Posted by Mary Wimberley on 2011-03-25

 

Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law will honor outstanding alumni and others during its National Alumni Association reunion dinner Friday, March 25.

Honorees are T. Brad Bishop, Distinguished Alumnus of the Year; R. Cameron “Cam” Ward, Distinguished Young Alumnus of the Year; and Henry C. Strickland III, Friend of the Law School.

Bishop has taught at Cumberland since graduating from the law school in 1971.  He has been a municipal judge for Pelham, Hoover and Homewood, a chief legal advisor to the governor of Alabama, and president of the Alabama Municipal Judges Association. The author of Municipal Courts: Practice and Procedure in Alabama, he also has written books on drunk driving law and shoplifting law. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Samford, where he coached debate teams to three national titles.

Ward, a 1996 Cumberland graduate, is Alabama state senator for District 14 and co-chairman of the senate judiciary and energy & natural resources committees. He served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2002 to 2010. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Troy University. The young alumnus honor recognizes a graduate who earned a law degree in the last 15 years.

Strickland is professor of law and associate dean for academic affairs at Cumberland, where he has taught since 1988.  A specialist in arbitration law, civil procedure, conflict of laws, and remedies, he regularly serves as an arbitrator and mediator in Alternative Dispute Resolution programs. He is a graduate of Presbyterian College in South Carolina and Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Four Cumberland faculty members will be cited for outstanding service to the law school.

The Harvey S. Jackson Award for Excellence in Teaching will go to Don Cochran for his instruction of first-year law students, and Wendy Greene for her service in upper level classes.

The Lightfoot, Franklin & White Award for Faculty Scholarship will go to junior faculty members LaJuana Davis and Dayna Royal, and senior faculty member Don Cochran.

The reunion dinner at the Birmingham Museum of Art also will include installation of Raleigh, N.C., judge Julian Mann III as 2011-2013 president of the Cumberland National Alumni Association.  The 1974 graduate is director and chief administrative law judge, North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings.

Birmingham attorney Lenora Pate, a 1985 Cumberland graduate, served as national alumni president during 2009-11.

The Friday dinner is part of a series of reunion weekend events for Cumberland alumni. Events include a law advisory board meeting, classroom discussions, library and law building tours, family picnic and barbecue, class reunions and an inaugural meeting of the new Cumberland Black Alumni Network.

 

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.