Red” discipline which led to the unintentional death of a Marine stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Read More
FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER- Says Who? Why Good Citation Matters (and Why It’s Easier Than You Think)
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
A lawyer is a professional writer, but a lawyer’s purpose is not self-expression. A lawyer speaks (and writes) for someone else, to achieve a certain outcome, in a system governed by rules upon rules upon rules. It is technical, detailed work. Its hallmarks are clarity and precision. The purpose of legal writing is not principally to stir the soul but to satisfy a skeptical mind. A lawyer hoping to persuade another lawyer or judge to accept some position must write in a way that answers obvious questions.
Read More
FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER – Birmingham School of Law: Prominent Female Graduates
Audio version available - Filed Under: The Alabama Lawyer Articles
In 1915, Judge Hugh A. Locke had a vision for a non-traditional law school that would serve men and women who wanted to pursue a legal education, but had neither the time nor money that a full-time law school required. Birmingham School of Law was born out of that vison with classes originally being held at Birmingham-Southern College.
Read More