2016 Leadership Forum: The Leadership Forum Prepares Lawyers to Change the Future, 0716 ALBJ, 77 The Alabama Lawyer 284 (2016)
| Author | Edward M. Patterson, Alabama State Bar Assistant Executive Director |
| Position | Vol. 77 4 Pg. 284 |
Edward M. Patterson, Alabama State Bar Assistant Executive Director
The Leadership Forum recently completed its 12th year. On May 26, ASB President Lee Copeland, assisted by President-Elect Cole Portis, presented certificates and gifts to the 30 graduates of Class 12. A number of alumni from classes 2 and 6 returned for the event. This year's class was selected from 80 applicants, the largest number to apply in the forum's history.
The graduation guest speaker was Hon. W. Keith Watkins, chief judge, United States District Court, Middle District of Alabama, Montgomery. Andrew S. Nix, former chair of the Leadership Forum Section, presented Othni J. Lath-ram of Tuscaloosa, director of the Alabama Law Institute and interim director of the Legislative Reference Service and the Legislative Fiscal Office, with the 2016 Edward M. Patterson Servant Leadership Award. Previous honorees include Angela Slate Rawls, Richard J.R. Raleigh, Jr. and Rebecca G. DePalma. The award is presented annually to an outstanding alumnus of the forum.
Class 12 statistics show the average age for this group was 35 (oldest 40 and youngest 30); 60 percent male and 40 percent female; 13 percent black and 87 percent white; and from 12 different cities, with 40 percent from Birmingham and 60 percent from the rest of the state. We had the highest number of smaller cities represented in the forum's history. Practice diversity included plaintiff practice, 27 percent; defense practice, 23 percent; corporate/transactional, 26 percent; and government/public service/legal education, 17 percent. Total composition of the forum always equals or exceeds the diversity statistics of the bar as a whole. In the past 12 years, the forum has received 800 applications, accepted 357 attorneys and graduated 348 attorneys. Forty-five percent of those who apply have been chosen. A total of 348 men and women have graduated since the Leadership Forum's inception. In awarding the Leadership Forum the 2013 E. Symthe Gambrell Professionalism Award, the nation's highest award for professionalism programs, the American Bar Association commended the forum for its innovative, thoughtful and exceptional content, for its powerful and positive impact on emerging leaders and for the extraordinary example it has...
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