Only in Alabama

Jr. Julian L. McPhillips

Description

As the Heart of Dixie approaches its 2019 Bicentennial, attorney-author Julian L. McPhillips Jr. again draws upon his colorful cases and clients to explore some of the unique aspects of the mind, spirit, and culture of his home state. Two chapters involve other lawyers: a DUI king and a family of eight lawyers practicing together. Another relates how in the 1930s F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald enjoyed the same Montgomery neighborhood in which Helen Kellers sister lived and the famous Keller famously visited. This 26-chapter book combines intriguing history with spirituality and brings home interesting tales about Alabamians in distress.

Sujets

• Droit et juridique
• USA
• Memoir
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: University of Georgia Press
• Date de parution: 30 août 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781588384065
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

A LSO BY J ULIAN L. M C P HILLIPS J R .
The People s Lawyer ( 2005 , WITH C ARROLL D ALE S HORT )
The History of Christ the Redeemer Episcopal Church ( 2006 )
Civil Rights in My Bones ( 2016 )
From Vacillation to Resolve ( 2018 )

NewSouth Books
105 S. Court Street
Montgomery, AL 36104
Copyright 2019 by Julian L. McPhillips, Jr.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by NewSouth Books, a division of NewSouth, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama.
Publisher s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McPhillips, Julian L., Jr. Only in Alabama : more colorful true stories from a lawyer s life, 2016-2019 / Julian L. McPhillips Jr. ; with a foreword by Bill Baxley. p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-58838-405-8 (print, $26.95)
ISBN 978-1-58838-406-5 (ebook; $9.99)
1. McPhillips, Julian L., Jr. 2. Lawyers-Alabama-Biography. I. Title.
2019943629
Design by Randall Williams
Printed in the United States of America by Versa Press
This book is dedicated first and foremost to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The God Who created me, Who has Redeemed me, and Who Sustains Me.
In the earthly realm, this book is dedicated to my awesome wife, Leslie, the love of my life, and to my three grown children, Rachel, Grace, and David, and to their current brood of our five grandchildren, Laurel, Jude, Nanette, Sage and Emmanuelle.
It is also dedicated to the many clients I have represented over my forty years of law practice, and to my current partners and fellow attorneys Kenneth Shinbaum, Aaron Luck, Jim Bodin, Joe Guillot, Chase Estes, David Sawyer, Tanika Finney, and my office manager, Amy Strickland, whose assistance has been invaluable and necessary.
Finally, this book is also dedicated to the State of Alabama at its Bicentennial. The state has provided a foundation for my life and work.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
1 Beautiful Young Woman Entrapped
2 Pike Road Fire Chief Abused
3 Serendipity Has Its Place
4 Jailed for Getting Behind in Her Bills
5 Philadelphia Comes to Alabama
6 Alabama Prisons a Nightmare
7 Ninety Years Old and Still Truckin
8 King of the DUIs
9 Mendenhalls on the Mend
10 Nigerian Students Take on ASU
11 Police Misconduct
12 A Holley First Amendment Result
13 The Ghee-Whiz Gang of Eight
Interlude-Travel is Good for the Soul
14 Roy Moore
15 Baking the Wrong Flower
16 The U.S. Air Force Challenged
17 Selma in Turmoil
18 Auburn University Defending
19 Alfa the Bully
20 Tuskegee University Struggling
21 Merrill Todd
22 Dee Parks, No Shrinking Violet
23 The Confederate Memorial Park
24 Opening Up the Floodgates
25 Scott, Zelda Helen
26 The Grand Finale
Appendix
Index
Foreword
B ILL B AXLEY
I n January 1975 I began serving my second four-year term as attorney general of Alabama. Soon thereafter, an interesting letter arrived from a young man applying for a position as an assistant attorney general. The applicant was an attorney in the legal department of the American Express Company in New York City. Earlier he had served a stint with one of the better and larger New York law firms. He had received his undergraduate degree from Princeton, then his law degree from Columbia Law School. Nobody had to remind me of the admission standards of either of these respected institutions. It was also well known that this particular law firm only offered jobs to top of the class applicants.
Two other more subtle or intangible factors about this young man interested me even more. First, he was a member of the Princeton varsity wrestling team. Secondly, he was an Alabama native and wanted to come home. The wrestling background tweaked my curiosity simply because it was so unusual. The thought did occur to me that this might possibly be indicative of an aggressive, don t-back-down character trait.
The desire to come back to Alabama was more substantive. I knew that he would be taking a tremendous pay cut even factoring in Alabama s lower cost of living. I also knew that he would certainly be well aware of this. His letter indicated he was also aware of and agreed with some of the positions our office had taken and wanted to be a part of our efforts to effect changes in Alabama. He obviously was willing to make sacrifices, financially and otherwise, to help achieve what he thought was in the public good for our state.
In addition, I was well aware of the McPhillips family in our state even though I did not know any of them personally. They were well respected in both the Mobile and Cullman areas and the family members enjoyed a reputation for being extremely public-spirited.
Shortly after I received Julian s letter one of our talented assistant attorneys general, Bill Stephens, approached me. Bill, a Huntsville native and an Auburn grad, had finished Harvard Law School and had also gone to work for a large, prestigious New York firm. He had also taken a giant cut in pay to be a part of our team when he joined the office early in my first term. Bill told me that I had or would be getting an application from a guy named Julian McPhillips whom he had known in New York. He gave him a glowing recommendation and said his heart was right. He also said that he thought several good law firms in Alabama were trying to recruit Julian.
I walked down to the office of Walter Turner, the chief assistant attorney general, handed him Julian s application letter, and told him I didn t need to do an interview-hire him before somebody else did. Being hired without an interview was most unusual for our office. Walter offered Julian a position, Julian accepted, and he and Leslie moved to Montgomery in April 1975. Thus began my nearly fifty-year association with Julian McPhillips.
The people of Alabama have benefited from his move for four decades and counting. Julian hit the ground running. He never shirked from tough assignments or difficult cases. I soon learned that Julian, more than most anybody I have known, personifies the description of someone as a bulldog. That term is meant as a high compliment. Once he is convinced of the rightness of his position, he sinks his teeth in and simply will not let go. He doesn t let adversity or difficulties discourage or dissuade him. I suppose a less colorful descriptive adjective would be persistent. In any event, it is a good quality for a lawyer, and Julian possesses it in spades.
This does not imply that I agree with every position Julian takes or with every issue that he espouses. In fact, I don t agree with everything he says in this book. But people not agreeing with him has never prevented him from letting you know what he thinks concerning either individuals or issues. Julian has never expected everyone to agree with him on every issue. He wasn t like that as a young assistant attorney general, and he isn t like that today. The bottom line is that Julian does not take a position or a case because he thinks the position may be popular with the public at large or with any particular individual. Nor has he ever been shy or hesitant about stating his opinion or position publicly.
I am hesitant to inject too many of my own comments about the contents of the book that await the reader s discovery and enjoyment. Nevertheless, I will temper this reluctance in the following two instances.
Surprisingly, my favorite chapter does not concern a court case or a legal matter. It is Chapter 25 about Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Helen Keller. Without the generosity and vision of Julian and Leslie, the Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery would simply not exist. Because of them it does exist, and thus tangible ties of Scott and Zelda s relationship with Alabama have been preserved as evidence of our state s connection with this talented but troubled young couple. In addition, Julian s background on and explanation of his deep feelings for Helen Keller give us a little peek into what makes him tick and what has motivated him to be the strong pillar of support for and defender of so many righteous causes.
In summary, this book is an enjoyable and easy read. For lawyers, it offers some fascinating shop talk from one of their colorful and noteworthy fellows. For non-lawyers, it offers some useful and candid insights into how the legal profession is practiced and how lawyers interact with each other, the courts, and their clients.
Julian s love for our state is evident in every chapter. I am very thankful that he came back to Alabama four decades ago and has spent his life and career trying to improve the quality of life for all our citizens.
_____________
William J. Baxley became the youngest state attorney general in U.S. history when he was elected in 1970 to the first of his two terms, during which he successfully prosecuted violent racists, industrial polluters, and corrupt politicians. He later served as lieutenant governor, and he still practices law in Birmingham.
Preface
O nly in Alabama. How did I come up with that name as a title for this book? And what does it mean? What does it infer?
The name Alabama rings different bells for different people. Yes, we are a state, and the first in the alphabet of fifty states. However, is Alabama not more, as in a state of mind, or a culture, or a spirit?
When I first attended Princeton in 1964, given all the state s racial history and the then-recent notorious church bombing in Birmingham, my being from Alabama was sometimes challenging. During my four years at Princeton, followed by three more at Columbia Law School, I doubted I d ever go back to live. An article about me in a college newspaper, intending to be humorous, said, Julian McPhillips, who comes from Birmingham where people use bricks and bats rather than wrestling mats . . .
Certainly record-breaking coaches, piling up national football championships then and now, projected a different image and gave Alabamians a boost of confidence, to cite just one example of aspects in whic